Acclaimed filmmaker and artist Catya Plate will premiere ‘Las Nogas,’ the final short of her eco-thrilling trilogy, at the Queens World Film Festival in New York on April 17–27, 2024.
The film will screen on Saturday, April 27th, at 3 p.m. at the Redstone Theater as part of Environmentally Speaking: 2 films about what’s happening on our planet.
Las Nogas is part of the Environmentally Speaking Bloc screening on Saturday, April 27 at 3 PM. The director describes the short as an animated metaphor that upholds environmental awareness using Plate’s quirky Clothespins Freaks stop-motion to tell the story of the Homeys, who in 2523 are the struggling survivors of Earth, now a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Dr. Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a parakeet/vulture hybrid), is the only one capable of curing the remaining creatures by bringing back the rain.
The character voices include Misty Lee (Alma), John McBride (Hitch & Homey), Phil Miller (Gormal & Albert), Clarissa Jacobson (Queen Bee & Marilyn Bee), and Alessandra Levy (Singing Bees & Homeys).
Plate served as the lead on production, direction, script, animation, design, and cinematography. Las Nogas was co-produced by Todd Aven, Carolyn Maher was assistant director, Todd Aven, and Alana Corwin edited the film, Joe Bratcher was script consultant, Antoni Mairata was music supervisor, and Neal Benezra created the sound design. Additional songs featured include “Water Renewal,” written by Plate, and “Be My Little Baby Bumblebee,” by Henry I. Marshall and Stanley Murphy.
In April 2023, Plate received for Las Nogas a prestigious 2023 NYC Women’s Fund Grant Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Since the film’s launch in the festival circuit in July, she has won the GREEN PLANET AWARD at the Oscar-Qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (World Premiere), BEST ANIMATED FILM at the Fano International Film Festival (Italy Premiere), and Jury Prize: BEST SHORT at the Green Film Festival of San Francisco.
Las Nogas recently screened at the Oscar Qualifying HollyShorts in January, and in February, Plate received a grant from the Puffin Foundation.
In addition to screening her films and exhibiting her art projects, Plate has been an active speaker on film festival panels, an invited filmmaker to animation industry conferences, a juror for film festivals, and an educator of stop-motion animation workshops at universities.
Originally from Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany, Plate came to New York in 1987 through a full scholarship to study at the School of Visual Arts. In 2009, she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her characters to life through award-winning handcrafted stop-motion films.
It all started when Plate created a beautifully intricate sculpture she called “Hive Mind.”
“It was one of my favorite pieces because it was so complex and contained dozens of two-headed creatures made from clear clothespins whom I lovingly called “Clothespin Freaks,” she recalls with a smile.
“They were decked out in tiny hand-sewn clothes and connected by their brains so they could work together as one Hive Mind.”
But when she realized that the creatures couldn’t move in their present form, she recalls thinking, “I desperately wanted to see them in motion; I must see them; I just had to see them!” and that is how she began creating in stop-motion.
Next up for the talented hyphenate creator is starting production on her first full-length animated feature.
Las Nogas will screen on Saturday, April 27th, at 3 p.m. at the Museum of the Moving Image, Redstone Theater, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, New York 11106. Tickets for Environmentally Speaking can be purchased via Eventbrite at the Queens World Film Festival at queensworldfilmfestival.org.
