During Thursday evening’s UPA panel event held at Old Town Music Hall, it was announced that a new feature-length documentary, Animation Mavericks: The Forgotten Story of UPA, is nearing completion and expected to release this year. Per the producers, Animation Mavericks ‘reveals the origin, rise, fall and legacy of an innovative and iconoclastic animation studio, and will illuminate an untold chronicle of cinema and the real-life personalities behind it.’
This documentary is the work of director/producer Kevin Schreck; animation director/producer Rachel Gitlevich; executive producer Tim Finn; and producer Sylvie BosRau, granddaughter of UPA co-founder Steve Bosustow and daughter of Tee Bosustow, who began work on a UPA documentary over 20 years ago but left it unfinished. Animation Mavericks is produced in cooperation with the Bosustow Estate.
“Animation Mavericks marks my return to making films about cinema history for the first time in over a decade,” said Schreck. “What brought me to this subject was that this piece of history felt both timely and timeless. Audiences will be transported to the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s as studios and studio heads clash and innovate. Labor organizing, the Red Scare and the revolutionary Modernist art movement all take center stage in telling the riveting and unearthed history of UPA.”
Finn added, “Both Kevin and I as film historians and animation aficionados, are grateful to have the Bosustow family’s blessing and cooperation in creating Animation Mavericks. There has never been a major, feature-length documentary telling the story of this important chapter in cinema and it’s a privilege to be the first to do so.”
You can keep up to date with Animation Mavericks‘ progress here and through the official Instagram feed @AnimationMavericks.
