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Signe Baumane
Born in Latvia, she earned a BA in Philosophy in Moscow. In 1989 she began working at the Riga Animated Film Studio and in 1991 received government funds to make her first animated film, The Witch and the Cow. From 1991-92 she worked in Moscow as an illustrator, publishing Krasnaya Shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood), the children’s poetry book The Gilded Rhino and Kniga Tigrov (The Book of the Tigers). In 1993 she returned to Riga and made her second film, Tiny Shoes, which won top prize at the International Women’s Film Festival in Minsk. In 1995 she made her third film, The Gold of the Tigers, from one of her books, and illustrated Stefan Randstrom’s book Why Angels Drive Scooters. In 1995 she moved to New York, where she worked as production manager, color stylist and cell painter on Bill Plympton’s feature film I Married a Strange Person as well as several of his shorts, including Sex and Violence (1997), The Exciting Life of a Tree (1998), More Sex and Violence (1998), the MTV pilot Helter Shelter (1998), Surprise Cinema (1999) and Eat (2001). In 1998 she made her first US short, Love Story, which was screened and picked up awards at numerous international festivals. Her following film, The Threatened One (1999), is a personal interpretation of a Jorge Luis Borges poem and is part of an international project on the visual interpretation of poetry. In 2001 she made Natasha, a 10-minute short, with Josh Rechnitz; and the animated inserts of Austin Chick’s film XX/XY. In 2002 she made animated excerpts for Andrei Zagdanski’s documentary on the Russian artist Sitnikov and directed the short Five Fucking Fables. At the end of that year she returned to Latvia, where she received a contribution from the Film Center Foundation and Culture Capital to make the 10-minute film Woman. In 2002 she was also the subject of Dzintra Geka’s documentary Signe and…. In 2005 she made Dentist and Five Infomercials for Dentists, besides working on Plympton’s latest film, Hair High. Two years after beginning the series Teat Beat of Sex she made The Very First Desire Now and Forever and Veterinarian. This year she directed the film Birth. Baumane has also curated a series of independent animated programs and with Patrick Smith and Bill Plympton is part of Square Footage Films, a group of independent New York animators who produce and distribute their own work.
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