Alison Reiko Loader

A Japanese Canadian from Belleville, Ontario, Alison Reiko Loader came to Montreal in 1987 to study animation at Concordia University, minoring in studio art and art history. The following year, she won a National Film Board of Canada Award for her first-year animated short. After graduating in 1991, she worked in desktop publishing and pre-press production for several years before applying her animation and computer skills at an advertising firm, creating animated spots for LED billboards.

She left Montreal in 1997 to live and work in Japan, creating artwork and animation for Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn games. She discovered Showa Shinzan while vacationing in Hokkaido, which kindled an enduring fascination that led to her return the following year, when she began conducting research for her first professional film, Showa Shinzan. Alison returned to Montreal at the end of 1998. Showa Shinzan, completed in 2002, has enjoyed many community screenings and has competed at over sixty-five international film festivals. She teaches at Concordia and recently completed her second film for the National Film Board of Canada, Roots.

Wanting to push the limits of her art form, Alison Reiko Loader explores video art in this most recent short experiment 02_06. This experimental work with no narration plays with the effects of film, animation, video and photography.

When it comes to making films, I have a shortish attention span so I enjoy challenging myself with techniques and narrative structures I've never tried before.  I've clung to the computer as a tool largely out of fear and laziness but in truth I'm not a huge fan of computer-generated work. My inspirations come from personal experience, other art forms, people I meet as well as random oddities and stories that capture my fancy.

Alison Reiko Loader

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