Illustration by James Braithwaite. Found photo by Jonathan Lin.
Picnic Dinner emerged from years of collaboration between James Braithwaite, Darren Pasemko and Fred Casia who both together and independently create animation for auteur films, documentaries, children's and educational programming, and commercial animated content. Aligned as a "Threeism," they aim to create original content. Currently developing two series, "Coyle and Sharpe" and "Jam Machine."
James Braithwaite, is an Oscar-nominated illustrator, animator and writer based in Toronto. Recognition for James's animation work includes an Emmy, a Best Animation Short award from the American Film Institute, and presentation at the Guggenheim. His work has appeared at many international festivals such as Sundance and hundreds of others. His delightfully whimsical animation and art direction can be seen in an eclectic range of recent projects - from hit Canadian cartoons to a Smithsonian commission about the insanity of Thanksgiving. His editorial illustration has appeared in the New York Times, McSweeney's, The Believer, VICE, Financial Times and The Globe and Mail, among others. Commercial clients include Google, Ford, Microso and ESPN.
Fred Casia, a Canadian born Filipino, is a graphic designer, animator, director, producer, illustrator and visual artist from Montréal. He has worked on documentary and animated productions with the NFB including the Oscar nominated animated short Wild Life directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, the Oscar shortlisted animation If I Was God directed by Cordell Barker, The Fruit Hunters directed by Yung Chang which received a Cinema Eye Honors nomination for best animation in 2014. He has also worked on Manic VR as a creative director, produced by Eyesteelfilm it premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival and has gone on to win awards including the Dok Neuland Award at Dok Leipzig and the 2019 Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica as well as a 2019 Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Immersive Non Fiction Experience.
Darren Pasemko’s career started at an experimental animation school in Montreal in 1999, steeped in the traditions of the National Film Board of Canada, and immersed in a movement of digital bedroom animators that developed in the early aughts—obsessed with Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, and Michel Gondry. He directed The New Pornographers for their song Challengers for Matador Record (1.2 million views), exhibited music video work at the Contemporary Art Museum of Montreal, and Vimeo Staffed Picked and honored by IdN magazine for Best of 2011 for the music video “Our Love is as Tall as the Calgary Tower,” for the band Woodpigeon. Recently he was awarded for most watched video on The New York Times for the short film Open Hearted Doorman made for the “Modern Love” series in collaboration with Nick Van Der Kolk from Love + Radio, the podcast. All these efforts have resulted in contemporary work such as “Ok Google,” made for the National Filmboard of Canada which won a Webby and was staff picked by Vimeo receiving over a million views in exposure.