Le Petit Cinéma Club concludes with a special screening of I’m Me!, a short compilation film made for the 1970 White House Conference on Children on behalf of an all-kids collective under the tutelage of animator Yvonne Andersen.

After a four-year stint running the influential Sun Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Andersen and her husband, the poet Dominic “Val” Falcone, moved to Everett, MA, to raise their two children. Once in Everett, their two children started bringing kids over to work on art projects and after noticing “they were doing good work,” Andersen decided to get them organized. Soon enough, in 1963, the Yellow Ball Workshop was born and one year later 12 kids got together to make Yellow Ball’s first film, The Amazing Colossal Man.

Over the next decade, Yellow Ball’s popularity exploded. It was deemed the first organization of its kind and their films were booked across the U.S. for educational programs and artistic exhibitions. Andersen soon found herself discussing her work on TV and setting up similar workshops all over the world. The kids were commissioned to direct NBC spots, TV commercials, PSAs, and, in the case of I’m Me!, a spot for the 1970 White House Conference on Children.

I’m Me! consists of seven short animated films about matters such as education, exercise, responsibility, and family. Each film is accompanied with an interview with its child creator in which they discuss their process and inspiration. It’s one of Yellow Ball’s most representative reels, featuring six kids’ imaginative reflections on social life and an inside-look at their creative brains.

“My mother-in-law knew this guy who tore down old buildings and schools, so we went to get some used furniture. They had all these little children’s chairs, they were exquisite, and only 50 cents each. So I bought 8 of them, took them home, and put them around the work table…. The next thing I knew, there were always little people sitting in those little chairs, using up my art supplies!” YVONNE ANDERSEN

Despite the small size of their makers, Yellow Ball’s films had an outsized impact on culture. Their success led Andersen to write two books about animation — one for adults and one for children — and start running intensive adult animation workshops, including some for people who worked in hospitals and maximum security reformatories. Even Federico Fellini was said to own reels of the children’s work and, in The Village Voice, Jonas Mekas wrote, “Without any exaggeration, these are about the best animated films made anywhere today.”

The Yellow Ball Workshop was most active between the mid-60s until the late ‘70s. At its height, it involved 36 children involved in all aspects of film production: operating 16mm cameras and light meters, creating special effects, editing and splicing films, and recording sound. Its main mover, Yvonne Andersen, went on to set up similar workshops for kids and adults all over the U.S. From 1977 – 2002, Andersen taught at the Rhode Island School of Design. Some of her students included Lisa Crafts, Janet Perlman, and Suzan Pitt.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to the Harvard Film Archive for this special presentation and Orfeo Tagiuri for contributing the animated introduction that has preceded each film in this series.