www.hapanimation.com

After realizing that yellow sticky note "to do" lists were consuming his life, animation filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns decided to visually self-reflect on his filmmaking journey by animating on the same sticky notes that caused him to ignore major world events for the last nine years. Animation meditation is blended with image, text, and an original musical score by Genevieve Vincent through the creation of a classically animated experimental film that was drawn straight ahead with only a black ink pen on over 2300 yellow sticky notes.

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Jeff Chiba Stearns is an award-winning animation and documentary filmmaker, illustrator and writer. Born in Kelowna, BC, of Japanese and European heritage, he graduated from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design with a degree in Film Animation (2001). Soon after, he founded Meditating Bunny Studio Inc. specializing in the creation of animated, documentary, and experimental films aimed at both children and adults that combine different philosophical and social elements together to create humorous inspiring stories. His animated shorts, Kip and Kyle (2000) and The horror of Kindergarten (2001) have screened at film festivals around the world and broadcast on the CBC show ZeD. With a pre-license from the CBC, he completed the multi award-winning classically animated short, "What Are You Anyways?" (2005) - an exploration of his life growing up half-Japanese and half-Caucasian in a small Canadian city.

"What Are You Anyways?" - official selection of 35 international film festivals and winner of 7 awards including the 2006 CAEAA for Best Animated Short Subject was the first animated film that explored multiethnic issues and lead Jeff to becoming an international spokesperson for multiracial issues. Yellow Sticky Notes (2007), winner of 10 awards including the Prix du Public Labo at the 2009 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, 2009 Best Animated Short at the Beloit and Victoria Int. Film Festivals, 2008 CAEAA for Best Animated Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film at the Calgary International Film Festival, and Golden Sheaf for Best Animation was animated with just a black pen on over 2300 sticky notes and is the official selection of over 45 international film festivals. The film has also qualified for the 2009 Genie Awards under the category of Best Short Animation. Currently he is working on a one hour documentary entitled, One Big Hapa Family about children of mixed-Japanese decent and the high Japanese Canadian interracial marriage rate. On top of filmmaking, Jeff is also a college animation instructor who has written articles for national publications and lectured around the world on topics of multiracial identity, cultural awareness, filmmaking, and animation.