Vera Neubauer and Phil Mulloy are both renowned animation workers and a couple. Mulloy, last year's Grand Prix winner, and Neubauer, who has chosen the works for her retrospective this year, spoke with Heikki Jokinen at the auditorium of Werstas.

Vera Neubauer has denied being a social or feministic artist.

- Animation is above all a channel of self expression for me.

Her art may carry a message, but she denies being consciously political.

Mulloy begun his career with painting and tells that at first he made art films before switching to animation. This took place in 1989, around the same time he met Vera.

- Making art gives me a voice and offers a channel of communication, technique itself doesn't interest me as much, Mulloy relates. It is also a way to spend time, he remarks.

Telling stories is important, but Neubauer says the material she works with is the main basis of her work. She tells that she discovered animation while studying. It struck her as a form of expression she felt at home with, and as a natural way to tell stories

Although digital technology has changed the process of making animation, it is still a slow handicraft effort. Neubauer, who started with film, had to learn a new technique, which she says has also influenced her way of thinking.

She uses both film and video in her works, because she wants to see the difference between the two. She used to dislike the results of working with computer graphics, but tells that she has learned to use the technology in a way which supports her own expression.

During the work process, the original material is edited with a computer, which weakens its quality and retains the roughness. However, digital results are always recognizable and the work process is unique. If it were possible, Neubauer would still use only film. Using digital technology simply is clearly less expensive. During her studies, a camera could be borrowed when necessary.

Mulloy works nowadays mainly with a computer and owns the cameras he uses, but it is nevertheless hard to find funding for productions. Animations often reach their audience through the TV instead of cinemas. The star and celebrity phenomena of the film world are not present in the field of animation, and the production teams are often small. Mulloy himself has worked mainly alone.

Mulloy says that he presents different world views and conflicts between them in his works. Neubauer, on the other hand, emphasizes the work process and life itself. The works of the artist, who is currently writing a children's TV series, have been characterized as hard to approach and challenging.

- When you write for children it's important not to underestimate their demands, they are thinking individuals, Neubauer describes her ongoing work.