Candy Kugel: The Reigning First Lady Of Indie-Studio Animation
One woman who climbed the ladder of the Independent Animation Studio since the tumultuous ‘70’s

Candy was pointed to a Perpetual Motion Picture Studio, where she began spending her summers learning all the ins and outs of professional animation, and finding mentors in artists like Terrytoons animator Doug Crane. Still, she was a self-proclaimed long-haired hippy girl in a man’s field. “Back in the ‘70’s there was a generation gap, a real culture clash, and so I was sort of scared … but I got [info] from each of the professionals, including the ladies at ink and paint, [some of whom] were a little pissed off at me at the time, because I was doing a man’s job.”

Because of the scarcity of a female presence in the animation industry, Candy endorsed organizations like “Women in Film.” Although she contends that there was much more discrimination in LA than in New York, she has witnessed phases in the industry at large. “I have seen periods and styles where there is more and less animation on the screen, where there is more and fewer women. In 1976, the first Ottowa [festival], the best films that were shown were done by women. And it blew away the old establishment of the union guys who didn’t know what women could do.”

Most of Candy’s support against the male-dominated industry really came from mentor and later business partner, Vincent Cafarelli. Even today in her classroom, Candy sees a microcosm of what she endured. “When I have a class that’s predominantly male, it has a certain kind of skew to it, where the guys tend to overwhelm the female students. It’s a ‘folie ã deux.’ I can’t blame the guys, and I can’t blame the girls. But what ends up happening is that the guys are much more aggressive about their vision, which then creates this kind of shyness among a lot of the women, who think that maybe their ideas aren’t as good.” Candy’s response echoes Cafarelli’s. “What I try to do for other women, especially those that intimidated by their circumstance, is to help them with their confidence, see what their work is, show their strong points, [and] encourage them to do it.”

This encouragement helped spur Candy to pursue her ambition after the mid-‘70’s. While producing a TV spot for KNBR at Perpetual Motion Pictures with co-workers Cafarelli and Marilyn Kraemer, she stumbled upon fate. “We did a commercial for a radio station in San Francisco that was just funky. I was taking xeroxes of 16 mm film and juxtaposing it and coloring it, doing a whole bunch of stuff with it, and it was the weirdest looking commercial. It only looked that way because, even though it was done at a professional animation studio, I got ideas from going to animation festivals.”