Weird Worlds

Experiments in Animation

Co-Presented with Experimental Film Festival Portland

May. 23 - 7:00 pm

Work Stills:

About This Screening

“A weird animation about weird people who make weird sounds,” writes archivist Mark Toscano about Kathy Rose’s 1974 Mirror People. And weird might just as well describe about all of the films in this program of animated shorts. Mostly hand-drawn, painted, and inked, these strikingly colorful off-beat films, all presented on 16mm, show surreal cartoon worlds in motion. From Sally Cruikshank’s Quasi at the Quakadero whose main character Anita has been described as “Betty Boop with a New Wave wardrobe,” to Amy Lockhart’s Walk for Walk with its bubbling nursery of tear drops and googly-eyed hamburgers. Influenced by and sometimes working with other underground cartoonists and comic book artists—Kim Deitch did some inking for Cruikshank, Lockhart is a comic book artist herself and featured on the video label Cartune Xprez—these animations also show wild and youthful imaginings entwined with darker adult recollections, as in Diana Wilson’s Eclipse Predictions. Cinema Project is excited to present Weird Worlds as part of the 2nd annual Experimental Film Festival Portland. For more information about EFF, please visit effportland.com.