This ain’t no Pixar. This is ain’t no Disney. This ain’t no foolin’ around. ANXIOUS ANIMATION presents six contemporary film artists who take us into surreal worlds of delirium and paranoia… The reigning proponent of cut-and-paste, LEWIS KLAHR nourishes intensely private visions on the compost heap of collective fantasy through old magazines, comic books, and cocktail iconography.Complex, full of charm, and pervaded by themes of loss, JANIE GEISER simultaneously creates and deconstructs fantasies through doll-like figurines, cut-outs, and found objects in her cryptic narratives.JIM TRAINOR’s handmade animations explore the inner lives of animals that appear strangely self-aware even as they instinctually copulate, feed, fight, kill and die.The Bay Area collective of RODNEY ASCHER, SYD GARON, and ERIC HENRY conjure diabolical visions with digital savvy, accompanied by the manic music of Buckethead and DJ Q-Bert.
Anxious Animation definitely lives up to its title, serving up an eclectic variety of avant-garde animations as unsettling as they are unforgettable. Previously unseen outside of art museums, fringe festivals, and other outlets for specialized programming far outside the mainstream, this bizarre collection of films is one of many titles made available by Other Cinema DVD, an adventurous independent San Francisco-based distributor devoted to "peculiar visions and offbeat sensibilities, drawn from the contemporary underground as well as the archives." Judging from the films and artists represented here, that mission statement is in full effect, with something to delight, offend, or subtly disturb just about anyone. When you select the "Play All" option, first up is "Spokes for Wheel of Torment," from the Bay Area artist collective of Eric Henry, Syd Garon, and Rodney Ascher. It's essentially a two-minute, mind-altering music video for enigmatic alt-rock/jazz guitarist Buckethead (for the track from his killer 2004 CD, Cuckoo Clocks of Hell), combining meticulous cut-and-paste computer techniques with the nightmarish visions of Hieronymous Bosch. Henry-Garon-Ascher are also represented here by "Sneak Attack" (2000) in which DJ Q-Bert's hip-hop turntable wizardry is brought to life by an eye-grabbing spoof of Saturday morning sci-fi cartoons, and "Somebody Goofed" (1998), in which Jack Chick's notorious Bible tract comes to life through "the magic of Re-Animation®," with outrageous and amusing results. Pioneering cut-and-paste artists Lewis Klahr and Janie Geiser are represented here by three and two shorts, respectively. While Klahr (with "Lulu," Altair," and "Pony Glass") plunders old magazines, comic books, and other printed ephemera to create loose, dreamlike visions of popular culture with a homoerotic bent, Geiser uses found objects, figurines, and cut-out backgrounds to explore elusive themes of love, loss, and primal urges of the sexual subconscious. In stark contrast, Jim Trainor's charmingly crude line animations ("The Bat" and "Moschops") play like nature shows from fantasyland, exploring the inner lives of animals that possess remarkable gifts of self-awareness. It's a safe bet that anyone outside of a major city will find these animated films nothing short of revelatory. As the DVD package accurately promises (with apologies to Talking Heads), "This ain't no Pixar. This ain't no Disney. This ain't no foolin' around." So if you're ready for a trippy trip to the outer fringes of moving picture art, you've come to the right DVD. --Jeff Shannon
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