This ain't what you'd call The Muppet Show
Puppets On Screen festival shows the seamy side of celluloid puppetry
PREVIEW
PUPPETS ON SCREEN
Red Smarteez Marionettes
Int’l Festival of Animated Objects
January 22 & 23
Glenbow Museum
When one thinks of puppets, a porcelain figure in a surreal dreamscape or a human body part excreting bodily waste aren't always the first things that come to mind. But according to Peter Stinson of Red Smarteez Marionettes, these things can be puppets, particularly if they’re documented on celluloid.
Self-proclaimed puppets themselves, the Red Smarteez have curated Puppets On Screen, two evenings of puppet movies taking place at the theatre in the Glenbow Museum.
"We are each fully functioning marionettes," says Stinson about himself and his Red Smarteez collaborator, Brenda Whiteman. "I’m unique in that my body is created from apple crates, bamboo and steel wool hair."
When asked about her origin, Whiteman replies that there is a big space where her brain should be, and so she can’t answer the question.
Despite their individual handicaps, Whiteman and Stinson have managed to bring together two programs of the most innovative puppet films and videos available, although none of the duo’s own films will be shown.
"The Red Smarteez collective have clamped down on the self-serving (behaviour) that they see all over town," says Stinson. "We’re strong, we’re big, we’re good puppets, we’re top stars, we know what we’re doing.... We like to serve the public, we like to see the public, we like to dance and sing and do a happy jig, but we won’t be showing any of our films."
What they will be showing is a sampling of Canadian and international cinema that utilizes animated objects (including humans-as-objects) and cut-outs. The screening on January 22 showcases treasures from the Quickdraw Animation Society library, including works by filmmakers such as Ladislaw Starewicz (Winter Carousel), The Brothers Quay (Street of Crocodiles, based on a novella by Bruno Schultz) and George Pal (Der Fuhrer’s Face). The pieces, produced between 1942 and 1986, provide a historical overview of object animation.
"We wanted to show the Brothers Quay film because that’s probably the best puppet animation ever made. It expresses the paranoia and challenges of the time when Schultz composed his Kafkaesque book." says Stinson, who adds, "I hate using the word Kafkaesque."
The screenings on January 23 focus on contemporary works and is part of EM Media’s Homegrown series. The shorter works range from an ethereal investigation of missed connections between dolls in American filmmaker Janie Geiser’s Lost Motion to homoerotic exchanges between penises and sock puppets in Daniel Barrow’s Black Hearts Desire. Regarding the appearance of the phallus-as-puppet, Stinson acknowledges that there are one or two such imported appendages.
Other notable films include the existentialist journey of one blob’s quest for meaning in Brian Stockton’s Self: Portrait/ Fulfillment, the tomato gladiatorial contests of Antonia Taddei’s hand-puppetry epic, "Un spaghetti peplum," and the black-and-white tale of how a pipecleaner comes to have smooth legs in Lisa Morse’s untitled short.
Alberta filmmakers are also well represented with works by Shawna Kelly and Mark Hamilton, Xpandora and friends, Candice Tarnowski, Shauna Kennedy, Greg Danyluk, and Marcel Fayant.
Fayant’s film, "In Response to the Dumbest Question of the 20th Century," is a no-budget camcorder creation that Stinson describes as a wonderful examination of issues between aboriginal North Americans and white settlers, reducing it down to one simple question which decides the fate of each "cowboy" and "Indian."
Still not certain exactly what constitutes a puppet film? A paper sunset awaits the cinematically adventurous viewer who dances a happy jig down to Puppets On Screen. |
