I've been trying to take the time to write this since Sunday night. Of course time is rare for me, but when I found a moment, I was too concerned that I wouldn't be able to write something honest and smart. Mr. McMüller introduced me to the world of Brent Green, and it could be the best thing he's done for me. Brent is a self-taught animator... outsider, DIY, independent, experimental... he's all those words people put emphasis on, and he deserves the recognition those words automatically grant. He's based in Pennsylvania, and my guess is that it's a part of the Appalachains. His animations (the newest being Paulina Hollers, his most talked about {online} being Hadacol Christmas, and my favorite being Carlin) have an organic feel because of the tools and mediums he works with. In Carlin, he appears to use life-sized figures for his stop-motion animation. The house of his childhood (I want to believe that it really is the home he grew up in) becomes a character, and he even seems to animate the light and shadows. Or maybe he just doesn't know how to light a scene. I have a soft spot for personal narrative films, and while perhaps the aunt he speaks of in Carlin didn't really exist, he talks with the passion and emotion as if he is recalling someone he really knew. He achieves the same feeling in Hadacol Christmas, which he made while reflecting on the death of his grandfather. It's been said by many people that his narration is similiar to a preacher, and I wouldn't be surprised if he based his excited monologues on the Southern Baptist preachers I grew up with. I was always afraid of the "suck-n-blow" preachers when I was young, but his speaking-without-breathing style brings so much to the films.
His solo show at the Bellwether gallary is gone, and there's nothing currently scheduled I can send you to. The only films I can find online are his older pieces that do not have the same energy and urgency of his newest work, though they are still worth taking a look at.
Months ago, after the wife and I left a Sufjan concert, I talked to her about how I wish I could make short films with that much emotion, but also something that had the staying power that music has. I can listen to a CD over and over and over. I want to know how to make something that people will want to watch on repeat the first week they own it. Something people throw on their iPod and watch often. I think Brent Green is headed in that direction.
http://nervousfilms.com/
http://www.bellwethergallery.com/artistsindex_01.cfm?fid=142
http://www.directorsnotes.com/2006/12/02/dn-ep-012-hadacol-christmas-brent-green/
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5 comments:
Ahh, Himmy.
I feel you.
Are you going to the to check out his work again?
I am curious if they'll be showing the films, or just some of the work from them. Not sure if I'll have the time to check it out.
Can we retool this into a piece for BOMB? I'll """email""" you
HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO WIFE AND MAN AT BLOGSPOT DOT COM
When Brian and I saw him talk, he said that the aunt was real and so were the amputations. He was young and Carlin wanted to die. She was only in her 30s, but she wouldn't take medication. He watched as she was amputated away little by little, then she went blind, and then she died.
He also said the house was really the house were he grew up and that he was working on a full length film that also takes place in that house.
I also liked the shadows and light. I also like this post.
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