Philadelphia Independents 2016 recap

Hey, great show! There's always a good feeling coming out of the screening, with welcoming and knowledgeable Plastic Clubbers, a new cast of animators, and folks from outside either of those two worlds. A lot of variety in tonight's playlist, ranging from experimental collage music videos to humorous cartoons, and several new faces in the mix.

Here's a list of the artists, in the order of the evening, with links to their online presences:

Day Job, Etc. (Sean Dooley & Hugo Marmugi): UArts alum working the night shift with their personality-driven animated shorts.

Tulipomania (Cheryl Gelover, Mitch Smith, Tom Murray): experimental animators and band combined into one.

Ross Bollinger : a veteran of the screening now, master of comic timing and character exaggeration.

Ellen Marcus, assisted by Janelle Smith: two of my former teammates, professional painter, illustrator, and animator, and UArts alum, animator and multimedia fine artist, with an animated sequence for a live-action film project, and also pitching her (Ellen's) new adult coloring book.

Chris Ferrantello: illustrator-turned-animator, UArts (PCA) alum, mixing collage animation with found soundtracks.

Runaku Salhi: an original and compelling take on Nietzsche's "The Madman".

Christopher Magee: wandering musician, UArts professor, and independent animator.

Sarah Schwartz, Claire Fouquet, Patty Smith: excellent "making of" film documenting the collaboration between French animator and professor and UArts printmaker and professor for a dance/music/visual art performance piece. Film by UArts alumna.

Chris De Pew: UArts alum with an elegantly minimalist, experimental thesis film.

 John Serpentelli, assisted by Ben Howell: UArts professor and independent animator and alumnus animator telling a serious story through the sound and images of children.

Annelise Williams: UArts alum with a wonderfully heartfelt thesis film that gets you "right here".

Karl Staven: UArts professor and independent animator with a surreal stop-motion tale of music composition and its side-effects.

And here is the program.