Academy Preserves Films By Animators Suzan Pitt and Pat O’Neill; “Plastic Realities” Screening August 25th

Academy Preserves Films By Animators Suzan Pitt and Pat O’Neill; “Plastic Realities” Screening August 25th

August 2nd, 2016

Jerry Beck

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is hosting a panel and screening to celebrate the preservation of two of our most important experimental animators, Suzan Pitt and Pat O’Neill. These two visionary artists will appear in person with a program of two visually stunning short films, newly preserved by the Academy Film Archive. The event will take place on Thursday August 25th, 7:30pm, at the Linwood Dunn Theater on Vine Street in Hollywood. Details here.

Joy Street and Trouble in the Image were preserved in 2015-16 from their respective 35mm original camera negatives. These projects are the latest in a series of several preservations the Archive has completed of the work of both Suzan Pitt and Pat O’Neill. Additional short films to be announced.

Working in very distinct modes, both Pitt and O’Neill have been vastly influential and acclaimed in the cinematic arts, each producing a body of work known for its visual complexity, richness, and unconventionality. Pitt’s characteristically vivid, laboriously handmade animated films sweep the viewer into ecstatic and disturbing alternative worlds. Often working with elaborate optical printing and other compositing techniques, O’Neill is an unparalleled collagist, bringing together unrelated images, both found and original, in complex, multilayered compositions.

Joy Street (1995) – Film by Suzan Pitt. 24 minutes. 35mm, 1.37, color, sound.

Unrestored Excerpt:

Trouble in the Image (1996) – Film by Pat O’Neill. 38 minutes. 35mm, 1.37, color, sound.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.