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Never mind splashy screenings for the likes of Baby Mama and Speed Racer. Tribeca '08 will largely be a forum for the Little Films That Can. And many won't. Some projects may have the money for a reasonably slick marketing push; some won't have enough coin to fly the director's family out for the premiere. Regardless of the camp into which they fall, we thought it only fair to allow the people in charge of these films, the directors, to appeal to our readers themselves.
We posed the same five questions to every filmmaker accepted into the festival and offered them the chance to reply. Below are the responses we've received, virtually unedited. (We've made a few snips for clarity; that's it.)
Bill Plympton, director of Idiots and Angels
1 Why should someone watch your movie, in 100 words or less? (Don't just paste in your marketing blurb. Persuade our readers.)
Too many people in America think that animation is just for kids’well, Idiots and Angels is part of a vanguard of adult animation in the U.S. that will hopefully break down these stereotypes. I don't know why people expect me to make films about toys and games and child-like emotions. I'm an adult and I'm concerned about love, jealousy, sex and greed’adult topics’so why can't I make an animated film that discusses issues that I obsess about?
2 Without spoiling your plot, describe a scene in your film that audiences will love.
It's a part of the movie where Angel (the star of the film), who's burdened and embarrassed by his wings, fails at suicide and decides, "What the hell, let's see what it's like to fly." So he attempts to take flight and discovers that he can actually use the wings for his own selfish purposes. The wonderful music in this scene is by the great French chanteuse Nicole Renaud (who now lives in New York).
3 If your protagonist were an animal, what would he/she be and why?
I very rarely make films that are politically correct, or socially beneficial. But for this film, I believe the star of this story would start out as a vulture, and slowly but inevitably he becomes a dove.
4 What will surprise me about this movie?
This film is very rude and raw’there's a scene where Angel tries to get rid of his pesky wings by cutting them off with a chainsaw. It's very visceral and not for the squeamish; you may want to cover your eyes. It's definitely not a sequence you'll see in a Disney film.
5 How would describe your filmmaking style or philosophy? How is that reflected in this project?
Being the "king of indie animation," I must keep my budgets low, which I think is a good thing. One aspect I hate about CGI is how every visual is perfectly shaped and rendered, like a machine. However, my films are made by hand, drawn solely by myself. There are therefore a lot of "mistakes." And I love the mistakes. I revel in the mistakes. The mistakes make it interesting. It's like a sketch, you can actually see the act of creation in the finished product. And to me, that makes Idiots and Angels a very fun film to watch.
