Founded in 1996 by poet and dj, Kenneth Goldsmith, ubu.com was originally a site devoted to concrete poetry, but expanded to include music, documents and film. It's a completely free site whose goal is to make experimental and avant-garde works easier to access. The experimental in any art form is often marginalized with little commercial distribution. Ubu.com is a treasure trove of artworks many of which are in the public domain.
I discovered Phil Mulloy's brutal, but hilarious animations a few weeks ago while reading through The Animate Book: Rethinking Animation, which is a collection of interviews, essays and films on DVD of important experimental/artistic animation work (primarily in the UK) of the last two decades. After watching one of the episodes of Mulloy's "Cowboys" series, I knew I had to have as many of his films as I could find, so I immediately ordered a collection of his films on DVD entitled "eXTrEme AmiaTion:Films by Phil Mulloy" and have been reveling in this genius animator's ideas and imagination.
It's hard to describe his work (he's been making animated films for about 20 years now after working on live-action films) except to say they are stark, violent and farcical (sometimes all at the same time). Animated using primarily 2d stick figures (reminds me of Giacometti sculptures or Beckett characters) in a harsh black & white with minimal backgrounds, Mulloy's worlds are filled with sex, violence, religion, hypocrisy, stupidity, greed, murder, death and foolishness. His imagination is so unexpected that his stories never fail to surprise, while at the same time the films are so painfully comic. The Cowboy series (six in all) is a particular favorite filled as they are with western sleaze and comic brutality. He turns the sentimental stories of the old west into Monty Python-like studies of sex, violence, drunkenness and greed. You are cringing as you laugh. But when I finally caught his three part series "Intolerance" I was knocked out by the scale and stark beauty of the films. They certainly are masterpieces to me, especially part 3. He adds color and voices to these films which I think deepens the stories and makes them slightly less abstract. I found the first part of "Intolerance" at youtube and want to share the film with you so you can see what I'm talking about. If you find his work as interesting as I do, I urge you to pick up the full DVD as it's wonderful.
A word of warning: Intolerance features sexual imagery and violence that might shock those those who prefer their animation in the Disney style. You have been warned.
