Wednesday, October 21 at 8:00 PM – Constellation – 3111 N Western Ave
Tickets: $15 at the door or purchase in advance
An Evening with Jim Trainor
Harrowing. Death-obsessed. Uproarious. The short films of Chicago-based artist and filmmaker Jim Trainor rank among the bleakest and funniest work to be found in American underground animation. The men and beasts of Trainor’s cinema are invariably mired in psychosexual dysfunction: too blind, stupid, or otherwise incapable to find sense or meaning in an often senseless, meaningless universe. Instantly recognizable by their characteristically stark linework and lucid, beautifully written voiceover, Trainor’s animations frequently take the perspective of nonhuman life, giving voice to profound existential enquiries through characters like a rotten-vegetation-loving Moschops, or a cave-dwelling bat simply enjoying the pleasures of a clean anus. This program brings together a selection of Trainor’s work from across the early years of his career, a collection of roughly textured, poetically blunt explorations of natural order and bestial philosophy presented in original 16mm prints. Included in this program is Trainor’s series “The Animals and Their Limitations,” featuring The Bats (1998), The Moschops (2000), The Magic Kingdom (2002), and Harmony (2004), as well as his mid-length film The Fetishist (1997), a biography of Chicago-based serial killer William Heirens. (CW)
16mm prints courtesy of Jim Trainor.
Total program length: Approx 80 min, plus an intermission
Jim Trainor in person!
NEXT UP: THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK on Sunday, November 1 at the Music Box