Events

Consuming Spirits

An Evening with Chris Sullivan

When:
Friday, November 22, 2013, 7:00pm - 7:00pm
Description:

Nearly 15 years in the making, Chris Sullivan's Consuming Spirits is a meticulously constructed tour de force of experimental animation. Shooting frame by frame in 16mm, Sullivan seamlessly blends together a range of techniques into a distinct, signature visual style.  In the process, he constructs a hypnotic, layered narrative, a suspenseful gothic tale that tracks the intertwined lives of three kooky but kindred spirits working at a local newspaper in a Midwestern rust belt town.  

Emotionally raw and painfully humorous, Consuming Spirits is “an inquiry into the darkest zones of the human heart.  A work of obsessive artisanal discipline and unfettered artistic vision…a wonder” (A.O. Scott).
Followed by Q&A with the director. Intended for an adult audience.

Chris Sullivan is an animator, performance artist, filmmaker and musician who teaches Film, Video, New Media and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His films have screened  at festivals, including Zagreb World Festival of Animation; Ann Arbor Film Festival, Annecy, Tribeca Film Festival, Vancouver International, Ottawa Animation Festival, Chicago international, Milano, Denver Starz, Animator, Fantoche, and London International Animation Festival, with retrospectives at Ottawa and MOMA in New York.

Consuming Spirits had its theatrical debut at New York’s Film Forum, and has since played at The Gene Siskel Film Center, Cinefamily in LA, Pacific Film Archives/Berkeley, The Walker Art Center/Minneapolis, Wexner Art Center/Columbus, Brattle Theater/Boston and other venues. Sullivan has received grants from The Bush Foundation,  NEA, Frankline Furnace, The Minnesota Arts Board, and The Illinois Arts Council.

Consuming Spirits began production in 1998 after receiving funding from The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and Rockefeller Media Arts.  In 2010 Chris received a Creative Capital Grant to start work on another experimental feature, The Orbit of Minor Satellites.

(2012, 125 min, Blu-ray)