PAPER CIRCUS
Animated by Luca Dipierro, 2010–2015
Live score by Father Murphy
USA/Italy/Brazil, 60 min.
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
MONDAY, APRIL 20 – 8 & 10 PM
Described as “a perfect mix between creepy and charming” by the Huffington Post, the films of Luca Dipierro are carnivalesque tales of acrobacy and death, both sorrowful and comical. This startlingly dedicated artist uses a wide variety of mediums for his adventures in cut-out animation: paper, fabric, dirt, wood, thread, hair, paint — and moves his cut-outs on the surfaces of discarded book covers to tell stories of trees growing out of furniture, stranded Columbus-like explorers, puppet funerals, monkeys, prestidigitators, ghosts, and a woman birthing a fish.
Join us for Luca’s latest shorts collection PAPER CIRCUS, with live soundtracks performed by the filmmaker himself with experimental Italian band Father Murphy — one of the leading bands of what Simon Reynolds (author, Rip It Up And Start Again, Retromania) has termed the “new Italian occult psychedelia.” With their orchestrated flow of sounds, music and foley, the result is a hybrid tapestry that braids elements of songwriting, sound collage and theater.
“Sad and beautiful […] The Triplettes of Bellville meets South Park” –L Magazine
“Weirdly charming and unerringly unsettling” –The Quietus
“Luca Dipierro’s cut-out animation straddles a fine line between wide-eyed innocence and unsettling creepiness. Characters move with jerky beauty along discarded book cover backdrops, dancing and playing music when they’re not confronting strange beasts or exploring their more base emotions. A surreal darkness dwells just beneath Dipierro’s colorful whimsy, and his characters of felt, cloth, wood and paper suggest Picasso illustrating medieval storybooks.” –Seattle City Arts