Like Little Lightning Bolts: Gina Kamentsky's Favorites

Exploring movement, abstraction and structure, her animations are intuitive and experimental efforts combining numerous forms, including painting, drawing, collaging, musique concrète, stop-motion and pixilation.

And that same Gina is here to present a programme of films that hit her like a lightning bolt! One her most vivid memories was the first time she saw Sally Cruickshank's film Quasi at the Quackadero (1975) as part of her class screenings at the Philadelphia College of Art back in 1979. The lightning bolt that hit her seeing this particular film rewired her brain and drove her instructor and the rest of the class crazy; they requested that he showed Quasi two more times that afternoon before returning it to the distributor.

Many years later, as a teacher, nothing makes Gina happier than showing a film in her class and seeing a similar reaction from one of her students. Every film in this programme had a similar effect: inspiring her, broadening her understanding of what animation can be or do; and posing important questions that she can take back to her own studio. As Gina puts it: "Watching these films reminds me that as filmmakers, each of us is out in the world poking and prodding this art form and expanding the universe of possibilities inherent to independent animation."