Top 5 of Our Favorite Things: Animated Audio Archive Documentaries
Our blog-post on the Dock Ellis LSD No-No a few weeks back unleashed an insatiable appetite for animated documentaries that are based on audio archive matter. Animation, we came to discover, can breathe new life into valuable sound recordings that may otherwise be relegated to gathering dust in some long-forgotten digital shelving unit. And as our pick of 5 toppers testifies, the visual element adds a richness, depth and poignance that may otherwise be lost on the over-saturated ears of today’s super-savvy public.
1. Dock Ellis LSD No-No
We blogged about this irresistible nugget of retro-looking animation greatness, which illustrates a monologue by 1970s baseball superhero Dock Ellis as he describes the day he threw a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while tripping his (base)balls off on a double LSD dosage.
2. Germans in the Woods
The moving testimony of an 86-year-American World War II veteran who recalls the day he took the life of a young German soldier in the dense woods of the Belgian Ardennes mountains over 50 years ago, provides the baseline this subtle monochromatic animation evoking the haunting reality of mortal combat.
3. Ryan
A relatively long-form (14 minutes) visual masterpiece that depicts the life of celebrated Canadian animator Ryan Larkin whose acclaimed psychedelic 1969 Oscar-nominated short Walking marked the start of his spiral into self-destructive drugs and alcohol abuse. A fitting tribute to a wasted creative genius.
4. His Mother’s Voice
From the digital dark ages of 1997, Dennis Tupicoff uses rotoscoping (from live action re-enactments) to depict the raw, heart-ripping pain a mother suffers when she suddenly and violently loses a son. Based on a radio interview with the mother of a 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed during a break-in in Brisbane, Australia.
5. My Friend Marjorie
This stylized animation pays a poignant and dignified tribute to the memories of a Vaudevillian actress as she evokes her 1930s heyday. In this short nostalgic journey she alludes to the challenges faced by the female professionals of yesteryear, and the heartbreaking reality of old age in today’s world.
