Over the last 15 years, Findley has made a handful of films that practically redefine "obsessiveness." Often using a time-intensive technique called "pixilation" in which live action is shot frame by frame, Findley has created a sometimes goofy, sometimes arresting cinematic world in which women's hair can stand straight up, people float on two feet of air, and brunch among friends can mean eating newspapers and the furniture. Findley's plots are difficult to describe: They are equal parts illusionistic film techniques and the filmmaker's refreshingly untethered imagination.
Describing I AM THE NIGHT: "... if you imagine Alice in Wonderland done by a collaboration of '20s expressionist F.W. Murnau, '40s surrealist Maya Deren and contemporary Czech animator Jan Svankmajer, you'll have something of the idea." - Randy Gragg, The Oregonian
"Findley's dream-logic is both humorous and unnerving." - Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times
"One of the most exciting filmmakers to come along in some time." - Larry Kardish, Museum of Modern Art, NY
My intent is to make narrative films in which the narrative or plot is stripped away to focus on the "underneath." My films are about unspoken things; hidden agendas, undercurrents, subtexts, subconscious fears, buried desires, and most of all they are about dreams - the movies of our minds that we project in our sleep. Using in-camera effects and elaborate costume and set design I've turned my own dreams into films.
Awards and Fellowships: AFI; NEA; Western States Media Arts; Artist Trust; Art Matters; Seattle, King County and Washington Arts Commissions; Humboldt Film Festival; Seattle Int'l Film Festival; CINE; NW Film & Video Festival.
Exhibition (selected): Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Guggenheim; Seattle Art Museum; Toronto Film Festival; National Archives.
Recently added: A raucous score by Paul Hansen. Stop Motion.
A playful exercise in live-action pixilation, this film features a cast driven by appetites so gluttonous that they ingest fruit, forks, and furniture with no difficulty. For dessert, there's a dance of magical absurdity, performed according to random but exquisitely modulated impulses that take hold of books, people and Boris the cat. Watch out for that final sneeze!
1978, 16mm, b&w/so, 5m, $30
A haunting art-horror film in which a young woman is chased around by a giant, glowing cone (a Nermish), until she retaliates with the aid of her giant hair net. Filmed entirely in stop-motion.
1980, 16mm, b&w/so, 7m, $35
Music: Paul Hansen; Actors: Kooch and Pam Walloch Beard; Art Direction: Tim Miller; Costumes: Kooch.
A hypnotic, visual frenzy of Kabuki imagery gone mad; the magical and ritualistic confrontation between a magenta-haired Western intruder and a Japanese recluse turns into a mesmerizing dance for domination. Live actors and objects filmed in stop-motion animation.
"A blend of whimsey and menace." - Greg Olson, Seattle Art Museum
"A startling effort with a technical polish that belies its budget ... an original vision with a life of its own. A large part of its strength is its disquieting marriage of charm and veiled threat. As it builds to its climax, silent samurai warriors unfold like time-lapse flowers." - Mary Brennan, Seattle Weekly
"Characterized by high-voltage visual style and symbolism." - Kathleen Murphy, Washington
"Dazzlingly surreal." - Richard T. Jameson, Pacific Northwest
Awards: CINE Golden Eagle, Seattle Int'l Film Festival; 14th Annual NW Film & Video Festival; Alternacon Science Fiction & Fantasy Film Festival.
1986, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $40
Featuring Rochell Wyatt, Sarah Peyton, Kathryn Krogstad, Boris the cat. Sound design by Paul Hansen. Live Action.
Liberated from the spatial and pychological confines of consciousness, the film's heroine travels into her own recurring dreamscape, accompanied by a reptilian "chef detective" who will attempt to make sense of it all. Their journey takes them into filmic regions of the Old West, German Expressionism, Film Noir and Monster movies; here transformed into an enchanted, uncharted territory by a unique creative sensibility. By turns threatening, inviting and amusing, this adventure of the mind dares the viewer to enter a world where nothing is easily explained.
"... with dream logic that is alternately weird, creepy and funny .... Roman Polanski meets Alice in Wonderland." - Andy Spletzer, The Stranger
"It juxtaposes glee and panic as it juxtaposes wildly different film genres. It's a child's picture, in the best way, evoking potent but murky feelings. In its best, darkest, most claustrophobic moments, it conveys that familiar sense of feeling trapped, small, helpless, desperate. Of wishing, for once, you could sleep with the light on." - Mary Brennan, Seattle Weekly
1993, 16mm, color/so, 40m, $150
A cat named F.W. Murnau is the star attraction in this whimsical fantasy, created as a loving homage to Boris, feline performer from I AM THE NIGHT and TRIPLETIME. As Murnau tours a baroque landscape of cherished knickknacks and thrift-store discoveries, his curiosity takes a celestial leap to the heavens and back again, accompanied by the slow-dance rhythms of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo."
"A film postcard ... a pretty apt description of the delicious gaze her camera casts on an altar of icons, flowers, cats, and a disembodied head over the course of the film's four bewitching moments." - Ted Fry, Seattle Weekly
1994, 16mm, color/so, 3.5m, $20