"A brilliant parody on animation, fast moving ... breaking down the edges and definition of illusion. I loved this film, so funny and shot almost out of the corner of the mind's eye." - Stan Vanderbeek
"A self-referential animation, allowing the viewer to see the animator's hand and coffee cup, as well as pads of animated drawings. Amusing and educational for all ages, combining animation and live action in a manner reminiscent of the early Fleischer 'out of the inkwell' cartoons." - Ron Epple
1973, 16mm, color/so, 3m, $20
"In THE CLUB we voyeuristically observe pompous, privileged penises, ponderously padding about posh private premises; a jocular take-off (pun intended) on male bonding and sexual discrimination." - John Canemaker, Funnyworld
"... a wickedly funny bit of animation ... done in a kind of coloring book style that takes us inside an upper crust men's club, a bastion so male that after a few seconds we realize that everyone inside resembles that most distinctly masculine portion of a man's anatomy." - Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
1975, 16mm, color/so, 4m, $20
"The most elaborate of his 'anti-cartoons,' as he calls them, is HEAD (1975), an ingenious, witty essay on making filmed, photographed, drawn, painted, and Xeroxed images move. Reverberating between multi-media versions of the same events, playing with disjunctions between figure and ground, HEAD is a 'trickfilm' meditation on portraiture; the animator, as actor, lives through his drawings, which in turn become actors who influence his own self-image. An insider's diary on the process of creation, HEAD is a brilliant encyclopedic exploration of the circular relationship between the animator and his creation, of the nature of animated illusion itself." - Thelma Schenkel, Millimeter
1975, 16mm, color/so, 10m, $30
Music: Harold Anderson
VIEWMASTER is Griffin's homage to Eadweard Muybridge's pre-cinema studies of humans and animals in motion. A cycle of eight drawings, rendered in a variety of styles and media from watercolors to soft pencil to hard line, pan a line-up of animated runners past the camera - happy ink blobs, nude cartoon couples, an army of stick-figure waiters, a Fleischer-esque fatty chased by spear carriers, disembodied legs, etc." - John Carpenter, Funnyworld
1976, 16mm, color/so, 3m, $20
Like many of my films, THUMBNAIL SKETCHES began as a flipbook. However, this particular book didn't really flip. Each page, instead of being just one page in a series (like a frame of film), contained a complete cycle of eight drawings arranged in a rectangular ring. The reader had to construct the information conceptually, not just optically, as if it were a mosaic of abstract comic strip panels.
The film begins with a "live" prologue documenting the book's original form; then follows its destruction by scissors, a brief autopsy illustrating the mechanics of movement, and its eventual animated rebirth. The animation is accomplished by displacing the panels in virtual space so that all eight phases are visible simultaneously. ... This scheme suggests that each unit of time construction need not be subordinate to the total hypnotic river of illusion, that in fact a "moving" line is not as simple as it may seem.
1977, 16mm, color/so, 7m, $20
"This seminal work brilliantly proves that animation - far from being cinema's stepchild as some would have it - is actually one of its glories. Griffin offers the most explicit philosophical confrontation on film - though dressed in ambiguity and irony - of basic issues of contemporary art: illusionism, formalism, reflexivity, the narrative, the time-space continuum, causality, contradiction. This heavy agenda, however, is triumphantly overcome by playfulness; anti-didactic at its core, delicately balancing reason and emotion, the work exudes anti-authoritarianism by its very refusal to provide neat solutions, dazzling us instead with delicious, infinite contradictions involving voice and image, self and other, drawing and photography, reality and illusion, past and present, space and time. To top it all, while purporting to 'reveal' the processes and secrets of animation, its nature and aesthetics, this jesting philosopher/magician actually entangles us more firmly into the web of its mysterious powers. 'I trace my line to find out who I am.' It's good to be along on the journey." - Amos Vogel
1979, 16mm, color/so, 29m, $90
FLYING FUR is a cartoon in search of itself: silly animals are on strike, a square man is doing a jazz dance, an angry house is chasing a wolf who turns into a carrot. These and other micro-episodes are woven together in synchronization with a "Tom and Jerry" soundtrack (itself a frenzied pastiche of Basie and Bartok). While taking a firm position on violence, racism and excessive coffee-drinking, FLYING FUR is essentially a love song to animation.
"The real tour-de-force ... is George Griffin's FLYING FUR. Using a pastiche of '40s cartoon music - complete with noises that connote falling, danger, chases, etc. - Griffin constructs his own manic, free-associative scenario, enacted by a cast including clones of Mickey Mouse and Wiley E. Coyote. Griffin is an experienced animator who has worked in many styles, but this is the film which best integrates his graphic and conceptual interests; not excluding Breer (the one indisputably great animator at work today), FLYING FUR is the wittiest, most kinetic, most purely enjoyable film on the bill." - J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
1981, 16mm, color/so, 7m, $20
A selection of 12 nice animated films, ranging from 10 seconds to 30 minutes in length, including TRIKFILM 3 (1973, "Shot almost out of the corner of the mind's eye." - Stan Vanderbeek), HEAD (1975, a meditation on the process of animation), LINEAGE (1979, "... delciately balancing reason and emotion, the work exudes anti-authoritarianism by its refusal to provide neat solutions, dazzling us instead with delicious contradictions ...." - Amos Vogel), FLYING FUR (1981, A cartoon in search of itself: silly animals are on strike, a square man is doing a jazz dance, an angry house is chasing a wolf, who turns into a carrot. "A real tour-de-force." - J. Hoberman), KO-KO (1988, Charlie Parker's Bop anthem), and A LITTLE ROUTINE (1994). Attractive vinyl album contains color pictures and liner notes.
1973-1994, VHS, color/so, 90m, $40 Home; $200 Other
In addition to the selection released on VHS in 1996 this DVD contains rarely seen experimental work from the 1970s and a slideshow of storyboards and commentary on A LITTLE ROUTINE. Holding more than 2 hours of indexed material GRIFFITI ARCHIVE is an ideal tool for analyzing and appreciating a body of short films, from the first experiments in technique, to the reflexive "anti-cartoons" and gallery installations, to the later work based on music and narrative. It also includes a sample of commissioned work.
EARLY WORK
Rapid Transit, 1969, 2:30. Sillhouetted bean mandalas hopping
to a bongo beat.
Displacement, 1969, 2:30. Abstract exercise in pattern
recognition.
Candy Machine, 1972, 4:00. A “little man” cartoon set against
a xeroxed subway.
Trikfilm 1, 1972, 1:00. Optically-printed nude dance; line
drawn to Bach prelude.
Trikfilm 3, 1973, 3:30. A hand draws a flipbook of liquid
architecture.
L’Age Door, 1975, 1:00. Animated flipbook of endlessly
evolving entrancement.
The Club, 1975, 4:00. A tour of an exclusive men’s club and
its complacent members.
It’s an OK Life, 1980, 4:00. Cartoon glimpse into a future
which now seems all too familiar.
ANTI-CARTOONS
Hand Collation, 1978/2004, 5:00. Hand-held documentary of
time-stitching. Silent.
Academy Leader Variation, 1984, :10. Cut-out photo countdown
with body parts.
Head, 1975, 10:30. A self-portrait of the animator undone by
his cartoon surrogate.
Thumbnail Sketches, 1976, 7:00. Elemental mini-icons perform
acrobatic feats,
Lineage, 1979, 29:00. Essay on animation’s contradictory
legacy: comedy and formalism.
Step Print, 1976, 7:00. Abstract color cycles for gallery
installation. Silent.
Block Print, 1978, 17:00. A duplicated documentary of a NYC
sidewalk. Silent.
Viewmaster, 1976, 3:00. Cartoons running circles in the face
of Muybridge.
LATER WORK
Thicket, 1985, 10:30. A dream visit with death and memory,
accompanied by Schönberg.
Ko-Ko, 1988, 3:00. Charlie Parker’s bebop anthem propels a
storm of cultural shards.
Flying Fur, 1981, 7:00. A minstrel show of cartoon self-doubt.
Music by Scott Bradley.
New Fangled, 1992, 2:00. Advertising jargon taken at face
value.
A Little Routine, 1994, 7:00. Bedtime for Nora: parent/child
conflict resolution.
Routine Stuff, 2004, 4:00. Slideshow of LR storyboards,
artwork, and commentary.
COMMISSIONED WORK
Amnesty International/Universal Bill of Rights, 1980, :30.
Freedom of Speech. Fair Trial.
Comedy Channel IDs, 1982, :10.
Aquaducks for Nora, 1988, 4:00. 2 screen installation. Music
by Joel Forrester.
Sunday Afternoon with Vice President Quayle, 1988, 3:00.
Spy-TV satire.
Film Forum, 1974, 1990, 2002. Evolution of a NYC institution.
DVD $40 Individuals; $100 Institutions