Through an escalating series of torture, a possessed sock puppet takes embodiment of fear, chaos, and willful self-destruction.
"Puppet" illustrates the masochistic tendencies of the creative person, metaphorically telling a story of an artists work taking over, and ultimately destroying their life.
Directors Notes:
I originally created this short animation to illustrate obsession with work, but it quickly turned into an exercise in visualizing abuse, particular the kind that is self inflicted. This film was drawn with pencil on paper, the thousands of drawings were scanned, and then colored in Adobe Photoshop, and composited in Adobe After Effects (as all my films are). "Puppet" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and went on to screen in over a hundred film festivals and events world-wide. It was included in a special screening of the best of "Spike and Mike" in Annecy.
#patricksmith #animation
Awards:
Best Animation, Northampton Independent Film Festival.
Best Animation, Action on Film Festival, Los Angeles.
Best Animation, Griffin International Film Festival.
Best Animation, Grand Festival Award, Berkeley Film Festival,.
Best Animation, Phoenix Film Festival.
Best Animation, Backseat Film Festival.
Honorable Mention, Signals International Film Festival, UK.
Honorable Mention, Smogdance Film Festival.
Third Place, First Glance Film Festival, Los Angeles.
Runner Up, Asheville Film Festival.
Third Place, Lake Havasu Film Festival, AZ.
Second Place, ASIFA-East (Association Internationale du Film d'Animation)
Best Animation, Naperville Independent Film Festival.
Best Animation, Arizona Underground Film Festival.
Screenings USA
Tribeca Film Festival, USA. (Premiere)
Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, USA.
Savannah Film Festival, USA.
Action on Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
San Francisco Short Film Festival, USA.
Berkeley Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
Griffin International Film Festival, USA. (Winner!}
Woodstock Film Festival, USA.
Northampton Independent Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
First Glance Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
Asheville Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
Florida Film Festival, USA.
Smogdance Film Festival, USA. (Winner!)
Durango Film Festival, USA
Oxford Film Festival, USA
Cleveland Film Festival, USA
Atlanta Film Festival, USA
Philadelphia Film Festival, USA
San Fernando Film Festival, USA
Lake Havasu Film Festival, USA (Winner!)
Phoenix Film Festival, USA (Winner!)
ASIFA-East Association Internationale du Film d'Animation. (Winner!)
Screenings World-wide
Annecy International Animation Festival
Calgary Film Festival, Canada.
Estenest Film Festival, Romania.
Wiesbaden International Animation Festival, Germany.
Exground Film Festival, Germany.
Dakino International Film Festival, Romania.
Rio de Janeiro Film Festival, Brazil.
Signals International Film Festival, UK. (Winner!)
Tirana International Film Festival, Albania.
Animateka, Slovenia. (Retrospective)
Anima Basauri, Spain.
Cartoons on the Bay, Italy.
