The Public Slaw

The Public Slaw by Winston Hacking & Andrew Zukerman begins by reclaiming a trailer of DreamWorks 2008 computer-animated action/comedy/martial arts flick Kung Fu Panda. Through emulsion lifting and other forms of emulsion manipulation, the appropriated trailer seems to both denounce DreamWorks’ slick computer animation and to explore the materiality of a medium that is being displaced by new modes of digital production. 

The film itself is a handcrafted, psychedelic journey into a realm that blends the vernacular of found footage experimental cinema, internet culture and public access television; not coincidentally all forms of democratized media. The film is “hosted” by a confused public access Dracula (played by Kevin Leggatt) who introduces the viewers to an onslaught of images including pugs, no budget horror films, collaged images, a news bulletin consisting of a falling cat landing on its feet, among other things, all surrounded by a visual commentary in the form of direct animation. 

The final section of the film is a dance performance (by Minae Omi) that is reminiscent of 60's freak-out films. The hi-con black and white images, together with the intensity of the animation, editing and camerawork, create a chaotic, visceral experience that is bound to appeal to the audience’s innermost nihilistic impulses.

- Clint Enns

Directors Andrew Zukerman and Winston Hacking
Dancer Minae Omi
Camera Brett Long
Host Kevin Leggat
Film Processing Niagara Custom Lab
Film Transfer Bit Works Inc.

FESTIVALS
2015 Toronto Animated Image Society Showcase, Toronto
2015 Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Winnipeg, Manitoba
2015 Fabulous Festival of Fringe, Durham, Ontario
2015 “Stereo Scopophilia”, Other Cinema, San Francisco, California
2014 Electric Eclectics, Meaford, Ontario