Jingle Tree

US Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem “The Dead” with animation by Juan Delcan of Spontaneous. This animated video poetry is copyright JWTwo Entertainment.

Goethe's poem of gothic horror has haunted me most of my life. As a child I found the poem in a collection of books at an estate auction. I read it over and over, fascinated by this idea of the fairy realm as dark and ugly, something sinister that we should fear - not the glamour and sparkle of modern fairy tales. A warning about things that haunt old woods and black forests.

The bits and pieces, techniques and layers used to create this film are many. Dozens of forms of manipulation have been brought together, from animation to live action, from drawings to rotoscoping. This is my homage to Starewicz, Svankmajer, and the Quays - their dark dreams have inspired my nightmares, have given birth to a generation who see the eyes in the forrest and know that all that is fairy is not light.






[the score is the Schubert composition without vocals manipulated and remixed]

This is me singing a poem full of drawings.
peteromalley.net

Sammy lays some heavy questions on the Jingle tree..

Sammy finds a thinker......