Short of the Week

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Experimental Dominic Bisignano

From Burger it Came

Bisignanoanimation uses a multitude of techniques to illustrate a humorous narrative account of one boy's fear of AIDS circa 80's America.—A Sundance 10/10 film: now online

Play
Experimental Dominic Bisignano

From Burger it Came

Bisignanoanimation uses a multitude of techniques to illustrate a humorous narrative account of one boy's fear of AIDS circa 80's America.—A Sundance 10/10 film: now online

From Burger it Came

Directed By Dominic Bisignano
Made In USA

Dominic Bisignano made his movie about a young boy contracting the AIDS virus whilst at CalArts, er making the movie, not contracting AIDS! The six minute movie is an amalgam of different styles of animation narrated by the boy himself and his mom in what Dominic describes as a “round the camp-fire” style; though I’d add the word “confessional”.

She’s naturally enough concerned for her son in all respects, even including the possibility of his eloping with the Moonies. Moms worry themselves with things like that. Or flying saucers. She (and he) put down his problems to transferring from Catholic School to Public School. Traumas like that have a debilitating effect on one’s adolescence. Back to the disease. How exactly he acquired AIDS is not exactly clear, though it appears to be largely the responsibility of a contaminated hamburger consumed in the classroom. Hamburgers are the root of all evil and guilt for a good Catholic boy in a non-Catholic school.

Some homespun advice from Mom and semi-professional advice later leads to further neurotic behavior: a period where they abstain from the cup at communion and instructions to her boy to stay clear of sharp toys. All goes well until he has cereal at his friend Ryan’s house. Ryan loses his trousers and throws a puppet at the boy’s face. It’s AIDS time again, and this time almost too much for mom and son to bear.

Made with Mirage, now TVPaint, the hilarious mix of styles—real images of hamburgers, paired with black and white movies contrasting with gaudy coloured animation conspire to share one modern nuclear family’s guilt. You’ll love it. Suburban angst.

A Sundance 10/10 film