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Vintage 16-mm film VHS relic "ANIZEN" animation 1975 by Stephen Bowlsby
About this film
Based on an Alan Watts Zen-Buddhist parable about the creation of the universe and the nature of God -- a platform for surrealist animation and transformation of abstract, non-representational forms. Live-action, rotoscoped, and cutout characters frame the abstract animation of the main body of the film as a story told to a grandson -- a creation story that eventually gets out of control. Ink and paint on cels, drawing on paper, rotoscoping, cameraless, drawing under the camera, and cutout animation. Made while a full-time science student at the University of British Columbia during an elective arts course in animation with Al Sens, 1975. First prize (post-secondary) & "Best of Show" - 7th Annual British Columbia Student Film Festival, 1975 [prior to going to film school]. Given name was Stephen Arthur Bowlsby, legally changed to Stephen Arthur in 1994.
Directors & creators
Stephen Arthur Bowlsby (Stephen X. Arthur)
Subjects
creation story, God, Zen, Buddhism, Alan Watts, outsider art, naïve art, untrained, deteriorated, relic, vintage, ethnographic, artifact, memorial, legacy, hand drawn, cel animation, youth animation, antique, obsolete, independent film, 1970s, abstract animation, experimental film, fine-art animation, transformation, metamorphosis, visual music, 16mm, 16 mm, telecine VHS transfer, image loss, restored, student film, Vancouver, Canada, Stephen Bowlsby, Stephen Arthur; Stephen X. Arthur
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