Animators and Death

When one thinks of animators and death one of the first things to come up would probably be Len Lye's "Free Radicals", which he was finishing as he was on his death bed.

Stan Brakhage would hopefully be up there since the reason why he died was from bladder cancer, which he contracted from painting on film in an poorly ventilated room.

However, I believe Derek Jarman should be added to this list. His last film Blue was all about Death and the AIDS virus. Now, you might not think of it as animation exactly, because the entire film is an hour long soundtrack with just a blue screen. Now you might ask: "How is that animation?" I know it's not exactly what we would traditionally call "animation", but the film was made while Jarman was dieing of a disease he contracted because of the AIDS virus. That disease left him basically blind for the last few years of his life. He picked blue because it is the color of the AIDS virus magnified - so who is to say that this is not a blind film - a blind animated film. I do.

The film is an amazing mix of poetic monologue and music that confronts the endless tragedies that the queer community was forced to confront in England (and the world) during the late 80's and early 90's. The film is literally about Derek Jarman's own inevitable death that he was awaiting, but it was really about a generation of a queer community that was basically left to die. It's a film trying to make sense of the nonsense that occurred during that time. "The earth is dieing...and we do not notice it."

And even though it is a film I have a copy of the entire soundtrack (cause the picture is out of print) and it you would like a copy please ask. And when you watch it; please watch it first to a blue screen - the film seems a lot more potent that way.