2010 Film/Video Recipient

Jim Trainor

Animator

I am beginning to think of myself less strictly as an animator, and more as a movie-maker in general, and as a writer.

Working in 16mm, experimental filmmaker Jim Trainor makes hand-drawn animated films. Often using the cool voice-over narration found in nature documentaries, older ethnographic films, and traditional story-telling, Trainor gravitates toward tales of morality, transgression, angst, and guilt. From serial murder to the mating rituals of bats, using a nervous line, he investigates the mutable and uneasy space between animal behavior and the human world.