Painstakingly created over the course of the last fifteen years, Chris Sullivan’s 
debut animated feature is an absolute marvel to behold. Employing multi-plane cut-outs, drawings on paper and stop motion, shot on 16mm, Sullivan weaves a psychologically dense chronicle of a crumbling Rust Belt town, and the intermingled lives of three lonely souls who work at its local newspaper. The story chronicles the lives of three characters who live in a rust belt town called Magguson, and work at its local newspaper The Daily Suggester. They are: Gentian Violet 42, Victor Blue 38, and Earl gray 64. At first, they appear to be acquaintances, but as the film unfolds, we find they have a long diabolical history revolving around social service intervention, foster care, romance, and hatred. Each character has family secrets to hide and family secrets to discover. An auto accident one dark and inebriated night causes a crack in the memory vault of these intimate strangers. By films end all parties walk from the woods, both healed and wounded. it tenderly navigates its ugly characters down twisted paths upon which their pasts, fears, and longings converge. This is a totally singular and eerie landscape, dotted with ghost-ridden farmhouses, midnight car accidents, late night radio broadcasts and the world’s oldest cat. Painted with frequent strokes of unexpected humor and rendered with a beautifully rough hewn craft emphasizing its characters’ fragility, it emerges as a quiet feature-length epic unlike anything you’ve ever seen: adult, complex and brimming with the irrepressible spirit of American independent filmmaking.. Director/ Writer/ Producer Chris Sullivan joins us for an extended conversation on this stunningly original animated film.
Available through Vimeo On-Demand
About the filmmaker – Professor, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (1989). BFA, 1983, Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Director, Write, Producer, Editor, Cinematographer Consuming Spirits (2012) Screenings: Film Forum, NY; Cinefamily, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, NY; Whitney Biennial, NY; Boston Art Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Houston Fine Arts Museum; Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago. Film Festivals: Tribeca, NY; Annecy International Animated Film Festival, France; Zagreb Film Festival, Croatia; Festiwal Animator, Puznam Poland (1st Prize); Cork Film Festival, Ireland; Istanbul, Luxembourg City Film Festival; Fantoche International Animation Film Festival, Switzerland; Animatou, Geneva; Holland Animation Film Festival, Utrecht; Melbourne International Animation Festival, Australia. Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship; Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship; Bush Foundation Fellowship; Illinois Arts Council; NEA Regional fellowships; Creative Capital Film Grant. The Orbit of Minor Satellites.
“CRITICS’ PICK! A dark and painful fantasy for grown-ups… A work of obsessive artisanal discipline and unfettered artistic vision. You have never seen anything like it. This remarkable film…conducts its inquiry into the darkest zones of the human heart in a spirit at once anguished and playful…A wonder.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“Emotionally raw, thoroughly original…The entire world he’s built is constructed of ugliness shot through with moments of unexpected beauty. His narrative is the same… small moments of beauty and redemption sneak through.” – Ian Buckwalter, NPR online
“A sprawling, slithering, stream-of-consciousness tale… a moribund, rust-belt dreamland. This is the rare animated feature whose subtext is as rich as its sensuality… CONSUMING SPIRITS (is) not only a monstrous visual achievement, but one of the most uniquely humanistic animated features of all time.” – Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant
“Every frame in Chris Sullivan’s American Gothic saga aches and echoes from a place of unique artistry, meticulous craftsmanship and great imagination. It is the little touches, the small world-building and grounding details that make CONSUMING SPIRITS feel so rich and so worthwhile. It is adult animation at its best and most unique, and a film which exudes the true spirit of American independent filmmaking.” – Ben Umstead, TwitchFilm.com
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