Joy Street

I stared one night at the china cartoon mouse ashtray and I drew courage from its color and childlike purity. I imagined a depressed and isolated woman who might find a way out through the re-discovery of our innate relationship to nature, our primal home.
And so the cartoon mouse takes her on a journey of renewed awareness.

Over 4 years in the making and 24 minutes in length, I painted
the thousands of animation cels in Mexico (in hotel rooms, in the rainforest) and the US. 

My experiences painting in the rainforest of Guatemala and Mexico informed the creation of the animation of the jungle. 

The use of various “styles” and ways of picturing were used to implement the changing atmospheres and locations animated in JOY STREET. The film is entirely painted by hand and shot in 35mm on the Oxberry camera at Harvard University. Using photographs, paint on film, cut-outs and many other animation forms, the film was also a collaboration with other artists (Roy Nathanson and The Jazz Passengers with Debby Harry, Ben Zelkowitz, Laura Kraning, Becky High, sound design by David Slusser (PIXAR studios) and many other animators, painters, and musicians).

“Inventive, astonishing, and visually lush.”
— The New York Times
“Dazzling!”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“Rare, gorgeous emotional power”
— The New York Times
“A superb example of animation’s creative and intellectual potency.”
— Time Out NY

Selected Screenings

NEMN Gold Apple Award
Merit Award, International Wildlife Film Festival, Montana
First Place for Short Film, Naples International Film Festival, Italy
Sundance Film Festival - Park City, Utah
London Film Festival - England
New York Film Festival - NY, NY
Hiroshima International Animation Film Festival - Japan
Cardiff International Festival of Film Animation - England
Oslo International Animation Festival - Norway
Festival due Noveau Cinéma - Montreal
24th Wellington Film Festival - New Zealand
First Prize, Black Maria Film Festival - National U.S. Tour
Portland International Film Festival - Portland, Oregon
Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival - San Francisco
South by Southwest Film Festival - Austin, Texas