Nina Paley was not looking for an international controversy. Nevertheless, in April, when the now 40-year-old Jewish cartoonist screened her latest film, “Sita Sings the Blues,” at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, she said that’s precisely what she got.

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BEING BILL PLYMPTON


“It became a morality tale by accident,” Bill Plympton says of his latest animated feature film, Idiots and Angels, which has two more screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 30 and May 3. Regardless of Plympton’s intent, the thematic consequence is right there in the title: Idiots and Angels follows a sadistic gun salesman ignorant to the struggles of those around him—until a pair of angel wings inexplicably grow on his back, and with them comes an emerging sense of responsibility.

Like Plympton’s best works, dialogue is non-existent, replaced by the expressive quirks of his fluid line drawings and abstract comedy. Where quintessential Plympton shorts—such as the Oscar-nominated Guide Dog—express a vivacious, chaotic glee, the new feature contains a relatively contemplative feel.


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CULTURAL SATURATION IN THE NEW WORLD

NEW YORK, New York -- Eight years have passed since Mike Figgis' Timecode first appeared in American theaters, combining soapy drama with Hollywood satire, using the highly ambitious arrangement of four screens to reveal multiple scenes at once -- but, despite claims to the contrary, the British filmmaker doesn't think his romp with mini-DV cams heralded a new age. "The digital revolution has hit, but behind the scenes," the frequently witty and insightful Figgis told the audience at the DGA Theater in midtown Manhattan earlier this week, appearing for the Tribeca Film Festival's "Tribeca Talks" series. "Film is still the best way of making a big movie...but, in the meantime, digital has crept into our lives."

Mike Figgis' 'Timecode' (2000)

Figgis certainly isn't opposed to the technology -- he wrote a great book about it -- nor does the sixty-year-old director display any trepidation towards the internet. Quite the opposite, actually: He helped start the online social networking community Shooting People, which helps connect filmmakers across the globe. Still, Figgis said he has serious reservations about the so-called democratization of filmmaking caused by the popularity of digital aesthetics. "Digital technology has accelerated the problem of cultural saturation," he said, rather bleakly. "You see a steady progression toward the lowbrow."

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