A Fluid Empathy: FEED Screens Two Locally Animated Shorts

Contributed

Catch a screening of two locally made animated films this month at FEED Media Art Center: one by the Erie Reader's own Brad Pattullo (pictured) and one by recent PennWest Edinboro graduate Andrea Russo.

SUNDAY, JUL. 20

Animation is such a beautiful medium. It can create whole new solar systems filled with a faintly familiar weirdness, or thoughtfully illustrate the mental struggles surrounding everyday tasks. Two of these wildly imaginative and gorgeously constructed examples will be screened and presented by their filmmakers at FEED Media Art Center.

Audiences will get a chance to see two animated shorts – Viscous by Brad Pattullo and AMYGDALA by Andrea Russo – and hear comments from the artists themselves.

Each film will be screened, then the filmmaker will present a short slideshow presentation, followed by a Q&A session.

Viscous is an aptly-titled story told in stop-motion, with its characters fluidly sculpted in clay. According to Pattullo, the characters are a "sort of slug-like species of semi-liquid alien goo." He described that "you see the entire life cycle of this alien species on a small planet." The blue and red creatures interact, giving viewers a look into their rituals, including death, love, and ultimately, birth.

Pattullo is a longstanding professor with PennWest Edinboro's Animation Department. In addition to many of his own films (and his cartoon series with this publication), he has worked on Celebrity Deathmatch, Gary & Mike, provided music videos for They Might Be Giants, and been twice commissioned by Sesame Street.

Pattullo's creation began with original storyboards in 2021, with the primary footage shot in 2024. The director was aided in the art, animation, and photography by Taney Basinger, Cameron Howe, Lina Westlund, and Natasha Kravchenko, with sound and score by Adam Lukas.

AMYGDALA is an evocative and affecting expression of how we perceive anxiety and fear. Named for the part of the brain that processes emotions, the film is subtitled "Fear, and everything that comes with it." Russo – who can elsewhere be found as L0calrat – is a recent PennWest Edinboro graduate. Their thesis film recently premiered at the Dave Weinkauf Film Festival, earning them the George H. Nicholas Memorial Scholarship.

With versatile character design and a warm graphite-like rendering, any look at its comments will show how deeply it resonates with its audiences. In it, we follow our main character as they go about daily life, their stress and worries made manifest while getting dressed, commuting, and interacting with other anthropomorphized peers. The film shows how overstimulation and medication can affect neurodivergence and how important a feeling of peace can be. 

2 p.m. // FEED Media Art Center, 1307 State St. // $10, $5 Early Bird, Free for Students // Mature Themes and Content // For tickets and more information, go to tickets.eriereader.com