Far beyond the confines of the manosphere, Boys and Men traverses the shifting and often treacherous terrain of masculinity through a selection of films by award-winning contemporary animators, including Jean-Jean Arnoux, James Duesing, Sam Gurry, Gabriel Harel, Elizabeth Hobbs, Jinkyu Jeon, Nicolas Keppens, Yuta Masuda, and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Featuring an array of techniques—from stop-motion and pixelation to hand-painted and AI-generated imagery—these expressive, incisive, and sometimes darkly funny works explore themes of belonging, power, and desire.
Followed by a conversation with program curators Christopher Sullivan and Oona Taper and artists Duesing, Gurry, Harel, and Hobbs.
2015–2023, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, USA
Format: Digital
In multiple languages with English subtitles
75 minutes followed by discussion
PROGRAM
La Faillite
Jean-Jean Arnoux, 2014, 2 minutes
A man frees himself from his social constraints during a liberating dance.
Jean-Jean Arnoux is a Paris-based illustrator and director of animated short films.
Adulting
James Duesing, 2024, 8 minutes
A fever dream of family, loss, sex, and love. Animator James Duessing derived the film’s first-person narrative, and, using a text-to-image AI, its distinctive visual style, from transcripts of conversations with LGBTQIA+ friends and family about the events that made them feel like adults.
James Duesing’s work has been exhibited and broadcast throughout the world. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Creative Capital Award, and an Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences, among others.
Easter Eggs
Nicolas Keppens, 2020, 14 minutes
A coming-of-age story of two boys and their toxic childhood friendship. Winner of the Jury Prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2021.
Nicolas Keppens is an independent animator whose award-winning films have screened around the world.
jim
Sam Gurry, 2017, 8 minutes
An unexpectedly poignant portrait of “jim,” assembled from the contents of floppy disks containing images and chat room exchanges saved from the 1990s internet.
Sam Gurry is an interdisciplinary filmmaker and curator living in Los Angeles. Their films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, South by Southwest, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival, among others.
DAKOTA (English Version)
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, 2002, 6 minutes
A pioneering work of early internet art, DAKOTA’s text-based Flash animation narrates the story of a hard-drinking man fixated on the trappings of American masculinity.
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, formed in 1999, is a Seoul-based web art group consisting of Young-Hae Chang, a Korean artist and translator with a PhD in aesthetics from the Universite de Paris I, and Marc Voge, a Seoul-based American poet.
Yul and the Snake
Gabriel Harel, 2015, 15 minutes
Inspired by the director’s childhood in the Southern Alps, Yul and the Snake follows a young boy and his older brother on their way to make a deal with the local thug. A film about brotherly loyalty and betrayal. Winner of the Cartoon d’Or in 2016.
Gabriel Harel is a Marseille-based animator known for his award-winning films Yul and the Snake and Night of the Plastic Bags.
I’m Ok
Elizabeth Hobbs, 2018, 6 minutes
A vibrant hand-painted film inspired by the life of Austrian expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka and the wounds he suffered in love and on the battlefield during World War I.
Elizabeth Hobbs is an animator based in London. She makes her films under a rostrum camera using traditional animation techniques, while stretching the material possibilities of the medium.
The House of Loss
Jinkyu Jeon, 2022, 10 minutes
A haunting portrayal of the Korean War’s legacy, the traumas of which replay in the minds of elderly veterans.
Jinkyu Jeon is a Korean-born animator based in Tokyo. He began his career at the Korea National University of Arts of Animation, before working at Studio Shelter, and eventually moving on to a second degree from Tokyo University of Arts of Animation.
Dreaming Away
Yuta Masuda, 2020, 10 minutes
Mixing phantasmagoric imagery with clips of home videos, Yuta Masuda tells the story of climbing Mount Fuji against a backdrop of family dissolution, distance, and longing.
Yuta Masuda is an animator, installation artist, and performer based in Tokyo.
ACCESSIBILITY
Conversations at the Edge events have live captions (CART). The Gene Siskel Film Center is fully ADA accessible and its theaters are equipped with hearing loops. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu.