My short puppet film, Jackson’s Private Zoo screened on May 1st & 2nd, 2009 at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, TX. Jackson’s Private Zoo took the form of a music video that celebrated the relationship between a reclusive pop star and a very special monkey. The screening was part of the Not Humanly Possible program curated by Jean Marie Keevins at the Fusebox Festival.
In Jackson’s Private Zoo, I cut out and animated drawings sourced from the National Enquirer. The video’s soundtrack was an a cappella version of Beat It sung with Liz Hara (responsible for the foley of Van Halen’s guitar solo).
I filmed Jackson’s Private Zoo at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT with Tim Lagasse, Mark Gale, Liz Hara, and the Video Anarchy strand of the 2005 National Puppetry Conference. At the time, Jackson had been embroiled in his second protracted child abuse trial as a result of Martin Bashir’s controversial documentary, Living with Michael Jackson.
Not Humanly Possible featured a live performance of The Adventures of Liverwurst Girl by Jean Marie Keevins. The program also included puppet films by myself, Martin P. Robinson (NYC), Jason Von Hines Meyer (Atlanta), Puppet Heap (Hoboken, NJ), and Janika Rapera (Minneapolis).
Not Humanly Possible was made possible in part through the sponsorship of The Field, Trouble Puppet Theater, The Jim Henson Foundation, and the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
The Fusebox Festival presented contemporary art and performance that spanned form and geography. The festival acted as a catalyst for new ideas, new artistic models, new languages and approaches to fully engage with the issues and questions that define and inspire us as artists and audiences.