Boys and Men
Gabriel Harel, Yul and the Snake, 2015.
Moving far beyond the confines of the manosphere, Boys and Men delves into the shifting and often treacherous terrain of masculinity through a selection of films by award-winning contemporary animators, including James Duesing, Gabriel Harel, Sam Gurry, Nicolas Keppens, Jinkyu Jeon, Elizabeth Hobbs, and others. Featuring an array of techniques—from stop-motion and pixelation to hand-painted and AI-generated imagery—these expressive, incisive, and occasionally darkly funny works explore themes of belonging, desire, power, and grief.
2015–2023, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, USA
Format: Digital
In multiple languages with English subtitles
75 minutes followed by a conversation with participating artists
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.
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. When things go wrong, a mysterious snake appears. 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.
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, an American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Fellowship, an Emmy Award from the National Association of Television Arts and Sciences, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, 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 and the new-media manager for the Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck. His animated films have screened around the world and received numerous awards.
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, Slamdance, Ann Arbor Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and the Ottawa International Animation Festival, amongst others.
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. Her film I’m Ok was nominated for a BAFTA in 2019, and The Debutante was shortlisted for an Academy Award In 2023.
The House of Loss
Jinkyu Jeon, 2022, 10 minutes
A haunting portrayal of the Korean War's legacy, whose traumas 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, where he completed The House of Loss.
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
TICKETS
$13 General public
$8 Students & seniors
$6.50 Film Center members
$5 SAIC staff & faculty & AIC staff
FREE for SAIC students with a valid ID
All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.
RESOURCE GUIDES
Conversations at the Edge’s resource guides contain articles, interviews, and other material related to upcoming artists and events. Available here.