4/8/2008

John Canemaker "The Moon and the Son".
It is animation spliced with real footage and animation. It tells a story of a son discussing his fathers anger. But he does have happy memories. He says how his father helped him make his first movie.
The father was unhappy and miserable with himself. It tells an animated anecdote of a particular night. Arson how his father was arrested They use real newspaper clipping mixed with "crayon" animation. His father goes on trial. He is fond guilty. and sent ot Attica. Guilty of Arson.
The family was shunned from church. The mother got a job at a midnight shift working at a maternity ward. Fathr released after 5 years. An animated jail bird asks his father to explain his life...
The father tells his life story. Born in Pennslyvania family goes back to Italy, calabria. after great earthquake. only 3rd grade education, aided his grandfather, a shepard. his grandfather dies. he grows up in calabria, joins mafia. father went to jail along with his mother. returns to America in 1925, he was 18. he pushed cart for the mob... he moved upstate new york. worked as a bootlegger, got arrested. shoots a man and goes to jail again. goes back to working on rail road, meets and falls in love. he was 34, she was 36.. john born in 1943. father was drafter into the army in WWII. fought in D-Day. gets 2 purple hearts. returns home, wife and 2 kids. works a laborer in elmira new york. buys small hotel... w/ mafia loan. falls into debt, mafia burns down hotel. 5 years in prison, gets out become matience man in hospital.
son discusses the tension, father discusses how he always kept his sons fed, deep italian food. father would insult his son.
like the father, the son goes to manhattan at 18.
father returns to calabria and donates bells to church.
the animation ends like it began.
this animation was my favortie. i loved the real photos mixed with the animation. the animation began with crayon then evolved as the timeline progressed.