Professor James Duesing‘s animation “Tender Bodies” is included in the program “HEAVENLY BODIES” curated by Edwin Rostron on November 26 as part of the London International Animation Festival at the Close-Up Film Centre.
This program focuses on a rich seam of experimental and independent animation exploring the possibilities of the cartoon body, often in wild and subversive ways. We find ostensibly cute and colorful characters afflicted with all the unpredictable physicality of our own human bodies. Animators working in this territory often use it as a route to deal with secrets, embarrassments or trauma, employing the liberating potential of animation to celebratory effect. Duesing’s film is a sinister yet humorous animation about events witnessed by a genetically altered unicorn.