“Eccentric Films” celebrates Nancy Andrews’ imaginative, unconventional legacy
An extraordinary, four-night film series showcases the unique artistic vision and experimental storytelling techniques of retiring College of the Atlantic T.A. Cox Chair in Studio Arts Nancy Andrews.
Eccentric films of Nancy Andrews spans a diverse selection of works dating from 1995-2025, including early works and genre-defying films that have earned Andrews recognition at film festivals and film series worldwide. The films screen at Reel Pizza Cinerama May 11-14, followed by a live Q&A session with Andrews each night where she will discuss her creative process and the themes explored in her films.
The screenings are a celebration of Andrews’ retirement from COA. This is the first time a number of these films that originated on 16mm will be shown in new digital 4k transfers.
Andrews is a visionary filmmaker whose works have garnered critical acclaim for their experimental narratives, imaginative visual storytelling, and fearless exploration of unconventional themes. Andrews’ work explores the boundaries between reality and imagination, the personal and the universal, and the inner
psychological landscapes and external forces that shape human experience. Through her unique blend of film, animation, puppetry, music, and visual art, she crafts hybrid worlds that are both whimsical and profound.
Andrews’ films have been featured at prestigious festivals around the world and have won numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, Gotham Award, and Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts. The Museum of Modern Art has collected six of her experimental films and her work is in the collections of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Schedule
Sunday May 11
I Like Tomorrow (2021, 11 min.)
Written, directed and produced by Nancy Andrews and Jennifer Reeder
Captain Regina Lamb (Michole Briana White) confronts an awkward love triangle between her past, present, and future selves in an isolated space station where she might be orbiting for years.
The Strange Eyes of Dr. Myes (2015, 76 min.)
Directed by Nancy Andrews, written by Nancy Andrews and Jennifer Reeder
After a near-death experience, Dr. Myes (Michole Briana White), researcher in the science of perception, attempts to graft animal senses to the brain to revolutionize human consciousness. She must face the consequences when she uses her own body and mind as a research tool and transforms herself into a creature with super senses.
Monday, May 12
Woods Marm (1996, 30 min.)
The Woods Marm is Hermione Pine, a hobby entomologist and botanist, “It would take a lively grasshopper to escape Miss Pine.” The story unfolds in the Great Northern Forest under giant pines as the diminutive Woods Marm leaves the city, makes her home in the trunk of a tree, and discovers some things about life.
Hedwig Page, Seaside Librarian (1998, 35 min.)
Hedwig Page was born with an uncanny knowledge of cataloguing. She could recite Dewey Decimal categories before she could read and she could read before all else. She obviously pities, but does not excuse, your ignorance of the holdings of the library. Hedwig is the personification of applied skill, a Delphi of learning. And, Hedwig Page has some problems. This is the story of renowned librarian, collector and inventor, Hedwig Page. The piece chronicles the life of a retired librarian, past and present.
Tuesday May 13:
The Ima Plume Trilogy (98 minutes total), including Monkeys and Lumps,The Dreamless Sleep, and The Haunted Camera
Monkeys and Lumps (2003, 38 min.)
This film is a hybrid of drawn animation, live action, and puppetry. The central theme is the unknown, or “other,” and our efforts as individual humans to understand our place and relationship with the unknowable. There are several subjects woven into the film. These are: facial expressions of human and non-human primates; space training and missions of chimpanzees; human study of monkeys (symbolized by the image of Jane Goodall); interactions between humans and animals (taken from news reports); lumps—organisms that wash up on beaches that fit no known life forms (also called globsters)—and extraterrestrials.
The Dreamless Sleep (2004, 30 min.)
A hybrid of drawn animation, live-action, and puppetry, The Dreamless Sleep includes brief biographies of historical figures like Else Bosselman, who drew underwater creatures as described by William Beebe from the windows of the bathysphere, and Christine the Astonishing, a medieval woman mystic. The film is based on a series of interviews with Ima Plume.
The Haunted Camera (2006, 30 min.)
Ima Plume is a chalk-talk specialist or public illustrator who draws before small audiences. Her chalk talks are represented in the hand-drawn animation segments. An homage to film noir, it explores Ima Plume’s investigation of her own death. Ima, public illustrator, grapples with trying to express things that might not be seen or drawn, including spirits, electronic voice phenomena, and studies of animal locomotion. The film combines chalk and drawn animation, puppetry, and live action. It is both fiction and documentary. Inspiration for the content and style is taken from pioneers of film, vaudeville, photography, and spiritualism.
Wednesday, May 14:
Live sound night. Aaron Jonah Lewis ’05, COA music professor Jonathan Henderson, Danielle Byrd ’05, and Nancy Andrews perform live music and sound effects for the following films:
Flower (2025, 4 min.)
Accompaniment with four radios
She Had Some Work Done (2025, 3 min.)
Accompaniment with drums, electric guitar, and electric bass
An Epic Falling Between the Cracks (1996, 20 min.)
Black and white puppet animation with electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard, and sound effects. An Epic Falling Between the Cracks presents the voyages of Frances Coco and her dog sidekick, Lemuel, as related by a documentary filmmaker through film, animation, monologue, and song. Frances, an 18-inch puppet, leaves the comfort of her shoe box bed and sets off on a series of adventures, including to remote locations in outer space and underwater. It’s a space age, existential, Nanook of the North.
The Reach of An Arm (2000, 30 min.)
Music, song, and sound effects featuring virtuoso banjo and fiddle player Aaron Jonah Lewis ’05. Peculiarity and Frank Goodin (portrayed by puppets) seek their fortune during the westward movement of the 1800s. Peculiarity has seen the promise of a better life: “The trouble with you, Frank, is that you shot half your brain off. This is your chance to get rich.” So they set out in their homemade wagon.