If you’re interested in puppet films you’re going to want to watch the Handmade Puppet Dreams Filmmaking Symposium.
Handmade Puppet Dreams is a touring puppet film series that celebrates the beauty and craft of independent puppet filmmaking. It was conceived by Heather Henson as a platform to elevate and draw attention to short puppetry films, a medium that until recently was very underground and didn’t attract much attention. The series is completely unique; there just isn’t anyone else doing anything like this anywhere else.
Each edition of Handmade Puppet Dreams (there are currently six, plus an additional one for families) is made up of a mix of existing short puppet films submitted by puppeteers and filmmakers and original films commissioned by Ibex Puppetry. While all of the films is the series are interesting, the commissioned shorts are particularly good; each is the product of a different puppetry artist working in their own unique style and several have won multiple awards at international film festivals.
Last month’s Puppets on Film Festival in New York City brought together Heather and some of the “HMPD” filmmakers – Genevieve Anderson (Too Loud A Solitude), Sam K. Hale (Yamasong), Kevin McTurk (The Narrative of Victor Karloch) and Toby Froud (Lessons Learned) – to discuss their work. The entire event is now available to watch for those who couldn’t see it live last month and if you’re seriously interested in puppet filmmaking, you really owe it to yourself to set aside a couple hours to watch this.
And don’t miss the opportunity to catch a Handmade Puppet Dreams screening when it comes to your area. The next stop is in Seattle, Washington where Toby Froud’s Lessons Learned and Handmade Puppet Dreams Volume 2 screens at the Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam this weekend.
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