Eric Kurland
"The American Infant"
'The American Infant' is a short political satire constructed entirely from public domain stock footage. Created in the model of a 1950's educational film, it tells the story of one priveleged man's life from infancy to adulthood. This short was originally created for the StockStock film competition, in which the filmmaker is provided with 35 minutes of public domain stock footage from many different sources, and must cut a three-minute short from that footage. While the original footage ranged from a vintage driver's ed. film, to a 1950's Alka-Seltzer commercial, the edited down sum of it's parts is a subtle, yet timely political satire about a boy named George.

BIO:

I have been an active filmmaker since childhood, shooting my first narrative film at the age of eight. I spent my high school years learning all forms of media production at Cinekyd Enterprises, a specialized youth organization based in the Philadelphia area. In fact, I was editing professional videos by the age of thirteen, and produced and directed a weekly local television show at seventeen. At Cinekyd, I was involved in the production of several award winning student films, radio and TV programs. After graduating from the Cinekyd program in 1985, I was asked to join the teaching staff there, specializing in instructing high school students in editing and special effects.

In 1989, I enrolled in the Cinema and Photography program at Ithaca College in New York. I focused my studies on film production, electronic music and digital audio and computer graphics. My student films garnered several accolades, including the 1990 "Doorknob Award," and I hold the distinction of producing the first film at IC with a completely digitally recorded and mixed soundtrack. I received my bachelors degree in Film Production in 1992.

After college, I moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where I worked in commercial production for two years. During this peiod, the Cummer Museum of Art asked me to instruct computer graphics classes for both children and adults. These classes proved to be very successful, culminating in a student art exhibition at the museum.

In 1994, I relocated to Los Angeles at the urging of a number of my former IC classmates. In Los Angeles, I found work in the animation industry with the software company Cambridge Animation Systems. CAS supplied animation software to Warner Bros.' and Dreamworks' animation studios, and it was my responsibilty to train the many departments in the use of the programs. I also provided technical support to the studios during production. Eventually, I moved into production jobs myself, specializing in digital color, compositing and effects. My feature credits include Warner Bros.' "Quest for Camelot" and "Osmosis Jones," and Dreamworks' "Prince of Egypt."