Pat O'Neill has been making humorous, complex, optically printed films for over thirty years. Trouble in the Image combines animation and live action, found and created images and sounds, in an exploration of "trouble in the image." Trouble could be a disturbing moment in a narrative, how-to instructions for creating an image, or images that break apart and lose their denotative quality. Delightful animations, multiple images, and drawings on top of film footage are just some of the intricate elements that interact in this beautiful, tightly edited film. According to O'Neill, "It might be said to be about discourse caught in the act of disintegration....The film (is) made up of dozens of performances dislodged from other contexts. These are often relocated into contemporary industrial landscapes, or interrupted by the chopping, shredding, or flattening of special-effects technology turned against itself....The reward is to be found in immersion within a space of complex and intricate formal relationships." (38 mins, Color/B&W, 35mm) Preceded by Richard Reeves's delightful scratch animation Linear Dreams (1997, 7 mins, Color, 35mm), Stacey Steers's intricate homage to the animal world, Totem (1999, 11 mins, Color, 35mm), and Stephanie Barber's tender shipfilm (1998, 4 mins, Silent, Color) and These Horizon (1997, 12 mins, Color).-Kathy Geritz