The Grand Bizarre

A tantalizing textile overload, experimental animator Jodie Mack’s feature debut vibrates with color, sound, and place. Shot on 16mm and guided by a playful and pulsating soundtrack, The Grand Bizarre is a visual delight of texture and fabric. While playfully placing objects near and far in the frame and animating them among contrasting landscapes in different parts of the world, Mack examines the global connection between these patterns and the spaces they occupy, making for a kaleidoscopic viewing experience that calls for big-screen appreciation.

“It’s not difficult to imagine how Mack could have constructed a more or less straightforward treatment of her subject matter, guiding us along as these textiles are created then shipped out and sold, connecting them to their points of origin and showing how these various cultures both accord with each other and differ. Instead, Mack creates a radical disjuncture between these objects and their context, shooting them in flat, straight-ahead compositions that privilege pattern over provenance. The proceedings move to a wholly unnatural and at times ingenious rhythm of the filmmaker’s own devising, set to a soundtrack of bespoke pop tracks created by the director herself.”—Daniel Witkin, IndieWire