ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 5.02 - MAY 2000

The Surreal World of Simon Pummell

by Heather Kenyon

A clip from Simon Pummell’s Digital Baby. © Hot Property Films.

While at first sitting one might not "enjoy" watching Simon Pummell’s films, one will find that the films will continue to come back to mind, goading one for a second screening. Moreover, it is a fascination, which grows the more they are watched as we seek meaning to the equally perverse, disturbing, and intellectual material. A Royal College of Art film graduate, Simon Pummell has already created over a dozen short films since the late 1980s, building an impressive award-winning library that has been screened at numerous museums and festivals. Mixing antiques with high technology, and animation with live-action, he creates surreal worlds that represent our deepest desires. Films like Ray Gun Fun, Digital Baby, Butcher’s Hook, Temptation of Sainthood, Stain and The Secret Joy of Falling Angels,tread a tenuous line between experimental non-linear impressions and narrative structure. With hidden effects from London’s The Mill, Simon’s films do not present new technology tricks, but cleverly conceived and executed worlds.

Heather Kenyon: Who are your influences?

Simon Pummell: Influences is always a difficult question. It fluctuates. Some important and consistent influences are:

In The Secret Joy of Falling Angels, one can see the many different styles present in Pummell’s films. © Hot Property Films.

Literature is still a high watermark for the ability to create alternative realities. Especially for me Dickens, James Joyce, Patrick White, Don Delillo, Pynchon, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson. I love encyclopedic writers.

Fine Art. Especially Francis Bacon -- not so much for the images as for the attitude, the single-minded synthesis of diverse material. Also Joseph Beuys, for his shamanistic ambition.

Film. Hitchcock, although I find his films irredeemable and pathological. Modern filmmakers must include David Lynch and Peter Greenaway. Again as much for their scope and their approach to film as synthesized with their writing/drawing as much as for their specific sensibilities. I also love the early work of Nick Roeg and Werner Herzog.

Animation. Starewicz. Svankmajer. Brothers Quay. George Dunning. Disney, especially Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I am fascinated in animation by the combination of grotesque and sentimental strands in the medium.

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