PLASTIC PAPER: WINNIPEG’S FESTIVAL OF ANIMATED, ILLUSTRATED + PUPPET FILM presents:
AMERICAN POP
Ralph Bakshi | USA 1981 | 96min. Friday May 6th, 2011 – 7:00pm at the Park Theatre – 698 Osborne Winnipeg, Canada

Co-presented with Red River College

Tickets $10 advance / $12 Door

Tickets purchased online will not be mailed to you. Bring your receipt to the box office and you will be checked off the will-call list. 

COMP TICKETS WILL BE LIMITED FOR THIS SHOW. THE FIRST 50 COMP TICKETS WILL BE ALLOWED IN UPON ARRIVAL, WITH PAID TICKET HOLDERS GIVEN PREFERENCE. ANY REMAINING COMP TICKETS WILL BE LET IN AS SPACE ALLOWS.

Plastic Paper is extremely proud to present Ralph Bakshi in person to present his masterwork, American Pop – the story of four generations of a Russian-Jewish family of musicians that parallels the history of American popular music in the 20th century. The film uses an early example of rotoscoping as well as a variety of other mixed media including water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. The voicework in this film is incredible, especially Ron Thompson as Tony and Marya “Mews” Small as his Joplin-esque muse Frankie; it’s rare to have so much nuance and genuine emotion come through animated film. Also featured in bit parts are the voices of Vincent Schiavelli as the theatre owner, Richard Moll as a beatnik poet and Fear guitarist Philo Cramer as himself.

GUEST BIO: RALPH BAKSHI

Active for over half a century, Ralph Bakshi is a self-taught artist who was initially inspired by The Ashcan School, and later by the Abstract Expressionists. New York City provided the physical and cultural environment that nurtured Bakshi’s imagination and that of his contemporaries; Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Chiam Soutine were his strongest influences. Bakshi made his name and living via animated films – the Spider Man television series, Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, Heavy Traffic, Lord of the Rings and Wizards among them – but after the release of American Pop in 1981 he became sedulously dedicated to his passionate dream of pursuing a career as a fine artist. While gaining renown for creating and directing cutting-edge and fiercely creative films that delivered a profound social impact, Bakshi developed a work ethic that has served him well in his private studio.

About the author:

Kier-La Janisse

Kier-La Janisse is a film writer, publisher, producer, acquisitions executive for Severin Films and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She is the author of Cockfight: A Fable of Failure (2024), House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (2012/2022) and A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007) and has been an editor on numerous books including Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (2021) and Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (2015). She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021), and produced the acclaimed blu-ray box sets All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror (2021) and The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle (2023).