Written by Tasnia Habib
This year, the second annual Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival will take place online from October 23 through October 30. The Sweaty Eyeballs Animation started in 2012, when founder and creative director Phil Davis was asked to curate a screening of animation for the Creative Alliance, a non profit arts organization in Baltimore. This was originally a one night only screening that was called the “Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Invitational”. After receiving a great response, Davis turned Sweaty Eyeballs into an annual event at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. “Each year of the invitational we would actively seek out more diverse and unique work in the world of short animation with a focus on work that pushed boundaries and had a unique voice,” said Davis.
Phil Davis, Founder and Creative Director of the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival
In 2017, Sweaty Eyeballs partnered with the Maryland Film Festival and hosted a monthly animation series including curated shorts programs, feature film revivals of classic animation, guest curated programs, and live performances to animated features. In 2019, Davis decided to expand Sweaty Eyeballs into a 3-day juried international festival of animation.
Davis realized that Sweaty Eyeballs had the potential to become a film festival because of the community response to the one-day festivals. “From the very first screening of Sweaty Eyeballs I was struck by the enthusiasm and desire to see unique animated short films in the mid-Atlantic region,” said Davis. Although some film festivals include animation as a genre, there are none in the region that focus on animation. “Animation is not a genre, but a medium of cinema all its own, with the ability to tell powerful stories, explore visual techniques both physical and digital, break boundaries and introduce new methods of cinematic experimentation,” explained Davis. Davis wanted to create a space to showcase the range of work from animators around the world.
The name “Sweaty Eyeballs” has many meanings to Davis. It originally referred to the humid Summer weather in Baltimore. “Over the years, though, I’ve started to shift the meaning of the name,” he explained. “I like to think of the programming of the festival hitting on the wide range of human emotions. Therefore, the films we screen could make you cry tears of sadness or make you laugh so hard that you cry.”
In this year’s festival, the opening night animated music program features six new music videos commissioned by Sweaty Eyeballs. The music is created by Baltimore musicians including: Future Islands, Dan Deacon, Wume, Scott Patterson of Afro House, Shodekeh and Alash, and Ami Dang. The animated music videos were created by Baltimore-area independent animators and animation students from Towson University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival cannot have any live events. Instead, Davis invited seven animators from around the world to submit video tours of their home studios and answer questions about their animation practice. After each studio tour, there will be a screening of one short film from each animator.
Photo of Phil Davis.
Davis said that film festivals are a source of showcasing diverse and important voices in art. “I think film festivals are just as vital a part of expanding cultural horizons, revealing stories that might otherwise not be seen, and also allowing for a gathering of enthusiasts for the art form. The switch to virtual has definitely challenged some of the social and networking aspects of film festivals, but the root idea of creating exposure for diverse and important voices in the art form is still strong in an online format,” said Davis.
Davis hopes that the online film festival this year will attract a larger audience than before, due to the amount of people who are still isolated in their homes. “Festivals are a carefully curated celebration of the work of artists and in our current situation celebration is a rare and beautiful thing that we need to hang onto and support,” said Davis.