User:Elizabeth.forsyth/Michael Langan

Michael Langan (born Providence, RI 1984) is a filmmaker who works primarily in the animation technique of pixilation. He grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, where he began his artistic career as a professional stage actor, and is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design.

Langan's first short student film, Snail, premiered at Ann Arbor Film Festival in March 2007 and went on to screen at a number of film festivals. His thesis film, Doxology, has received widespread acclaim, garnering fourteen awards at over eighty film festivals worldwide.

Notable awards include a Student Academy Award nomination, Most Promising Filmmaker at Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Best Experimental Short at Slamdance Film Festival.

Langan's films typically involve technical experimentation, resulting in works that reinterpret time and images to create unique observations of familiar subjects. Bizarre situations and surreal sequences appear frequently in his films. The use of unconventional themes and techniques with traditional editing strikes a balance which lends accessibility to his otherwise challenging work.

His artistic influences include singer/composer Bobby McFerrin and filmmakers Norman McLaren, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Steven X. Arthur, and Jan Svankmajer.

Slamdance Film Festival commissioned Langan to complete a film under five minutes in 2008. The resulting film, Dahlia, which premiered at the festival the following year, has since screened at film festivals across the globe. The film is a three minute portrait of San Francisco, Langan's home at the time, featuring a musical score composed by the filmmaker.

Filmography

 * Dahlia (2009)
 * Doxology (2007)
 * Snail (2005)