“Animation is not the art of sketches that move, but the art of sketching movements,” once said one of the great pioneers of this field, the Scottish-Canadian Norman McLaren, and the words of this animation giant of the last century seem to resonate vividly in the animation sketches of the creator 21st century American Adrian Dexter. And yet, through the worlds that the 1969 Nevada, American-born illustrator and animator sculpts with an abundance of dedication, technique and imagination, there is a sense of the decades in which he was born and raised.

The first shows from his childhood, from Frenchman René Laloux’s stunning 1973 Wild Planet to those unforgettable King Crimson covers and 1969’s In the Court of the Crimson King, seem to haunt his work forever. .

His latest film, Terra Incognita (The Unknown Land), was awarded last June at the Annecy International Animation Festival and these days he is participating in our own International Drama Short Film Festival (September 5-11), which is 45 years old. this year. About the 21 minutes of this animation, which seems to reflect the spirit of the ancient, mystical “unknown land” that it depicts every second, we spoke with its creator.

– Indeed, “Terra incognita” seems to be shouting out the name “Rene Lalu”. Some of the other key references we had for the film came from the script stage, such as the work of Lord Dunsany and Jorge Luis Borges, two giants of science fiction. In terms of pacing, Swedish director Roy Andersson has always had a big influence. However, at the center of the making of this film was that I and my partner and co-writer Pernil M.A. Kier, we wanted to do something nostalgic so that as the story progresses, we can turn it into something more modern so that the audience doesn’t suspect this twist from the very beginning. It was important for us to make the fantasy come true, the mythology, the story of creation, and then finally take it all and turn it upside down, eventually bringing it to the real world.

“I’m developing a historical fiction graphic novel written by your countryman, comic book author and screenwriter Thodoris Prasidis.”

– There was a basic principle in this project: we meet the tragedy of things with a mockery of ourselves, a smile and a playful wink. Series co-creator Hans Fredrik Jacobsen and I wanted to create a humorous micro-world of stories that connected to each other, but that you could also watch in random order. In the end, we became cartoon characters in the series. We have made episodes with a total duration of about an hour that we have not yet published, and we want to do more. After all, the original idea was to do…ten thousand episodes of everything we would do in our lives, with the last one in which our grandchildren filmed us on our deathbeds.

This album has always held a special place in my heart. My dad had it on his record shelf and I remember this amazing cover was always there looking at me. My father was constantly trying to get me bands and records. He told me things like “the guy who sings and plays bass on this track is called Greg Lake and he also plays in another band…”. He planted the seeds by playing me good music, reading me The Lord of the Rings, and making me watch movies like Conan or Krul. It’s actually very interesting how you project your nostalgia onto your children, because a lot of what he showed me then was what he himself grew up with in 1950s America: films with comedians Abbott and Costello, The Magician Oz, Disney’s Fantasy and all those countless comics and magazines, and especially Popeye – so much Popeye!

– I have been designing a historical fiction graphic novel written by one of your compatriots, comic book author and screenwriter Thodoris Prasidis for some time now. It tells about the Heidelberg Botanical Garden, the discovery of Prague, the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War and the end of the alchemical dream in Central Europe – easy reading!