Bill Plympton’s “Idiots and Angels” Opens Wednesday in New York

Bill Plympton’s fifth animated feature Idiots and Angels opens Wednesday in Manhattan at the IFC Center (323 6th Ave. at West 3rd St). The film screens for an entire week at the IFC (screening times HERE). Though it was completed in 2008, it has never received distribution outside of the festival circuit, where it has received nearly twenty awards. The feature will be preceded by Plympton’s latest short The Cow Who Wanted to Be A Hamburger. Bill will personally be appearing at the theater for Q&As on Wednesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 7.

Bill is self-distributing the film to cinemas, something which he has never done before. Three of his features–The Tune, Mutant Aliens and I Married a Strange Person–had film distributors, and his fourth feature, Hair High, was never distributed theatrically. He’s been keeping a diary on his blog Scribble Junkies that documents the challenges of theatrical self-distribution. In his entries (which sadly aren’t tagged properly for easy browsing), he discusses why he chose the self-distribution route and how he found a theater in New York.

Tomorrow, we’ll be running an Idiots and Angels contest here on Cartoon Brew. Below is the new trailer for the film: