A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

Q&A with Jodie Mack (MFA 2007)

Jodie Mack’s (MFA 2007) handmade films use collage to explore the relationship between graphic cinema and storytelling and the tension between form and meaning. Her works unleash the kinetic energy of overlooked and wasted objects and question the role of decoration in daily life. On February 7, Mack returns to SAIC for the Conversations at the Edge screening series.

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What are you screening for Conversations at The Edge?

I’m screening my first feature film called The Grand Bizarre, which is a 60-minute travelogue dealing with patterns in music, fabric, and language as a result of the global economy. The film is an original musical with no words that has been shot in about 17 countries over a period of five years.

Why did you choose that film?

I think it chose me. I started making the film as a result of the last program I showed at Conversations at the Edge, which was called Let Your Light Shine. That film received international attention, so I was invited to many different places. And as an animator, you often can’t sit still, so I began bringing my camera with me. I’d already made a few films with textiles, so it seemed like a good place to start.

What’s it like coming back to Chicago?

I still have a pretty strong relationship with Chicago. I often mix my films at the Experimental Sound Studio, which was founded by Assistant Professor Lou Mallozzi from the Sound department. I’m still very much in contact with a lot of my professors and former classmates. I was lucky enough to be part of a very special class at SAIC.