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Russian dolls' No, alter egos. Laurence Green has crafted a brilliant and perceptive animated documentary in his [Alter Egos]. His subjects are animator and 1969 Oscar nominee Ryan Larkin and prodigy Chris Landreth, himself an Oscar nominee.
Ryan Larkin was one of the world's most celebrated animators - until addiction ransacked his life and brought his career to an end, his last film made in 1972. Today, Larkin lives a marginal life on the streets of Montreal, panhandling to make ends meet. In contrast, the career of Chris Landreth is on the rise and rise. In 2000, Landreth met Larkin and was inspired to make an animated documentary on the life and fate of the great animator. Green brings these two artists into proximity to pay tribute to the genius of each, and to raise questions of family, identity and personal history. This insightful documentary, which integrates Landreth's excellent Ryan, exposes the rub between creativity and addiction, between hero and anti-hero, and offers a startling account of the fragile relationship between these alter egos.
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D/S Laurence Green P Steven Hoban, Mark Smith, Adam Symansky WS National Film Board of Canada TD video/col/2004/52mins
Laurence Green was born in Hamilton, Canada, in 1964. His films include [Reconstruction] (1995), [Thin Ice] (2000).