Allergy to Originality

In this animated Op-Doc by Drew Christie, two men discuss whether anything is truly original — especially in movies and books.

Written, directed and illustrated by Drew Christie; presented by The New York Times Op-Docs.

In creating this Op-Doc animation, I copied well-known images and photographs, retraced innumerable drawings, then photocopied them as a way to underscore the un-originality of the entire process.

My film is chock-full of unlabeled images that make cultural, artistic and literary references. Additionally, the two main characters are modeled to look like the Russian filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Eisenstein. I hope this piece is at least unoriginal in an original way or perhaps even originally unoriginal.  ~Drew Christie

An official selection of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

New York Times

First posted: 29 January 2014