08/09/2025
Recommendation from Ben: 🎞️
Watch Coonskin. I dare you. Then tell me you didn’t laugh out loud and feel moved. It is one of the most extreme, confrontational animated films I’ve ever seen. I’m constantly shocked awake by the visceral images used to satirize stereotypes, racism, homophobia, and the US.
Alternatively, watch Heavy Traffic, a similarly vulgar and insane look at stereotypes in 70’s NYC. These films greatly influence my own work. Using offensive stereotypes to shock and entertain, then to humanize and make a point, is brilliant. Ralph Bakshi’s animation style is also uniquely dirty, experimental, and strangely seductive in its roughness.
There’s a censored version of Coonskin on YouTube if you can’t find a way to watch the uncensored version, which of course I advise seeking out.
