An Evening with Christiane Cegavske feat. BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING!

The Philosophical Research Society is proud to present a very special evening with artist and filmmaker Christiane Cegavske, featuring the LA theatrical premiere of the new restoration of her beloved debut stop-motion animated feature BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING (2006), a sneak peek of her much anticipated forthcoming film SEED IN THE SAND, and an in-depth artist talk and Q&A!

A surreal handmade fairy tale for adults, BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING was created and animated entirely by Cegavske over a period of 13 years. It tells the story of aristocratic white mice who commission gentle oak dwelling artisans to create a doll for them. When the Oak Dwellers fall in love with the doll they refuse to give her up. Resorting to thievery, the jilted mice abscond with her in the middle of the night. The Oak Dwellers must journey through their mystical and dangerous land to reclaim their love.

The film has grown in its acclaim since its release nearly 20 years ago, when it won Best Animated Film in the San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Best Director in Spudfest Film Festival and Silver Public’s Prize in Fantasi International Film Festival. It received rave reviews in the New York Times, New York Post, Variety, Fangoria, Cartoon Brew and many more. It’s routinely included in critic’s lists including: “10 Best Stop Motion Films” according to Letterboxd reviewers; “49 Best Animated Movies of All Time” according to Rotten Tomatoes critics; 7 Best Stop-Motion Animated Movies of All Time, Cinemaholic; 8 Best Sci-Fi Films With Minimal Dialogue, Syfy; 15 Best Surrealist Movies of The 21st Century, Taste of Cinema, Top 17+ Animated Horror Movies, Creepy Catalog; 10 Stunning Animated Movies Directed by Women, Screen Rant; and Animated films by Solo Artists, Cartoon Brew.

The film is dialogue-free, which has enabled it to reach audiences worldwide and allows viewers to find their own interpretations of the story. It features a heart-rending musical score composed and performed by Mark Growden. Now considered a modern cult classic, it has garnered an enthusiastic following who create Blood Tea and Red String fan art, tattoos, costumes, poems and songs, and tea parties.

With her forthcoming feature, SEED IN THE SAND (sneak peek this evening!), Cegavske once more taps into the mysterious possibilities of stop-motion animation. To save a dying world, a creature sails across a sea of sand to bring a magical pod to the mythical realm of his dreams. Doll sirens sing and sand waves crash on rocky shores in a dreamlike world that is part dystopian science fiction and part magical fable.

Join us for this intimate evening with its creator, Christiane Cegavske, and experience her precious gem of stop-motion surrealism on the big screen!

ABOUT CHRISTIANE CEGAVSKE

Director Christiane Cegavske is known for her stop-motion animated films including the features Blood Tea and Red String (2006) and Seed in the Sand (in progress). She created the short films “A Dream of Dolls Dancing,” “Blood and Sunflowers,” “Coyote,” and “The Dollmaker.” Cegavske was Director of Animation on the animated dream sequences for Asia Argento’s film The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. Cegavske’s Blood Tea and Red String is the only stop-motion feature film created and animated solely by one person. It is a handmade stop-motion fairy tale for adults described as “a David Lynchean fever dream on Beatrix Potter terrain” (Variety); “Cegavske’s creative magic explodes on the screen” (Fangoria); and “as much a work of sculpture as of cinema” (The New York Times). In 2019, Cegavske was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her filmmaking. In 2021 in Los Angeles and 2022 in Oakland, Cegavske created immersive solo gallery shows which incorporated video projections and props from her animated films.

Special thanks to Karie Jacobson

BLOOD TEA AND RED STRING, 2006, dir. Christiane Cegavske, 71mins, Unrated (RECOMMENDED FOR ADULT AUDIENCES), Digital.

Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

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Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States