“A photo album of people who only seem to be asleep

Some friends who haven't woken up yet. Black and white-color-shaded-scratched-painted.

During a family outing to a cinema, a young boy falls asleep. His mind flashes back to an early memory where, as a toddler, his family try to take a photo of him in their backyard. As he drifts in and out of sleep, his memory and the present begin to merge. Dennis Tupicoff's 2017 short film premiered at the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The film's combination of hand-drawn animation with live action clips of the 1950 Film Noir D.O.A,, awakeness with sleep, and past with present creates a surreal quality that emanates throughout the film.

An archive preserves fragments of toppled statues. In a corner, a fan rocks the atmosphere. The air caresses the gestures of the workers. The hum of the engine and the long wait induce sleep: In a dream, military and civilians smile inertly. (Distant shots, whistles of bullets and explosions). In another dream, there are only stones, indifference and oblivion. (None of the above is real or true).

The Sleepers is a startlingly dark vision of sleeping people suspended under water, unable to make contact with the world outside. Viola describes the work: “Seven 55-gallon metal barrels stand in a darkened room. They are white inside and out and are open at the top. The only light in the room is a soft bluish glow emerging from each barrel and diffused throughout the room. The barrels are filled to the brim with water. At the bottom of each one under the water is a black-and-white video monitor facing straight up, the source of the blue light. Video and power cables for the monitor are visible as they emerge from the floor and enter the water over the top rim of each barrel. On each screen is a close-up of a person’s face while asleep. There is an image of a different person in each barrel, actual recordings of people sleeping presented continuously with little or no editing.