In the wake of the cultural revolutions of the mid 20th century, a number of artists began making use of animation to challenge societal boundaries, accepted aesthetic tastes, and narrative practices. Breaking away from the notion that animation was a cinematic medium reserved for children, these artists established striking new directions in the use of stop-motion, hand-drawn, in-camera, and computer-generated animation.

Tracing this lineage, the cinema series Adults in the Dark: Avant-Garde Animation surveys work of some of the key figures of the American vanguard, including John and James Whitney’s pioneering abstract cinema, Ralph Bakshi’s adult–themed, feature–length cartoons, and Martha Colburn’s  more recent  mixed-media politically charged animations. Adults in the Dark: Avant-Garde Animation illustrates the evolution of this medium, which continues to reverberate with originality. 

Adults in the Dark: Avant-Garde Animation is organized by Jake Yuzna with Aaron Anderson