1973, Dir. Ralph Bakshi
With Jesse Welles, Bob Holt and Richard Romanus
71 min, digital projection

Written and directed by by the legendary independent animation artist Ralph Bakshi, the X-rated “Heavy Traffic” tells the story of a young, unemployed 22-year-old cartoonist named Michael Corleone and his life in the violent, grubby, and rotten atmosphere of New York City. Living with his Mafioso father and Jewish mother, Corleone encounters a whole slew of freaks, transvestites, and greasers. To depict the hurlyburly and horror of inner-city life, Bakshi uses live-action footage, photographs, sketchbook animations, and rotoscoping (an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films). The Hollywood Reporter called “Heavy Traffic,” "shocking, outrageous, offensive, sometimes incoherent, occasionally unintelligent. However, it is also an authentic work of movie art and Bakshi is certainly the most creative American animator since Disney."