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The Thinker

Max Almy 
1989, 6 min, color, sound

Description

In The Thinker, Almy satirically envisions the evolution of human intellectual thought—from ape to yuppie—as a television event, with an emcee providing the play-by-play commentary of a sportscaster. Classical, Medieval and Renaissance theories flash by as catch-phrases. When this accelerated history leaps forward to arrive at contemporary man, accompanied by an animated explosion of media and consumer images, his contribution to the history of thought is a litany of advertising slogans and pop cliches that devolve, full-circle, into ape-like grunts.

Writer/Director/Design: Max Almy. Producer/Animation/Design: Teri Yarbrow. Starring: Ian Schoales as The Thinker, Narrator. With: Don McLeod as The Ape. Music/Soundscore: Gregory Jones. Editor: Gary Brasher. Computer Animation: Alison Connolly.