Puppet

Puppetry rocks! But like other forms of visual theatre, it is an demanding art form for performers and audiences alike. This is thoroughly demonstrated in Puppet, a documentary that follows the New York-based puppeteer Dan Hurlin. Following a bad review in the New York Times, he is working on a new show about an eccentric and misanthropic photographer, using puppets in diminishing sizes to illustrate the growing isolation of the protagonist. Or is it rather an illustration of Hurlin’s own fear of becoming invisible as an artist?

Puppet plays with the common bias against puppetry as something childish. It also confronts such opinions, by showing the craft and great patience behind the art form, and the sheer magic on display when figures come to life in the hands of artists.

The screening is a collaboration between Oslo Pix and the visual theatre festival GoFigure!, which plays at Trikkestallen June 5-9.