From Jazz To Jackboots

When jazz collides with jackboots, rhythm is rebellion in this visceral animated film where the vibrant life of jazz and dance is methodically censored by the 10 Nazi Rules for Dance Bands.

It’s an illustration, musically and visually, via the abstraction of dancers’ bodies, of Dance Band Rules and Regulations from Nazy Germany. By applying the progressively (2/3 at a time) to a piece of music from that period as well as choreography to that music, the film illustrates how that censorship translates into the visceral.

FROM JAZZ TO JACKBOOTS is an experimental animated dance film exploring the Nazi regime’s methodical restriction of jazz through their “10 Rules for Dance Bands.” The film reimagines itself through progressively censored variations of jazz standard, “Minnie the Moocher,” transitioning from freeform expressionist painting and collage to statuesque perfection. Through sophisticated animation techniques and meticulous visual design, the work unfolds as simultaneously joyful, lyrical, ethereal, surgical, horrific and funereal—a timely reminder that the battle between artistic expression and authoritarian control remains urgently relevant today.

Plays in

ADULT SWIM (Animated Shorts #2)

From a vacuum discovering lonely rabbits in a time loop to a couple connecting despite opposite schedules, this…