Birth name Justin Curfman Years active 2005–present Role Filmmaker | Origin Atlanta, Georgia, USA Name Justin Curfman | |
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Genres Rock, post-punk, alternative rock, gothic rock Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter, animator, filmmaker, author, painter, artist Instruments Vocals, guitar, bass, keys, drums, ukulele, kalimba | ||
Justin Curfman is an animator/filmmaker, musician, author and artist. He is best known for being the frontman for the band Feeding Fingers.
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Early life
At the age of 14, Curfman was involved in a serious automobile accident, which left part of his face prominently scarred. Using the money awarded to him from the case settlement, Curfman purchased a four-track analog recorder, which he used to record random sounds and mix them into what he recalls as a "sound-salad." Eventually, his interest in recording equipment led him to experiment with musical instruments and arrangements. He taught himself, with some assistance from his grandmother, jacqueline Gann-Curfman (a veteran country-western musician and casual performer at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN) how to play piano, violin, guitar, bass and drums.
as an animator
Curfman's professional creative career began when he released his first film, Zugskin (2003). The short film was received with a bit of confusion by the art, animation and avant-garde film societies Curfman had associated himself with at the time – not knowing if the film should be considered a piece of art, horror, or pornography, with its unusual amalgamation of insect and masturbatory puppet imagery within a miniature, dream-inspired, claustrophobic environment.
Curfman's artistic work is often categorized as neo-expressionism, sharing similarities to fellow neo-expressionists Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay.
His second, and most well-known film, Tephrasect (2004), won Curfman his first award for Best Animated Film at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Best Animated Film at the Muuuvi Film Festival in Lazarea, Romania, among others, and continues to be screened in festivals and cult communities all over the USA and Europe. The creation of Tephrasect occupied nine obsessed, non-stop months of Curfman's life, where he lived on a strict diet of pasta, baked potatoes, and water once a day for the duration of the production. Curfman slept for four hours per night and worked exclusively in his squalid childhood home – a dilapidated bungalow in a suburb of Atlanta, which has since been demolished.
His third film, Platelets: Lepidopteraphage (2006), which combined stop-motion puppet animation into computer-generated environments, netted him The David Lynch Award at Cinerama 2006 in Florida. The film also introduced Curfman's assisted-eating device, The Lepidopteraphiator – a cervical collar with a light bulb at the end of an adjustable metal arm which can be attached to one's neck and used to lure insects into one's mouth for nourishment. Curfman directed a two-minute commercial to advertise the device in 2009, which featured Jewish cultural commentator, Patrick A. from PunkTorah and Can Can, Melissa Butzer (wife of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Butzer), Sharron Scott-Von Hoene (vocalist for Cinetrope), Stephanie Roman and Devon Stawkowski.
as an author
Curfman has released five books:
Catalog of Absurdity (2004) – A collection of short stories and sketches that were left out of his animation work.
Expiration Date (2005) – A graphic novel written by Curfman, about the relationship of a father and his daughter during Christmas holiday and their shared interest for dehydrated kittens, urine, and domestic violence shared amongst the two of them against the wife/mother figure of the household.
Fragments from Tephra (2011) – A collection of several of Curfman's visual works, sketchbooks, journals and miscellanea.
TICKS: The Illustrated Storybook (2011) – A narrative storybook with text and over 120 pieces of art by Curfman and contributions from collaborator, Steven Lapcevic (director of the Feeding Fingers music video, "Fireflies Make Us Sick").
Wrecker: A Novel (2012) – Curfman's debut novel.
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