Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

NEW DOCS

Tomi Ungerer’s career defies easy description as his artistic life crossed diverse boundaries. Ungerer arrived in New York in the mid 1950s after a childhood spent in war-torn, Nazi-occupied Alsace. He worked as a graphic artist before exploding on to the children’s literature scene as the creator of unconventional characters like Crictor, the Mellops, the Three Robbers, and Moon Man. In the 1960s he designed iconic political protest posters, and authored and illustrated unrestrained erotica. When Ungerer’s erotic works came to the attention of the American Library Association in the early 1970s, his award-winning children’s books were effectively blacklisted and many of them went out of print. After this rejection, the artist left the United States for Nova Scotia, then Ireland, where he found a permanent home. Director Brad Bernstein, using animation to truly bring Ungerer’s work to life, delivers an extraordinary portrait of a man, who haunted by his childhood, transformed his life experiences into creative and fantastic expressions of art.  DP

Director

Brad Bernstein

Producer

Brad Bernstein

Editors

Rick Cikowski, Brandon Dumlao, Jason Schmidt

Cinematographer

Jimmy O’Donnell

Release Year

2012

Festival Year

2013

Country

United States

Run Time

99 minutes