Jack Feldstein

He describes neon animation (neonism) as a deconstructionist, post-modern animation filmmaking style that utilizes appropriation and pop art techniques in a "Warhol meets Vegas" look. It is a stream-of-consciousness narrative with a cartoon aesthetic that takes modernist stream-of-consciousness filmmaking into a post-modern and humorous form.[3]

Neon animation has also been described as re-animation and as metempsychotic (reincarnated) modernism.[4] The rambling, seemingly make-it-up-as-you-go-along, stream of consciousness ironic monologue narratives have been likened to an Australian twist on Woody Allen and Spalding Gray.[5]

Recently, Feldstein completed a six-part series called "The Adventures of..." in which he continued the ironic exploration of his theme of rescuing great literary characters such as Oedipus Rex and Gregor Samsa and playfully interfering in the lives of modernist writers like Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, JD Salinger and Jack Kerouac.

He also has released two narrative documentary neon animations: The Fantastical World of Scriptwriting and The Psychology of Scriptwriting.

As an active participant and supporter of the Kino movement in Sydney, Australia, Jack used to often screen his neon animations at their monthly events.[6]

Currently, Jack is the Director of Outreach and Filmmaker Liaison for Chain Theatre on W36th St., in Manhattan.

In July 2021, Feldstein was the recipient of a City Artist Corps Grant from the City of New York for his Animated New Yorkers series, in which he interviews and then animates 10 New York artists.

In December 2021, The Queensland Museum of Modern Art's cinematheque included Feldstein's 2005 neon animation The Great Oz Love Yarn in their retrospective of Australian animators and animations from the 1970s onwards.

In 2022, Feldstein completed a neon animation adaptation of "Isaac B. Singer Shows and Tells" which currently streams on ChaiFlicks. Feldstein has also completed versions of HP Lovecraft's tales "Ex Oblivione" and "Memory". He is planning to create a third neon animation in his scriptwriting trilogy, which will be called "Confessions of a Scriptwriter". In collaboration with New York-based actor, Shane Baker he developed the neon animation " How to Break into Yiddish Vaudeville". "How to Break into Yiddish Vaudeville" had its world premiere in January 2015 in the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center as part of the 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival. Feldstein also created a neon animation with Shane Baker, who recited Peretz Markish's Yiddish poem Brokshtiker (Shards) for the 60-year commemoration of the Night of the Murdered Poets in August 2012. This premiered at the New York Jewish Film Festival 2013, Walter Reade theater at the Lincoln Center, on 10 January 2013.

In June 2015, he completed a neon animation called "Plain Talk", collaborating with Deborah Starr, a graduate of the Narrative Medicine department at Columbia University. Feldstein intends to continue this series of neon animations combining medical issues and neon animation.

"You Might be the One" a song by Botanica, the New York-based band, is Feldstein's most recent music video neon animation.

He also completed neon animations to various New York spoken-word poets including one of Walt Whitman's poems "Manahatta" performed by poet, George Wallace, the writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, Huntington, New York. The "Manahatta" neon animation screened at the Angelika Film Center in New York City for two weeks and its European premiere was at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin in October 2012. As part of Curate NYC 2013, an open artworks competition that received over 1900 submissions from New York-based artists, "Manahatta" was selected by Jan Seidler Ramirez, Chief Curator & Director of Collections, National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan. It was on display at the newly refurbished Queens Museum of Art as part of the Arts Commons. "Manahatta" screened at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn in April 2014 as part of their Platform Series. Jack was series coordinator for The Subway Poetry Film series featuring six films by New York filmmakers interpreting six poems on the subject of the New York City Subway. Feldstein's neon animation contribution is to the poem "Subway Services" by Philip Dacey. The Subway Film Series premiered at the Queens World Film Festival, New York on 4 March 2012, and amongst many other venues and colleges around New York City. The Subway Film Series screened at the Queens Museum of Art for their "A Frame Apart 2" program.[7]

On 14 May 2011, a retrospective of Feldstein's neon animation films was screened as part of the Personal Cinema Series at Millennium Film Workshop in downtown Manhattan and subsequently at the Filmwax Film Series in Brooklyn, NY.

During 2011, Jack was the art/film editor for "Unlikely Stories" an online US literary publication for poetry, film, art and essays.[8]

For New York Fashion Week 2011, Feldstein co-directed with top New York designer, Norma Kamali, the 3D Fashion Film presenting the Norma Kamali Spring Collection 2012. The film was premiered at Lincoln Center, 14 September 2011. Included in the 3D film is Feldstein's first foray in 3D neon animation.[9] It was nominated for "Best Online Fashion Video" at the 2012 New York Fashion Awards 2.0. Jack continues to work with Kamali on 3D Fashion films and various other projects. For New York Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2012, Feldstein helped Kamali create two 3D fashion films launching her collections.

Feldstein was also involved in creating neon animations for the production of In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Tennessee Williams' last and unseen full-length play which had its world premiere at the 45 Bleecker Street Theatre, New York in April 2012.

In 2018, Jack Feldstein was director of animation and his neon animation was featured in David Leigh Abts' documentary "BODEGA?" which explores the bodegas and characters of New York City with music by the Dandy Warhols.

Love and Sex Between Prime Numbers, a feature film script by Feldstein is currently being developed by Spotted Turquoise Films.[10]

As part of the Dream Up Festival August 2013 at the downtown Theater for the New City, Feldstein's monologue about a young woman on a bender, "The Bender" is part of the Grand Guignol Danse Macabre series of plays.[11] In October 2013, "The Bender" was also be performed around New York City including at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

A production of Jack's play with songs by Melanie Safka, "Three Months with Pook," was mounted at Dixon Place in Lower Manhattan in July 2014. "Three Months with Pook" was again invited to be performed at Dixon Place in February 2015. "Three Months with Pook" was a winner in the TRU, (Theater Producers Organization based in New York) play competition in summer 2019. The play with songs, based on his neon animation of the same name, deals with issues of sexual fluidity and abuse in a humorous way.[12]

Feldstein was a member of Workshop Theater Company at 312 West 36th Street in Manhattan and developed some of his scripts and musicals there. "Une Parisienne in New York", one of his latest work with 14 songs in English and French by songwriter Greta Gertler, is one of these projects. "Une Parisienne in New York" was presented at Dixon Place in February 2018. Another is "The Kingdom of Vincent Grapelli" with singer/songwriter Rivky Grossman. In March 2015, his play "Happy Chrismukkah", about a stressed out New York couple dreaming of escaping to Australia, was a winner in the NYC Playwrights "Save the Rom-Com" competition. A workshop of Your YouTuber a monologue written by Feldstein and performed by Ty Baumann was presented in May 2016 for the Flying Solo Theater Festival at the Secret Theater, LIC, New York. Subsequently, Your YouTuber won the Elite Theatre Company 8th Annual One Act Play Competition. And was mounted in January 2017 in California. Also in January 2017, at Workshop Theater, "The Man Who Made New York" a full-length play by Feldstein about Robert Moses, NYC's master-builder, was first presented. The play was directed by Robert Kalfin.

In Fall 2018, Jack Feldstein began a residency at Sitting Shotgun Theatre in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where with Annemarie Hagenaars he developed his next project Carnival of Souls: Neon Animation plus Live Theatre[13] which launched at Dixon Place in NYC on 12 October 2018.[14] With this project, Feldstein combined his two loves, neon animation and live theater. In 2019, this work was selected to be mounted at the New York Fringe Festival in the Chain Theatre, midtown Manhattan.[15]

In November 2019, Feldstein's play The Sparkling City of Omar Mazen was selected by the Blank Theatre Company in Los Angeles, for their Living Room Series.[16] The work deals with immigrants in small-town Australia. The play was directed by Mousa Kraish

"The Guru of Ozone Park," Feldstein's play about a New York couple facing the challenges that occur after the husband suffers a spinal cord injury that renders him wheelchair-bound was selected for Healing Voices at Kean University, Premiere Stages Theatre, New Jersey[17] in February 2021.

Feldstein has written the book and lyrics for the world's first theremin musical "Falling in Love with Dellamort" working with Dorit Chrysler, founder of the NY Theremin Society and composer Paul Doust. "Falling in Love with Mr Dellamort" had its World Premiere on 6 December 2017 at The Slipper Room in NYC.[18] "Falling in Love with Mr. Dellamort" the audio musical was released July 23, 2021. This radio adaptation was written by Feldstein. Broadway performers James Monroe Iglehart, Courtney Reed, Lena Hall, Jackie Hoffman, Telly Leung, Gavin Lee were cast. The soundtrack was released by Broadway Records.[19]