"I Am So Proud of You," Bitter Films, 2008

Your 2005 film "The Meaning of Life" was pretty epic in theme, in production scale and in new techniques, and also seemed from everything you've written about it to have almost killed you -- how has making that film influenced what you've done since then, and would you ever try anything on that scale again?

"The Meaning of Life" was sort of like when you're little and in swim school, and you start paddling out towards the swimming instructor, and she slowly moves backwards saying "You're doing great, swim to me, just a little further," and suddenly the distance you have to swim keeps expanding until you realize that she's now backed up the distance of an ocean. I had no idea the movie would eventually demand so much. I don't think I could (or should) try to tackle something like that again, at least not without a solid team behind me. I do like the finished movie, but life is just too short to lose almost four years of your 20s slaving over something called "The Meaning of Life" in sad irony.

"Everything Will Be Ok" won the short film Jury Prize at Sundance last year, which isn't something they tend to give animated films. How do you feel about the continued segregation of animation from "regular" film elsewhere (the Oscars being the glaring example)?

I've kind of had the opposite experience -- I've often felt more welcome and understood in the live action film circles and a bit segregated from the animation world. I think an interesting problem today is how "animation" is still used as a generic label for a medium that's suddenly grown so incredibly diverse that the label's really become meaningless. Asking "What's new in animation?" 60 years ago was easy. You had Disney and Warner and MGM and maybe a handful of other studios doing stuff. Asking "What's new in animation?" today is as broad and meaningless as asking "What's new in music?" Well, there are indie bands, there are opera singers, there are classical musicians, there are country singers, there areexperimental noise bands, there are rappers.... the list is endless. That's how exciting and diverse animators around the world are right now, doing wildly different things, difficult to categorize things. It's the sort of filmmaking I always tried to highlight in "The Animation Show." But I think most Americans -- and the media -- still think of modern animation as being represented by whatever studio features the Oscars usually nominate, which to me are about as cutting edge as the redundant pop stars you always see nominated for Grammys. There's so much more out there.

You obviously can't beat the quality -- when you shoot on film, your movies are never going to be as rich or sharp outside of a theater. But for me personally, it all starts and ends with the audience. After fine-tuning something in solitary confinement for a couple years, the biggest reward is usually as simple as hiding in the back of the room and finally watching it all unfold over people. It's hard to describe, but I really need that, the chemistry, the feedback. I think it would be very hard for me to keep making these things without being able to connect with the audiences like that. DVD and television offers you millions of more viewers, but you can't actually be there to see it work.

You've promised an "embarrassing live on-stage interview" with each stop on this tour -- do you have a range of interviewers lined up across the country?

That's one of the last pieces of the puzzle. There's gonna be a different interviewer for every city, so I imagine that will keep me on my toes. We've lined up interviewers for maybe half of the venues so far. I'm not sure yet what we're going to do for some of those -- possibly out of desperation invite up the popcorn kid or the theater's janitor to ask me whatever they like. Which might turn out to be a fantastic idea, actually.

[Additional photos: "I Am So Proud of You," Bitter Films, 2008; Don Hertzfeldt]

To see tour dates and locations for "An Evening With Don Hertzfeldt," check out BitterFilms.com.

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Jpaulson

Hertzfeld brought this collection to Chicago last week. I’m sad to say it was a disappointment. The new movie is a flimsy follow up to the brilliant EWBO and a shadow of the epic “Rejected”. The film discussion after the screening took away any charm I’d felt for this artists work.

Jonesy

I think we must have seen different movies. Everyone I was with thought "So Proud" was easily the best thing Hertzfeldts ever done.

It's the perfect sequel, deeper, darker, more thoughtful, funnier, sad, more powerful than the first. It made me feel really good :) And Don stayed in the theater until past 1 in the morning to talk to everyone and say hello. Nobody felt rushed or "moved along." He was way younger than I ever imagined and totally down to earth and humble. Thumbs up from me!