"I have a movie called Rad Plaid' about the alternation of horizontal and vertical lines," Mack explained. "It starts off slowly and when it speeds up you start to see a plaid texture."
The Anthology Film Archives in New York City held a solo screening of Mack's work last weekend, showing both "Rad Plaid" and "Yard Work is Hard Work," which was one of nine films to receive a first prize jury's choice selection at the 2011 Black Maria Film Festival.
A newly appointed professor at Dartmouth, Mack takes an experimental, avant-garde approach to filmmaking, crafting her animated shorts without any sound or light crews. Mack's productions, which generally use paper cutout and stop-motion animation, are her own independent creations from start to finish.
Watching "Rad Plaid" is an interactive experience before a screening, half the audience is provided with bean-filled bottles and the other half with shell-filled bottles.
"Half of the audience will have one instrument to shake and say Rad!' when they see horizontal lines," Mack said. "The other half will have another instrument to shake and say Plaid!' when they see vertical lines."
"Yard Work is Hard Work," a 28-minute animated musical, took Mack two years to complete.
"I wrote all the songs, sang in all the songs and animated everything," Mack explained.
Made with discarded cutouts from magazines, the quirky video is a romantic comedy of sorts. While the film's romance initially appears idyllic, the storyline soon turns awry.
"[Two people] meet each other and they get married, and they buy a house," Mack said. "Then the house becomes this very big burden that sort of [complicates] their relationship."
From cold feet to jaded romance, home decorations to mortgages, Mack's short film uses poignant realism to successfully convey the difficulties of the recent financial crisis.
"I am so blue," the couple sings,their woes represented symbolically by their blue house. Alternating between dialogue-driven scenes with characters and instrumental scenes featuring household objects, the short strikes the perfect balance between entertainment and reflection. Although the short uses light-hearted animations and songs filled with quirky rhymes, it never softens the perils of home ownership.
Mack said she initially had trouble finding an audience for the film, which was rejected by the Black Maria Film Festival the first time she submitted it.
Recently, Mack's films have started to get more attention and have been accepted at festivals in New York and elsewhere. However, Mack remains hesitant to predict future success.
"Maybe it is happening for me," Mack mused. "I have no idea. I am not the type of filmmaker that is ever going to be famous or anything."
In the past few years, her works have been shown in theaters in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and New York.
Mack has also worked on videos for the Jacksonville Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival and music videos for Judson Claiborne and electronic artist Four Tet.
"Yard Work is Hard Work" will be featured in the Black Maria Film Festival's upcoming tour, which will travel to many venues including Dartmouth later this year.
