We were invited by Dana Bishop Root and Ruthie Stringer of Transformazium to be artists in residence at the Braddock Carnegie Library.  The residency came with the opportunity to make selections for purchase for the circulating collection of the library. Since 2013, Ruthie Stringer has been working with patrons and resident artists to incorporate collections of circulating books “which are vital in the dismantlement of systemic oppressions and barriers to knowing ourselves and each other.” We wanted to create a collection of international fairy tale films that would capture the magic, beauty and liberatory potential of the genre.

We selected twenty-two international fairy tale films and 8 books of or about fairytales, which are now available for check out at the library. All of the films that we selected are visually stunning, with an emphasis on pre-digital special effects.  Each takes the genre of the fairy tale to a new or unique place and each is truly a great film – an amazing work of art - that Braddock library patrons can take home and enjoy.

It was essential to include two early films by gay directors that have been touchstones for Fairy Fantastic!: Jean Cocteau’s Beauty in the Beast (1946) and  Jacques Demy’s Donkey Skin (1970). In addition to questioning assumptions about which loves are permissible, and desirable, these films are richly and eccentrically detailed, demonstrating the absolute sincerity of true camp aesthetics.  We included other personal touchstones which have been influencing our aesthetics since long before Fairy Fantastic! – Max Reinhardt’s 1935 Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aleksander Ptushko’s Ruslan and Ludmila, and Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter. All three were shot primarily on sound-stages, relying on artifice to convey the enchantment of the natural world.

While fairy tales can offer escape into enchanted worlds where magic is possible, they can also offer social critique and stories of injustices avenged, class oppression over-thrown and gender roles expanded. In Adama Drabo’s 1997 film from Mali, Taafe Fanga (Skirt Power) the village women force men to do “women’s work.”  In Dgil Diop Mambety’s 1992 film Hyenas a scorned prostitute returns to her village with “more money than the world bank.”  In Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko ghost-victims take vengeance on the soldiers who brutalized them.

We all understand the power of fantasy and fantasy films to offer an escape, however brief, from current conditions. Fairytales also participate in the creation of our desires and our sense of the possible. We sought out films with inclusive representations. Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus resituates the Greek myth in a Brazilian favela at carnival. The Wiz re-stages The Wizard of Oz with an all-black cast. In the 1973 Czech/East German film, Three Wishes for Cinderella, Cinderella is a skilled cross-dressing hunter who out-shoots her prince. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s 2004 film Tropical Malady is a mysterious Thai folk tale that includes same sex romance.

Except for the 2014 Chinese film, Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven’s Palace, you won't find a lot of CGI.  We are drawn to seams showing practical special effects that invoke the viewer’s suspension of disbelief.  The understated puppet films of Kihachiro Kawamoto draw on the simple compositions of Japanese prints and Karel Zeman’s Jester’s Tale, combines live action and animation to evoke an etching come to life.

We love knowing that the films that have opened worlds to us will be circulating from the Braddock Carnegie Library, where Dana and Ruthie are always demonstrating the capacity for bold imagination to transform this world.