Overview

The Death family is caught up in civic power struggles, natural and economic disasters, to the advantage of some and disadvantage of others. A not-too-linear story of gentrification wars that is humorously bleak, partly fantasy, and yet kinda real. A San Francisco native and a queer, the artist has created this cut-out animation with hand-painted and digital means. It is based not only on observation in Bay Area struggles, but on years spent in Berlin and New York watching and experiencing social and historical processes. Cartoon and collage at the visual level, Its fragmented use of language references Dadaist modes of expressing and processing trauma. HOPPLA is a little bit Brecht and a little bit Ubu, yet also definitely personal and contemporary.