Animated shorts by Hanan Harchol opens Film Festival
By Lisa Kingstone

Hanan Harchol began imitating his grandmother at the age of three, and has since made his uncanny impression of his father into an art. He recently was awarded the 2004 Ronnie Heyman prize for Emerging Jewish Visual artist.
In his animated shorts of his Israeli father, he does the voice himself and then draws and (with the help of a computer) animates scenes and conversations taken from memory. He uses seemingly humorous conversations taken from memory that show the deeper emotional currents that go on in relationships, particularly the shifting of power.  Harchol's 4 and 6 minute animations are done in black and white charcoal drawing and are showing at Jewish film festivals internationally including Poland, Mexico, Toronto, New York and this March in Hartford. Harchol spoke by phone with the Ledger from his apartment in New York City.
Harchol's father, Micha Harchol, is the main character study in Harchol's animations because his mix of ethnic background and career make him a rich study of human behavior.
Micha Harchol, a former kibbutznick with Eastern European ancestry, moved his family to Princeton when Harchol was 2. He is blunt partly because he is Israeli, but also because he's a nuclear physicist and "turns everything in life into these black and white formulas where he [boils it all down into theorems and rules and postulates," said Harchol in an interview for Chicago Arts & Entertainment. However, he still must cope with the intangibles in life like sex, relationships, and loss.
"He is perplexed by a world that can't be fit into scientific categories or black and white statements, but still tries to do it.," explains Harchol. The result is poignant, funny and transcendent.
In the shorts, a child Harchol sits in the back seat of the car watching his parents argue; a young adult Harchol patiently listens to his father lecturing him as he gets his hair cut; or Harchol is simply the invisible listener to a phone message from his father.  
Harchol, a sensitive child who used to crumple up his drawings because they weren't quite right, said his mother would iron them out and put them up on the fridge and that this kind of encouragement was crucial for him as it is to most artists.  An overachiever, by his senior year of high school, he was the lead in the musical, tutoring 5 kids in math, taking college math courses, performing his 2nd classical guitar radio broadcast, and  preparing portfolios to get into art school. His body responded with the beginnings of an ulcer. When he went to see a therapist to deal with the anxiety and pain, he found himself fascinated with the process.  Not only did it eliminate the stomach pain in 2 weeks, but he saw how "digging in the dirt" as he puts it, showed him how everything we do connects to some deeper issue. 
His father became the focus of his art in college when his mentor Professor Judy Brodsky at the Chicago Institute of Art told him his best work was on the theme of his father.   Although he was skeptical that anyone would be interested in his dad, she asked,   "Do you have any more memories?"  This brought on a flood of precise memories and conversations.  He realized these memories could be a direct source for art. 
On the surface, these videos make people laugh till tears roll down their cheeks watching the stubborn father lecturing his son in ways that are familiar to Jews and non-Jews. But some audiences are quiet because there are "deeply disturbing psychological games going on at the same time," he says. Using these familiar conversations with his father allows people to access the darker universal themes through the seemingly comical surface. 
As to the resounding laughter that rolls through the theaters, he was surprised, but happy.
"My art is very dark. When people see dark, they detach themselves. Cartoons put a different hat on it. Humor is an amazing key to disarming everyone and connecting." 
Harchol is working on the script for an animated show about a family called the Sandbergs.-Harchol  in Hebrew- in which he will do  the character voices and animation himself.    A professional classical guitarist, Harchol performs regularly at the Rainbow Room and Tavern on the Green in New York City. 

Hanan Harchol will be playing guitar, speaking and showing his animated shorts at then opening night of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival on Saturday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the Aetna Theater, Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford.