Of all the behind-closed-doors creative departments out there, the New Yorker's cartoon desk has inspired as much idle speculation as to what actually goes on in there. Filmmakers Leah Wolchok and Davina Pardo wondered the same thing, and they hope to shed some light on the situation with Very Semi-Serious, a mostly-produced and to-be-edited documentary for which they're seeking funding on Kickstarter.
VERY SEMI-SERIOUS is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the single panel. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled—and occasionally pissed off—all of us for decades.
I couldn't help but notice that the trailer evokes Wordplay, Patrick Creadon's 2006 doc about New York Times' Crossword Editor Will Shortz (which, by the way, is quite good), and it so happens that they "even filmed a killer Ping Pong match between [cartoon editor] Bob Mankoff and PuzzleMaster Will Shortz." Go figure.
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