'If the concept of 'independent' animation carries with it the idea of non-conformity to 'traditional' animation, then the works of Robert Breer, Larry Jordan and Harry Smith would be prime examples of an artist's willingness to create non-objective images, which at the same time as they harken back to no particular reality, also provide an extremely rich feast of texture, color, shape and sound. Independent animation is to the Hollywood cartoon as 'experimental film' is to the Hollywood narrative feature film. Each of the three artists in this program has brought into question one or more of the principles cherished by cartoonists. Breer sacrifices versimilitude but captures essential surfaces; he challenges the viewer by causing shapes to evolve from their seeming source into an altogether unexpected material reality. Larry Jordan with his collage technique incorporates images of familiar objects with those of a mystical impulse to yield an entirely new sense of the way things might be. Jordan's work indeed animates, or 'brings to life' frozen realities by placing them into contexts where they might not have heretofore resided. Moreover, it is his films sense of spontaneity which causes the viewer never to consider 'I'm looking at stills of common things put together in some new order.' Rather, the viewer encounters an altogether evolutionary kind of storytelling. Harry Smith combines a number of techniques-- painting on film, collage, superimposition - to create an unending sense of movement and an explosion of shape and form. His work gives the space, time and dynamics of the everyday world a fresh meaning.'
[Source: FilmEx Program Notes, 1978]