names of all of the films we watched, but this is one of the mere two I happened to quickly jot down on my notes to remember later. This film is "The Pub" by Joseph Pierce. 

         We were shown this particular film (among others) during the segment of class in which we began to discuss the technique, style, and process of "rotoscoping". None of us students sitting in that room, with the lights off and our eyes trained on the projector screen, would be completely and truly ready for the deeply evocative, unnerving, and emotion-inducing piece that was "The Pub". As aforementioned, this experimental film was an example of rotoscoping—but it was more than simply adding drawings and lines from the traceable video underneath. John Pierce actually chose to keep the underlying video visible, though kept it dark and colorless, immediately creating a 'moody' atmosphere. On top of the video footage shot, he did not simply trace the objects/people/things that he wanted to; Pierce's distinctive, somewhat grotesque and cartoony-style-illustrations not only rest on top of the things he sought to emphasize but instead they move along with them... and will often casually morph them into something they most definitely were not. Two men talking at a table sprout branches from their eyes and turn into trees, a reflection of a young woman slowly distorts her figure with sagging flesh, a group of loud girls partying turns into hens in dresses and tiaras, the tongue of a desperate man twists and stretches and engulfs like silly putty, and a former gangster sitting at the bar with an unblinking stare transforms into a gorilla in the clearing of a throat and a violent, briefly terrifying tantrum. Surprisingly, Pierce's overlying animations and transmutations and odd additions do not distract from the scenes at play, but rather, they seem to only enhance them. They increase the effectivity of what the scenes are trying to portray, exaggerating emotions and feelings and movements and behavior; often his additions take the form of a metaphor/simile that comes alive. Furthermore, they assist the film as a whole by emphasizing its continuous themes. 

         As frightening, gross, and dark as "The Pub" can be, it is truly a beautiful work. One might even dare to muse that it is those very things that make it beautiful. It is haunting and unforgettable and delightfully strange, sure—but what it shows us how our behavior in vulnerable public places can influence the way we appear to the other human beings around us. Whether a person perceives and recognizes you as another fellow human or as another form/animal/creature depends on the way you will choose to compose and behave and speak for yourself.