A SHORT STOP-MOTION FILM BY LAURA NAYLOR + KRISTEN KEE

An unassuming Wall Street lawyer finds himself beset by a new employee, Bartleby, who refuses to work--in an ongoing act of passive refusal, he simply 'prefers not to.'  A quiet, dogged battle of the wills ensues in this stop-motion reimagining of a Melville classic.

THE TEAM

Laura Naylor (Writer/Director/Producer) fell for images, moving and not-so-mobile, while studying art at Columbia. Her directorial debut, Duck Beach -- a feature documentary about Mormon singles trying to tie-the knot -- premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival and aired on BBC 3 in the UK. Her second feature, The Fix, premiered at AFI Docs, won the jury prize for Best Documentary at the Soho International Film Festival, and was hailed a “poignant portrait of life in recovery” by The Hollywood Reporter. After animating a stop-motion sequence for one of her docs, she said YES PLEASE to creating tiny worlds.

Kristen Kee (Writer/Director/Illustrator) is an artist who makes neon sculptures and jargon paintings and exhibits them around the world. She has a degree in Sculpture from Yale and studied neon and glass-making at Pilchuck Glass School. Prior to Bartleby, she directed and designed several stop-motion shorts -- including Grapefruit, wherein dried grapefruit halves act out Yoko Ono’s book -- and has been sculpting Bartleby-like characters since middle school. Her latest series of jargon paintings feature the rants of our current President. She lives and works in Brooklyn alongside her partner Taryn & their dog Butter.

Amanda Ely (Producer) is an award-winning producer whose most recent animated short, Cadaver starring Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Tavi Gevinson (Enough Said) and Kathy Bates (Misery) was long-listed for an Academy Award and screened at dozens of major festivals worldwide. It was also featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Vogue, Elle, Onion A.V. Club, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Amanda holds an MFA in Writing for Cinema and Television from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Josh Mahan (Lead Animator) is a Brooklyn-based stop-motion animator and production designer originally from North Carolina. His work as Lead Animator on Leah Meyerhoff’s debut film, I Believe in Unicorns, has been lauded by critics. His work has also been featured on Portlandia, CollegeHumor and The Magic of Heineken. His award-winning short films Awaken and Bolt have screened at festivals worldwide. He is currently in production on Capsule, a stop-motion sci-fi short film starring Tim Blake Nelson.

Zachary Poots (Director of Photography) is a Brooklyn-born stop-motion focused director of photography. He has worked on numerous film and television productions including Broad City, Blacklist, Luke Cage and Wolf of Wall Street. His cinematography work with Crown Chimp garnered him an Emmy and he has since shot for very talented directors like Drew Lightfoot (Corpse Bride).

Deniz Cuylan (Music and Sound) is a composer, bandleader, musician and producer with ten albums across several genres and placements around the world. His music has defined the sound of everything from multinational campaigns for household brands to Moscow Fashion week to Reggie Watts’ contribution to the oldest continuous art project in history.

Brian Bender (Music and Sound) is a producer, mixer, composer and sound designer with 15 years of experience across almost every segment of music and audio production. His production has found its way to #1 in 16 countries, into Weinstein movies and onto Thom Yorke’s Christmas Playlist.

BEHIND THE SCENES