Work samples

  • STRAWBERRY MANSION | Official U.S. Trailer | In Theaters February 18, 2022

    trailer for the feature film "Strawberry Mansion" 

  • Eyeballs in the Darkness - trailer

    a trailer for the animated feature film "Eyeballs in the Darkness" 

  • Sylvio - Official Trailer

    2 minute trailer for 80 minute film, 2017

  • Tux and Fanny - movie trailer

    trailer for the feature film "Tux and Fanny"

About Albert

Baltimore City

Albert Birney is a Baltimore based filmmaker. He has directed five feature films, The Beast Pageant (co-directed with Jon Moses), Sylvio and Strawberry Mansion (both co-directed with Kentucker Audley), Tux and Fanny and Eyeballs in the Darkness. Sylvio was named one of the ten-best films of 2017 by The New Yorker. His films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, the… more

Strawberry Mansion

In a world where the government records and taxes dreams, an unassuming dream auditor gets swept up in a cosmic journey through the life and dreams of an aging eccentric named Bella. Together, they must find a way back home.

90 minutes

Written and Directed by Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley

Produced by Taylor Shung, Sarah Winshall, Emma Hannaway and Matisse Rifai

Starring Kentucker Audley, Penny Fuller, Grace Glowicki, Linas Phillips, and Reed Birney

Music by Dan Deacon

 

Sundance Film Festival
San Francisco Film Festival
Seattle International Film Festival
Atlanta Film Festival
Sarasota Film Festival
Maryland Film Festival
Wisconsin Film Festival
W&M Global Film Festival
Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival
Independent Film Festival Boston
Oak Cliff Film Festival
Fantasia Film Festival
Champs-Élysées Film Festival
Filmfort
Calgary International Film Festival
Sitges Film Festival
Gangneung International Film Festival
New Horizons Film Festival
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival
AMFest- Moscow
Sci-Fi London Film Festival
Denver Film Festival
Los Cabos Film Festival

  • Strawberry Mansion - still 7
    Strawberry Mansion - still 7
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 6
    Strawberry Mansion - still 6
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 5
    Strawberry Mansion - still 5
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 4
    Strawberry Mansion - still 4
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 3
    Strawberry Mansion - still 3
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 2
    Strawberry Mansion - still 2
  • Strawberry Mansion - still 1
    Strawberry Mansion - still 1

Eyeballs in the Darkness

EYEBALLS IN THE DARKNESS (TUX AND FANNY PART 2)
(2022, 106 min)

A feature film sequel to my 2019 animated feature Tux and Fanny. I made this film using pixel animation, stop motion, puppets, and handmade recycled materials. It took 3 years to make.

  • Eyeballs in the Darkness
    Eyeballs in the Darkness
  • Eyeballs in the Darkness
    Eyeballs in the Darkness

Tux and Fanny

Tux and Fanny (2019, 82 min)

Tux and Fanny are two friends living together in the forest and these are their adventures!

named one of The New Yorker Best Movies of 2019

2019 Ottawa International Animation Festival
2019 Animage Festival
 

  • Tux and Fanny
    Tux and Fanny
  • Tux and Fanny meet a stray cat
    Tux and Fanny meet a stray cat
  • Tux can't play the piano with his bone fingers
    Tux can't play the piano with his bone fingers
  • Tux goes missing so Fanny makes a new Tux out of clay
    Tux goes missing so Fanny makes a new Tux out of clay
  • Turkey
    Turkey
  • password: home
    All of the episodes compiled into one video

Sylvio

80 minutes, 2017

SYLVIO is a feature film about a small town gorilla who is stuck in his job at a debt collection agency. Deep down he just wants to express himself with his hand puppet, Herbert Herpels, and his puppet show that highlights the quiet moments of life. He accidentally joins a local TV program and a series of on-air mishaps threaten to shatter his identity, sending him on a journey of self-discovery.

SYLVIO was filmed entirely in Baltimore and funded from a Kickstarter campaign. The film premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival and went on to play over 20 festivals worldwide. 


“This charming lo-fi indie is attuned to its own eccentric wavelength, equal parts absurd and poignant. A cult following for this bizarro effort seems quite possible." -Variety

"Exquisite yet uproarious. Sylvio is, at heart, a tale of independent artistry and its snares. The result is a generous, achingly tender comedy. -New Yorker

  • Sylvio waves
    Sylvio waves
  • Sylvio and the horses
    Sylvio and the horses
  • Sylvio in jail
    Sylvio in jail
  • Sylvio and Al Reynolds
    Sylvio and Al Reynolds
  • Sylvio trailer

Trillium

Peals (William of Future Islands + Bruce of Double Dagger) and director Albert Birney played “Trillium” for students at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School and asked them to write stories while listening to the song.


There was only one constraint: each story begins with “The woman in the room…”


Trillium brings the kids’ stories to life. The woman in the room transforms into a dinosaur and chats with a wise talking pelican. Leather-jacket-wearing bad boys, “weird alien cat-things,” peaceful apples, and money-shooting water guns all make noteworthy appearances. The video includes scenes from 17 stories written by the students, along with footage of them writing in the classroom.

To capture the 5th graders’ imaginative worlds, director Albert Birney took a purposefully lo-fi approach to the props and sets. Some costumes and props were modeled on students’ drawings, including the paper maché head of Moophette, the “weird alien cat thing.” Similarly, the visual effects were created mainly in-camera, using a mix of silent-movie-style jumpcuts and multi-layered projections. The interplay between multiple projections, minimal set design, and a black and white color palette sets a dreamlike stage for the video.

  • The students write
    The students write
  • Moophette, the weird alien cat thing
    Moophette, the "weird alien cat thing"
  • The prompt
    The prompt
  • Writing
    Writing
  • Peals - Trillium
    We played the song for 5th-graders. They wrote while listening. We filmed their stories. Director: Albert Birney Produced and conceived by Peals Camera: Dave Cooper Cast: Cricket Arrison, Valerie Orr, Students of Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School

The Night Fish

The Night Fish (2018, 9 min) I found an old book of beautiful fish illustrations. I wanted to make a short film about the thoughts that keep me up at night. 
  • The Night Fish
    The Night Fish
    (2018, 9 minutes) "Plunging into the depths of existential despair but maintaining a co-existing levity and self-awareness, this beautiful lo-fi animation, merges with rousing sound design and music, to leave a haunting impression."
  • The Night Fish
    The Night Fish
  • Time is nothing for the fish
    Time is nothing for the fish
  • Inspired by a fever dream I had as a child
    Inspired by a fever dream I had as a child
  • THE NIGHT FISH
    (2018, 9 minutes) I was having trouble sleeping so I imagined all of my thoughts were fish and made this film.

Buzzer

Buzzer (2018, 8 min 40 sec) I found a dead fly under my table. I put it in a ziplock bag. Four years later I found the bag in a desk drawer and made this film. 

"An ordinary fly just trying to live a simple life."

Music by Jimmy Joe Roche and Alexander Borodin

  • Buzzer
    Buzzer
    The lonely fly surveys the city below.
  • Buzzer - Kitchen
    Buzzer - Kitchen
    The fly exits the kitchen
  • Buzzer - Bike
    Buzzer - Bike
    Bee on a bike
  • Buzzer - Street
    Buzzer - Street
  • Buzzer - password: buzz
    password: buzz

I Can Hear The Trains Coming

I Can Hear The Trains Coming (2011, 3 min) For this video I covered myself in tape and danced around, imagining I was a planet. All of the animals are animated from the Animal Locomotion series by Muybridge from 1877. 
  • I Can Hear The Trains Coming
    I Can Hear The Trains Coming
  • I Can Hear The Trains Coming
    I Can Hear The Trains Coming
    Inspired by Muybridge's Animal Locomotion series frmo 1877
  • I Can Hear The Trains Coming
    I Can Hear The Trains Coming
  • I Can Hear The Trains Coming
    I Can Hear The Trains Coming
  • I Can Hear The Trains Coming

It Feels Like Forever

It Feels Like Forever (2018, 18 min) It's Christmas Eve and Chamfort is all alone in his big house by the ocean. But he's not lonely. There's plenty of things to do to keep busy, an endless amount of things to do to pass the time. Would you like a tour?


Written and Directed by Albert Birney
Starring Ben O'Brien
Produced by Marnie Ellen Hertzler
Sound by Chester Endersby Gwazda
  • It Feels Like Forever
    It Feels Like Forever
    Christmas Eve in an empty house
  • It Feels Like Forever
    It Feels Like Forever
    Chamfort
  • It Feels Like Forever
    It Feels Like Forever
    Penny, the goldfish
  • Danny Dolphin Plays the Piano
    Danny Dolphin Plays the Piano
  • Chamfort's favorite movie is KURT AND EGGBERT
    Chamfort's favorite movie is KURT AND EGGBERT
  • password: penny
    It Feels Like Forever

The Beast Pageant

The Beast Pageant (2010, 74 minutes)

A feature film about Abraham. Abraham lives deep in the heart of an idustrial wasteland. His only companion is a giant machine. Inside the machine is a man and a woman who take care of Abraham's every need. Abraham drifts through life until a tiny singing cowboy bursts from his stomach and leads him into the wild. 

Filmed on a 16mm Bolex camera rescued from a dumpster behind Johns Hopkins Hospital. All sets made from paper mache and cardboard. 


Official selection 2011:
Slamdance Film Festival
Maryland Film Festival
San Francisco Independent Film Festival
Detroit Independent Film Festival
Boston Underground Film Festival
Byron Bay Film Festival
Buffalo Niagara Film Festival
Plastic Paper Film Festival
Santa Cruz Film Festival
Sonoma International Film Festival
Lund International Fantastic Film Festival
Arizona Underground Film Festival
  • The Beast Pageant
    The Beast Pageant
  • Zeke, the singing cowboy that bursts from Abraham's stomach
    Zeke, the singing cowboy that bursts from Abraham's stomach
  • The Watermelon Man
    The Watermelon Man
  • The Beast King
    The Beast King
  • Directing the Trees
    Directing the Trees
  • password: nobudge