John Durbin
John Durbin is an animator and musician. His most memorable projects include being on the team at Moonbot Studios for "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore." Which won an Oscar in 2011 for Best Animated Short. He was also the animation lead on "The Boy Who Learned to Fly," a short film about Usain Bolt.
Durbin provided animations for visual artist Nick Cave's live performance in Shreveport, Louisiana. Through his childhood connection with Andy Cope, he was asked to work on The Jonah People for Hannibal Lokumbe, which has been a wonderful and exciting experience.
Outside of animation, Durbin spends his time working on electronic music and visuals under the moniker Body Mechanics. He loves performing music with a visual component and hopes to let audiences get lost in dancing to nightlife-inspired soundscapes.
He is now currently working for Blind Squirrel Games, providing various animations for different games, and plans to release his own skateboarding game sometime in the future.
Artist Impact Statement
I love getting involved in passion projects with artists who have a strong impactful vision. I reconnected with my childhood buddy Andy, and was introduced to Hannibal. As soon as Hannibal shared his vision for the animation, I instantly could see what his imagination was trying to manifest. It’s a heavy piece of work and I’m honored to be a part of adding some history to a world that tries so hard to look the other way on its devastating past. Even though I only contributed a small component of the work, it’s had a profound impact on me and has been massively enlightening. Like the animation itself, I hope it shines some beauty in a story with so much injustice. As an artist it feels like a major accomplishment to share a vision and have artistic peers feel moved by the final work.