Primordial Creative

The Last Days of Phil Ochs - an animated documentary in his own words (Patreon)

Published:

2019-12-20 02:59:59

Imported:

2026-06

Tags:

Phil Ochs animation short film video art

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Content

This is an animated documentary short that I’ve been working on and off with for 2 years, finally edited for what would have been my hero Phil Ochs’ 79th birthday. It’s told entirely in his words and it the story of a humanist and idealist artist at the end of his life and struggling with what ultimately is a suicidal depression.

I'm personally dealing with stuff not that serious, but particularly how we as concerned artists respond to huge cultural issues that our minor creative expressions cannot hope to contend with. I look to my heroes and some survive and keep their heads up, and others like Phil, or Tim Buckley or Nick Drake or Wally Wood, seem to be consumed by the world's villainy, by alcohol, by inherited brain diseases.

Let me know what you think!

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The Last Days of Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs, the humanist troubadour who had a special incisiveness and edge to his creations, was a vital creative voice of the protest era and one of my artistic heroes. He fell into depression and ultimately suicide in the 1970s, in part from an inherited condition, mixed with alcoholism, a declining career and the pressure of reactionary forces in American society. During the Trump era I think often of how Phil was affected by how hard it is to be a concerned artist and feel despair by how ineffectual whatever our methods are for dealing with forces beyond our control. As much as Phil is a hero, he's also a human being and I didn't want to ignore the lessons we could take from the tragedy of his legend. I animated this with Adobe Character Animator, audio culled from numerous sources across YouTube. Help support the work of this channel at Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/davidmiller and see more photography/ art tutorials at http://www.skillshare.com/r/davidmiller