Independent Film Festival Boston 2009

Director Harrod Blank in attendance.

Art cars are cars that have been modified to become vehicles of self-expression, as well as transportation. Some are painted, some have objects affixed to their exteriors (like spoons, or pennies), and some have had their very bodies radically changed to take on new shapes, such as a giant hamburger, telephone, or statue of Saint Mary.

The genesis of AUTOMORPHOSIS was the desire of filmmaker (and art-car creator) Harrod Blank to find out what motivates people to make their vehicles unique, beautiful, unorthodox, and/or ridiculous. Driven by an appropriately eccentric and entertaining score, the film is a wild journey on which we meet art-car creators from all over the U.S. The individuals are variously nerdy, patriotic, punk, melancholy, goofy, pretentious, self-mocking, self-involved, idealistic, and independent. One is struck by how personal each car is; since most are owned and driven by their artists, the genre is almost purely a folk art, unmitigated by commercial concerns.

AUTOMORPHOSIS is humorous, and entertaining, but it is also moving and, at times, inspiring. Beneath all of these individuals and their stories run two common threads: the validity of variety; and the potential we all have to shape our surroundings, rather than be shaped by them. By the film’s end, you’ll be planning possible modifications for your own car.

- Kyle Parrish