Animator Benny Zelkowicz Takes the Broad View on Exploring Creativity

By Melissa Starker, creative content and PR manager at the Wexner Center for the Arts

A lecturer in Ohio State’s Advanced Center for Computing and Design, Benny Zelkowicz is an animator whose credits include The LEGO Movie, The Simpsons and the children’s series Lunar Jim. He’s also written several children’s books and has performed with Gallery Players.

Zelkowicz’s latest project is a deeply personal short about traditional Jewish burial rituals, The Sacred Society, created with sand animation. Ahead of the film’s March 4 premiere at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Zelkowicz discussed his range of creative work and his experience with the religious practice that drives his new work.

Melissa: You’ve pursued a unique combination of creative outlets. How did you get started in each?
Benny: I grew up in a family of musicians, so the idea of performing was always there. I fell into theater when I was maybe 13 and I absolutely loved it. I did it all through high school and in college a bit. I started making animated short films in high school as well.

In college, I was studying neuroscience as an undergrad and decided that wasn’t what I wanted to pursue. I started working in animation, so I moved out to Los Angeles to pursue that. And in L.A., you don’t really dabble in acting—you do it or you get out of the way.

I was also writing. I wrote a series of children’s novels and various scripts to pitch. As the novels were being published, my wife got a job in Columbus. Then I started teaching and working on my own stuff here, animation-wise. And I also realized there was an opportunity to get back into theater after not having done it for so long.

A scene from The Sacred Society

Melissa: Would you share the personal experience that gave birth to your new short, The Sacred Society?
Benny: Before I started working at OSU, I felt a need to be productive in some way. I was somewhat inspired by the shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where I’m from. And I’ve been curious for a while about volunteering with the Chevra Kadisha in the local community, cleaning and preparing bodies ritually for burial. It was a chance to do something that felt a little scary, that would make me confront things that otherwise I have been fortunate enough to not have to confront.

I started volunteering with a couple of local synagogues and I started journaling about the experience, because I knew it was going to be something that was going to affect me in ways I couldn’t anticipate. I realized that when we didn’t have a call for a while, I had this weird sense of almost missing it, and I began to interrogate that because it didn’t strike me as being ghoulish. So, I talked to some other people who have been doing it for a while about what brought them to it, how it changed their perspective on things. I recorded some interviews and wasn’t sure what to make of it. Then I thought, maybe this is a new film.

Melissa: What appeals to you about working with sand as a medium?
Benny: In grad school, we had a class where every week was a new assignment with a different medium. I had seen some sand-animated films that I liked but I never tried it. I remember the week [of a sand assignment], I think every other student in the class stepped out going, “Thank God I never have to do that again!” And for me, it just clicked. I’ve never been satisfied with what I can do with a pencil. With sand, I felt like it was easier for me to find my own voice.

Benny in Indecent at The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio

Melissa: How do these different pursuits fulfill you as an artist?
Benny: I wouldn’t say this is true about animation in general, but sand animation is very solitary. Writing can be like that, too. I can’t say that I enjoy the process of writing so much. But the novels that I wrote were in collaboration with a good friend, so there was a lot of bouncing ideas back and forth and trying to push each other further.

And theater is incredibly collaborative. At its best, there’s the feeling that everybody is pulling in the same direction, and everybody supports what everybody else is doing. I consider myself fairly introverted, but that is the time where I can step out and do a little bit of, “Look at me,” and then I can go into my dark room and push sand around.

There’s also the musical that I’ve been writing in collaboration with someone, which is based on a book, The Golem’s Gift, that I wrote solo and illustrated with sand. It’s an amalgamation of everything that’s been simmering on the stove for a long time. We just got an NEA grant. It’s going to happen next year.

See The Sacred Society and other shorts from Benny Zelkowicz on Tuesday, March 4 at the Wexner Center for the Arts. To learn more about Benny and his work, visit bzelk.com.

This article is part of a bi-weekly column brought to you by the Greater Columbus Arts Council as part of the Art Makes Columbus campaign. Explore a calendar of events, public art database and artist stories at columbusmakesart.com. To learn more about GCAC grants visit gcac.org.