Help us raise $20,000 for the completion of TICKS

Justin Curfman is an award-winning animator/filmmaker, author, artist, and musician, who is best known for being the vocalist for the dark indie/post-punk band, Feeding Fingers. Curfman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended The Art Institute of Atlanta. In 2010, Justin moved to Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Curfman began his creative career as a stop-motion animator. Curfman's first film was Zugskin (2003). The short film was received with a bit of confusion by the art, animation and avant-garde film socieites Curfman had associated himself with at the time - not knowing if the film should be considered a piece of art, horror, or pornography, with its unusual amalgamation of insect and masturbatatory puppet imagery within a miniature, dream-inspired, claustrophobic envinronment.

His second, and most known film, Tephrasect (2004), won Curfman his first award for Best Animated Film at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Best Animated Film at the Muuuvi Film Festival in Lazarea, Romania, among others, and continues to be screened in festivals and cult communities all over the USA and Europe. The creation of Tephrasect occupied nine obsessed, non-stop months of Curfman's life, where he lived on a strict diet of pasta, baked potatoes, and water once a day for the duration of the production. Curfman slept for four hours per night and worked exclusively in his squalid childhood home - a dilapidated bungalow in a suburb of Atlanta, which has since been demolished.

His third film, Platelets: Lepidopteraphage (2006), combining stop-motion puppet animation integrated into computer-genertated environments, netted him The David Lynch Award at Cinerama 2006 in Florida. The film also introduced Curfman's assisted-eating device, The Lepidopteraphiator - a cervical collar with a light bulb at the end of an adjustable metal arm which can be attached to one's neck and used to lure insects into one's mouth for nourishment. Curfman directed a two-minute commercial to advertise the device in 2009, which featured Jewish cultural commentator, Patrick A. from PunkTorah and Can Can , Melissa Butzer (wife of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Butzer), Sharron Scott - Von Hoene (vocalist for Cinetrope), Stephanie Roman and Devon Stawkowski.

His first feature length production, TICKS, has been in production since 2006, with an anticipated release in 2011. Curfman has only released very vague comments about the film in scattered interviews, with regard to its content and themes - limited to scrambled eggs, laminating machines, lottery numbers, photobooths, and references paralleling many of the lyrics found in the Feeding Fingers song, "Manufactured Missing Children", from the album "Wound in Wall" (2007).

TICKS is, by far, Curfman's most expensive (modestly budgeted at $20,000) and ambitious film project to date, with five years of production behind it in the face of ongoing fundraising, personal and professional difficulties. Curfman released a ten minute preview of the film to the public as a sign of gratitude an reassurance to his donors and fans that despite the struggles along the way to the completion of TICKS, that he remains dedicated to the project. The preview shows real growth in Curfman's rather unconventionally primitive, yet understatedly sophisticated stop-motion animation technique, as well as displaying a more advanced grasp of computer animation integration into his unusual and personal world with a slightly more narrative approach than in his previous work.

Feeding Fingers will be recording the soundtrack for TICKS as well. The group will perform the soundtrack live in unison with the film on various festival circuits and solo engangements.

Curfman has also released two books: Catalog of Absurdity (2004), a collection of short stories and sketches that were left out of his animated work, while Expiration Date (2005) is a graphic novel based on a Christmas story, written by Curfman, about the relationship of a father and his daughter and their shared interest and admiration of dehydrated kittens, urine, and domestic violence shared amongst the two of them against the wife/mother figure of the household.

Curfman founded the band, Feeding Fingers in 2005, originally with Todd Caras (bassist) and Danny Hunt (percussionist). Todd Caras was replaced with Kris Anderson in 2009. Since then, the band has toured the USA and Europe, released two critically successful studio albums, Wound In Wall (featuring the anthemic, "Fireflies Make Us Sick" - with a music video directed by animator, Steven Lapcevic and "Manufactured Missing Children" - with a music video directed by Daniel Dikov) and Baby Teeth, one live album, Anything But Water and a much-anticipated upcoming third studio album, Detach Me From My Head due for release September 28, 2010. The group is currently being set to embark on a worldwide tour to correspond with the release of Detach Me From My Head. A more detailed history of Feeding Fingers can be found on Wikipedia.

JustinCurfman.com and FeedingFingers.com exist primarily as fundraising and promotional outlets for Curfman's various projects. All work created by Curfman has been financed by private donors and through the sales of merchandise and art objects found here. Feeding Fingers is not and has not ever been signed or supported by a major label since its inception. All published work from Curfman has been self-released in cooperation with various sources in the USA and Europe. Everything has been made possible by the ongoing support of private individuals and partnerships with people like Stickfigure Recordings and others.

Funding for TICKS is being sought through the continued sales of Feeding Fingers merchandise, Justin Curfman's art and publications, private donations, sponsorships, fellowships, and not-for-profit grants. Any suggestions or help is welcomed.

You support is essential. We thank you.

Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions:

justin@justincurfman.com