THE QUAY BROTHERS: COLLECTED SHORT FILMS Gets a Blu-Ray Release Date!

The Quay Brothers, or The Brothers Quay as they were introduced to me, have been working in stop-motion for over 3 decades yet most horror fans do not know of them. This could mainly be because their work is in the short film format which is hard to gain a audience outside of film festival circuits. Some light was brought onto them when they made the cover for the Canadian horror magazine, Rue Morgue, back in November of 2005 – along with other stop-motion artists like Robert Morgan (The Separation from ABCs of Death 2) and Jan Svankmajer. Earlier this year, director Christopher Nolan took on the project of compiling some of the shorts from The Quay Brothers over their 30 years of filmmaking in addition to Nolan’s short documentary on the brothers. If you weren’t lucky enough to see this collection, which was only exhibited via 35mm, the good news is that the shorts have been put into a Blu-Ray collection that you can own next month.

From the Press Release

Zeitgeist Films is proud to be partnering with Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas’ production company Syncopy to release THE QUAY BROTHERS: COLLECTED SHORT FILMS, the gorgeous new Blu-ray of work by cult-favorite filmmakers the Quay Brothers, including three films on home entertainment for the first time, as well as Nolan’s short film about the Brothers, entitled QUAY. The Blu-ray is available starting November 24, 2015.

American identical twins working in London, stop motion animators Stephen and Timothy Quay (born 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania) find their inspiration in Eastern European literature and classical music and art, their work distinguished by its dark humor and an uncanny feeling for color and texture. The Quays have been making their unique blend of puppetry and stop-motion animation for over 30 years and have spawned an enormous cult following. Masters of miniaturization, they turn their tiny sets into unforgettable worlds suggestive of long-repressed childhood dreams. 

THE QUAY BROTHERS: COLLECTED SHORT FILMS Blu-ray follows THE QUAY BROTHERS IN 35MM, a national tour of films by the Quays and curated by Nolan (including his short). The Blu-ray will contain the following films – all for the first time on Blu-ray:

THE CABINET OF JAN SVANKMAJER
(1984, 14 mins)

THIS UNNAMEABLE LITTLE BROOM
(or THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH)*
(1985, 11 mins)

STREET OF CROCODILES*
(1986, 21 mins)

REHEARSALS FOR EXTINCT ANATOMIES
(1987, 14 mins)

STILLE NACHT I: DRAMOLET*
(1988, 2 mins)

THE COMB
(1990, 18 mins)

ANAMORPHOSIS
(1991, 14 mins)

STILLE NACHT II
(ARE WE STILL MARRIED?)*
(1992, 3 mins)

STILLE NACHT III
(TALES FROM VIENNA WOODS)*
(1993, 4 mins)

STILLE NACHT IV
(CAN’T GO WRONG WITHOUT YOU)
(1994, 4 mins)

IN ABSENTIA*
(2000, 20 mins)

THE PHANTOM MUSEUM [with new director-approved music score by Zdenek Liska]
(2003, 12 mins)

MASKA [not in previous Quay DVD collection]
(2010, 23 mins)

THROUGH THE WEEPING GLASS [not in previous Quay DVD collection]
(2011, 31 mins)

UNMISTAKEN HANDS [not in previous Quay DVD collection]
(2013, 26 mins)

QUAY – a film by Christopher Nolan [new!]
(2015, 8 mins)

The films marked with an asterisk have an audio commentary by the Quay Brothers

The special digipak packaging will include a 28 page booklet which will contain an introduction by Christopher Nolan, an updated Quay dictionary by Michael Brooke, and an updated essay by film critic Michael Atkinson.