Escape by Mary Ellen Bute (1937)

“Escape” by Mary Ellen Bute (1937)

Medium: Film, Electrical Imagery

            When observing the film, I saw that Mary Bute featured several simple shapes.  She utilized squares as a form of a prison but also grid like.  She used blues and smoke for the background that compliment a more night, dark atmosphere within the piece.  It was also used to guide the audience attention towards the red orange triangle, which was the main focus.  The optical illusion of depth was also present in this film; the triangle was placed at an angle to show depth in space.  The lines together formed boxes and diamond shapes which formed a stage of separation between the audience and the triangle.  The bold black strokes of the lines are maneuvered through the piece to form diagonal lines, direction and form.  The repetition of the triangles also forms paths in space and motion.  The spiral swirls within the triangle influences continuation and entrance within the triangle. 

            Mary Ellen Bute created this film with the help of Ted Nemeth, cinematographer and husband. Most of her films were showcased at the Radio City Music Hall.  Mary, being a female pioneer film animator, was a founding member of the Women’s independent Film Exchange.  During those times, Women had lesser rights so she was determined to show the world that women are also capable of creating just as wonderful art as any man.  This was not just encouraging for other women but men that didn’t fit the stereotypes.  When she created the film “Escape” in 1937, she wanted to express the sense of struggling to break out of an entrapment or cage.  Breaking free from the conformities we all are forced to abide by and in her case being a woman in society.  The bars changing from boxes to diamonds exemplifies how society dresses up the expectations but are still imprisonments.  The triangle represents the passion inside herself and others who dared to be different and fighting to break free thus why the title “Escape.”