Choreography for Copy Machine

All of the film's images were created solely by using the unique photographic capabilities of a photocopier to generate sequential pictures of hands, faces, and other body parts. It achieves a ghostly, dream-like aesthetic with elements of the sensual and the absurd.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chelwhite.com/photocopy-cha-cha/|title = Photocopy Cha Cha | Chel White|date = 3 September 2013}} Completed in 1991, it is widely considered the first noteworthy animated film to use this technique.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-xerox-invented-the-copier-and-artists-pushed-it-too-its-limits|title = How Xerox Invented the Copier and Artists Pushed It to Its Limits|date = 21 November 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ilianfilm.com/cinema-history.html|title=Cinema History}} (See Xerox art for historical context.)

For the film, Chel White developed a customized set up that could achieve the level of detail he was looking for in the images. After removing the platen cover, four side lights were added along with a top light that would shine through a sheet of frosted glass, allowing for his subject peoples’ silhouettes to be visible. In order to avoid potential eye damage from the bright light of the scanner, he instructed his performers not to open their eyes as they were being scanned. Instead, White painted eyes on their eyelids.{{Cite web|url=https://www.awn.com/animationworld/what-are-all-those-paint-men-digging-choreography-copy-machine-photocopy-cha-cha|title = What are all those paint men digging? - ' Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha)'}}

The Washington Post describes the film as a “musical frolic which wittily builds on ghostly, distorted images crossing the plate glass of a copier.”{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/08/30/movies/3910b217-e835-4373-8820-63aa76040e0c/ |title=MOVIES |date=1991-08-30 |author1=Richard Harrington |newspaper=The Washington Post |place=Washington, D.C. |issn=0190-8286 |oclc=1330888409}} Filmfest DC calls it, "true art in the age of mechanical reproduction; a rhythmic celebration of a photocopier’s cinematic potential." The Berlin International Film Festival describes the film as “a swinging essay about physiognomy in the age of photo-mechanical reproduction.{{Cite web|url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1992/02_programm_1992/02_Filmdatenblatt_1992_19923179.php|title = Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha) | Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cah) | Fotokopie Cha-Cha}} The Dallas Observer says, "(The film) takes a game we've all played with our hands, faces, and other body parts and raises it to the sublime." The Austin Chronicle writes, "(The film) pulses with a grinding sort of ghostly sexuality.”{{Cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2003-08-08/171978/|title=Here Come the Judges}} Alive TV says, "Your relationship to your copy machine may never be the same." And Entertainment Weekly says, "Chel White’s (Choreography for Copy Machine) ”Photocopy Cha Cha”, featuring rubbery, photocopied images of faces and assorted other body parts, is a reflection on the way technology alters our perceptions."

• Special Program – 2001 Sundance Film Festival{{Cite web|url=http://history.sundance.org/films/2320/choreography_for_a_copy_machine_photocopy_cha_cha|title = Sundance Institute}}
• Best Animated Short Film – 1992 Ann Arbor Film Festival{{Cite web|url=https://mubi.com/en/awards-and-festivals/ann-arbor?year=1992|title=Ann Arbor Film Festival | Chel White|date=15 January 2025}}
• Gold Plaque – 1992 Chicago International Film Festival{{Cite web|url=https://chelwhite.com/biography/|title=Bio | Chel White|date=15 January 2025}}
• First Place – 1992 USA Film Festival
• Official Selection – 1992 Berlin International Film Festival[https://www.berlinale.de/en/1992/programme/19923179.html Berlinale 1992]
• Official Selection – 1991 Rotterdam International Film Festival[https://iffr.com/nl/iffr/1992/films/photocopy-cha-cha IFFR]
• 23rd International Tournée of Animation{{Cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1991/09/13/23rd-international-tournee-animation/|title = The 23rd International Tournee of Animation|magazine = Entertainment Weekly}} (1991)

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://chelwhite.com}}
• {{IMDb title|id=0295517|title=Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha)}}

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Category:1990s American animated films

Category:1991 films

Category:Xerox art

Category:American animated short films

Category:American avant-garde and experimental short films