"Snack and Drink" by Bob Sabiston and Tommy Palotta of Flat Black Film is the latest in a series of animated documentary shorts, starring Ryan Power, an autistic teenager in Austin, Texas, obsessed with cartoons. His mother thought it would be interesting for him to see himself as a cartoon. It took about a month to complete. When Ryan saw the completed animation, he watched it three times in a row and pronounced it "pretty ok".

"Snack and Drink" is the latest in a series of animated documentary shorts from Flat Black Films. It features Ryan Power, a six-foot tall thirteen-year-old in Austin, Texas. Ryan has the condition of autism: "an absorp tion in self-sentered subjective mental activ ity, especially when accompanied by marked withdrawal from reality." Filmmakers Bob Sabiston and Tommy Pallota follow Ryan to a local con venience store to purchase a "snack and drink." Along the way Ryan describes his fascination with a set of six animated kid's cartoon tapes starring Fieval, the mouse character from An American Tail.

Ryan is a particularly appropriate subject for our animation technique. The dreamlike and fractured nature of our images match the subject matter of his dialog very well. Ryan is a remarkable and en gaging kid-we feel fortunate to have met and been able to film him. His mother initially invited us to do the interview-she told us that her son was autistic and obsessed with cartoon animation. It was her feeling that seeing himself animated would have a profound effect on him. One afternoon in December 1998 we went to Ryan's house to meet and film him. At first he would not consent to being interviewed. Two strangers with a camera probably made him nervous. He disappeared into the back of the house for a while, and we chatted with his mother and sister. Eventually he reappeared and announced that he was going to 7-11, a convenience store around the corner from his house. We asked if we could accom pany him, and he said ok. The whole incident was spontaneous-yet the situation perfectly suited our needs and seemed to relax Ryan enough to talk to us at length. A few days ago I dropped off the finished tape at his mother's house-Ryan has since moved back to El Paso. He has not seen Snack and Drink yet-we are all eager to hear about his reaction to the film.

Snack and Drink is part of our ongoing software/art project. Flat Black Films is actively developing a method of doing animation which retains maximum respect for the individual artist. Simultaneously we are developing software tools to enable artists to express themselves in new ways. The work that results from introducing artists to these new tools is always fresh-they are continually challenged to adapt their aesthetic sensibilities to the new tools. Many mistakes are left in the final work-they show the learning process at work and ultimately contribute to the strength of the piece.