Biography

Evan Mather, FASLA, (b. 1970, New Orleans) is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and landscape architect. He is primarily known for his award-winning films in the genre of web film – specifically the reconfiguration of personal histories and exploration of memory landscapes. Both his 2007 film So What? and his 2020 film Sanctum have received Communication Awards of Honor from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 2008 and 2021 respectively. He is a Graham Foundation recipient for his 2009 documentary A Necessary Ruin. Evan’s works have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Seattle Art Museum, Walker Art Center, National Building Museum, A+D Museum (Los Angeles) and the McMurdo Station (Antarctica).

Applause

Certainly, Mather’s filmography runs the gamut: animation (Fansom the Lizard, 2000), music videos (Aimee Mann’s Red Vines, 2001, and Pavlov’s Bell, 2003), live-action narrative films (“The Trilogy of Tragedy”, 1999–2003), documentaries (A Fool’s Errand, 2004), bizarre portraits of both himself and his collaborators (Clowntime is Over, 2003), open source projects (Agave, 2001–present), fan films (Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars, 1998, et al.) and even a digital take on the Dogme95 manifesto (entitled Dogma 2.0) can all be found within the ever-expanding borders of his bizarre, irreverent and strangely intoxicating cinema.
“Digital Historie(s): The Cyber-cinema of Evan Mather”, Senses of Cinema, April 2005

While most fan films are relatively straightforward homage, Mather’s movies are strikingly original, charmingly amateurish and defiantly noncommercial.
“Amatear Autear Likes It That Way”, WIRED, 6/15/2002

Cinema has Spielberg, television has Bochco, and – thank the Lord – webfilm has Evan Mather. Every medium needs a practitioner who can play to its unique strengths and streamed video gets that in spades with Mather. His work runs from lovably lo-fi animation to this experimental black comedy, about two brothers determined to prove that the Apollo moon landings were faked.
“Cyber cinema”, The Guardian, 6/30/2001

A series of shorts that combines the Star Wars mythos with stop motion action that recalls the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials … the imaginative parodies involve outlandish comedic situtations and host of Kenner aciton figures from the space saga … Mather’s more trenchant and witty films [includes] the exuberant and gloriously sleazy animated short Fansom the Lizard and the live-action subversive conspiracy Airplane Glue.
“Our Takes: Evan Mather”, IFC Rant, May/June 2001

You would probably expect a collection of shorts with titles like Buena Vista Fight Club, Les Pantless Menace and Booger to be a little on the offbeat side, but even so, this set of recent works by animator/filmmaker Evan Mather often proves downright inscrutable. Those expecting straightforward parodies of the “Swing Blade” variety are likely to be disappointed, but adventurous viewers will be rewarded with a cutting-edge mix of traditional stop-motion animation and digitally tweaked weirdness.
“Les Pantless Menace”, Film Threat, 3/3/2001

The delightful and diverse offerings of prolific short film-maker Evan Mather, packed into a single page site, both Mac and PC-friendly. He made his name with surreal Star Wars parodies like Les Pantless Menace, one of a series of lo-tech spoofs stuffed with plastic figurines and disco soundtracks. If these crowd-pleasers leave you cold, try out his funky, rough-edged animations, such as Fansom The Lizard. An excellent antidote to the plague of one-joke Flash cartoons that friends insist on cramming into your email inbox with.
“Cyber cinema”, The Guardian, 8/31/2000

One might contrast this rather down-to-earth representation of Lucas — the auteur as amateur — with the way fan filmmaker Evan Mather’s web- site (http://www.evanmather.com/) constructs the amateur as an emergent auteur. 10 Along one column of the site can be found a filmography, listing all of Mather’s productions going back to high school, as well as a listing of the various newspapers, magazines, websites, and television and radio stations that have covered his work — La Republica, Le Monde, the New York Times, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, CNN, NPR, and so forth. Another sidebar provides up-to-the-moment information about his works in progress. Elsewhere, you can see news of the various film-festival screenings of his films and whatever awards they have won. More than nineteen digital films are featured with photographs, descriptions, and links for downloading them in multiple formats.
Henry Jenkins, “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?”

When film critics and historians look back on the early days of Web animation, we think Evan Mather will be a name whispered in awe. In a collection of shorts, Mather treats you to a world George Lucas never dreamed of—mint-condition Kenner action figures dancing to disco and duking it out with Godzilla (Godzilla Versus Disco Lando). Imagine those same figures in Pulp Fiction and you have Mather’s Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars. He’s no Ray Harryhausen, the legendary stop- motion animator for films such as Clash of the Titans, but Mather’s animation and way with a sound clip are inspired lunacy.
Access Magazine, 7/23/2000