At the age of 13, filmmaker Jim Trainor began making animated films and his medium has changed little since then: black magic marker on white paper, filmed on 16 mm. His films have been shown internationally at important festivals and biennales, as well as in well-known museums and other contexts: Whitney Biennale, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Sundance Film Festival, New York Animation Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. He has received awards from the San Francisco International Festival, Black Maria Film Festival, and the New York Underground Film Festival. In 2000, Jim Trainor accepted a teaching position at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago.