Need Help Identifying IFC Animated Short (Guy Gets Fingers Cut Off)

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Soup90

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Back in, I think '99 or 2000, I saw this animated short on IFC, and for the life of me I can't remember its name or who directed it. But it was a very strange and depressing short, and certain elements of it remained with me.

IIRC, it was about a guy who works in an Orwellian factory. For reasons I forget, he's arrested and thrown in jail, and because he has nothing to do in prison, he makes shadow puppets with his fingers. But the prison guards take him and cut off his fingers, depriving him of his one joy. Then I seem to recall he used some other objects as replacement fingers, so the short has a happy ending... sort of.

Oh, one more clue: It was without dialog, IIRC.

This has been bugging me for years. Anyone know the name of it?
 
Can't remember the name of the short, but I do remember it.

God, those were good times; when IFC aired animated shorts and not, you know, The Long Kiss Goodnight. (Not a terrible film, but certainly not an indie.)
 
What's most frustrating is that I can't seem to find a list of animated shorts IFC has aired. If I could see a list, I might be able to pick it out based on the names. At worst I could go through every entry on the list and imdb them.

Does anybody have a list of shorts that aired on IFC?
I watched IFC a lot in high school. In fact that's where I first saw Clerks. For some reason I haven't watched it very much since then.
 
You are never going to believe this, but the name of the short is..."Shadow Puppets". It's on YouTube.

Watching it again for the first time in years, it's a spellbinding work, and I'd truly forgotten how stomach-turning that fingerless visual was.
 
Wow, that name should've been so obvious.

Thank you very much. Rewatching it... man, that's such a freaky short. The music, the black and white to enhance the dystopian feel, wow.

I'm surprised I remembered that much about the short, but I did get a few mistakes- he wasn't arrested, just going home for the day. And I was ALMOST right on the ending- he doesn't actually get new fingers but uses his toes as shadow puppets. Wonder how long it takes for Big Brother to come and chop THEM off, too.

It appears Chuck Gamble, the director, hasn't directed any other work, or at least nothing that appears on imdb.
 
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