DARK ROOM:
Still from Las Nogas, 2023
Catya Plate
An Animated Ecological Short Film Trilogy
June 14 - July 26, 2025
In 2009, stop-motion animation became Catya Plate’s preferred medium to bring her Clothespin Freaks universe to life and use it as a metaphor for upholding environmental awareness. She applied all her visual arts skills and learned new ones to make her ecological short films.
Over the course of ten years (2013-2023), the artist and filmmaker produced an award-winning stop-motion animated short trilogy based on her meticulously handcrafted puppets, costumes, props, and sets to create a world with diverse quirky, empathetic creatures, who are coming together as an allegory for us humans to team up too, to create social agency and combat climate change.
Her wildly imaginative, beautifully handcrafted sci-fi adventures that blend humor, heart, hope, and a powerful environmental message, are cautionary tales that celebrate animal ingenuity and the importance of species survivalism. They champion empathy and collaboration as being crucial elements for achieving global unity and emphasize the contributions that women make toward improving society.
Catya is currently in pre-production on Alma, her first stop-motion animated feature film that follows up on Las Nogas.
Hanging By A Thread (2013)
It’s the future, and humanity is but a memory, existing only in scattered pieces. That is, until a pillow's needlepoint rendering of three individuals, collectively known as the Clothespin Freaks, finds the spark of life and surfaces to fulfill their destinies. Once aware of their purpose, the group begins assembling the remains of humanity.
USA, 2013, stop-motion animation, 9m55s, English, 16:9, HD.
Meeting MacGuffin (2017)
LF (short for Lost & Found), a cheerful female animated sign takes the unfinished Homeys to an underground “Lost & Found” laboratory where a team of quirky, ingenious characters provides the Homeys with missing body parts and prepares them for their mission to restore balance to the desert Earth. USA, 2017, stop-motion animation, 9m58s, English, 16:9, HD
Las Nogas (2023)
500 years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant Vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain - the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness. USA, 2023, stop-motion animation, 19m32s, English, 16:9, 4UHD.
ARTIST BIO
Born in Barcelona, Spain, and raised in Germany, Catya Plate is an award-winning artist, writer, filmmaker, and producer who came to New York in 1987 through a Fulbright Scholarship for post-graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts. In 2009 she created Clothespin Freak Productions to bring her characters to life through award-winning stop-motion animated films. Known for “Cultivating Innovative Feminist Socio-Environmental Stop-Motion Animation”, Catya has been reviewed and featured in The New York Times, Animation World Network, and Animation Magazine, among others. Her films screened and won awards at renowned film festivals like Oscar-qualifying Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival and New Hampshire Film Festival. In 2023 she received a prestigious NYC Women’s Fund Grant by NYFA/MOME for Las Nogas – the final short in the ecological trilogy. In 2024 she received a Puffin Foundation Grant for Alma, her animated feature currently in pre-production.
In 2024, Catya was a Finalist for the Lynn Shelton “Of A Certain Age” Grant with Alma and was singled out for an Honorable Mention by the jury.
In addition to screening her films and exhibiting her art projects, she’s been an active speaker on film festival panels, an invited filmmaker to animation industry conferences, a juror for film festivals, and an educator of stop motion animation workshops at universities.
Catya lives in Brooklyn with her husband Todd, and dog Clover.