Academy Award®-winner Chris Landreth employs his signature style to tell the story of Dan and Mary and their broken marriage. Through a co-dependent couples’ support group, they dig deep to rediscover their history and the ties that brought them together in the first place.
– Kathleen Mullen

Honourable Mention, Prix Ars Electronica * Toronto International Film Festival

Panel Statement
Chris Landreth’s follow-up to Ryan takes a bold leap across the uncanny valley, using hyper-stylized animation to burrow into his characters’ inner lives. The title of The Spine refers to the backbone grown by the film’s protagonist after the departure of his overbearing wife, but Landreth is ultimately driving towards a different kind of catharsis; the hair-raising money shot, scored to Joe Cocker’s “Bird on a Wire,” is a realistically tragic confirmation of the succour inherent in surrender.
– Adam Nayman

Chris Landreth received a B.Sc and an M.Sc. from the University of Illinois. He worked for several years as an engineer before making the short films The End (95), Bingo (98), Ryan (04), for which he won an Academy Award, and The Spine (09).