There is something so magical about taking an inanimate object and breathing life into it—willing something that wasn't there before into being. Puppetry has survived for thousands and thousands of years not only as a form of entertainment, but also as an outlet for interpersonal communication. This beautiful and nuanced art form is powerful enough to mesmerize children and adults alike (hey, Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show aired in prime time, and now look at the success of Avenue Q) and, since puppets don't have human lips, they also carry the unique capability of bridging the language barriers of the world by being incredibly dubbable. Tonight, in the first offering of their second wave of the Avant Cinema experimental filmmaking program, the Austin Film Society highlights the works of two puppetry and animation whimsicologists: Jeanne Stern and Paul Tarrago.

Stern graduated from UT with her MFA in Film and apparently plays the accordion, which makes her automatically awesome in our books, but her talents truly shine in her short films, in which she make use of paper-bit-filled dioramas and fantastical story lines, including mermaids sprouting from kitchen faucets and wacky umbrella-human creatures, to create imaginary worlds of magical possibilities. Her films Les Malaventures de Zut-Alors, Sprout and Piano Mouths are all currently a part of the unendingly cool Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams for Kids, curated in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute's Jim Henson's Fantastic World Exhibition. In a word, Stern is a badass.

Tarrago, also prone to badassedness, has recently screened films at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, European Media Art Festival and the New York Underground Film Festival. Animating hand puppets that take the form of furry woodland creatures, Tarrago places his characters in modern situations and everyday moral dilemmas, working through the pains and strains of the human condition whilst inhabiting the physical bodies of badgers and squirrels. The films that will be shown from his 17-year-catalog of work are yet to be determined, but are sure to please your thinking cap. In his spare time, Tarrago is active with Exploding Cinema, an independent, experimental film collective, and teaches at the University College for the Creative in the UK.