Sylvio

This special limited edition embossed slipcover (designed by Robert Beatty) is limited to 1,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Music Box Selects is a brand new home video library from the revered independent film distribution company Music Box Films which is dedicated to curating a diverse repertoire of films and television from around the world. The Music Box Selects line will consist of blu-ray debuts of catalog titles and home video premieres, all of which will adhere to the quality and diversity that fans have come to expect from the Music Box name. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

Based on a series of avant-garde vines by creator Albert Birney, Sylvio is the story of Baltimore-based gorilla Sylvio Bernardi’s rise and fall from local TV fame. Sylvio’s droll 9-to-5 is interrupted when he is sent to collect the debt of a small talk show producer, and is mistaken for a juggling guest. The fallout of Sylvio’s clumsy juggling is not just broken vases–the viewers fall in love with Sylvio’s chaotic and destructive ape persona. As a result, Sylvio’s personal preferences for tender puppetry and delicate stop motion are put at direct odds with the character he finds himself playing for his human viewers. As Sylvio’s identity crisis mounts fantasy and reality poetically blur to reveal that he has been fighting the “beast” image for years. Sylvio is a downright lovely and absurdist cult classic that speaks to anyone who fails to live out their stereotype.

directed by: Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley
starring: Sylvio Bernardi, Kentucker Audley, Meghan Doherty, Tallie Medel
2017 / 80 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

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