Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

This post was written by DOC NYC blogger Beyza Boyacioglu

FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH: THE TOMI UNGERER STORY editor Rick Cikowski, left, and director Brad Bernstein at DOC NYC.

Director Brad Bernstein’s FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH tells the story of the illustrator Tomi Ungerer, whose life is spread across two continents and whose work jumps between a focus on children’s literature, activism and erotica. The film is not only a retrospective of Ungerer’s remarkable work but includes skillful animations of the artist’s illustrations that bolster the narrative. These animations change form and style fluidly, marking the different chapters in Ungerer’s life. Ungerer was born in Strasbourg in the region of Alsace–which changes hands between French and Germany during his life–but starts his career and spends his youth in the US. Over the course of his life, he makes a family in Canada, finds peace in Ireland and finally ends up back in Strasbourg. In every city he moves to, his work transforms immensely.

Even though they belong to separate artistic realms, Ungerer’s children’s books, his political posters and his celebration of sexual revolution seem to revolve around one anecdote about his mother. During World War II, Alsace was annexed by Germany, leading Ungerer and his siblings to be schooled under the Nazi regime. He recalls how he had to learn German in only four months because speaking French was strictly forbidden. His mother, however, never stopped speaking French to her children, causing them to almost get arrested one day. When questioned by a Nazi about her “disloyalty,” Ungerer’s mother responded, “If no one speaks French, then how are we going to rule France when we get it?” Her witty response allowed her to escape punishment and even earn special “French-speaking permission.” Her principle of being true to what you believe in but also being clever enough to survive seems to resonate in the themes of Ungerer’s work.

Soon after he moved to New York to begin his career, Ungerer was commissioned by a children’s book editor. One of the protagonists in his illustrated books was a snake named Crictor, a rebellious move since a snake was never considered a proper character for a children’s book. In the film, author Maurice Sendak mentions Crictor as a revolution in children’s literature, which paved the way for many other books, such as his acclaimed “Where the Wild Things Are.” After Crictor, Ungerer created many other characters from usually “detested” animals in order to prove a point: “You can always find success with what you have.”

Ungerer’s interest in illustrating inequality was informed when he encountered extreme racial segregation during a trip to the South. That journey sparked a politically charged series about racism in the US and the war in Vietnam, named “Underground Sketchbook.” In this work, Ungerer employed the blunt “fist style” of Nazi aesthetics, which he had internalized as a child during Nazi indoctrination.

While dealing with political inequality and liberation, he was also drawn to another critical issue of the time: sexual revolution. In his work “Fornicon,” Ungerer illustrated astounding “machines replacing sex” as an homage to eroticism. To him, erotica was another form of liberation, and he did not shy away from the subject even after being harshly criticized. As a result, he was exiled from children’s literature world for more than twenty years. But despite being shunned by that world, he never stopped creating his work.