| Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 | |
| Director: | Frank Stiefel |
| Starring: | Mindy Alper |
| Distributor: | IndieWire (online)[1] Grasshopper Film (US)[2] |
| Runtime: | 40 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Frank Stiefel. Its subject is the artist Mindy Alper. The film earned a nomination for Best Short from the IDA Awards, and won both audience and jury awards at both the Full Frame Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival.[3] It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 90th Academy Awards.[4] [5]
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 is a film created from more than 20 hours of interviews between the film's subject, Mindy Alper, and director Frank Stiefel. Alper is a visual artist who channels her inner anxiety, depression, trauma and other demons into vivid drawings and papier-mâché sculptures.[6]
The title comes from Alper, who says that one of the only situations in which she feels at home besides art is sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.[7]