Stephen Quay
Directing

Stephen Quay

Born 17 June 1947 · Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
+ Follow

Stephen Quay was born in 1947 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA. He studied illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art and later continued his education at the Royal College of Art in London, where he met his twin brother Timothy and began collaborating in animation. Together, they founded Atelier Koninck and produced their first experimental short films in the late 1970s. Throughout his career, Stephen has directed and co-directed short films, feature films, and stop-motion projects, including Nocturna Artificialia (1979), Street of Crocodiles (1986), Institute Benjamenta (1995), and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005). His work is characterized by dreamlike, detailed, and symbolic worlds, often using dolls and carefully crafted objects to create surreal and unsettling atmospheres.

Known for

Street of Crocodiles
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
The Falls
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
The Comb
Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
In Absentia
This Unnameable Little Broom
Nocturna Artificialia
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
Postscriptum. Ruminations on My Craft
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Ghosts and Whispers
VadeMecum
11 Preliminary Orbits Around Planet Lem
The Doll's Breath
Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
Maska
Wonderwood: Comme des garçons
Kinoteka Ident
Phantom Museums: The Short Films of the Quay Brothers
Eurydice: She, So Beloved
Alice in Not So Wonderland
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003
The Phantom Museum: Random Forays Into the Vaults of Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection
Songs for Dead Children
Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
In Absentia
The Sandman
The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
The Summit
Anamorphosis
Stille Nacht III: Tales from Vienna Woods
Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
The Comb
The Calligrapher
Ex Voto
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
Rain Dance
Tales of the Brothers Quay
Street of Crocodiles
This Unnameable Little Broom
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film
The Falls
Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy
The Eternal Day of Michel de Ghelderode
Nocturna Artificialia
Stephen Quay · Midrow