​American animators in the 1970s and 1980s often turned their attention inward, producing personal films that corresponded to the deeply introspective diary filmmakers that formed a key part of the New American Cinema in the previous decade. Representing oneself in a mediated fashion – not only through the moving image but graphically through animation – became particularly important during this period in which more women were active in the field of animation than ever before.

While structural film was the dominant form within the avant-garde tradition at the dawn of the 1970s, animators used shape and structure in a variety of ways that differentiated their works. Robert Russett composed geometric patterns and colour sequences in complex rhythms to create his pulsing, abstract films. Paul Glabicki created incisive, analytical works that explored objects through image, language, form and movement, drafting stunningly complicated sequences by hand.