Paul Rodriguez – Flowers

Flowers
Flowers (2010, 52 MB, 3:16 min)

I really hated this piece, a music video for Former Ghosts,
the first time I saw it, although I’d previously enjoyed work
by Paul Rodriguez and posted some here.
My first impressions were confirmed by a trawl through
the publicity material surrounding it:
“A naked dude gets peed on in this disturbing clip from the electro-goth
project led by Freddy Ruppert. Director: Paul Rodriguez….”

which seemed a tad..er..calculating
I was so bemused by how much I took against the piece
that I watched it several times over to try and analyse my reactions
and the more I looked at it the more the sheer deftness,
care and feel for the medium with which it is made began to
prevail over my dislike of the content.
Rodriguez confirms himself a filmmaker of real talent, with a great eye
and superb attention to detail.
I’m not sure someone possessed of his gifts needs to work so hard to
make us look his way but I remain very interested to see where he goes next.

More Steven Ball

ex Local Authority
ex Local Authority (2005, 156 MB, 6:59 min)

Over the Borough Island
Over the Borough Island (2009, 63 MB, 1:51 min)

Two longer pieces from Steven Ball some of whose
Direct Language pieces we posted here last week.
Both pieces are great but I have particular soft spot for
ex Local Authority which, although I’m sure it
has all sorts of potent intellectual justifications for being is also,
quite simply, austerely & melancholically gorgeous.

Ask Vatne Brean –Two Short Movies

Freely Improvised Music With Digital Effects On Analog Wind Instrument In Depth Against Painted Directed Italian Reality Game Show On a Flat Screen
Freely Improvised Music With Digital Effects On Analog Wind Instrument In Depth Against Painted Directed Italian Reality Game Show On a Flat Screen (2009, 20 MB, 3:27 min)

Small creatures everywhere looking for adventures
Small creatures everywhere looking for adventures (2009, 14 MB, 2:24 min)

But not short titles eh Ask?
Work of skill, verve, charm & oddness from Ask Vatne Brean
about whom I know nothing , except I think he is Norwegian.

Update: He is Norwegian & is an 18 year old
music student.
Impressive & somewhat scary – I look forward to seeing how his
work develops.

core duo riddim – abe linkoln

core duo riddim
core duo riddim (2006, 23.8MB, 3 min)

Music video from awhile back by abe linkoln for ‘core duo’
an experimental-y, electronica-y, dance-y kind of outfit.
Good stuff !

Steven Ball – Direct Language

Direct Language 2.4
Direct Language 2.4 (2006, 6.5 MB, 2:55 min)

Direct Language 4.5
Direct Language 4.5 (2007, 7.5 MB, 1:20 min)

Direct Language 2.4
Direct Language 3.0 (2006, 1.5 MB, 52 sec, silent)

Strange fragments of worked over reality which
lodge in the unconscious like splinters.
From Steven Ball’s excellent Direct Language
project – well worth spending some time there.

More recent work from him soon.

Annie Abrahams – Squad

squad
Squad (2009, 32 MB, 3:18 min)

Utterly bonkers* & totally splendid video documentation of a performance
by Annie Abrahams, Colette Tron et Emmanuelle Delafraye.
Annie Abrahams performs the movements whilst the others
read texts on the subject of fear, garnered, I believe, from the internet.

* in a good way; committed, unafraid, vulnerable, generous.

Jason Miller – Fall Was Kind

fall was kind
Fall Was Kind (2009, 40 MB, 2:57 min)

Well, we’re a season out, but it somehow feels altogether
appropriate to feature this bit of tranquil & melancholy loveliness
on a holiday day like today.

(Made, BTW, by yet another School of Athens alumnus, Jason Miller)

We’re going to take a short break ourselves now, but we’ll be back,
batteries fully re-charged, on January 4th.

We wish everone a happy & peaceful holiday season.

Sondheim – 2 Short Dance Loops

poseurs
Poseurs (2009, 2 MB, 3 sec silent loop)

twitchch
Twitchch (2009, 5 MB, 6 sec silent loop)

Two short pieces by Alan Sondheim, with Azure Carter
and Foofwa d’Imobilit

Jonathan Beards & Alex Gordon-Shotton
– Dance Pieces

Shadow Dance
Shadow Dance (Alex Gordon-Shotton, 2009, 15 MB, 7 sec silent loop)

Liquid Dance
Liquid Dance (Jonathan Beards, 2009, 192 MB, 5:55 min)

Two more great dance related pieces, sophisticated &
beautiful both, from Tees/Art/Blog last year.

Annette Hollywood – Stuttgarter Filmwinter Trailer

filmwinter trailer
Stuttgarter Filmwinter – Trailer (2009, 6 MB, 58 secs)

Adding with distinction one feels to the, perhaps hitherto
somewhat sparsely populated, genre of German-Art-Country & Western
is this quite splendid trailer from Annette Hollywood for the annual
Stuttgarter Filmwinter festival.
The subtitles are in Schwabian, the local dialect, and we
reproduce both Engilsh and Schwabian lyrics below.
Photography is by Anna Go, all else by Ms Hollywood.
Fab.

for a shooting cowboygirl like me
in the cold desert of artscenery
filmwinter is like a warm campfire
and makes filmworld much higher

they bombard you with prices of honour
like this arty wolperdonger