Jay and Mark Duplass – The Puffy Chair (2005, 6.3MB, 2:14)
Debut feature from the Duplass brothers, a few years
old, and part of the Mumblecore filmmaking movement,
which I seem to be partial towards.
Category Archives: narrative
Rubber Band Hand – Brian Liloia
Rubber Band Hand (2005, 21.4 MB, 2:47 min.)
A young man discovers the limits of his newfangled
rubber band hand. From – Brian Liloia.
Keep On Smoking
Michel de Broin – Keep On Smoking (2006, 8.2MB, 2:51)
Absolutely hilarious video for a fantastic piece of interactive art.
I thought I was going to end up with a statement about
smoking cigarettes with I came across Michel de Broin’s
Keep On Smoking.
But completely unrelated, de Broin says this:
As an alternative to petrol, this custom-made bicycle
transforms kinetic energy produced by the cyclist into smoke.
The will to power is a renewable energy resource that can be
recuperated by a power generator supplying enough electricity
to operate a smoke machine. The work is the result of two
coupled machines; the one human is productive and the other
machine, consumptive. This coupling of machines produces smoke,
a waste energy that is liberated freely in the atmosphere.
A Good Joke – Nick Fox-Gieg
A Good Joke (2005, 18.5 MB, 3:16 min.)
This short is based on an old joke, a perennial in compilations of
Jewish humor. Although the details differ between versions, the
scene remains the same: a priest challenges a rabbi to debate on
the spiritual condition of Jewish people. But neither speaks the other’s language.
Commissioned by Project Mosaica, by Nick Fox-Gieg.
Doron Golan – Forgot
Forgot (2008, 98.3MB, 12:06 min, silent theatrical act)
This is simply wonderful.
Doron’s work is strange – it doesn’t lend itself to blow by blow verbal description:
er..‘Some actors perform in a silent movie based on Waiting for Godot‘
Then you actually look at it (or if you haven’t you should, you really should).
The grammar of his editing is completely unique & mysterious (a feature of all his longer pieces).
‘Why did he do that?’ – ‘Dunno – but it made my spine tingle’
Work like this often slips under the radar because it has no easy marketing line,
it can’t be glibly summed up, reduced to an easily digestible one-liner.
Work like this is food you have to chew a little…but what flavour & what nourishment!
Also, the acting ( and the director/actor collaboration) is outstanding.
Smart, funny, puzzling, touching by turns…and generous also…
With Theodore Bouloukos, Joanne Douglas, Brian Gibson and Stephanie Noritz
Flat Earth – Thomson & Craighead
Flat Earth (2007, 22 MB, 7:08 min.)
“Flat Earth is a desktop documentary, which takes the viewer on
a seven minute trip around the world so that we encounter a series
of fragments taken from real peoples’ blogs. These fragments are
knitted together to form a kind of story or singular narrative.”
from Thomson & Craighead.
Aileen McCormack – Carla Cope
Carla Cope (2004, 14.5 MB, 5:30 min.)
‘In loose response to 9/11, a woman in New York talks about
her life against a backdrop of old film footage. She describes in
circuitous manner two of her ex-boyfriends who were first responders.
A pulsing beat provides the driving rhythm of urban life’.
From ‘Too Much Freedom’ by freewaves.org
Sporkworld Lumières
Lawnmowing (2008, 3.9MB, 35 secs)
Mowing in February
Our Special Mowing in February Lawnmowers
are not the of the ordinary electric rotor,
gas-powered self-propelling,
or even hand pushed whirligig
human powered variety.
Our Mowing in February models
come with specially-equipped
permanently mounted plows
suitable for use by the most dedicated
lawnmowing enthusiasts
from September through May
in those clim’es so specially endowed
to understand the meaning
of a ‘Three Season Plow’
Martha Deed
Scraping (2008, 1.9MB, 58 secs)
Millie Niss & Martha Deed’s Sporkworld project is sui generis – entirely unbeholden to
fashion or cool & standing in a long & broad American tradition of such stubborn
(& sometimes even eccentric) beauty.
Their latest wheeze & a vastly effective one it is too, is the Sporkworld Microblog
which integrates many formerly slightly disparate areas of their activity – poetry, still
& moving imagery, filthy humour, a sense of life’s transience & tragedy & utter strangeness,
into one coherent, constantly unrolling whole.
Formally too, they are smarter than smart, as anyone with eyes will surely see –
they’ve taken the splendid Lumière form & integrated it beautifully.
It fits them like a glove.
Lawnmower in particular seems to have been crafted by a 21st century
suburban Breughel.
Almodovar – Volver trailer
Volver trailer (2006, 30 MB, 1:38 min)
A long time ago I sat stony faced and unmoved through the much lauded
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown & concluded,
quite wrongly, that Almodovar was not for me.
In 2006 about him by Bob Light in the UK Socialist Worker
prompted me to go & see his latest movie, Volver,
& I’m so glad I did – it’s simply magnificent.
Since then I’ve done a bit of catching up.
Goya’s Stories – Doron Golan
Goya’s Stories (2006, 26.4MB, 3:38 min)
Three Goya paintings – La Maja Desnuda (Nude Maja), El Rey Carlos
Cazador (King Carlos dressed as a hunter) and Autorretrato (Self-portrait) –
are brought to life by three present-day stand-ins. The beauty of the piece is
that none of the three people from the present day is an obvious
equivalent for the painting alongside which he or she is placed.
The least satisfactory of the three is the Maja. Goya’s nude is both
more blatantly sexual and less conventionally glamorous than the
equivalent we are given here. On the other hand the Carlos and
the Autorretrato – respectively a a wild-haired gaunt ceramicist
fingering a three-cornered pot, and an imposingly fat middle-aged
man half-naked at the seaside – do replicate the powerful combination
of individual character and human fallibility which comes across from
the Goya originals.
Edward Picot
Doron Golan has constructed contemporary stories from Goya
paintings, using people whose resemblance to Goya’s subjects is
striking.
One need not be familiar with the masterworks themselves to enjoy the
whimsical – at times, poignant – real life portraits constructed from
the paintings. Michael Szpakowski’s music intensifies the mood and detail of
Golan’s video. Like ekphrastic poetry, the video and music carry viewers into a
deeper exploration both of the paintings and the stories spun from
them.
Martha Deed
Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary)
Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary) – (2006, 65.8MB, 6:05)
From the excellent Media That Matters, powered by Arts Engine,
a short film from the Media Matters Film Festival 6.
Submissions are soon due for the 8th annual online festival.
Since I saw much of 6 on the big screen last year,
I’m reposting some of the most striking pieces.
All pieces are made by youth or other independent producers,
all under eight minutes.
This stalkumentary is also a 72-minute documentary,
cut down here to reach a wider audience.
Stories like these make so much sense to me,
being from a similar area, similar background.
Poignantly done, this is a lovely piece.
I also happen to really like asparagus.
Body of War
Body of War (2007, 16.8MB, 2:30)
Trailer for the forthcoming documentary about
paralyzed Iraqi veteran Tomas Young’s fight to tell
the truth about the war.
Sad and informative, not to be missed.
Produced by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue,
original music by Eddie Vedder.
Dog Toothed Jewels
Dog Toothed Jewels (2004, 44.1MB, 7:20 min.)
Strange art fairy tale from artist Jerelyn Hanrahan,
seen at the VIII Digital Colloquium
in Havana last June.
I like the narrative drive of this piece which,
coupled with the intensely personal, almost arcane,
iconography, gives it a quite unsettling character.
Ceiren Bell – Baobab
Baobab (2007, 56.1MB, 1:56 min)
Lovely piece from UK based animator Ceiren Bell.
Although one can see the influence of Kentridge
(& how can anyone serious avoid him?)
she is clearly her own person.
I look forward to more.
What Would Jesus Buy?
Trailer for ,
a documentary about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping,
produced by Morgan Spurlock.
I’m not convinced that Spurlock is the man to spread a good message,
but I sure would go to any church where Rev. Billy showed up.
DRIVE THE DEMONS OUT OF THOSE CASH REGISTERS!!
Steven Ball – Snow Factory
Snow Factory (2006, 6.41MB, 53 secs)
Lyrical whimsy, which sounds lightweight, but isn’t.
It’s beautifully made by Steven Ball and has a strange
gravity not unreminiscent of the less dread-saturated
(I hesitate to say “more playful”) end of Kafka…or
Ben Marcus, perhaps…
Bathtime in Clerkenwell – Alex Budovsky
Bathtime in Clerkenwell (2002, 15.3MB, 3:14 min)
Alex Budovsky aka Aleksey Budovskiy created this great animation
based on Stephen Coates ( aka (The Real) Tuesday Weld‘s) song of the same title.
This film is about The Great Revolution of the British Cuckoos,
who bravely took over London, forcing all the people to move
inside the cuckoo clocks.
Doll Face – andrewhu
Doll Face (2007, 27MB, 4:12 min.)
Popular video from YouTube. 1,733,368 views (as of Oct. 29th)
Smolarski/Langager – <em>Robert Roth's 'Health Proxy'</em>
Readings from ‘Health Proxy’ (2007, 32.7MB, 8:19 min.)
So..declaration of interest..Robert Roth is a friend of mine & I get mentioned in the book.
Nonetheless, if he was my worst enemy, I’d still say watch this, then .
Health Proxy is pretty much sui generis..the only comparisons I can think of being those fragmentary, diaristic things in the Japanese tradition:The Pillow Book or Essays in Idleness.
Of course Kenko & Sei Shonagon never wrote about baseball or AIDS,
nor were they animated by the massively warm oppositional & radical spirit we find here.
The video is a nice job too – not only is it elegantly made, but Langager and Smolarski
pass the documentary acid test of honouring their subject matter whilst still creating
something with a palpable sense of their authorship.
pouringdown – fever dream
pouringdown – fever dream (2007, 24.5MB, 3:42 min.)
Always truth in art from pouringdown.
If only we had more folks like this in the world.
Charlie Mars – 3 Musicians
guitarist (2005, 7MB, 1:13 min)
from Charlie Mars. The -um – videomaker from outer space.
Mimi, Jack & Anna
Mimi, Jack & Anna (2007, 14.6MB, 2:09 min.)
‘About half way through this, I realised I was unconsciously structuring it with the work
of Jacques Rivette in mind. So it’s a kind of tiny tribute to a master.
The music is my arrangement for Tuba Quartet of the Pixies’
Is She Weird? played by Tubalat on their Hall of Mirrors CD.
Thanks to them & thanks to Anna, Jack & Mimi.’
from Michael Szpakowski.
a beauty !
Hal Hartley – Fay Grim trailer
Fay Grim trailer (2007, 10.7MB, 1:54 min)
In the case of Hal Hartley I feel so at odds with the world’s
apparent consensus that I fear for the balance of my mind.
Why is he not feted as one of the world’s smartest & most inventive directors?
Why did folk briefly seem to understand in the early nineties that something
special was going on, then bizarrely seem almost immediately to forget about it?
It beats me, it defeats me.
Here is the trailer for Fay Grim, touted by some as Hartley’s return to form
Me I think he never lost it.
Yes – it has moments that feel eggy, awkward and mystifying but
then so does La Divina Commedia.
Joseph Chomiak – point of view
point of view (2006, 11.3MB, 2:06 min.)
A silent B/W short by Joseph Chomiak –
a terrifying story of a man that finds a viewfinder that can look
into another time and place. From undergroundfilm.
William Kentridge
We brought you an extract of this piece by
William Kentridge a while back .
Now here’s the whole piece, courtesy of Lumen Eclipse.
Not only is it exquisitely made, you would have
to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it.
Joseph Chomiak – down and out
down and out (2006, 15.3MB, 2:35 min.)
A silent comedy from undergroundfilm.
by Joseph Chomiak.
Wind Along the Coast – Ivan Maximov
Wind Along the Coast (2003, 47.8 MB, 6:50 min.)
A lyrical and funny story about the hard life of a village on the coast
suffering from the high winds.
The project was made possible by funding from the Russian ministry of culture
and the ‘Gubernia’ foundation of social culture programs.
Music: D. Kramer – A. Kuznetsov (after ‘Sea Journey’ by Chick Corea)
(thanks Genia).
Tyler Coburn – Fashion Victim no. 92
Fashion Victim no. 92 (2005, 19.8 MB, 6:10 min.)
Commissioned by Amy Prior and extracted from her short story
of the same title. From Tyler Coburn.
By Mica Scalin.
A Series of Practical Performances in the Wilderness (1)
waiting on bob (2005, 5.7MB, 1:56 min.)
move this rock (2005, 12.5MB, 3:56 min.)
stick like snakes (2005, 5.5MB, 1:54 min.)
Chapters 1,2,3 from the DVD ‘A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness’
by Cary Peppermint and Christine Nadir.
This is very smart work indeed – it references, or better evokes, ideas & precedents
& techniques from all over world culture high & low & I’m sure this is conscious.
The thing is, a bit like the effect of C5’s short history of virtual hiking,
featured here last year, the rather knowing formalism of it all & the dry
keep-your-distance wit ironically somehow create a space for a deeply traditional
romanticism about nature & the landscape to sneak back in.
Not a criticism. Me, I love it.
Gotta Catch’em All
Gotta Catch’em All (2006, 21.2MB, 3:50 min.)
‘A fun little short film I did at CCS with the help of my cousins Jack,
and Kaitlyn. This is CG character animation composited over video..’
by Mark DeRidder.
Improv Everywhere – Jumper
Suicide Jumper (2005, 8MB, 4 min.)
Improv Everywhere strikes again.
This is a video of a sketch performed,
unannounced, on the streets of NYC.
By Mica Scalin.
Between You and Me – Patryk Rebisz
Between You And Me (2005, 30 MB, 4:20 min.)
Short movie shot with still camera.
Written and directed by Patryk Rebisz.
Chinese Shorts
‘Train’ by Yang Zhi Fei (2005, 1.8MB, 1:02 min)
‘here and there everywhere’ by Wang Weijie
(2005, 0.7MB, 1:00 min)
‘camera 0’ by Ying Jian (2005, 1.8MB 1:00 min)
‘city space’ by Wei Na (2005, 1.8MB 1:01 min)
Four recent Chinese shorts featured on the
(rather confusingly organised) theoneminutes.org site.
(Which site also boasts the rather alarming archive
category: science and miracles).
The site’s quality control is a bit variable,
however these four are great – despite image
quality not being brilliant, their sparkiness &
originality sing through.
Shootin’ for Love by Matthew Page
shootin for love (2005, 30.1MB, 4 min.)
From the Moving Image Arts Department at the College of Santa Fe.
Written and directed by Matthew Daniel Page.