Harry Smith was an American artist, experimental filmmaker, folk music collector and mystic. His film work is considered to be some of the greatest avant-garde work of the 20th century. Here are the first 2 parts of 4 showing some of his early animation from 1941 – 1957.
Author Archives: Cimaxion
Crime Stories: Trust
By Ingela Richardson
The author lives with her daughter at the seaside in a rambling, crumbling house full of dogs, cats, an ancient grandmother and an equally ancient retainer who all speak foreign languages.
Adult Themes
Trust
The young girl was sleeping, her face and hair so pale under the luminous lights that the teacher held her own hand against the girl’s mouth to feel if she was still breathing.
The hospital was deathly silent with pools of light at other beds and the nurse’s station, but there were no other occupants and the nurse was fetching coffee.
“She’s okay,” a voice said and the teacher actually jumped backward in surprise, so deep had been her concentration on the girl’s face.
“Sorry,” the man apologized and extended a hand, “I’m Doctor Smith.”
“Smith?” she said, for want of anything better to say and shook his hand. He shrugged and lifted the girl’s heavily bandaged arms.
“You see?” he said, “If she were dead, the pathologists would be saying she had raised her arms against the knife in self-defense”.
“Against whom?” the teacher asked.
Film: Prénom Ernesto
Marvelous movie! Prénom Ernesto was made by Gabriel Dib and it stars Ernesto Salles as Ernesto and Debora Gaspar as Anna K. It’s in Portuguese and I don’t understand more than several words of it but I don’t have to. It’s a wonderful film that is inspired and heavily influenced by the work of Jean-Luc Godard. The filming of traffic at the beginning of the film is a Godard signature, the gunshots on the soundtrack, the sudden on-screen titles and the quote from Godard that goes, ‘All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun.’ That’s essentially what this film is about. It’s shot with that casual sense of people interacting with objects that Godard perfected in the early sixties. Dib has made a very careful and productive study of Godard’s technique and uses it in a way that shows how fresh and modern it still is.
Animation: Forget Me Not
Mew Lab animation brings us this lovely short film that combines live action and animated photographs to tell the story of an old woman who remembers her imaginary childhood friends. Forget Me Not, directed by Kim Noce, features excellent use of the photo cutout technique and a wonderful soundtrack.
Medieval Battle Animated with Toys
Here’s a dramatic medieval battle, pitting East against West, with knights, horses, swords, shields, spears and archers… all animated with toys. This is another stop-motion film from Toyman Studios.
Art Film: The Offering
A film for artist Wendell Mc Shine’s upcoming show, The Offering. There’s just something about good drawings in a book with crinkly paper.
1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast in Toy Animation
I am on a roll of discovery tonight! Here’s the perfect film to kick off the Halloween season for 2010. This is a recording of the legendary 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater. But Toyman Studios has animated the entire thing with toys! Toy sets, toy people, and amazing toy battles! It’s beautiful. This is just the perfect way to tell this story now. I want more from Toyman Studios!
Stratos Fear – 1933 Animation by Ub Iwerks
Oh my gosh! Who has seen this before? A masterwork by the great original Disney genius, Ub Iwerks. A trip to the dentist turns into a fantastic space ride for young Willie Whopper.
Short Film About Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
I always think that films about Disney films are better than Disney films. Here’s a new one. In case you didn’t know, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit came before Mickey Mouse.
Super-Secret Artist Banksy Defaces The Simpsons
Emerging in utmost secrecy from his well-hidden fortress of urban art, Banksy has brought his/her unique brand of urban art-terrorism to The Simpsons. Last night’s episode featured an opening sequence directed by the incognito artist. We see the Banksy logo painted across a billboard and then the sequence suddenly takes us into what looks like an asian sweatshop of animators working on Simpson’s animation and making Simpsons toys. My favorite part is the suffering unicorn.
Most people are caught completely unaware by the artist’s secret nocturnal visits to leave behind images that provoke. However, I can’t imagine that the producers of The Simpsons were unaware of Banksy’s activities. The only person who seems unaware is some mid-level Twentieth Century Fox employee who keeps taking the videos down from YouTube for copyright violation. Would it be permissible for someone higher up at Twentieth Century Fox to take said employee into the parking lot and run over that person’s mouse hand with a Humvee?
Update: The higher-ups at the studio appear to have listened and graciously disabled the meddling fingers of whoever was deleting the video from YouTube. So posted above is the Simpsons opening in all its glory.
Photo: False Sunset
Film: Turf Dancing in the Rain
From Yak Films and director Yoram Savion comes Dancing in the Rain. The street is in east Oakland and the dancers are No Noize (red jacket), Man (back jacket), BJ (striped shirt), and Dreal (white shirt).
Via Dangerous Minds
Short Story: The Ripper On the Bowery
By Steven G. Farrell
celtic-badgerontheborder.com
An homage to the Bowery Boys movies of the 1930s! This is a wild, humorous and slightly chilling yarn that takes us through the alleys of New York’s Bowery as a group of young hooligans known as the Bowery Irish Clowns tries to stop a killer who seems a lot like a certain Jack the Ripper.
The Ripper on the Bowery
“I got to get on safe ground before the Ripper hits the streets,” Shem fretted out loud as he made a dash for it as soon as the doors of the elevated train opened.
Clarence Darrow Shaw, aka ‘Shem,’ member of the Bowery’s Irish Clown social club and an infamous loafer of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, disembarked the 3rd Avenue Elevated Train at Canal Street. He had spent another fruitless day seeking an executive position on Wall Street; now it was time to get back to his real occupation: goofing off with the other Bowery’s Irish Clowns. The job-hunting façade was just a scam to keep his old man at bay in the Shaw family’s tenement apartment. He would do anything to keep his parents from yelling at him. It usually worked. After coughing-up the fare to and from the city Shem had just enough of the money he had bummed off his Ma for a coffee and piece of pie at “Hughie’s Bohemian Café,” the official hang-out for Bugs and the other Clowns. Hughie Kressin the ancient Yiddish-spewing innkeeper of the Bohemian Café, was an easy touch in spite of all of his ranting at the Irish corner boys who cluttered his place. Shem knew he wouldn’t feel secure until he was with the gang. The Ripper wouldn’t dare step into the holy grounds of the café. Hughie was particular about the quality of the people who stepped into his establishment.
“Gee, Bugs will understand why I can’t get my career off of the ground,” Shem said out loud as he descended the stairways of the station. His moronically bug-eyed looks and mumblings always drew stares. He just knew his folks would start harping on him about going back to his old gig at the Fulton Fish Market. “They’re both nothing but Irish harpies.”
Shem drew a bead on Hughie’s just down the block but his vision was blocked when his Dodgers baseball cap fell over his eyes upon his collision with Squirt Sheridan, the tough newsboy who worked the corner and who was a sworn enemy of the Bowery Irish Clowns. Squirt was known for carrying a switchblade knife.
Spectacular Video of Homemade Spacecraft Flight
This is private space flight at its best. Luke Geissbuhler spent 8 months researching how to launch a small weather balloon with a camera that would travel to the edge of space, take video of the trip, and return the camera safely to the ground! Incredible and fascinating to watch. You’d be amazed at how many things there are to understand about a simple balloon that is constructed to stay within the legal requirements of the Federal Aviation Administration. You also won’t believe how far this thing went. The video of the Earth is like what you see from the Space Shuttle.
Online Book Scan of Stories From the Arabian Nights
The Internet Archive has a beautiful scan of Stories From the Arabian Nights, by Laurence Housman with illustrations by Edmund Dulac.
It contains the following stories:
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Story of the Wicked Half Brothers
The Story of the Princess of Deryabar
The Story of the Magic Horse
The Fisherman and the Genie
The Story of the King of the Ebony Isles
The History of Badoura, Princess of China, and of Camaralzaman, the Island Prince
The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp