Czech animator Karel Zeman made this film almost entirely with glass in 1948. A glass blower finds inspiration inside an imaginary water drop.
Category Archives: Short Films
Red Riding Hood Meets Frankenstein – A Film by Ricky Lewis Jr.
Here’s a humorous tribute to the Universal horror films of old. It was directed by Ricky Lewis Jr. and features a forest, an inn, Frankenstein, Red Riding Hood, an invisible man, vampires, fog and various comedic chills. The production has a large cast who give themselves over entirely to the mood of the piece. There’s a nice underground vibe to the proceedings and the effects are surprisingly good.
Monologue Under White Light! – A Film by Samira Eskandarfar
A ravishing beauty from Iran! Look at this mysterious and subtle film by director Samira Eskandarfar. Her figures drift through time and space in a stage setting that seems open-ended and universal. The underlying themes and messages are probably far more complex than I can ascertain without a proper understanding of Iranian culture. But the film stands as a mysterious and slightly harrowing glimpse into the progress of attraction, love and communication between individuals. The characters, played by Kazem Sayahi Saharkhiz and Faranak Miri, engage in mundane conversation, offer each other drinks, smoke cigarettes, make eyes at each other, play music on a tape recorder and disappoint each other in all the little ways of a normal life. But they seem symbolic of something greater and perhaps very much to do with the filmmaker’s Iran. There are some amazing artists working with enormous expressive power in Iran. Samira Eskandarfar is one of them.
By the way, the filmmaker is also a painter.
Visit the filmmaker’s web site.
The Thumbsucker Cutter – A Film by Philip Brett
Philip Brett’s short film is an unsettling hybrid of puppets and animation. It’s dollhouse weird, full of shadows and garish colors, blood and clowns. Horrific. It’s based on the tales of naughty children by Heinrich Hoffman. The music is by the Vendetta Orchestra.
The Last Harvest – A Film by Heidi Phillips
Canadian experimental filmmaker Heidi Phillips made this little ghost story film that could almost as easily be called a memory film. Mike Everleth over at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film has some good comments in his review of the film.
Rockboistwo – Street Art Film by Marvin Tiberious
‘It ain’t about being the best. It’s about being multiple.’ Marvin Tiberious makes the best films about street art that I have seen from anywhere in the world.
Edge of the Universe – A Film by Justin Rosewell
Justin Rosewell made this odd little science fiction tale about a young man who senses something wrong with the world.
The Last City on Earth – Brilliant Sci-Fi Animation by Ricardo Mercado
Ricardo Mercado made this fantastic machinima-like science fiction film about a city in a perpetual state of war and an outsider who has a message to deliver. It’s wild and beautiful and really feels like science fiction!
The Olive – A Film by Samira Eskandarfar
Samira Eskandarfar made this beautiful and mysterious film in Tehran, Iran. It features childhood memories, sensations and impressions of family and love for a grandmother.
Roland’s Adventures in Wonderland – A Film by Istvan Horkay
Artist Istvan Horkay made this strangely mesmerizing film that combines Alice in Wonderland, the elephant man, 19th century theater, silent film, modern computer graphics, children’s illustration and digital readouts. There are three films going on at the same time in a beautiful triptych.
Culture Shock, Level One – A Film by Bill Mousoulis
Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film posted a film by Bill Mousoulis called The Experimenting Angel. I liked it. So I’ve posted another of Mousoulis’ films. It features Jennifer Levy who returns from a long absence to Australia and feels dislocated while visiting a city. She wonders why the people seem so ‘deflated’ as they wander through various public/corporate spaces like malls. The film captures something increasingly common worldwide which is that quiet, blank, but seemingly normal behavior encouraged by any structure designed and erected with a corporate idea behind it. We all know how we are expected to behave when we walk past a row of Gaps, Starbucks, Banana Republics and Wetzle’s Pretzels. We obey. We perform the routine and go about our business making sure that we are perceived as correctly normal. We are guests in someone else’s house, even in our public spaces. We behave like new guests, ingratiating ourselves to the dome camera in the ceiling. The cell phone is the absolute symbol of complete obeisance to the corporate superstructure looming above us. We are told to engage in meaningless chatter while we walk, drive, breathe, eat, date, watch movies, run, bike, and work. We are told to do this until it seems like normal and seems to make perfect sense. It is as logical as being told to drop a penny on the ground every third step for every day of your life. Steve Jobs tells you to leave him a penny on the ground every third step of every day of your life… and you damn well do it. You know how many times Steve Jobs uses a cell phone during an average day? None. Why? Because he’s much smarter than you are.
It is Not the Same Thing – A Film by Kathy Choi
The Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles is posting films made in its youth film class structured around the concept of work. The students made films about how they view jobs and work. It’s a great idea for a film class and throws the students into a very mature thought process. I really like this very fine film by Kathy Choi, Ce N’est Pas La Meme Chose (It Is Not The Same Thing). She lets a woman from France compare the working life there to the life in America. There are fascinating and sharp observations made about how the French worker simply wants to be efficient and get the job done within the regular day contrasted with how the American worker is expected to show a willingness to stay longer and ‘look’ more busy or dedicated.
Having closely observed American corporate office life I can attest to the phenomenon that is the actual ruling principal behind the entire American economy: at all costs one must always look busy.
The sad fact of our current jobless recovery is that an enormous percentage – probably in the 50% range – of all corporate American jobs are totally and completely unnecessary and should not exist. In other words, those jobs should not come back because they are fake. They are occupied by people spending the vast majority of their time looking busy, talking busy, pretending, and doing next to nothing.
The French view which holds a job to be something limited and something to do efficiently and well, while not allowing it to overwhelm one’s life strikes me as a very mature and reasonable view.
This little film is exceedingly good and reminds me of Godard.
Impressions Gothenburg – A Film by Anders Weberg
Shot with a Nokia N8 mobile phone, Anders Weberg’s film is multi-layered trip through a night dreamscape. He seems to form landscapes of diffused glowing light.
Facts About Projection – A Film by Temujin Doran
Filmmaker and projectionist Temujin Doran made a film about his love of his work in a small London movie theater.
Via Brain Pickings.
Tokyo Night Trip – A Film by Luciana Botelho
Luciana Botelho turns cab rides in Tokyo into a gorgeous abstraction that maintains its romantic atmosphere flawlessly. What I like about these films is how the filmmaker seems able to surrender herself to a particular time and place over the extended period of time necessary for making the film. Not an easy thing to do. I’ve posted about this filmmaker’s work before.