A Gobelins production of a film by Nicolas Athane, Meryl Franck, Alexis Liddell, Andres Salaff, and Maïlys Vallade.
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.
Digital Underground in the People’s Republic of China
Rachel Tejada shot and edited this film about independent and underground film in China. It was produced by dGenerate Films. It’s in six short parts and covers the basics of independent film festivals and efforts to make films that will somehow survive the oversight of the repressive government. I post this out of a measured interest, but I cannot overlook the depressingly passive sadness of everyone who so much as glances into the camera. They consistently refer to themselves as independent filmmakers or underground filmmakers. Underground they may be out of necessity, but they are most certainly not independent. They are comfortably passive and have an absolute zero level of confrontation or rebellion in them.
I cannot muster significant respect for billions of people who want to express themselves and flourish but do not ever make the decision to pick up their totalitarian government leaders and drown them in the sea. You can talk to me until you are blue in the face about your independent cinema, but until your cameras shoot something I’m not listening.
Parts 2 – 6 after the jump
The Future of Art
How is technology changing the way we make, view and distribute art? Gabriel Shalom made this film by interviewing artists at the Transmediale festival 2011 in Berlin, Germany. It was produced by KS12.
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.
Rising to High Places – 1963 Documentary On Office Buildings
A great example of mid-twentieth century English pride in… office buildings! This is a 1963 production of the Rank Organization. My depressing view on modern city skylines, regardless of how beautiful they may be at night, is that all those magnificent towers are simple stacks of flimsy cubicles and low ceilings with ugly lighting. Modern cities are nothing more than support structures for desks.
The Secret Identity of Author B. Traven
B. Traven was the mysterious best-selling author of the novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which was made into a classic film by director John Huston in the 1940s. But who was B. Traven? The mystery surrounding his identity remains fascinating to this day. There have been many theories about who he was, whether he was several people, whether he was an expatriate German or perhaps even the President of Mexico. People in the film world apparently thought they would have meetings with him, but were then informed that a representative would show up. But was the representative actually B. Traven?
When an artist hides his or her identity many theories develop. Modern figures who have cribbed from Traven’s playbook are the novelist Thomas Pynchon and the painter Banksy who really have no reasons for remaining anonymous beyond the artistic jolt that a secret identity personally gives them. It’s not the crooks that interest Batman after all – it’s the secret identity. A secret identity makes you better in every way because it turns you immediately into a work of art. All artists should be mysteries. At the very least, they should tell lots of lies.
I present this post and its excellent documentary as part of my preparations for an upcoming film. Getting the right mood.
Part 2
Parts 3 – 6 after the jump.
Get Down With Hamlet in a Graveyard
From Shake, Mr. Shakespeare (1936).
Robert Mapplethorpe’s Life Work Given to Los Angeles Museums
As I was driving yesterday, I was thinking about my latest film work and muddling through half-formed thoughts about how, whether anyone likes it or not, Los Angeles is the center of art in the United States. New York has become too much associated with the 20th century’s industrial approach to art. Los Angeles, it seemed to me inside my comfortable car, is where it’s at.
Well, there you have it.
Enjoy the gift, Los Angeles, because you’ve earned it.
If you want to learn a lot more about Mapplethorpe and an incredible drive for artistic expression, read the National Book Award winning memoir by Patti Smith, Just Kids.
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.
Evolution Made Us All – A Film by Ben Hillman
An informative and lovely little film by Ben Hillman for all the nitwits out there who think the earth is only around 5,000 years old.
Nightlife in a Puddle – A Film by Fabio Scacchioli
Fabio Scacchioli is an Italian filmmaker who turns ordinary shots on Super 8 film and video into magical and mystical pieces about memory and all that it does for us. I am always impressed by his work and how he finds the perfect moments to let glimmer through the haze to catch us unaware. I maintain that as we move further into the 21st century, we are developing a new cinema completely removed from the theatrical aspects of the last century’s cinema. It is filmmakers who do not try to make films that look like American features who will make the new cinema. Filmmakers making films that look like American features are looking at forms as outmoded as 19th century theatrical works were during the age of the early silents. The new cinema is as natural and immediate a form of expression as writing or painting.
I know that Scacchioli is currently working on something new and I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’ve posted about Scacchioli’s work before.
Tribune-American Dream Picture – 1924 Surrealist Film Contest Winner
In 1924, the Oakland Tribune and American Theatre held a contest in which people submitted their dreams. The winning dreams got made into films and the dreamers won $25. This surreal piece came from a dream submitted by Mrs. L.L. Nicholson. It more closely resembles a dream than many films since then, including Hitchcock’s Spellbound. It involves a couple on a trip and a missing baby.
Poet Richard Brautigan Reading Aloud
Richard Brautigan was one of America’s best poets. Here he is reading poems from his collection called The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.
I found this via Marc Campbell at Dangerous Minds. He has some fascinating posts about how this poet was a major influence on his own life and work.
Horse Glue – A Film by Stephen Irwin
Stephen Irwin is the animator behind this horrifically beautiful and mysterious film. Its heart is located right in the deep dark forests of fairytales, but its story is a conflagration that puzzles even while it astounds. Irwin slyly weaves two films together inside an old cathode ray TV tube to create his fascinating hybrid horror.
I posted about this filmmaker’s previous film, The Black Dog’s Progress.
You can visit the filmmaker’s site at SmallTimeInc.com.