sundance

EXTINCTION: It’s all around us

How long will it take a plastic bottle or bag to biodegrade? How long will it take for greenhouse gas emissions to raise atmospheric temperature 2-4 degrees? How long can we ensure the safe storage of nuclear waste? All of these questions are central to current environmental debates, and, of course, all involve consequences that none of us will live to see. The “seventh generation” approach to judging our actions gives us a sense of the long view, but may not ultimately provide a ton of motivation: we don’t know those people, after all.

Of course, not all environmental issues revolve around long-term impacts: it’s taken a relatively short amount of time to create ocean dead zones because of increasing nitrogen pollution, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from larger amount of plastic in our waste streams. We’ll see other species go extinct in our own lifetimes while we watch our own population balloon. Sure, we should consider the needs of future generations, but we can look around ourselves right now and see the consequences of refusing to consider ourselves a part of the greater natural order.

Driving in cars with dogs — A cinematic dedication

Dogs in Cars from keith on Vimeo.

As a person deathly allergic to cats, I’ve had it with all you cat lovers clogging my Internet sinuses with all your cat videos and image macro memes! The distinction between cats and dogs was best elucidated by Christopher Hitchens who passed away over the weekend. He wrote, “Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are god.” It’s about time someone let the dogs out (how terrible was that song by the way?) and New York filmmaker Keith Hopkin created just the thing to kick off the dog days of the Web with his latest short film.

BUNDLED, BURIED & BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: short doc about the physical landscape of the Internet

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors from Ben Mendelsohn on Vimeo.

I guess Senator Ted Stevens really was onto something when he described the Internet as a series of tubes. Ben Mendelsohn created this masterful short documentary, BUNDLED, BURIED & BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, that pulls back the curtains to give us a fascinating look at the actual, physical infrastructure of the digital “cloud” that we increasingly inhabit (and which permits the existence of lolcats). “He takes us inside 60 Hudson Street in New York City, a nondescript building that houses one of the major nodes of the Internet on the east coast.” I’ve walked by this building many times throughout my eight years in NYC (Can I call myself a New Yorker yet?) – probably even while writing a tweet – but without realizing I was passing the main hub that makes this whole Twitter thing possible.

Must watch: The Internet Story

Internet Story from Adam Butcher on Vimeo.

After making the festival circuit the past couple years, Adam Butcher’s short film, THE INTERNET STORY, was finally posted online – and it’s caused quite a stir. Using a variety of techniques and media, it’s an absolutely brilliant, must-watch ten minute experimental short film…

Four minute film about the LITTLE BOAT that could

Little Boat from nelson boles on Vimeo.

CalArts student Nelson Boles created this beautifully animated, four minute short film LITTLE BOAT. It has a tremendous visual and emotional depth for a deceptively simple concept, story and style. It starts off slow with a small sail boat that floats along and passes a variety of seascapes and environments, including some harsh conditions. However, the payoff near the end is worth the time.

Hurricane Irene short film

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

Nothing says a good filmmaking opportunity like a hurricane bearing down on your city, or in this case a Manhattan-bound Hurricane Irene for a couple of filmmakers from Buffalo Picture House, who created this short black and white film during the storm. They were a lot more productive than the rest of us New Yorkers who took the chance to stuff our faces with our “emergency” rations (two pizza pies may or may not have been consumed by yours truly). However, Irene also served to remind us “that perhaps life should not fly by in a New York minute.” This sentiment seems to be echoed in their inspired film with shots of closed and empty subway stations, shuttered storefronts, and deserted streets.

Great short film made with smartphone

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo. SPLITSCREEN: A LOVE STORY, a short film directed by JW Griffiths, which has gone rapidly viral in the past week, was the winner of the Nokia Shorts competition 2011. As the film’s title suggests, it has a cute romantic story, however I was even more blown [...]

Sharing a beautiful sunset

Untitled from jasperelings.info on Vimeo. Dutch artist Jasper Elings created “Sharing a Beautiful Sunset,” a one minute crowd-sourced video of a sunset compiled from hundreds of photos collected from Google image searches of sunsets from around the world. Viewing a sunset is probably one of the most universal experiences humans can have. [Via]

Vimeo of the Week: Symmetry

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo. Symmetry, a film created by Everynone, comes in at under 3 minutes long. This is a remarkable thing to note as the film has such an powerful emotional punch. The film’s split screens shows the dualities of life. A muscled torso sits side-by-side with weights, cookies with milk. Cops and [...]

The History of Title Design

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

Ian Albinson’s A Brief History of Title Design was created for the SXSW “Excellence in Title Design” competition screening. In it the title designs of television shows and movies are woven into a study of font and style. For font and movie nerds alike, it’s a fun film to watch. So many are instantly recognizable. My fave: DR. NO.

Included are:

NPR: Why Can’t We Walk Straight?

A Mystery: Why Can’t We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo. Watch this wonderfully animated short film from NPR that explores the puzzle of the “profound inability in humans to stick to a straight line when blindfolded or when there is no fixed point.” This is true for swimming as well. It’s a really interesting [...]

7 minutes with The Sartorialist

This is a thoughtful and beautifully executed (much like his photos) 7 minute documentary and behind the scenes with Scott Schuman aka The Sartorialist. It’s a treat for any fan of his work. I especially liked the moment in the short film when he asked to take a photo of a fashionably dressed woman. You [...]

Vimeo of the Week: The Art of Drowning

The Art of Drowning from Diego Maclean on Vimeo. In the above video, THE ART OF DROWNING, filmmaker and animator Diego Maclean brings to life the poem of the same name written by Billy Collins. Collins also reads the verse here on the film, a tale of what one sees when their life flashes before [...]

IDIOT WITH A TRIPOD

NYC auteur Jamie Stuart recorded the recent blizzard that hit our city and transformed it into “IDIOT WITH A TRIPOD,” an artsy gorgeous short film that had critic Roger Ebert proclaiming that it “deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject” for the following reasons: This film deserves to win the Academy [...]

Dueling Cameras

Dueling Cameras from lonelysandwich on Vimeo. Apropos of nothing other than what it is, Noah Kalina and Adam Lisagor face off in this video “Dueling Cameras.” Believe it or not, no special effects or CGI were used in this video. [Via]

Kilian Martin in “A Skate Regeneration”

Brett Novak directed “A Skate Regeneration,” a fantastic video of Kilian Martin displaying some remarkable skateboarding tricks. Novak adds a layer of expressiveness that gives it a more “meaningful” quality.

History of stop motion

I love stop motion from chloe fleury on Vimeo. San Francisco based French artist Chloe Fleury created this neat paper-craft stop-motion video about the history of…stop motion video, which is a favorite around these SunFiltered part of the woods.

Done in 60 seconds

Mark Wong and Chris Slaughter won Empire Magazine’s 2010 “Done in 60 Seconds” short film competition with their terrific reenactment of TOP GUN in 60 seconds. In such a short amount of time, it does an excellent job of capturing all the main scenes from that movie. Makes me wonder whether it’s necessary for it [...]

Longboarding short film

Longboarding: Slide from Benjamin Dowie on Vimeo. Benjamin Dowie created this short film “SLIDE.” It focuses on longboarding, which is a mixture of skateboarding with surfing. I have a longboard myself but I can only do about 1 percent of what these guys can. The idea behind it was to marry some slow motion longboard [...]

Watch this: Animated video of when Herzog rescued Phoenix

Werner Herzog narrates this short film, which utilizes papercraft animation with what looks like construction paper, about the time he randomly rescued Joaquin Phoenix from a car crash on January 26, 2006. Side note that only I will care about: January 26 is my birthday.

Stop motion film: miniature graffiti

Tumblingerstraße from yo man on Vimeo. This is an impressive stop-motion video using miniature toy cars and figures to create a scale model of Tumblingerstraße, which is a street in Munich where graffiti is legally permitted. A hipster Ken could hang out on this street.

Funny short film about a couple resigned to their Zodiac Killer fate

Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo. Max Porter, a regular reader of our SUNfiltered blog and one half of the talented married duo behind Tiny Inventions (a Brooklyn-based animation firm), wrote in to share a funny independent short film he created with his wife Ru Kuwahata. SOMETHING LEFT, SOMETHING TAKEN [...]

Short film: street art seeks romance

Gabriel Psaltakis created and directed this sweet and funny short Greek film titled THE GIRL ON THE WALL. Mixing live action with stop-motion animation, a bored office man helps a love-struck street art character woo a disinterested girl across the street.

FANTAISIE IN BUBBLEWRAP

I was just recently enlightened of this short animated film that portrays “the final minutes of a society of vocal bubblewrap as it faces its apocalypse.” Created and voiced by Arthur Metcalf, FANTAISIE IN BUBBLEWRAP was his first film ever and it ended up picking up quite a few awards at various film festivals. This [...]

Stop-motion Mario

A Japanese student combined two of the Internet’s favorite things, stop motion animation and Mario, in this video. What makes this even more impressive is that everything was created with just sticky notes and a whole lot of time. According to the Google translation of this Japanese website, it took him about 2 weeks to [...]