Terminus (2007)

Trevor Cawood was born in Regina. He began his career working as a visual-effects supervisor and commercial director. Terminus (2007) is his first film. This short is a dark comedy about the self-destructive nature of the human mind and the dangers of urban isolation. It employs a sharp deadpan sensibility and a stylized dystopic world to evoke our universal anxieties.
Soaked in Seventies concrete modernism and making brilliant use of computer generated graphics, Terminus brings urban angst vividly to life.

After inadvertently offending a strange entity that accosts him on his way to work, a 1970's businessman quickly finds himself in the midst of a bizarre predicament. A colossus made of concrete pilings follows a lonely man throughout the city tormenting him as he goes about his daily life on the subway, at the doctor's office and elsewhere. What follows is a rapid descent into madness, a journey both eerie and darkly humorous. All the while, a strong, foreboding sense of mental anxiety builds as the man is ultimately driven to extreme ends.
The exact nature of the businessman's tormentor is purposefully ambiguous, lending itself to a variety of interpretations. Is "Terminus" a surreal critique of human alienation in the modern urban environment or is the protagonist's struggle an internal one, his mysterious stalker a manifestation of his repressed subconscious mind? Either way, it's a deceptively simple story but the thought behind this short is very complex on every level.

Landscape 02

Rebekka Ehlers. In 2003 she received a scholarship from Fabrica, The Benetton Research and Communications Center, where she worked until starting out as a freelance photographer in 2005.

Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed was the first full-length animated film and despite being 75 years old, the silhouette animation looks clean, fresh and technically adroit.
Lotte Reiniger spent three years making this silent animated film based on the Arabian Nights legends. She worked with animator Bertold Bartosch and background artist Walter Ruttman for three years on the film.
A wicked sorcerer tricks Prince Achmed into riding a magical flying horse. The heroic prince is able to subdue the magical horse, which he uses to fly off to many adventures. While travelling, he falls in love with the beautiful Princess Peri Banu and must defeat an army of demons to win her heart.
Reiniger made the entire film frame-by-frame with elaborate paper cutouts under a camera. The paper cutouts were jointed using wires and delicately arranged on top of a lightbox, where it was photographed frame by frame. A modern, existential condition is visible in the construction of her silhouettes: fragmented pieces of paper bolted together at various joints, moving mechanically from frame to frame.

A study of natural movement is very important, so that the little figures appear to move just as men and women and animals do. The backgrounds for the characters are cut out with scissors as well and designed to give a unified style to the whole picture. They are cut from layers of transparent paper.
The color-tinted film uses a diverse cast of characters, animals and elaborate backgrounds that make an otherwise limited monochromatic experience come alive.
And the music adds narrative to the piece, with each character having their own theme.
Human gestures, in particular, are wonderfully underplayed, helping the film throughout, as well as rendering several scenes with an ethereal, erotic quality.
Lotte Reiniger brings a unique perspective to the look of traditional characters, as she uses intricate Eastern details to show off astoundingly delicate filigree cutting work and an amazing grasp of the way in which shapes work together and of optical illusions.
You can buy The Adventures of Prince Achmed dvd and the essay The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

E.S.U. 8

If you want to read E.S.U. 7, click here.

Le Retour à la raison (1923)

Emmanuel Radnitsky (in art Man Ray) taught himself photography in order to reproduce his own works of art, which included paintings and mixed media. In 1921 he began to make photograms, which he called "Rayographs" (an object is placed between a light source and photo-sensitive film, in contrast to traditional photography where photographic film captures light reflected off an object). In the 1920s, he also began making moving pictures. He was disappointed that he was recognized only for his photography and not for the filmmaking, painting, sculpture and other media in which he worked.

Le Retour à la raison (Return to Reason, 1923) is one of the first Dada movies: it consists of various animated textures, Rayographs and the torso of Kiki of Montparnasse (Alice Prin), illuminated in striped light. For Le Retour à la raison, Man Ray sought to extend the rayograph technique to a moving image. He sprinkled salt and pepper on one piece of film, pins on another, illuminated the film for a few seconds, then developed the film. Man Ray added additional sequences to make the film of sufficient length to have an impact.
It also features a small segment of his work Danger.
This short film is a highly creative, non-narrative exploration of the possibilities of the cinema medium: the emphasis is, in fact, on playing with the possibility of representing light, shape and movement on film.
You can buy Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934, Man Ray (Artists of the 20th Century) and Unseen Cinema - Early American Avant Garde Film 1894-1941.

Salaryman Project

by Bruno Quinquet.

AM Syndicate - To the Peasants of the Emperor (2005)

In many ways, this film is experimental as it makes you dance around the line between reality and fiction through the use of animation and meta-narration. The final effect is awesome. You become a child once more as you watch it.

The music is by AM Syndicate, a band formed in the Spring of 2004 by Omar Chavez of Rhythm of Black Lines, Danny Wood of The Rise and later.
The animation is by Eric Power. He created Clear Productions, an independent production company spanning multiple styles of cinematic expression. Apart from creating films, he works freelance in the fields of photography, art and videography.

Maicol and Mirco

You can read Maicol and Mirco's works on Gli scarabocchi, Grasso, Petrolio, Schizzo, Kerosene, Motorino, Stripburger and many other magazines.

Recycled Life, 2006

Leslie Iwerks, documentarist granddaughter of famed animator and Disney collaborator U.B. Iwerks, helms the 38-minute muckraking nonfiction film Recycled Life.
She was shooting a project on the Mayas and traveling throughout all the country of Guatemala with a small crew. When they drove into the Antigua dump to unload some trash, they noticed two children, a brother and a sister living in a large cardboard box inside the dump. This was their home and they didn’t have any parents. And there are other people who lived like this.

If you watch this short film, you will encounter energetic and courageous people, surreal images: through these the filmaker traces the effects of a devastating cataclysm.
The generosity and spirit of so many people living in the most extreme poverty touched me beyond words.
It received a nomination at the 79th Academy Awards and it won prizes in various festivals.

Octopus

by Jesse Chehak.

Distinctions

2007 Magenta Foundation Emerging Photographer
2005 Print Magazine New Visual Artist Review: 20 Breakthrough Talents
2005 PDN 30

Le Songe d'un garcon de cafe (1910)

The Hasher's Dream in less than a minute & a half shows the surrealistic visions of a man under the influence of alcohol. Hasher, in his delirium, watches beautiful strange events and demons in an enormous moon.

The Hasher's Delirium (Le Songe d'un garcon de cafe, 1910) lends a hint of narrative structure rather than just showing transformations like in his previous shorts.

This short film is influenced by the prevailing art movements of the time. Emile Cohl's works had been associated with a group obsessed with insanity as an aesthetic subject, the Incoherents and with the pre-symbolist newsletter L'Hydropathe. Despite their stick-figure drawings, The Hasher's Delirium shows fluidity of motion, startling perspective animation and strange transformations of objects into one another.
You can buy Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film and Saved From The Flames - 54 Rare and Restored Films 1896 - 1944.

E.S.U. 7

If you want to read E.S.U. 6, click here.

Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt), is a 1927 German silent film directed by Walter Ruttmann, in collaboration with Carl Mayer (a screen writer who had co-written the script for Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari), Karl Freund (the director of Fox-Europe Production), and Lore Leudesdorff who had already assisted Ruttmann with Opus III and IV. It took over a year to photograph the film and they used movie cameras concealed in vans and suitcases to get realistic effects.
The music that accompanies the film was written by Edmund Meisel who also directed the orchestra at the film’s public opening at the Tauentzien-Palast in Berlin.

The film displays the filmmaker's knowledge of Soviet montage theory. It portrays the life of a city, mainly through visual impressions in a semi-documentary style, without a narrative content. Shots and scenes are cut together based on relationships of image, motion, point of view and thematic content. It's interesting to note that there many parallels exist between this film and Vertov's 1929 Man with a Movie Camera.

The events of the film are arranged to simulate the passage of a single day. The film is divided into five acts and each act is announced through a title card at the beginning and end. Much of the motion in the film and many of the scene transitions are built around the motion of trains and streetcars.
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City could seem superficial because of its interest in the aesthetics of the city at the expense of its human element and because it doesn't show a more detailed portrait of Berlin. Ruttmann was interested in the dynamism of movement and shapes and he aimed at making the viewer experience Berlin phenomenologically. He relies on editing, on a montage based on analogy and contrast to infuse the film with dynamism.
You can buy Berlin: Symphony of a Great City.

Abtu

Jaime Zollars. Her narrative images are a combination of collage and acrylic paint and often tell stories of people and places far away.

Cyclone Took My Baby (2002)

Paper Rad is a three collective artist group, comprised of Jessica Ciocci, Jacob Ciocci and Ben Jones. The group's name come from an extension of a weekly alternative comics paper that Jones self-published, Paper Radio.
The song is from Mixel Pixel's first album, Mappyland
Paper Rad has performed at the Whitney Biennial, at the Liverpool Biennial, at the New York City Gallery Deitch Projects, as well as the Tate Britain. Their works include videogames remixes, Flash animation, and open source Web projects.

This artistic group narrates story of our times in a way that isn't filtered through big-media spin or the historical revisionism of academic pundits. Their works are constantly infused with rebellious attitudes and iconoclastic positions. They are part of an art establishment that seems distant to many young people who should be getting inspired by art. Their caleidoscopic imagery is the result of mixing psychedelic images with Op Art and the pop culture with humor!
You can buy Taking out the Trash/Faces in the Trash.

Faccia (Face)

Giacomo Nanni's works are issued on Mano, Frame, Lo straniero, Hamelin, Inguine Mahgazine, Nonzi, Glomp, Sai Comics and Internazionale. He was the winner of Best Short Novel at Lucca Comics 2005, and he has received the award Nuove strade at the Napoli Comicon 2006. His books: Clara (Canicola, 2004), ZZZZ (Canicola, 2005), Storia di uno che andò` in cerca della paura (Coconino Press, 2006) and Cronachette (Coconino Press, 2007).

Ah Ma (2007)

Ah Ma is lying in the hospital, her life hanging by a thread. Her family gathers by her deathbed to send her off. Overwhelmed by sadness, they struggle to find their own way of coming to terms with the impending end.

This short film is inspired by the passing of Anthony Chen's grandmother in 2005. It's a sensitive observation of the ways people react and deal with death and seeks to be an honest exploration of the human condition.

It has received a Special Mention Award at the 60th Cannes Film Festival.

Nocturne

by Noel Rodo Vankeulen



AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS

Sheridan Scholar
Member of Dean's Honour Roll 2005 - 2007

Fantasmagorie (1908)

Fantasmagorie is the first all-animated film in history. An American named J. Stuart Blackton got there first with his films such as “The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) and “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” (1906); but Blackton’s films were a mix of live action and animation.
Fantasmagorie is a surreal story: a series of scenes without much narrative structure, but morphing into each other. Emile Cohl creates a visual spectacle and orchestrates the action as he moves along.

He placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings. The white line effect was the result of using a "negative reverse" changing the black line on paper to white on black.
Despite the fact that it has no plot or real point except to show off what animation can do and despite the relative crudeness of the drawings, Cohl’s wild and wacky imagination was daring, vibrant and wickedly funny and its short running time make it a joy to watch.

You can buy Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film and Saved From The Flames - 54 Rare and Restored Films 1896 - 1944.

E.S.U. 6

If you want to read E.S.U. 5, click here.

An Inconvenient Truth, 2006

From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, An Inconvenient Truth, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. A catastrophe we have helped create. Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb!

Davis Guggenheim's documentary is based mostly on Gore's multimedia presentation on climate change, a lecture he has delivered hundreds of times in recent months. While Gore is managing the show with powerful efficiency, there is nothing dry or tired about it. The former Vice President Al Gore re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. With wit, intelligence and hope, An Inconvenient Truth ultimately brings home Gore's persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.

I did not find a single negative review based solely on the film’s art. But I found so many errors in this movie!
If the movie will help you judge for yourself which direction we should take, then Gore should dig deeper into the material. If you want to read a full report, you can download this pdf file.
However, this is on the whole a good film. It explains the facts very well, explains away the objections that people have been hearing about from the media and is also pretty funny at times.
You can buy An Inconvenient Truth and An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It.

Small Configuration 2

Patrick Smith has written, produced, animated, and directed five award winning films from 2000-2006. Smith made his directorial debut for the Emmy nominated MTV series "Down-Town", continuing on to direct the popular animated series "Daria." His bizarre, morphing style tells symbolic stories of identity and emotion, and have extended beyond film. His Public Art Installations have earned the artist a multitude of accolades outside the world of animation, his fine art is currently represented internationally by CVZ Contemporary Gallery in New York.. You can buy: Liquid Tales, Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. I, Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. II, Spike and Mike's Cutting Edge Classics.

Sukkis' Story (2005)

Sukki's Story reflects on Thomas Leung's changing relationship with his mother when he leaves Hong Kong to start his new life in a new country. The narration is often non-linear as we are unsure of where Sukki's new life will take him or what obstacles lie ahead in the future which could lead to an inner and/or imaginative journey.

This short film has won the Victorian Student Animation Festival 2005 for Best Sound Design. It has also been selected as part of the Australian Digital Shorts Program at the Sydney Film Festival 2006.
You can feel the sorrow and the joy the scenes bring. It is a simple and yet powerful film with a soul. It's not just a story. It's an incredible animation for its magical atmosphere and tenderness!

La Scala di Schild (Schild's Staircase)

by Franco Brambilla. He has created the cat and dog character Full & Berto. He collaborates weekly with the economic supplement of the Corriere della Sera. He also founded AIRSTUDIO, together with Pierluigi Longo and Giacomo Spazio.

He has worked for some of the biggest italian publishing houses creating the covers for various sci-fi books and novels.

Rhythmus 21 (1921)

Richter's earliest experiments were hardly more than tests, Rhythmus 21 is a serious abstract animation composed solely of squares and rectangles that change shape. Artists like Luis Bunuel & Fritz Lang were influenced by him.
Hans Richter was a painter, graphic artist, avant-gardist, film-experimenter and producer. He was influenced by Cubism and Expressionism and joined in the Dadaist movemet in the 1916. Richter’s collaboration with Viking Eggeling on drawings, abstract sketches, and most importantly on ‘scroll paintings’, provided the inspiration for Rhythmus 21.

The original film was roughly two minutes long. Over the next two years Richter worked on the film and extended it to almost seven minutes. Before October 16th, 1927 when the film was screened at the Film Society in London, Richter divided the film in two parts and later on called it Rhythmus 21 and Rhythmus 23. In the following year Richter created another chapter, Rhytmus 25, which didn't survive.
These forms appear in very simple to very complex compositions-from the beginning shots where the squares appear with the frame. In Rhythmus 23 there are more angle and line overlays rather than adherence to the squares as in Rhytmus 21.
It's very interesting how these short films resemble some aspects of 1950's beatnik art & 1960's op art. The final effect is a subversion of the cinematic illusion of depth. Richter creates a precise rhythm with the movement of these shapes and suggests connections through opposites: black/white, left/right, top/bottom and creates visual associations with geometric patterns.

Greenland

Olaf Otto Becker


Exhibitions

2008 Gallery Cohen Amador New York, Broken line, January - March 2008
2008 Gallery Stephen Cohen, Los Angeles, Broken line, 20th of March 2008
2008 Gallery f.5.6, Munich, Broken line, 3rd.of April. 2008
2008 Powerhouse New York, Shifting Landscapes, April 2008
2008 New York Photofestival, Mai 2008

Le Coeur Est un Metronome (2007)

Father and son. The relationship between children and their parents is always problematic. A father is proud of his new baby son, takes photographs of him and throws the child into the air for sheer joy. What happens when both adults throw a tantrum and storm out of the house? Will the son be proud of the father?

In this short film, dancing is the high point of the exchanges between the two characters: it is their only means of communication.
Le Coeur Est un Metronome is Jean-Charles Mbotti-Malolo's graduation movie and was awarded the "Recommendation Prize".

E.S.U. 5

If you want to read E.S.U. 4, click here.

Rabbit Stories (2006)

Sean Conway has directed Rocco Paris, A Place that Glows, Rabbit Stories and Son of Steve.

Rabbit Stories is a study of mental illness; a portrait of a young schizophrenic man called Fenton Fuller. The film doesn't really have a start, middle and ending narrative because Fenton himself jumps all over the place. We learn things about him but we cannot be sure if they are true or just in his head as many of the scenes (if not all) exist within his head rather than in the reality of the film. Life is an exploration made more manageable by like associations, similar philosophies, and a belief in liberation as both a blessing and a curse .It’s a movie that sticks with you long after the final image has faded away.

Behind the scenes

Aaron Hobson has created a series of images that are quickly gaining international attention with their unique approach to the traditional genre of panoramic photography.

Exhibitions:

Tenderpixel Gallery, 2008
Drkrm. Gallery, Fall 2008
Ivy Brown's Go Fish Gallery, December 2007
7444° Gallery, Septermber 2007

Persepolis (2007)

Marianne Satrapi believes that an entire nation should not be judged by the wrongdoings of a few extremists. But Perspolis isn't a politically oriented film with a message to sell. It is first and foremost a film about Satrapi's love for her family. This animated film is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
Unlike the comics book series, the film is a long flashback. Marianne Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud create something altogether different but with the same material. It's a one-of-a-kind piece. There was no point filming a sequence of panels. People generally assume that a graphic novel is like a movie storyboard, which of course is not the case.

They started with 2D images on pen tablets but they were not totally happy with the result. The lines lacked definition. It was therefore clear that a traditional animation technique was perfectly suited to Marjane's and Vincent's idea of the film. Satrapi drew all the characters: over 600 model sheets!

In addition to animation director Christian Desmares, other twenty animators worked on the movie. Each sequence (1,200 shots) was given to an animator. Satrapi insisted on being filmed playing out all the scenes.

Using only black and white, they were closer to Japanese animation because of the story’s realism, but they couldn't apply the techniques used in manga. As a result, they had to develop a specific style, both realistic and mature. The film is a combination of German expressionism and Italian neo-realism. It features very down-to-earth, realistic scenes and a highly design-oriented approach, with images sometimes bordering on the abstract. It could be defined as "stylized realism. Satrapi and Parronaud realized that the usual codes in animation didn't seem to fit, so they used movie-style editing, with a great many jump-cuts; even from an aesthetic viewpoint, they drew their sources from cinematic techniques.
Persepolis has been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards, tonight we'll know if it has won an Oscar!
You can buy Persepolis (French edition) and Persepolis (English edition).

Porto Marghera

Claudio Calia. His works are: I Baccanti, Nuvole and Porto Marghera, la legge non è uguale per tutti (BeccoGiallo, 2007). He collaborates with Nonzi and Self Comics, and he illustrated the musical album Senza sicura's Quattro città and Il potere del nulla, and Alberto Cantone's Angeli e Ribelli. He's the curator of the anthology Lucio Fulci, poeta del macabro (Nicola Pesce, 2006); he's also the curator, together with Emiliano Rabuiti, of Radio Sherwood Comix against Global War, Vite Precarie, Fortezza Europa (Coniglio Editore, 2006) and Resistenze - Cronache di ribellione quotidiana (Becco Giallo, 2007).

Deliver Us From Evil, 2006

When Amy Berg decided to hang out a shingle and produce feature documentaries two years ago, she wasn't quite sure what subject might both consume her interest and hit a nerve with audiences. When "Deliver Us From Evil" debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival, it immediately won the Target Documentary Award and a $50,000 cash prize; the film was subsequently acquired by Lionsgate for theatrical release.

Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, although aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man it had sheltered.
Ms. Berg's film exposes the truth about sexual abuse in a compassionate and sensitive way. This film will make no one feel indifferent about what has been going on in the Catholic church for centuries.
You can buy Deliver Us from Evil.

Bulbs

by Kate Peters


Awards

Creative Futures 2005
Metro Imaging Student Bursary, Winner 2002

The Mermaid (Rusalka, 1997)

This story is about an old monk living with his apprentice near a river. The old man recalls from time to time the old days; how he betrayed his true love and therefore she drowned herself. It's said that a woman, who drowns herself because of lovesickness, will become a mermaid. Her only goal will be to trick young men with her charms and drag them down to the deeps.

The Mermaid is here identified with the mythological Slavic creature the Rusalka, which seeks vengence upon life by tempting and drowning the living.
Russian director Aleksandr Petrov has been nominated for several Oscars for Best Animated Short Film-- for The Cow and The Old Man and The Sea. Each features a style totally unlike any other studio, as Petrov's shorts are like little epic movies and moving tapestries combined. This short movie was painted on glass by using fingers and brushes. The artwork is like a painting that moves in a very fluid style.
You might be interested in Petrov's My Love.

E.S.U. 4

If you want to read E.S.U. 3, click here.

Ballet mécanique (1924)

Leger was the first of the Cubists to experiment with non-figurative abstraction, contrasting curvilinear forms against a rectilinear grid. In 1924 he made a 'film without scenario', Ballet Mecanique, in which he contrasted machines and inanimate objects with humans and their body parts. The film was premiered by Frederick Kiesler in Vienna on September 24 1924. The original version of Antheil's music ran almost 30 minutes, and a married print of film and music was not made until 2000 by sound engineer and composer Paul Lehrman.
This masterpiece is a landmark film in the development of montage, a cinematic tool that juxtiposes two or more images to infer related ideas or events. The film also explores many Cubist themes, among which the concept that all machines were taking human nature out of humanity.

Vienna Cityscapes

Daniel M. Kanemoto is an award-winning director based in New York City (or wherever else his projects happen to take him). His 1999 debut, A LETTER FROM THE WESTERN FRONT, won the Gold Medal for Best Animated Short at the Student Academy Awards. For the past decade, Dan’s diverse body of work (from national commercial campaigns to feature films) has been featured on Nickelodeon, MTV, the Discovery Channel, and film festivals around the world.

Finding Madame Tutli Putli (2007)

Glitterbead

Michael Mouris is an incredible artist, who made this pixilation featuring a glittery piece of art. The music “Spider Hangout” is by Dominic Bisignano.
I find it so mesmerizing.

The Beholder

by Jose A. Mercado

Exhibitions:

2008 Minna Gallery, 20×20 January group show

2008 Space Gallery SF, My Vice Group Show

2007 Versus Gallery, Revenge of the Empire group art show

2007 Foundation One Gallery GA, The Grind group art show

2007 Las Vegas NV, GM/Jada Toys Kulture Klash Custom art show

2007 Crewest Gallery, Top Of the Dome 4 group show

2007 Minna Gallery S.F., Fighting for dreams group show

2007 Agesong Gallery S.F., Heavy Hitters group show

2007 Los Angeles Crash Mansion, Panthaland group show

2007 Thinkspace Gallery, ISM Untitled Love Project

2007 OCCCA GALLERY, ISM Untitled Love Project

2007 MF Gallery NYC, Zombies Attack

2007 URB Gallery, Represent,Represent! Tempt One Art Benefit

2007 Crewest Gallery, Canceptual Art show V.2

2007 Lost Souls Cafe, Make Believe group art show

2007 Las Vegas NV, Hit The Deck skateboard show

2006 Crewest Gallery, Top of the dome 2 group show

2006 ISM White Elephant Show

2006 Orange County County Museum of Art, Little Squares Project

2006 Las Vegas Arts Factory, Malicious Vinyl Group Show

2006 Crux Gallery, The Red Show

2005 Fulcrum Records Gallery, Vinyl Show

2005 Crux Gallery, Door Show

2005 Crux Gallery, Group Show

2004 Self Help Graphics, Day of the Dead Celebration Group Show

2004 Coba, Mini Board Group Show

2003 Artistic Insomniacs, Group Show

Jesus Camp, 2006

“Jesus Camp” is the second film by the documentary team of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady to explore the molding of young minds. The majority of the children in “Jesus Camp” are home-schooled by evangelical parents who teach them creationism and dismiss science.

It is a straightforward documentary, with no narrator or fancy cutting to present an opinion. The footage really does speak for itself. The film follows Becky Fischer, a Pentecostal children’s minister who runs the “Kids on Fire” summer camp in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Becky’s methods of reaching the children are powerful and at times, thought-provoking. But, some of her methods are a bit more radical.

The film also follows three children, Levi, Rachel, and Tory.

It is rather disturbing to see the children in this movie being instilled with thoughts and ideas that they do not have the full capacity to understand.
The film is being marketed as an even-handed, unbiased look at the Evangelical movement, but it lacks any obvious focus.
You can buy Jesus Camp.

New York 2007

by Christian Reister.
Publications:

Berlin Art Info // Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung // Berliner Morgenpost // Bunte // design report // Die Welt // HörZu // Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung // Kreiszeitung Syke // Kunstzeitung // Prinz Berlin // Rheinische Merkur // scheinschlag // Tagesspiegel // taz // Tip // Vorwärts Magazin Zeitblende // Welt am Sonntag // Zitty.

The Danish Poet (2006)

Produced by Lise Fearnley and Marcy Page for Norway’s Mikrofilm and the National Film Board of Canada, The Danish Poet is the story of Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer, Sigrid Undset. As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all. Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter?
Attached to the National Film Board of Canada, Kove also works as a designer, illustrator, animator and scriptwriter. Her previous film, Min bestemor strøk kongens skjorter (My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts), was also nominated for an Oscar in 2006. Kove works in an old-fashioned animation style, drawing the original figures and backgrounds in pencil and scanning in the images and adding colour using digital technology.

E.S.U. 3

If you want to read E.S.U. 2, click here.

Schwarzfahrer (1993)

Pepe Danquart's short film captures the dignity of a man confronted with a problem many of us may have faced in a foreign culture. A young black man is verbally harassed by an older woman on a streetcar, while the other passengers remain silent. He finally exacts his revenge.

Its beautiful cinematography, good subject matter, great characters, totally surprise and not only has it won the Academy Award (1993) for best live action short film, but it has also won more than 30 awards and screened at more than 60 film festivals including Berlin, Cannes, and Sundance!
When dealing with ignorance and intolerance, nothing makes more of a statement than the power of humor.

Megan Brain's Paper Sculpture

by Megan Brain

Memory (1964)

Osamu Tezuka was heavily involved with experimental animation and had won several international animation awards, including the Grand Prix for Jumping at the 1984 Zagreb International Festival, the Grand Prix for Broken Down Film at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival, and the CIFEJ award for Legend of the Forest at the 1988 Zagreb International Film Festival.

This short film is a privately produced animated film. It does not look like an anime, using photographs and cut-outs as well as hand-drawn animation. The story develops into a tale of destruction of human beings, turning the existence of the earth into a memory of the universe. It's an insightful look at the psychology of memory in the life of an individual and a culture. How will the initial reality change in the end?

Radio Science Funnies Inc.

Ryan Heshka has painted for BLAB!, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Popular Science, Dreamworks SKG, Fast Company, PC World, Smart Money, Esquire, Harper Collins, and Newsweek.

My Country, My Country (2006)

My Country, My Country was motivated by a sense of despair. Laura Poitras was determined to see the contradictions of the war in Iran from the perspective of the people living there. Filmmaker and crew are invited into the home and personal lives of Riyadh and his family. Poitras and her crew are granted behind-the-scenes access to the election preparations, too.

Working alone in Iraq over eight months, Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. My Country, My Country is, in fact, an impartial documentary depicting the controversial 2005 Iraqi national elections. The documentary follows the agonizing predicament of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its effort to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Still the tale told here is not so much a political one as it is a human one, which is why this film rates a wide audience.
You can buy My Country, My Country.

Hommage

by Heidi Spicker.

You can buy her books: BANGKOK, Im Garten, Concrete. She's also coauthor of Asia City Strangers.

Dog (2002)

A moving tale from Suzie Templeton about a young boy who, grieving for his dead mother, seeks reassurance from his father.
This film is about a relationship between a father and son. To protect each other they bravely hold their agony inside, where it festers.

Suzie will intrigue you with this darkly comic film. Dog captures frail, complex emotions that teeter on the edge of darkness, like when the father rubs his temples or like the lifeless swing of his arm after he flicks off the bedroom light.
Everything about this animation is wonderfully subtle and delicate. The puppets are beautifully crafted and the music is just right!
Winner of the 2002 BAFTA for best short animation and of the Grand Prix at the Ottawa Student Animation Festival

Esu 2

If you want to read the previous E.S.U. strip, click here.

Censored (2005)

Censored is a Video Performance by Gruppo Sinestetico.

The distinction between a government censor and a private one is not always clear. Many private entities receive governmental support through funding and other means. With such support often comes some degree of governmental oversight or control.

Art is supposed to be the expression of feelings, the visual representation of what the artist is feeling or trying to show. All people need to have the freedom to express opinions and feelings to the extent that is acceptable, but who is to say what is acceptable? The public should have a choice in deciding whether to view the resulting content. Censorship is always a very blunt tool.
Today, some artists can only choose to censor themselves if they really want to be free.
Art represents a person’s identity. In such cases self-censure is the only identity left to artists.

William Wegman's photography

William Wegman has created a series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.
Wegman's photos are well-respected in the art world, they are kept in permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His photos and videos have also been a popular success and have appeared in books, advertisements, films, as well as on television programs like Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. In 2006, Wegman's work was featured in a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Addison Gallery. The 2007 solo exhibition Funny/ Strange runs at the Wexner Center for the Arts from September 28 through December 10.
His books: Cinderella (Fay's Fairy Tales), Dress Up Batty, Everyday Problems, Farm Days, Mother Goose, Polaroids.
His dvds: William Wegman's Alphabet Soup, Fay's Twelve Days of Christmas, ARTPIX Notebooks: William Wegman Video Works 1970-1999, The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold, Selected Video Works 1970-78, Dog Baseball 1986