Seen at DL 5: Guilherme Marcodes BR TYGER 4min 30 s 2006

An absolutely magical short by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil, based on a William Blake poem.
Tyger blends puppetry, illustration, photography and CGI. Dreamy, mesmerizing, brilliant.

Screened as part of science and poetry ( with the help of Rattapallax ) during DL 5, 2009, Feb 8

Seen at DL 9: Joe Hambleton CA Days of Future Past 07:44 2012

Trapped in a rut. Unable to say what I wish to say. I look to Burroughs for an answer. Video is cut up, randomly selected and interwoven with objects from my travels. My process is changed, memories are stirred. Visions of the future appear, a narrative forms. My fears and insecurity about the future come to fruition through an understanding of the past. Together they create a realization of my present. These are my Days of Future Past.


Days of Future Past is an experimental video work that utilizes the technique described above in an attempt to alter my process of filmmaking. Multiple scenes were shot across Windsor and Detroit and then randomly selected and organized, creating the structure and tone of the work. During this time, I also began to pick up any objects that had the potential to stir up memories. I imposed these objects onto the original footage as a reference point in each scene’s narrative. Through this process, a realization of the present became strongly apparent within the work.

Joe Hambleton CA Days of Future Past 07:44 2012,
screened as part of DL selection II, Mon 11th 2013

Bust-up of the moment

It’s Stay For The Credits’s tradition to post this Buster Keaton montage set to Radiohead every time I get an influx of subscribers. Enjoy, film friends.

stayforthecredits

[ v e r a x ] : Edward Snowden / 斯諾登

This is a short film based on the events of Edward Joseph Snowden/斯諾登, a former CIA and NSA employee who leaked a top secret mass surveillance programme from the US and UK.

We have never met or been in contact with Edward Joseph Snowden.

We are a band of independent and amateur filmmakers in Hong Kong who were both excited and puzzled as to why Snowden chose to come to Hong Kong. While nearly every media outlet wanted to get their hands on him, we decided to produce a short fictional video to depict his experience in HK, and how it would have affected certain parties: Namely, the CIA contingent based in HK who would be tasked to find Snowden. The Hong Kong Police who would be stuck in between the US and China. And the journalists who want to get the scoop. It was also important for us not to ‘twist’ Snowden’s character. We really knew little about him. Although he is a central character, he is not the most prominent. It is more about the maelstrom of events surrounding him.

Directed and produced by
Jeff Floro 謝夫發露 (Junk Shot: www.junkshot.org)
Edwin Lee 李健恩 (Fallout Media: www.falloutmediahk.com)
Shawn Tse 謝兆龍 (Junk Shot)
Marcus Tsui 崔正傑 (Immortal Peach: www.immortalpeach.com)

Cruel The Ash | Carl Elsaesser

Those who had the pleasure to watch Carl Elsaesser´s THERE IS WIND THAT BLEW during the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge (or on one of many festivals where he gathered several awards) knew that Carl has a very unique and poetic way of telling a story.

Now he´s going to enter the holy grail of experimental film with Cruel The Ash, shot entirely on 16mm. To do so he needs your support through Indiegogo. A campaign to raise the needed money and your chance to get a copy of Cruel The Ash for as little as 10 $.

“The working title for the film is Brown Ash in reference to the tree used by Maine Indians to make baskets. The film is built in part around the potent metaphor of the threat to this tree posed by the emerald ash borer, which has yet to arrive in Maine but whose arrival seems eminent in the next five to ten years and leaves the fate of the basketmaking tradition suspended. The film is also an ambitious attempt to portray the entire life of a mother in the course of a single day: the choices she makes, the invisible strings that turn her head to notice the woods and define her hopes and fears. The two narratives, poetically woven together, expand and complicate our notions of Maine identity and begin to answer the questions of who we were, who we are and who we will be.”

Carl Elsaesser

(visit Cruel The Ash | Indiegogo and spread the word)

Here am I floating in my tin can / Far above the world / Planet Earth is blue / And there’s nothing I can do

Chris Hadfield on board of the ISS

WHY I WRITE just received the well deserved prize for the Best Poem Performance on Film at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival 2012.

Kosal Khiev, featured in a movie by Masahiro Sugano, gave an impressive live performance at the award ceremony. A true highlight of this year´s Zebra.

WHY I WRITE is the first episode in a series of spoken word videos by Khmer American exile Khiev Kosal in collaboration with Studio Revolt. Kosal, a poet and tattoo artist resides in Phnom Penh after spending 14 years of his life in a U.S. prison. Kosal tells pieces of his story through the art of spoken word poetry. His poetry is ripped from his guts and excavated from a place between confinement and freedom. Raw and unassuming, his performance makes walls disappear leaving room only for emotions. This spoken word video is an act for Kosal to reclaim his place in the world as a free man, a step that begins in Cambodia not America.

2011 / HD Video / 7 min 30 sec / Spoken Word
Director/Cinematographer/Editor: Masahiro Sugano
Artist: Kosal Khiev
Producer: Anida Yoeu Ali
Production Coordinator: Thea Som

for more visit Spoken Kosal

The Last Human by Tom Walsh

A short film about the last human being left alive and their mission to implant DNA on a strange world in an attempt to seed new life in the universe. Set to the mesmerizing music by Swimming (who collaborated with Simon Ellis) and Alex Herington.

The brilliant film has caught the imagination of the sci-fi world. It has sparked a debate on the origins of mankind over on the io9 blog.

Tom says:
As a director I’ve always been interested in collaboration with other artists and the exploration of different methods of story telling. So when the opportunity arose to make a music video for Swimming, I grabbed it with both hands. This was a chance to work with a group of like minded artists – musicians who think progressively and see their band as an art form itself, not just a means of making music. I had recently written a short film script called The Last Human. The narrative follows the fate last human being left alive – a concept that I have had a long standing fascination with.

When I listened to the song I Do (Come True) I immediately felt a connection between the music and the story I had written. The song has an ethereal quality and a chorus riff that descends into minor chords, taking the listener down into a place of profound meaning. It was that musical connection that made me want to turn the short film into the music video for the song.

As we explored the idea we decided on making two versions of the film. The first would be the music video and the second would be a longer short film edit with natural and elaborate sound design and which uses elements of the song as the basis of the film’s score. We teamed up with Alex Herington, who we had worked with on previous projects, to develop the song into the cinematic score.

Further ideas came through as we went into pre production, the concept had such narrative scope that it felt natural to explore the back story and so we are now utilising various platforms for the transmedia storyline which will allow people to explore the world that has been created via online and mobile.

In the music video the viewer will see the word HERA appear quite often. This is the title of the mission in the story and is named after the Greek Goddess of childbirth but also has a double meaning – it is an acronym for the mysterious Human Evolution Recovery Administration. This organisation will form the backbone of the fictional narrative in the story but will cross over into a real world exercise in disinformation and transmedia storytelling. For more information visit: hera.im

A project of this kind can only work with a band like Swimming, whose music reflects a progressive sensibility and helps to inspire such interesting ideas.

Producer/Director – Tom Walsh
Music – Swimming & Alex Herington
Art Director – Amy Nicholson
Costume Designer – Tonia Brown
Art Dept. & Make-Up – Sarah Lewis
First AD – Ken Coppel
Visual Effects – Tom Walsh & Nic Pylypiuk
The Pilot – Hester Ruoff

Thanks to David Houghton, Georgina Sparks & Rob Knapp