tagged w/ Art
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“As I Am” is a beautiful, sensitive documentary short film by Emmy-Award winning photojournalist/filmmaker Alan Spearman. The poetic and powerful imagery of the film follows the Memphis landscape of remarkable young Chris Dean, revealing the many lives that have shaped his world. Told in Dean’s own words, the film is a long spoken word poem describing his trenchant observations about life: his thoughts and feelings regarding the places and people that make up his home. “As I Am” portrays Dean’s hopes, fears and, more than anything, his sensitivity and grace. The film has recently been nominated for Best Live Action Short Film in the 2013 Short of the Week Awards, with winners to be announced beginning February 4, 2013.
Chris Dean’s heart stopped when he was two; he died, but he came back. When Chris was five, his father was murdered, shot with more than 20 bullets in a gang shootout. In 2011, at age 18, Chris gained national attention when he introduced President Barack Obama at his high school graduation. Chris is an observer-philosopher who has always had a few things to say about life from his vantage point in South Memphis.
This piece includes color photographs, a video and the emotionally moving documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/as-i-am-we-are-meant-to-find-each-other/#“As I Am” is a beautiful, sensitive documentary short film by Emmy-Award... more
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“Belly” is an acclaimed animated short film by filmmaker Julia Pott, created in 2011 for her thesis at London’s Royal College of Art. The film had a long and successful run on the festival circuit, including screenings at Sundance, Animafest Zagreb, SXSW, the Holland Animation Film Festival and the Hiroshima International Animation Festival (among many others). “Belly” has recently been nominated for Best Animated Short Film in the 2013 Short of the Week Awards, with winners to be announced beginning February 4, 2013.
“Belly” is a strange and beautiful coming-of-age tale that explores the bittersweet childhood transitional state of having to leave things behind. Oscar and his aggressive older brother Alex go the beach. Alex works very hard to put Oscar in his place, telling him that he isn’t old enough yet to go for a swim with him. Oscar, however, has a companion of his own, a “monster” who loves him and remains at his side. When Alex gets in trouble, it is up to Oscar and his monster to rescue him, but what Oscar gains from the experience in terms of maturity and Alex’s respect, is offset by the sadness of loss.
This piece includes colorful illustrations and the touching animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/belly-a-heart-wrenching-tale-of-childhood-love-and-loss/#“Belly” is an acclaimed animated short film by filmmaker Julia Pott,... more
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“Paperman” is a sweet tale of love at first sight, which is the favorite 2013 Oscar Animated Short Film Nominee. The groundbreaking 6-minute animated short is a gorgeous black and white classical-looking animation that nostalgically revives the timeless Disney-style of character animation and design. “Paperman” is the beta test of a potentially momentous shift in animation technology, using a novel new process to create 2D aesthetics in 3D.
Told entirely in pantomime, “Paperman” is a romantic comedy that tells the story of an ordinary young man who works at an ordinary job, traveling into and out of the city on one of the daily commuter trains. One windy day, he accidentally encounters a pretty young lady, who then boards her own train and vanishes out of his life almost as soon as she entered. Saddened by this brush with what-might-have-been, the man later sits despondently at his desk looking at the huge stack of forms the boss has just dropped into his in-box. But when he happens to glance out the window, he discovers to his great surprise that his dream-girl is at that very moment sitting near an open window in the building directly across the street. What happens next is wonderful, sweet, charming and magical in the best sense of the word.
This piece includes black and white illustrations and the incredibly charming animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/paperman-a-sweet-celebration-of-missed-connections/“Paperman” is a sweet tale of love at first sight, which is the favorite... more
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“Searching for Sugar Man” is the magical story of a gifted singer-songwriter from Detroit, who was an enigmatic mystery. His face half-hidden by long flowing hair and dark glasses, he sang in smoke-filled folk music bars, often with his back turned to the audience. His name was Sixto Rodriguez.
He was so good that with neither fame nor a large fan base, Rodriguez signed a two-album contract with Sussex and A&R Records. The first album, “Cold Fact,” got a rare four-star review from Billboard Magazine. However, neither it nor his second album, “Coming From Reality,” sold well, the contract was dropped, and the story seemed to end there.
Nothing else was heard from Sixto Rodriguez. But several years later, his albums traveled half-way around the world, to Cape Town, South Africa, where bootleg copies passed from hand to hand and his songs became the storied anthems of the anti-apartheid movement. When an indie record store owner named Stephen Segerman released them commercially, they took off, the first selling 500,000 copies, which in that nation was comparable to the Beatles or Elvis Presley.
“Searching for Sugar Man” is a 2012 Swedish/British documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul, which follows the efforts of two Cape Town fans, Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out whether the rumored death of Rodriguez was true, and, if not, to discover what had become of him. The film won the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best International Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Durban International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Melbourne Film Festival. “Searching for Sugar Man” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2013 Academy Awards to be held in February 2013.
This piece includes photographs, two documentary short films and a music video
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/sixto-rodriguez-the-powerful-music-of-a-deeply-good-man/“Searching for Sugar Man” is the magical story of a gifted... more
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“The Six Dollar Fifty Man” is an inspiring short film directed by Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, produced at New Zealand’s Sticky Pictures for NZ Shorts. The award-winning short film premiered with Special Distinction in Cannes 2009, received the Jury Prize for Filmmaking at Sundance 2010 and was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2011 Academy Awards.
“The Six Dollar Fifty Man” tells the story of eight-year-old Andy, who is forced to cope with daily struggles against bullying and abuse at a suppressive elementary school in rural New Zealand. The gutsy little boy has created a fantasied superhero world, in which his wild imagination allows him to perform extraordinary physical feats to withstand pain, scale buildings and leap from tall rooftops to deal with the school bullies and his constantly disparaging teacher. However, when Andy gets into trouble with the headmaster, he realizes that in order to save himself and his only friend, he must find the courage to confront his problems in the real world.
This piece includes photographs and the acclaimed short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/the-six-dollar-fifty-man-the-world-gets-a-new-hero/“The Six Dollar Fifty Man” is an inspiring short film directed by Mark... more
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The nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have been announced, and it was a huge day for the independent film “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which received four Oscar Nominations: Best Director (for Benh Zeitlin), Best Actress (Quvenzhane Wallis, at just nine years old), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is the award-winning first feature film directed by Benh Zeitlin and co-written co-written with playwright Lucy Alibar, whose play “Juicy and Delicious” provides its foundation. Zeitlin created the movie in collaboration with Court 13, the filmmakers’ collective that moved to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Previously, the film won the Caméra d’Or award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered, the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Deauville American Film Festival, the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and the 2012 Seattle International Film Festival’s Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director.
Part dystopia and part revolutionary utopia, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a visionary film that celebrates resistance, featuring people living in poverty who come together in interracial, inter-generational harmony. After a flood washes away most of “The Bathtub,” a poor and precarious patch of land south of New Orleans, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis, five years-old at the time of filming) and her father account for their remaining animals and neighbors, and attempt to survive, rebuild, and repair their world. They band together to create a post-Katrina communal life and they fight the system to avoid getting thrown into the sterile, controlled environment of a state-funded shelter.
This piece includes color photographs, a short film, two documentary shorts and a music video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/beasts-of-the-southern-wild-receives-four-2013-oscar-nominations/The nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have been announced, and it was a huge day... more
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According to Picasso was simple "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." ...Pablo Picasso
But applying it, is not always easy because it takes the willingness to use imagination to heed the need "This world is but a canvas to our imagination." ...Henry David ThoreauAccording to Picasso was simple "The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily... more
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“W. H. Auden: Tell Me the Truth About Love” looks at the works of W. H. Auden, revealing how his poems about love came not just from inspiration, but rather from a rigorous personal analysis of love itself. When he died in 1973, he left behind some of the greatest love poems of the 20th century.
A prolific writer, Auden was also a noted playwright, librettist, editor and essayist. Considered by some to be the greatest English poet of the twentieth century, his work has exerted a major influence on succeeding generations of poets on both sides of the Atlantic.
This piece includes photographs, a photo-gallery and two documentaries.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/w-h-auden-tell-me-the-truth-about-love/“W. H. Auden: Tell Me the Truth About Love” looks at the works of W. H.... more
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“The Night Before Christmas” was originally a 1968 Animated Christmas Television Special, with background music provided by the Norman Luboff Choir. It was shown regularly for about 10 years as a holiday special, but has since disappeared from television. The classic holiday animated short film tells the heartwarming true story of how Clement C. Moore came to write the Christmas poem beloved by generations of children, and includes a joyous retelling of the charming “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
In the film, Clement Moore goes on a short trip just before Christmas to give a series of lectures at a university, and he promises to get his daughter Charity a storybook about Santa Claus for Christmas while he is away. Charity develops pneumonia while he’s gone, and the doctor says she might not survive. When Clement arrives back home, he’s distraught to see his beloved daughter near death. Making things even worse, he hadn’t found any books about Santa Claus when he went shopping, and even through her fever she’s asking for one. Feeling that he had broken his promise, he decides to write a story of his own and read it to her; it is the story which became “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
This piece includes colorful illustrations and the classic animated short film, “The Night Before Christmas.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/it-was-the-night-before-christmas-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/“The Night Before Christmas” was originally a 1968 Animated Christmas... more
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“Twas the Night Before Christmas” is a 1974 animated short film, originally a television Christmas special based on Clement Moore’s famous 1823 poem that opens with this line. For some unexplained reason, all the letters sent to Santa Claus are being returned to the children of Junctionville. It seems some disenchanted resident of the small town has angered Santa, calling Christmas nothing but “a fraudulent myth!” The skeptical resident turns out to be little mouse Albert, who has to be brought to his senses. The way in which Albert is persuaded to change his tune paves the way for Santa’s jolly return to Junctionville and the joyous finale of this charming animated film.
This piece includes a number of colorful illustrations and the delightful animated fable.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/twas-the-night-before-christmas-even-miracles-need-a-hand/“Twas the Night Before Christmas” is a 1974 animated short film,... more
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“The Snowman” is a magical, classic animated short film directed by Dianne Jackson, based on the best-selling children’s story by Raymond Briggs. The film premiered on the United Kingdom’s BBC Channel 4 on Christmas Eve 1982, and has aired every year since then. “The Snowman” won the 1983 BAFTA TV Award for Best Children’s Program and was nominated for a 1983 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
“The Snowman” tells the wordless story of a young boy whose snowman comes to life on Christmas Eve and takes him on a series of adventures, only to melt into nothingness by dawn of the next day. It is a beloved holiday tradition; for many children of the 1970s and 1980s it was the first program they ever saw that addressed the issues of death and loss.
A sequel to the classic “The Snowman,” titled “The Snowman and the Snowdog,” is scheduled to air this Monday on BBC’s Channel 4, more than 30 years after the original film’s premiere.
This piece includes colorful illustrations, the acclaimed animated short and a trailer for its upcoming sequel, “The Snowman and the Snowdog.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/the-snowman-a-magical-journey-of-adventure-friendship-death-and-loss/“The Snowman” is a magical, classic animated short film directed by Dianne... more
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“The Bell Ringer” is a humorously delightful animated short film created by Royale, a motion design and production studio in Los Angeles. The film was launched as part of Royale’s interactive holiday site, raising funds for The American Red Cross Disaster Relief in support of those affected by Superstorm Sandy. At the heart of the 25-day fundraising effort is the animated short about Edith, a sweet old lady who sets up shop on a busy street corner to raise money for charity.
Edith, the altruistic bell ringer, embarks on her holiday mission in a faraway land on a wintry city sidewalk. After many fruitless attempts at ringing in the spirit of giving, Edith becomes so frustrated that she angrily hurls her bell at the next uncaring passerby, which causes a coin to curiously bounce her way. Ignored yet again, she throws her bell at another passerby, this time yielding even more coins. Soon, Edith’s red canister is brimming with wads of paper money and a pile of coins, even a shiny engagement ring. The film’s ending reveals a knockout surprise for a noble cause.
This piece includes colorful illustrations and the wonderful animated short film, “The Bell Ringer.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/the-christmas-bell-ringer-gimme-yer-darn-money/“The Bell Ringer” is a humorously delightful animated short film created... more
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Of all the YouTube memes, one of the most enduring involves cats cacophonously walking across pianos. It sounds like atonal music, or so goes the joke, a one-liner as inescapable as the popular response to abstract art: My child could paint that. You might even begin to think there’s some truth in it.
There is and there isn’t. In 2009, one hundred years after Arnold Schoenberg wrote the canonical atonal piano work Drei Klavierstücke, new media artist Cory Arcangel produced a YouTube video in which cats nearly perfectly performed it. [continue reading...]
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2012/12/21/how-cory-arcangel-makes-art-memes-out-of-youtube-videos-and-super-mario-bros/Of all the YouTube memes, one of the most enduring involves cats cacophonously walking... more
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Some people feel that The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” is the best Christmas song ever, and not just one of the best, but a gorgeous song no matter why or how you observe Christmas. “Fairytale of New York” isn’t exactly the epitome of restraint, with Shane MacGowan and the sadly departed Kirsty MacColl singing all over each other, slurring words and tossing all kinds of insults at each other.
The song starts out tenderly, with MacGowan recounting Christmas Eve spent in a Bowery drunk tank, but also his recent gambling win and dreams for the future. MacColl lets us know, as the tempo picks up, that they met on a Christmas Eve, and after some light banter they really get into it, blaming each other for anything they can get their hands on, MacColl ending with “Happy Christmas your arse / I pray God it’s our last.”
But then they sing the chorus again, and a string section that actually sounds like it belongs in a Christmas song begins to take over. And it all feels, in spite of itself, grand and sweeping and even a little touching. They squabble a little more, the same as every Christmas, but they’re losing steam; finally MacColl accuses MacGowan of stealing her dreams when they met. This is a terribly poetic way to depict the deadening of expectations in terrible lives. But MacGowan’s voice turns gentle, even though it’s still rough, and he responds: “I kept them with me babe, I put them with my own, Can’t make it all alone, I’ve built my dreams around you.”
It’s a tough old life, and “Fairytale of New York” practically oozes with the gritty spirit of urban decay, poverty, alcoholism and general dysfunction. But as the sounds of those strings float off and out of sight, it doesn’t seem to matter. Not to them and not to us, because it’s the day to sigh and give in to our better inclinations and hold each other and admit there’s still something there. Christmas is the arbitrary day of the year that purely through willpower and tradition we’ve turned into the day where we all try just a little bit harder at being better than we thought we could be.
Includes beautiful photographs, a photo-gallery and the music video, “Fairytale of New York.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/down-on-the-bowery-a-fairytale-of-new-york/Some people feel that The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” is the... more
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Truman Capote's mother was not, according to her own testimony, emotionally capable of motherhood. Living with her husband in a New Orleans hotel at the time of his birth in 1924, she sent Truman to live with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, when he was barely able to walk. She eventually committed suicide. Many of his stories, perhaps most notably “A Christmas Memory,” in which he which paid loving tribute to his old cousin, Miss Sook Faulk, who succored him in his childhood loneliness, were based on his recollections of life in and around Monroeville.
This piece includes a number of photographs, the full text and audio of “A Christmas Memory,” the 1966 movie “A Christmas Memory” and a tribute video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/truman-capote-a-sentimental-christmas-memory/Truman Capote's mother was not, according to her own testimony, emotionally... more
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“Benigni” is a dramatic and beautifully conceived animated short film created by Elli Vuorinen, Jasmiini Ottelin and Pinja Partanen, students at Sweden’s Turku Arts Academy. A combination of puppetry, stop-motion and computer-aided 2D animation, the film tells the story of Benigni who is a rather seedy, chain-smoking xylophone player living a solitary existence until he discovers a nasty growth sprouting out of his side. This calls for some drastic pruning, but the tumor is not what it appears to be, which takes the story in a totally unexpected direction, and the resolving twist is even more shocking. Moving, funny, sad and surprising all at once, “Benigni” is well on its way to becoming an internet classic.
This piece includes colorful illustrations and the very moving animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/benigni-a-tale-of-solitary-loneliness-and-affliction/“Benigni” is a dramatic and beautifully conceived animated short film... more
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