Jason Sondhi
So in my rush to post the new PES film, I failed to realize it was just one in a series of top-notch releases by the premium cable giant, featuring new or web-premiere work by several of the most unique and beloved short-form animators out there. If you love animation you should know these folks and be stoked about this collection Showtime has put together. So, for your viewing pleasure:
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Wisdom Teeth by Don Hertzfeldt, 6 min This is the hilarious new lo-fi short that Hertzfeldt toured festivals with in 2010. I saw it at SIFF and it had the audience in stitches. You may have giggled multiple times with friends watching bootleg copies of Rejected, but it is rare to see Hetrzfeldt’s work online in legit form, as the only other example I’m aware of is A L’Amour. Of course it’s good to support your favorite independent animator, so you can purchase DVD’s at BitterFilms.
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Dahlia by Michael Langan, 3 minWow. This is wow. I can’t explain it, but it is cool. It’s controlled stop-motion camera movements, where the perspective of the object stays the same but location is different. And it’s a different object? I don’t know, I’ll stop embarrassing myself and go watch it some more. If you’re not familiar with the name, Langan is famous for Doxology, a remarkable film that went viral and was the subject of CartoonBrewTV’s first episode.
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Pretty, Dead by Jeff Scher, 4 min Jeff Scher has a pretty good gig as a member of the New York Times Opinionator blog where he posts a few new animations a year. It is always a treat when they pop up, and they never fail to brighten my day when, in the course of my reading, I come across them. Scher’s animations can be found in museums across the world, and this film continues his psychedelic style of sketch-like Americana portraiture.
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A Few of my High School Teachers by Levni Yilmaz, 4 min This is another entry in the beloved Tales of Mere Existence series, where in charming pencil on cheap paper, Yilmaz, with the wry humor of a charming essayist like Sedaris, shares anecdotes about life and love. A favorite of SotW, in 2008 we featured Tales of Mere Existence: How to Break Up.
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Walks of Life by Cyriak Harris, 2 minUK-based Cyriak got his start with animated GIF’s, and from there the surreality has only increased. In this film he tells the history of evolution using only fingers and hands. I actually just got introduced to his work yesterday by Motionographer when they posted his cool new music video for Eskmo, but suffice to say I’m now a big fan. Check out more from him at his website.
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Music Box by Mixtape Club, 3 minMixtape Club has made a ton of cool music videos for big name artists like Yeasayer and My Morning Jacket. Here they collaborate with music-smiths Huma Huma to interestingly deconstruct the music making process, highlighting the playing of lo-fi and eccentric instruments in time with the music. But are these contraptions actually making the sounds we hear? What begins and a faithful verite’ film descends into blissful psychedelia.
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The Deep by PES, 2 minAnd finally of course PES, for whom, out of laziness, I will simply link to the post which began this all.