This season we present an electronic-dominated video selection for your viewing and listening pleasure! Call us retro-futuristic, like The Jetsons. This batch includes dancing ducks, alluring models, a thrilling revenge story and more! As an added bonus, every artist represented is new to these pages. Warning: some of these videos contain a bit of nudity and/or violence, so for young children, we recommend the G-rated “Quack Fat”.
Elemental
Director: kogonada
Music: Minjo Green
Vimeo has teamed up with Samsung to create the “Connected” series, enlisting ten of the channel’s top filmmakers to create films about the intersection between humanity and technology. The best of these to date is “Elemental”, reminiscent of Terrence Mallick’s “The Tree of Life”. The rest can be found on Samsung’s Tumblr page.
Lure ~ Ioana Ciolacu
Directors: Anton and Damian Groves
Music: Stefan Crisan
Every once in a while, a fashion company gets it absolutely right, creating a piece of art that surpasses its source. This is one of those times. The models and fashions take a back seat to some fascinating camera work, with one scene reminiscent of the crushed toothpaste in Cameo’s “She’s Strange.”
Granularity (video edit)
Director/Music: redhoot
This disturbing yet effective video portrays the human body twisted into grotesque shapes, shattered and reassembled; but it’s comprised of only particles and glitch. A sense of fragility develops as the video progresses.
Quack Fat
Director: Dropbear
Music: Opiuo
The description is self-explanatory: “240 audio cassettes, 5,600 feet of video tape, 108 floppy discs and 1 retro walkman”. “Quack Fat” is a lovely visual ode to cassette culture, as well as to the floppy disc, Atari games, and other “forgotten” formats.
Alfonso Muskedunder
Directors: Bendik Kaltenborn and Espen Friberg
Music: Todd Terje
With cartoon design reminiscent of classic jazz covers, this vibrant video inspires a wave of nostalgia along with toe-tapping glee. The visuals are perfectly matched to the music; especially amusing is the sequence in which a bigwig presses what seems to be a preset.
Megalizer II
Director: 16 artists share in the credits!
Music: edIT
An elephant, a duck, a baseball mascot and other assorted characters crunk to a massive tune. Every fifteen seconds, another director gets a turn. It’s like watching an entire animation festival in only four minutes!
The Grid
Director: James Chappell
Music: SBCR
This hi-octane thriller reminds me of Jason Statham’s Crank: High Voltage. The video is pure visceral energy, and the music hearkens back to the golden days of rave. Extra credit for matching the beats with the punching bag, and including the intakes of breath in the mix.
Richard Allen
a closer listen 