When the words "experimental/abstract" are uttered at an animation festival most people would rather hear metal nails scar a chalkboard while receiving a glass shard enema. At this years Ottawa International Animation Festival it was no different, but, for me it is an annual blood-letting that I sadistically look forward to every year. I am like some sort of medieval monk going for his daily leeching to purge himself of his short attention span deficit. This year wasn't short of donations from the audience, however, for me it was sort of a let down. Pes's, Game Over, was in the category and don't get me wrong I really like his work but wasn't there something more than this. Another short film was Gints Apsits's Ministry Mesiah (shown above). Again, this is a cool cloned-Aphex Twin audio driven Inquisition of the Latvian kind but isn't it just a music video? I know that music videos are the 'new experiemental', and for the most part that is true, and they too need to be represented. Granted Gints's film is not a commercial video and I do like some of the collage effects, i.e. the transition to the side profile of the head and the head slicing apart. So what's my problem? Maybe it is because I have seen this before on the 47th floor. But, wasn't _grau by Robert Seidel, that I really enjoyed last year, be considered just a music video too? I guess what it comes down to this year is subjectively there wasn't much that expunged the inner demon that is collecting all my spelling mistakes to make the anti-bunny blog. The stains of last years festival are still bloody fresh in my mind. It seems that this years contenders are just the B-side picks from last year, except for the Lightning Doodle Project (Pikapika) and Jeu by Georges Schwizgiblets...sorry Thanksgiving flashback...Schwizgebel. Who knows? I just can't put my finger on why it felt so hollow this year.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Fumbled abstract experiment
When the words "experimental/abstract" are uttered at an animation festival most people would rather hear metal nails scar a chalkboard while receiving a glass shard enema. At this years Ottawa International Animation Festival it was no different, but, for me it is an annual blood-letting that I sadistically look forward to every year. I am like some sort of medieval monk going for his daily leeching to purge himself of his short attention span deficit. This year wasn't short of donations from the audience, however, for me it was sort of a let down. Pes's, Game Over, was in the category and don't get me wrong I really like his work but wasn't there something more than this. Another short film was Gints Apsits's Ministry Mesiah (shown above). Again, this is a cool cloned-Aphex Twin audio driven Inquisition of the Latvian kind but isn't it just a music video? I know that music videos are the 'new experiemental', and for the most part that is true, and they too need to be represented. Granted Gints's film is not a commercial video and I do like some of the collage effects, i.e. the transition to the side profile of the head and the head slicing apart. So what's my problem? Maybe it is because I have seen this before on the 47th floor. But, wasn't _grau by Robert Seidel, that I really enjoyed last year, be considered just a music video too? I guess what it comes down to this year is subjectively there wasn't much that expunged the inner demon that is collecting all my spelling mistakes to make the anti-bunny blog. The stains of last years festival are still bloody fresh in my mind. It seems that this years contenders are just the B-side picks from last year, except for the Lightning Doodle Project (Pikapika) and Jeu by Georges Schwizgiblets...sorry Thanksgiving flashback...Schwizgebel. Who knows? I just can't put my finger on why it felt so hollow this year.
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2 comments:
Hi, Jeff. by what you wrote id like to ask: if we dont read a synopis, is Street Crocodiles better then this? in what sence?
Now that I am over my cold I can think straight...this post is crap and what I meant is that the depth of the films were very shallow this year. There isn't any depth, i.e. Street of Crocodiles and even Robert Seidel's _grau carries more layers than being stuck to the surface of the sound. Mind you that 'Ministry Messiah' has a coolness factor to it and I did like it when I saw it. But the eye candy only goes so far, whereas, Street of Crocodiles can be seen again and again. I know I should take this post down but everyone has their bad days and this is one of mine.
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