HAPPY DOGS in Australia

I admit it, I Pharrell Williams' Happy. The videos on his site, 24 Hours of Happy, are wonderful. I think this one, submitted by a dog trainer from Australia is one of my favorites. Because really, it's hard to top a dog in joie de vivre.

Writer's Block

A gang of convicts attempt to make a break from the prison for criminally poor writers.
Writers' Block from WÖNKY Films on Vimeo.

Amanda Shires - Bulletproof (Live from Rhythm N' Blooms 2013)

I like to listen to the relatively local radio station WNRN, it is based in Charlottesville and plays a wide variety of music. The station is a sort of semi-professional college rado station. As a result i get to hear a fair amount of music before it becomes big. Case in point is this lovely song by Amanda Shires. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

AKC National Obedience Championship: Man's Bond with His Dog

Such an amazing bond between man and dog. It is particularly remarkable since bull terriers are not known as an "obedience breed," they do not live to please. You have to convince them that it is a good idea. That said, the two work together and have done amazing things such as garnering an invite to the AKC obedience championship.

The Finish Line 2

A very moving short about one team's response to their beloved coach's diagnoses with ALS.

The Finish Line 2 - Short Feature from Evolve Digital Cinema | IMG on Vimeo.

Dark Noir

An interesting short that is sort of kind of an Absolute ad.

Dark Noir from Gillian Glendinning on Vimeo.

Happy

I admit it, I really like Pharrell's "Happy." It's just plain fun and gets under your skin. This version popped up on my feed in Face Book and I just had to share.

LUMINARIS

A little light entertainment, a stop action film by Juan Pablo Zaramella of Buenos Aires. The synopsis from the website states "In a world controlled and timed by light, an ordinary man has a plan that could change the natural order of things."

Move Mountain

A captivating stop animation film by Kirsten Lepore. This is her MA graduation film from CalArts and I think it it is wonderful both in technique and the soundtrack. Tthe best word to summarize this movie is connectivity.

Move Mountain from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

The Golden Age of Insect Aviation

Possibly the most stirring ten second film you will ever see. It never fails to make me smile.

Animated by Wayne Unten, it was his first project using TV Paint animation software. No rotoscoping used. More of his creations can be found on his blog: animatingforfun.com.

And I mustn't forget the brilliant score by Dave Gottlieb.

Enjoy!

Golden Age of Insect Aviation: The Great Grasshoppers from Wayne Unten on Vimeo.

Notes on Blindness - Op-Docs

John Hull, a writer and theologian, loses his vision shortly after the birth of his second child in 1983. Years later he starts keeping an audio diary of his thoughts and feelings in regards to his blindness. This short film is a dramatization of his diary. Beautiful shot, the film captivates the viewer.

REVIVE

Revive is the Tropfest Australia 2013 People's Choice Award.

It's a fairly short feature, just over seven minutes long, but it is long on emotion. Interestingly he dropped out of an engineering program to pursue his film making dreams. The young director packs quite a wallop, it will be interesting to see what he does down the road.

Wind

A wordless, but far from silent, short about how individuals cope in an area with extremely windy conditions. created by Robert Löbel, it is his graduation project for his degree from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences’ Department of Design.

WIND from robert loebel on Vimeo.

La Maison en Petits Cubes

A lovely animated feature about, life, love, and diving into the past.

PROXiMITY (A Short Film by Ryan Connolly)

PROXiMITY is an interesting and suspenseful short film, an action movie boiled down to the basics. there is not a whole lot of story, nor character development, and even less dialogue, but the intensity is phenomenal. I found this via Short Film of the Week.

The Wikidrummer

A demonstration of how environment affects the acoustical properties of drums. No reverberation is added, the differences are all from where the drumming is being done. I saw this over at Colossal: Art and Visual Culture, No Reverb Added:An Acoustical Experiment in Drumming.

Dogs In Elk

This story has been floating around on the nets for years. I first read it back in 1999 and it is just as funny now as it was then. It is not for the squeamish, being a rather extreme example of life with dogs. And the best part is that it is true.

I present to you: Dogs in Elk.

Ari Lesser - Give Thanks - Hanukkah - Thanksgiving

Sixth Night, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Tonight is the sixth night and once again I barely eek out a picture. At this point the candles put out quite a bit iof light and heat, I love how the metal of the taller menorah glows from the reflected light.

since it's movie Monday I found this song that was recorded in the very rare confluence of Hanukkah and the US Thanksgiving. It is a nice upbeat song of thanks for this this very unique time.

Travel the world via Instragram. Thomas Jullien combined 852 images fro Instagram to create a sort of stop motion trip. It's quite fun and the sound track from the Black Keys was a big plus for me.

An Instagram short film from Thomas Jullien on Vimeo.

The Crimson Permanent Assurance

This is one of my all time favorite short features, from the fine folks of Monty Python. Originally slated to be a Terry Gilliam animation during "The Meaning of Life," its scope grew such that Gilliam requested it become live action and a stand alone short at the beginning of the movie. A brilliant satire of the go-go 80's of London.