Celluloid Sushi

micmac●



Piotr Kamler is one in a long line of brilliant Polish animators. As with many of his fellow countrymen, Kamler eschews realistic depictions in favour of an emotive and abstract approach. In this short, L'Araignéléphant (1967), a confused creature questions who, what and why he is. The inventive visual style is augmented greatly by Bernard Parmegiani's sweet score, and while there are better films by Kamler, this never fails to cheer me up.



For his film Stealing Beauty (2000), Israeli artist Guy Ben-Ner took his family to Ikea stores in three different countries and had them act out family dramas in living room sets. The film starts looking as if Ben-Ner had made his own set, but as the film continues, it becomes more and more clear that no permissions have been granted, and filming is repeatedly interrupted by security personnel. The above video is just the trailer; watch the full film here at Ubuweb.



Synaesthesia is the condition of having sensory experiences cross over. For example, a person with the condition may taste salt when reading the letter G, or hear crows when thinking of the year 1911. The experiences are completely involuntary and the links are often arbitrary, but the theory goes that it is the result of 'over-learning' information. It is this subject that two-man team Terri Timely take on in their 2009 film Synesthesia. A family goes about its daily duties, apparently unfazed by the psychedelic experiences happening around them. As a synaesthete myself, I have to say that the real thing isn't quite as exciting, but this is a fun film worthy of your time.