A short stack of 7 films, The Journal of Short Film Volume 15 includes animated love letters, intimate earth worm conversations, and stunning historic vistas.
The Journal of Short Film is a locally published quarterly DVD collection of short video/film from around the world. In its newest volume, #15, the Journal continues its voice of democratized film distribution, while offering a selection of films along the perimeter of both experimental and documentary practices. I’m honored to be supporting the Journal of Short Film’s publisher Karl Mechem, and more recently as a guest editor on this volume, alongside Jennifer Lange and Paul Hill of the Wexner Center.
The volume begins with the quiet visually poetic Chiquitita and the Soft Escape, by Michael Robinson. Repetitive texture and motion reveal details at home, memories in close-up, cues that disintegrate with each repeated telling. The filmmaker offers an apt description of the “gentle breakdown in the face of the romantic.”
Chiquitita and the Soft Escape, by Michael Robinson
Hyacinthe, by Lydia Moyer (goodfornow)
Whats remains of Jonestown, Gayana? Moyer travels to the remains of the Jonestown “Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,” to discover a landscape of legendary violence, a historic tragedy swallowed by the natural world. This short documentary makes a case for time as a factor in both healing and subverting history.
Melika Bass stirs up something primordial with the 5 minute Bulb in the Head. A metaphysical day in the park. Humans and worms explore the earth, and dirt produces magic. Described in liner notes as “An earthen fairy tale. A feast for the living.”
A Pastry Shop And A Rainy Street, Bruce McKaig
Bruce McKaig‘s experiments in time lapse video on A Pastry Shop And A Rainy Street, make for an interesting overlap between interior and exterior space. Check more of Bruces time lapse photography and video art (here).
Within the playful space of a minute and a half, Digital Underpants by Matt Meindl exposes a playfully animated romp through old love letters and notebook sketches. A secret message, as if from the desk of a small child, layered with meaning and whispered innuendo.
How much difference can one man make? Recycle by Vasco Lucas Nunes and Odi Timoner describes a kind of homesteading on a small tract of unused land. Recycle is a Sundance short documentary about a homeless poet who recycles for his own reasons, and gardens in a wedge of existence between two streets in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. (clip)
Self sustainability becomes a prayer to the viewers as we celebrate the small gifts. Applaud the water hose, a ravaged plant rescued from the dumpster, and the curbside gardener.
One of my favorite short films in the collection is 200,000 Phantoms. A 20th century history exploded through hundreds of photographs of the Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima, spanning a century or more. A thought provoking statement in layered images, Phantoms leaves me pondering over a new language found in our ever increasing collective public documentation. The filmmaker, Jean-Gabriel Périot, brings us something fresh in the ubiquitous form of a slide show. Phantoms is a truly transcendent piece that remains with me long after a single viewing.
Purchase your own copy of this DVD collection online at www.thejsf.org, or on Amazon.com
UP NEXT… Interview with the Journal’s publisher, Karl Mechem!
Links
thejsf.org
Amazon
Michael Robinson
Matt Meindl
Lydia Moyer
Jean-Gabriel Périot
Bruce McKaig
Filed under: Art & Film, Columbus, film, JSF, Columbus, experimental video, Filmmaker, Journal of Short Film, Karl Mechem, Matt Meindl, OHintro, Wexner
[OH] intro 
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