“Most People Are Pretty Nice” is a Cinematic Poem Animated Short Film Featuring Author and Historian Rutger Bregman Directed by Stephen McNally.
Directed by: Stephen McNally
Produced by: Abi Stephenson
Animation: Jac Clinch & Diana Gradinaru
Narrated by: Rutger Bregman
‘We have taken huge steps towards tackling some of the biggest threats on humanity throughout history, and in many ways our lives have never been better! So where do we go from here? Author and historian Rutger Bregman argues that in order to continue towards a better world, we need big ideas and a robust vision of the future. Revolutionary ideas, that were once dismissed as a utopian fantasy, became reality through people believing there was a better way – but what if our progress is hindered by our own dim view of human nature?’
“The Off-Season” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film Directed by Sam Davis.
Director – Sam Davis
Producer – Rayka Zehtabchi
EP – Andrew Hutcheson / Voyager
AC/Loader – Jeff Vanderpool
Steadicam Operator – Nick Schwyter
Composer – Giosuè Greco
Voice – Stan Robinovitz
As the son of a football coach and brother of a QB-turned-sports broadcaster, my upbringing revolved around fall Friday nights. And while I may have turned out to be the artsy one in the family, I know how much football means to players, coaches and communities everywhere.
While questions linger about the fate of the coming season, I hope this film can be a little blip of hope and excitement for the return of football, whenever that may be. Hang tight. Life will go on, and so will sports.
Produced by // Ella Utomi, Jide Adewale
Poem by // Ntongha Ekot
Starring, voiceover by // Jide Adewale
Music composed by // John Corlis
“Eko ile”
A man straddles a love-hate relationship with Lagos in which he attempts to not only grasp both the intensity and comfort that the city has to offer, but also to embrace it as his home.
—-
The City Odes Project is a passion project in which I collaborate with my composer, a poet and an actor to create a humanist, emotional, and visual story amidst the backdrop of a specific city. “Eko ile” is the second entry into this series and takes place in one of the most intense, vibrant, and overwhelming places I have ever been – Lagos, Nigeria.
The title “Eko ile” translates to “Lagos is home” in Yoruba, one of the primary languages in the country. For this piece, I wanted to capture the city in the language I encountered most when I was there – Pidgin English (which is sort of a local slang) as well as plain English, both of which my lead actor Jide Adewale (who also happens to be one of the producers) speaks as he narrates the poem. I wanted to create a character who personifies the feeling of living in Lagos in which the hustle is as real as it gets and the frenetic pace is nonstop. Lagos truly is one of a kind.
The final result here features the work of Ntongha Ekot – a Nigerian poet – who eloquently captures these push-and-pull feelings through her words, and my frequent collaborator John Corlis – an LA-based musician and composer – who complements the poetry with his emotional piano piece “Into the Atmosphere” from his latest album of the same title. My incredible producers Jide and Ella Utomi made it all happen by finding the locations, security and logistics; they took care of me during my memorable time there.
Co-Directed by: Mukhtar Zaidi
Assistant Directors: Salman Yousaf and Syed Faizan
DOP and Aerial: Zain Ul Abdeen and Amad Somi
Music by: MaxLL
When we told our friends and family about our decision to travel to Pakistan for work, some of them asked us if we were crazy, while others asked: “Is it safe to go there?”.
Let me show you what we witnessed. A place that, in my experience, eluded completely the distorted Western media depictions. Explore the real faces and real stories of Pakistan.
Traveling in Pakistan is an experience that is truly unique, enlightening, life-changing and, more often than not, beautifully surprising. We’re grateful for the wonderful experience, genuine hospitality, new friends, and beautiful memories.
Voice and excerpts from writings by Alan Watts
Go back to your childhood. What were the fascinating things? What’s out there? What’s beyond the stars? How long does it go on? And mama said, “It goes on always and always and always.” The child wonders it’s exciting that this is something that never ends…Then the child asks about time… How long ago was long ago?.
“Why Born Enslaved – A Poet’s Response”: A Cinematic Poem Short Film Of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Sculpture Featuring Poet Wendy S. Walters Directed By Sarah Cowan
Produced and Directed by: Sarah Cowan
Director of Photography and Editor: Alex Guns
Camera: Stephanie Wuertz
Why Born Enslaved! by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Modeled 1868
Carved 1873 Marble Purchase
The Wallace Foundation
Wrightsman Fellows Gifts and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Gift, 2019
“Motorized Photographs Of Sunset Blvd. And Other L.A. Streets” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film Featuring Ed Ruscha with excerpts of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” Directed by Matthew Miller.
Directed by: Matthew Miller
Produced by: Ways & Means
Executive Producers: Jett Steiger and Lana Kim
Producer: Christopher Broyles
Project Manager: Steph Max
Editor: Sean Leonard
Music by: Ali Helnwein
Images: Ed Ruscha “Streets of Los Angeles” Archives at The Getty Research Institute
Commissioned by The Getty Museum on the occasion of their 2019 Getty Medal to the painter, draftsman, photographer, and bookmaker, Ed Ruscha. Utilizing The Getty Research Institute’s preservation and digitization of over a million images from Ed’s Streets of Los Angeles photo series, and excerpts from Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road,” this film puts together two of Ed’s major inspirations: Kerouac’s text and the city of Los Angeles.
Excerpts from “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac (1957)
Along about three in the afternoon, after an apple pie and ice cream in a road-side stand, a woman stopped for me in a little coupe…
The greatest ride in my life was about to come up…
The driver was fiddler for a California cowboy band. He had a brand-new car and drove eighty miles an hour.
“BuildingBridges” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film Directed By JOHANNES OLSZEWSKI.
Directed by JOHANNES OLSZEWSKI
Written by JOHANNES OLSZEWSKI & CODY CHRISTENSEN
Produced by MIRKO PROHASKA & JOHANNES OLSZEWSKI
Director of Photography FELIX REICHERT
B Camera Operator & Animation VALENTIN RAPP
Production Designer BARBARA PEISL
CAST
Pilot of German ballon TIM TAYLOR
Pilot of American Ballon ZACHARY BRAMBLE
Hitchhiker Girl BARBARA PEISL
Hitchhiker Boy LEVI ALLEN
CREW
Production Supervisor LISA GHIO
Production Assistant ALEXANDER SCHULZ
Property Master RONNY BIARD
High above the sacred Navajo land of Monument Valley, two hot air balloons float, circling each other as if in a dance. One carries the German flag, the other that of the United States. A closer look reveals that the balloons are not only tethered together, but that a person is walking on this thin, connecting line.
This is the sight that the protagonist of the short film #buildingbridges beholds, as he steps out of his humble Utah home and looks up at the sky. An old and lonely man, he finds his own courage through the actions of these strangers.
This balancing act in movie form by the young creative agency One Inch Dreams (oneinchdreams.com) was commissioned by the German Embassy as a tribute to German-American friendship.
“The Mushroom Hunters” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film With Original Poem Written By Neil Gaiman, Directed By Caroline Rudge.
Artwork, Animation, Direction and Storyboard by: Caroline Rudge
Production, Storyboard and Additional Mushrooms: Alexandra Casswell Becker
Editing and Special Effects: Dann Casswell
The Mushroom Hunters Original Poem by: Neil Gaiman
Read by: Amanda Palmer
Bass, Percussion, Vibraphone, Piano and Original Score by: Jherek Bischoff
Cello: Aniela Marie Perry
Violin: Paris Hurley
Viola: Marta Sofia Honer
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Jherek Bischoff at Sweethaven
THE MUSHROOM HUNTERS by Neil Gaiman
Science, as you know, my little one, is the study of the nature and behaviour of the universe. It’s based on observation, on experiment, and measurement, and the formulation of laws to describe the facts revealed.
In the old times, they say, the men came already fitted with brains designed to follow flesh-beasts at a run, to hurdle blindly into the unknown, and then to find their way back home when lost with a slain antelope to carry between them. Or, on bad hunting days, nothing.
The women, who did not need to run down prey, had brains that spotted landmarks and made paths between them left at the thorn bush and across the scree and look down in the bole of the half-fallen tree, because sometimes there are mushrooms.
Before the flint club, or flint butcher’s tools, The first tool of all was a sling for the baby to keep our hands free and something to put the berries and the mushrooms in, the roots and the good leaves, the seeds and the crawlers. Then a flint pestle to smash, to crush, to grind or break.
And sometimes men chased the beasts into the deep woods, and never came back.
Some mushrooms will kill you, while some will show you gods and some will feed the hunger in our bellies. Identify. Others will kill us if we eat them raw, and kill us again if we cook them once, but if we boil them up in spring water, and pour the water away, and then boil them once more, and pour the water away, only then can we eat them safely. Observe.
Observe childbirth, measure the swell of bellies and the shape of breasts, and through experience discover how to bring babies safely into the world.
Observe everything.
And the mushroom hunters walk the ways they walk and watch the world, and see what they observe. And some of them would thrive and lick their lips, While others clutched their stomachs and expired. So laws are made and handed down on what is safe. Formulate.
The tools we make to build our lives: our clothes, our food, our path home… all these things we base on observation, on experiment, on measurement, on truth.
And science, you remember, is the study of the nature and behaviour of the universe, based on observation, experiment, and measurement, and the formulation of laws to describe these facts.
The race continues. An early scientist drew beasts upon the walls of caves to show her children, now all fat on mushrooms and on berries, what would be safe to hunt.
The men go running on after beasts.
The scientists walk more slowly, over to the brow of the hill and down to the water’s edge and past the place where the red clay runs. They are carrying their babies in the slings they made, freeing their hands to pick the mushrooms.
This poem was written by Neil Gaiman and read by Amanda Palmer for Maria Popova’s “The Universe In Verse” event in 2017 (you can read about that here: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04…).
The brilliant team at creative connection in the UK hand-drew this animated video to accompany the poem, and the music was composed and recorded by jherek bischoff. read about the making of this whole film on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31517040
“The Letter – You Will Not Have My Hatred”: A Cinematic Poem Short Film Directed By Salomon Lightelm.
Edited and Directed by: Salomon Lightelm
Words by: Antoine Leiris
Cinematographer: Zack Spiger
Production Co.: Gang Films
Music Score: AWVFTS
Filmed at: Chateaux Fontainebleau
“I vividly remember the morning I read these powerful words for the first time. It was a cold November afternoon and a friend of mine had shared it on Instagram. As I was reading, I glanced over at my son playing in the living room – he was 17 months old, and I started coming undone. My wife looked over at me and I couldn’t speak, I just handed her the phone, and she also just came undone. These words had stuck with me for 4 years and they haven’t let go of me. How can a man, who had suffered so much, have a such a spirit of resilience and grace? Thank you Antoine Leiris for seeing the world unlike how most people see it – for showing a way that flows in the opposite direction of hate, and retaliation. Its words like yours that change the world. This film is a contemplative meditation on those words, be patient with it.”