Composed entirely of AI-generated visuals and providing an abstract representation of the evolution of AI video, processed entirely through a VCR.
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The people behind it
In 1944 Lye moved to New York City, initially to direct for the documentary newsreel The March of Time. He settled in the West Village, where he mixed with artists who later became the Abstract Expressionists, encouraged New York’s emerging filmmakers such as Francis Lee, taught with Hans Richter, and assisted Ian Hugo on Bells of Atlantis. Color Cry was based on a development of the “rayogram” or “shadow cast” process, using fabrics as stencils, with the images synchronized to a haunting blues song by Sonny Terry, which Lye imagined to be the anguished cry of a runaway slave. —Harvard Film Archive
In this poignant animated short, a film student navigates the shockwaves of hidden trauma and PTSD on a night out with friends.
Experimental meditation on land, consciousness, and artificial intelligence. Shot in the Okanagan and West Kootenays. Original music by Jack Brintnell.
Short experimental computer animation by Jules Engel
Symphonic documentary exploring the Miami identity in six movements. It was performed and projected live by the New World Symphony, led by Michael Tilson Thomas on Feb 22, 2018. The film is made up of five separate and synchronized video channels, projected onto the walls of the New World Center concert hall, above a full symphony orchestra.
The union of the Indestructible Objet (1923-1959) by Man Ray and L'Infiltration homogenee for grand piano by Joseph Beuys (1966). Here the intersection of two temporalities is at stake: one punctuated by the pulsations of the metronome, the other marked by the continuous silence of Beuys’ piano.
The first 12 minutes would later be released as "Fountain of Dreams"
A film accompaniment featuring songs from Perfume Genius' newest record, Ugly Season.
This piece represents a kind of autobiographical vision. I use myself to create all the figures, sometimes employing masks from the Noh theater to vary my persona. A sea of richly colored figures floating and flying are accompanied by eerie sounds. The animated figures are constructed in the manner of puppetry and collage. The imagery continues until the artist's involvement with her "canvases" is revealed, with her performative self finally emerging.
The story of SIDESTAGE is one of Theatre. That moment before you step onstage, when suddenly every worry floods your mind, and the thick stage makeup suddenly feels too heavy, and you know you look ridiculous. You can't remember your queues, your blocking, you don't even know if anyone is in the audience to see you. But then your queue comes up, and it all fades away, and the show goes on.
A meditation on the Moon as a series of spheres melting away. The audio-visuals are synchronized via a repeated glitch process: the same values that databent the visuals are also used to change the base audio samples, creating a translation between a visual glitch and an audible one, even though in the final presentation they seem entirely different.
Experimental short film that follows the journey of some friends through the landscapes of Moreno.
As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless’ discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup’s reign as village chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.
A rat goes out to look for something in a tower.
“Ferenj” is an afrosurreal dreamscape crafted from the director’s reconstructed memories questioning the meaning of home and identity as a mixed-race, Ethiopian-American growing up amidst cultural dissonance. The viewer is guided through fragments of Empress Taytu (her parents’ Ethiopian restaurant in Cleveland, OH) to the streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by a speculative one-way conversation between the narrator and Empress Taytu – the restaurant personified as the historic empress. “Ferenj” harnesses photogrammetry as a tool to reclaim the 3D scanned spaces and redefine Robson’s relationship to them on her own terms.
Designed for continuous single or multiple monitor display (as well as video projection), the tape is a collection of computer animated sequences of celestial images spanning time and cultures, moving objects and images in harmonic choreography and spatial play.
Fischinger's abstract designs accompanied by Gitta Alpar singing. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2000.
A piano tuner wanders through the streets of New York after dark, seeking artistic inspiration. Sketchbook in hand, he observes the city’s lovers, mourners, and giant ants from afar. But when a twist of fate brings him face-to-face with a kindred spirit, he finds what he was looking for all along.
Sausage City illustrates Beckett's additive cycle process. Constantly evolving rectangular shapes provide a foundation for an environment inhabited by mutating blobs (or sausages). Sounds and shapes create a moving space that teeters on the edge between control and chaos. The ending is somewhat mystifying, pulling us out of the surreal environment and revealing its origins. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
Life in the Atom was never completed, but the existing version was digitally restored in 2009. The film depicts an ever-changing world inhabited by a man and woman engaged in surreal, erotic contortions. Their bodies are in a constant state of metamorphosis, as if to indicate psychological states or inner reflection as they contemplate their connection; they are being transported, transcending, merging and melting. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with iotaCenter, in 2009.
This fantastical movie inspired by the music of Michael Jackson features imaginative interpretations of hit tracks from the iconic 1987 album “Bad”.
In the town of Normal Valley, an eccentric magician named Maestro entertains the local children every day in his spooky mansion. One stormy night, the town's mayor leads a group of angry citizens to the mansion in an attempt to run Maestro out of town.
Upon learning that he is from New York City, a wide-eyed boy, who is half human and half alligator, decides to leave his sheltered life in the swamp and search for his long lost father. A musical adventure.
A Shrek parody of Michael Jackson's Thriller song and music video, with Donkey singing.
A melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
Animals band together to save the day when the evil Otto Von Walrus hatches a sinister scheme to accelerate global warming and melt the Arctic Circle.
A unique cinematic experience that invites audiences on a vibrant journey through the life of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told through the lens of LEGO® animation, turn up the volume on your imagination and witness the evolution of one of music's most innovative minds.
In the tradition of Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a glorious collection of musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites as "Peter and the Wolf", narrated by the beloved voice behind Winnie the Pooh. In addition you'll enjoy such classic cartoon hits as "Casey at the Bat," "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" and "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet."
Donald has to get up early, but everything seems to be working to keep him awake. His loudly ticking alarm clock resists several attempts to quiet it. Donald ultimately swallows it; the glow-in-the-dark dial can be seen through his feathers. Then his folding bed folds up on him. Springs start popping out of it; Donald builds an elaborate framework to hold it down. Finally, enough of the clock reassembles itself to sound the alarm and night is over.
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.
An obscure Eastern cult that practices human sacrifice pursues Ringo after he unknowingly puts on a ceremonial ring (that, of course, won't come off). On top of that, a pair of mad scientists, members of Scotland Yard, and a beautiful but dead-eyed assassin all have their own plans for the Fab Four.
Queen Poppy and Branch make a surprising discovery — there are other Troll worlds beyond their own, and their distinct differences create big clashes between these various tribes. When a mysterious threat puts all of the Trolls across the land in danger, Poppy, Branch, and their band of friends must embark on an epic quest to create harmony among the feuding Trolls to unite them against certain doom.
When Scooby and the gang get trapped in a video game created for the gang, they must fight against the 'Phantom Virus.' To escape the game they must go level by level and defeat the game once and for all.
Buster Moon dreams up a star-studded spectacle set to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in this animated short featuring characters from the hit "Sing" films.
An intelligent 15-year-old high school student is unexpectedly transferred to a boarding school where he opens a portal of monsters from another dimension.
Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.
Mater, the rusty but trusty tow truck from Cars, spends a day in Radiator Springs playing scary pranks on his fellow townsfolk. That night at Flo's V8 Café, the Sheriff tells the story of the legend of the Ghostlight, and as everyone races home Mater is left alone primed for a good old-fashioned scare.
Daft Punk Unchained is the first film about the pop culture phenomenon that is Daft Punk, the duo with 12 million albums sold worldwide and seven Grammy Awards. Throughout their career Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo have always resisted compromise and the established codes of show business. They have remained determined to maintain control of every link in the chain of their creative process. In the era of globalisation and social networks, they rarely speak in public and neither do they show their faces on TV. This documentary explores this unprecedented cultural revolution revealing a duo of artists on a permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom.
The Wishbone family are far from happy. In an attempt to reconnect as a family, they plan a fun night out. However, the plan backfires when they are cursed and all turned into Monsters.
Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: Tales of Savagery features a caveman and a dinosaur on the brink of extinction. Bonded by tragedy, this unlikely friendship becomes the only hope of survival.