settima

ShortFilm

Muloorina (David Cobham, 1964)

Nov

17

Guinness World Records Day

Muloorina (1964)

The Bluebird parked amongst the crew's Jeeps. DPs: John Daniell, Ross King, Frank McKechnie, Ian Millar & Bob Wright.

Short in gorgeous Technicolor, Muloorina tells about a small, arid town in Australia that one day finds itself on the world's stage. Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, a local salt lake that hasn't seen a drop of rain in nine years, is the perfect spot for a landspeed record attempt by British daredevil Donald Campbell and his Bluebird.

 

A play of contrasts. The supersonic blue machine on the ancient white riverbed and the slowness of the eternal landscape versus something faster than should be possible. And meanwhile, the locals care for their land and animals, and wait for rain.

Kick That Habit (Peter Liechti, 1989)

Nov

16

National Andy Day

Kick That Habit (1989)

Andy Guhl of experimental Swiss music/art group Voice Crack playing metal wire strung along a room. DP: Peter Liechti.

Everything is noise. Everything is light. Everything is dark. Everything is motion. Everything is static. Everything is energy. Everything is lethargy. Everything is rhythm. Everything is chaos. Everything is silent

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Les Blank, 1980)

Nov

8

Cook Something Bold Day

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980)

Herzog prepares his left suede Clarks in Alice Waters' restaurant kitchen. DP: Les Blank.

After boiling for five hours in a concoction of #garlic, herbs, and stock, the shoe was ready to eat and #Herzog could keep his promise to fellow director Errol Morris.

“More shoes, more boots, more garlic.”

– Werner Herzog

Jaanipäev [St. John's Day] (Andres Sööt, 1978)

Nov

5

Bonfire Night

Jaanipäev (1978)

The neatly stacked pyre on jaanipäev with Tallinn's dreary socialist Plattenbau on the horizon. DP: Andres Sööt.

As long as they can remember, jaaniõhtu is when Estonians gather to celebrate midsummer. It started, they'll tell you, 4000 years ago when Kaali appeared. Ever since, come rain or shine, come socialism or capitalism, the people gather and light bonfires in its remembrance. Some sing the songs of the elders, memory willing. Others see this as their moment to shine. As a great musician perhaps. A faithful worker. Or a lover, for jaanipäev; #midsummer night.

“Come, this party is for hard-working people!”

Fall 2 (Bas Jan Ader, 1970)

Nov

2

Look for Circles Day

Fall 2 (1970)

Ader plunging into an Amsterdam canal. A bridge and its reflection in the water form an imperfect circle (source).

“All is falling”

– Bas Jan Ader

ねこぢる草 [Nekojiru-sō / Cat Soup] (Tatsuo Satō, 2001)

Aug

30

National Grief Awareness Day

ねこぢる草 (2001)

Nyāko taken away by Jizō with little brother Nyatta telling Nyāko to come back home. DP: Masaru Takase.

Nyatta is not ready to have Jizō take away his big sister Nyāko to Ne-no-kuni, the land of the dead. The kitten grabs his sister's paw, resulting in her soul being ripped in two and leaving Nyāko in a state of limbo. The cats' mother then sends the two off on a mission to buy fried #tofu. Maybe now Nyatta can find a way to put Nyāko's divided soul back together. But first, there's a circus to visit!

 

ねこぢる草 is based on works by mangaka Nekojiru / ねこぢる (1967—1998) whose trademark crudely drawn #cats caused a ripple in Japan's underground #manga circuit. Nyatta and Nyāko continued their surreal adventures by way of widower Yamano Hajime after Nekojiru's tragic suicide in 1998.

R​… ne répond plus [R… no longer responds] (Jean-Pierre + Luc Dardenne, 1981)

Aug

28

Radio Commercials Day

R… ne répond plus (1981)

In the nice room for special occasions a small boy is eating next to a large greying woman wearing an apron who in her turn eyes a younger woman who looks exactly like her tuning the radio. It's prominently placed next to an oversized, sensual cornucopian glass bowl, overflowing with oranges. DPs: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Stéphane Gatti.

R… ne répond plus is Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's exploring the airwaves. Some is clearly political. Radio Schwarzi Chatz (“Radio Black Cat”) and the feminist witches from Wellenhexe (”[radio] wave witch”) have important messages, unheard of in the mainstream media. Others broadcast in languages on the verge of extinction, so may that tongue survive in a world that – already forty years ago – was rapidly homogenising.

“This is called the comeback of reality.”

And then there are those, they're unnamed, who travel the land and across the borders with walkie-talkies – those too are radios, two-way – using their meandering frequencies to hold on to reality. It's all very elusive, but it's there. Maybe #radio is not dead. We just need to learn how to tune into that Enochian frequency again. It's real after all.

Zupa [Soup] (Zbigniew Rybczyński, 1975)

Aug

27

Crab Soup Day

Zupa (1975)

The husband eating soup. The colours are extremely bright and placed on top of animated black-and-white still photographs created with an optical printer. DP: Zbigniew Rybczyński..

Zbigniew Rybczyński's autobiographical Zupa follows an unnamed couple's faltering monotonous relationship.

 

Produced by the groundbreaking Se-ma-for Studios in Łódź – you may be familiar with their 1981 Oscar-winning Tango by, again, Rybczyński – the story is told through colourised analogue still #photography and electronic music and sound effects created by PRES's Eugeniusz Rudnik.

Oss Oss Wee Oss (Alan Lomax, 1953)

Aug

22

Folklore Day

Oss Oss Wee Oss (1953)

The childrens' 'Obby 'Oss May Day procession that precedes the adults' one on a Padstow hillside. DP: George Pickow.

On May 1 – in Padstow, Cornwall – an ancient procession goes around town. How ancient, no one really knows. Locals may describe it as a pagan fertility rite but even their generational memory draws a blank and no living soul can put an age on it. Ancient is what is it, drawing from primitive recollections of maidens and the effigy of a horse. The horse, the 'Obby 'Oss, starts its procession on May Eve, when it rises from its death. Locals gather to sing the “Night Song” and overnight, Padstow is dressed in flowers and a maypole has risen.

“Unite and unite and let us all unite, For summer is a-come unto day, And whither we are going we will all unite, In the merry morning of May.”

– Padstow May Night Song (traditional)

Then the “Morning Song”. Two 'Osses appear, dancing their dance, who then eventually on the evening of May Day meet at the maypole where they die, to be risen again next year.

“Now fare you well and bid you all good cheer, For summer is acome unto day, We call no more unto your house before another year, In the merry morning of May.”

Padstow May Day Song (traditional)

Alan Lomax's Oss Oss Wee Oss is probably the best known visual documentation of the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss festival. That it was filmed in 1953 doesn't matter; the ritual is circular, like the horses themselves and the eternal coming and going of the seasons.

Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952)

Aug

17

Neighbor Night

Neighbours (1952)

Neighbour on the Left (Jean Paul Ladouceur) and Neighbour on the Right (Grant Munro) upon discovering a small flower growing right on their properties' border. Two colourful, almost identical deckchairs can be seen on the lawn in the front and two cardboard façades of almost identical houses in the back. Both men wear almost identical beige slacks and blue shirts and sport a very similar hairstyle. DP: Wolf Koenig.

Norman McLaren's low-budget pixelation (animation created with live action footage) was groundbreaking in many aspects; even the soundtrack was painted directly onto the film stock.

“Love your neighbour”

– title card

Read more about its fascinating backstory and watch the short animation over at the National Film Board of Canada's website.