Five Things, So Lit
No time to watch a movie? I have you covered. Five short films on creativity and art worth your time.
Hello friends. How are you?
Mid-spring on Vancouver Island, the forest is a verdant shade of emerald. Latent sun emerges, suffusing the landscape with golden haloes of light. At this time of year, I prefer to turn off the TV and head outside. In Canada, any stint of amiable weather is to be savored. You never know what you are going to get north of the 49th parallel.
For this edition of F.T.S.L., I present to you a selection short films about artists that you can sneak in over a tea break. It isn’t always feasible to watch feature length movies. I prefer to indulge my inner cineaste through the fall and winter months.
When you watch these films, which do not sacrifice an iota of quality for brevity of running time, (short films get short shrift, undeservedly so), may you be inspired to greater heights in your own creative pursuits.
Let us get right down to it.
How many obsessions can one family have? In Joanna Quinn and Les Mills' Affairs of the Art, we connect with Beryl, the working-class heroine who not only reveals her own obsession with drawing but exposes the addictions of her eccentric family, which include pickling, screw threads and pet taxidermy. (Nominated for an Oscar in the short film animation category). I discovered this film, and its gonzo, genius animation style, courtesy of a recommendation by the great Danny Gregory https://substack.com/@dannygregory?utm_source=global-search
This New Yorker doc, on legendary nonagenarian cartoonist George Booth (95 and still going strong), is divine inspiration. Incredible.
Animation Obsessive is an exemplary newsletter (you should subscribe!). It is therein I uncovered Frédéric Back’s French-Canadian “Crac”, a quiet gem that took years of meticulous labour to produce. Crac, in its fluid, graceful style, went on to inform the masterworks of Hayao Miyazaki.
Rarely but significantly, a person will come into material wealth and they will do something extraordinary with it. Filmmakers Cory Jacobs and Jason Schmidt highlight a portrait of an unorthodox ecosystem in a former candy factory in Brooklyn held together by the magnetic force of the building's owner, Ann Ballentine, who bought the building in 1979 and filled it with artists. This is a distinct portrait of a (sadly) bygone era.
For the past six years, photographer Joshua Charow has been uncovering New York City’s original live/work lofts and the incredible artists who have lived in them for decades. His journey began in 2020, after discovering a map of buildings protected under the 1982 Loft Law. He rang thousands of doorbells in these mysterious industrial buildings, searching for the last remaining artists still living and working within them. He has a book, and a youtube series, documenting his findings. Here is a profile on artist John Willenbecher.
That is all for this edition folks. If you have favourite short films on creative practice and the lives of artists, do not hesitate to share in the comments. I may put Dinner and a Movie on hiatus until September. I hope you will stick around in the interim. Till next time! Take care! xx