Sundance Online: Vote For My Favorites

S-11, directed by Stephen MarshallBreakbeat meets media hacking in Stephen Marshall’s S-11, which was made for GNN, Guerilla News Network. Where Norman Cowie‘s Scenes from an endless war (which screened last month before Souvenir (November 2001)) used FoxNews sampling to underline media complicity, Marshall’s S-11 is more powerfully and closely edited for musical and rhythmic effect, which enhances its criticism of the current administration’s entire approach to the terrorist threat.
Bumble Being, by Billy BlobFrom the Flash Filosopher, Billy Blob comes Bumble Being, the bee version of “the butterfly effect.” Blob also did last year’s Sundance-ruling Karma Ghost. (If you haven’t changed your life yet, see it before it’s too late.) It’s stylin’ and simple, even if it doesn’t have quite the impact (so to speak) of KG, but the Flash bio that accompanies it is hi-larious.

One, directed by Stewart Hendler, image:phantompictures.com
One, directed by Stewart Hendler (image: phantompictures.com)

Best for last: Stewart Hendler‘s film, One, is a stunningly beautiful short about the painful last moments of a young couple’s relationship. The hauntingly lit cinematography and fragmented, melancholy-tinged memories are reminiscent of the flashback scenes DP John Toll did in Terrence Malick’s Thin Red Line, and I think we all know how things turned out for that guy… One was produced by Phantom Pictures; this was their first project. DP John Ealer, however, is a veteran by comparison. Watch this one full-screen.