If anyone would ask me about how do I understand anarchism, I would tell them to look up Sun City Girls. Their “style” defies any sense of logic (or whatever we have been led to see as logic), and breaks any standards for classification. To satisfy my insufferable dependence on normalcy, I tried desperately to describe them… [Read more…]
March 7, 2012
Demetru Dem. Demetrescu-Buzău (1883 – 1923), better known as Urmuz, stands at the forefront of the early 20th century Romanian avant-garde movement. Even though he wrote only a handful of “stories” (or perhaps better put “anti-stories”), his anarchic literary renderings served as a major inspiration for the young art revolutionaries, such as the Iancu brothers and… [Read more…]
February 27, 2012
Just a day ago I learned about Lhasa de Sela and her exhilarating music. My first encounter with this extraordinary person has been through her music video for Con Toda Palabra, directed by Ralph Dfouni and Brigitte Henry. I cannot yet think of a better visual rendition of how I imagine the feeling of longing, nor… [Read more…]
February 26, 2012
I always wished to be able to spend at least one moment wondering through the mind of a mathematician, and watch how mathematical thinking unfolds. In my view, the act of thinking math is similar to the act of imagining worlds. It is like wondering through a labyrinth that has no center, and that expands… [Read more…]
January 12, 2012
It has no end and no beginning, yet each point on it is one of inevitable and infinite returns. Regardless of where you find yourself while on it, you have already been there, sometimes just moments ago. However, this is part of a seemingly endless journey that at each step offers tantalizing or perhaps chimeric… [Read more…]
December 28, 2011
This Escher-esque animated short, inspired from Penrose’s impossible stairs, was part of Goo-Shun Wang‘s 2006 MA thesis project for the School of Visual Arts in New York. It could be argued that the story in Hallucii is about seeing, or perhaps about learning how to see things from different perspectives. However, as the author puts it, the story… [Read more…]
December 20, 2011
When I first watched this ad I did not know who made it and why. The music and the story have haunted me for quite a while, so I decided to post it here. As I was looking for references to credit the ad with, I found out that it was made for a job… [Read more…]
December 20, 2011
According to many Romanian folk tales, the first people to have ever walked the earth were the giants (uriașii, jidovii). They had heads as big as mountains, and with a few steps could reach any country they wished to go to. The giants were kind-hearted and very strong people. For a long time humans and… [Read more…]
December 10, 2011
Fallen Art (2004) directed by Tomasz Bagiński, music by Fanfare Ciocărlia. One of the most compelling animated shorts I have ever seen. The film puts into balance the perversity and the absurdity of war. To the question “Which one weighs heavier?” the answer is: “Bla bla bla bla bla!” In my ideal world, this film is shown to… [Read more…]
December 10, 2011
This is an absolutely charming animated short created in 2006 by Alan Becker. It is a story about resourcefulness versus power as a stick figure fights back against its creator who wants to torture it.
December 5, 2011
The clip brings up many issues that were engendered by the apartheid regime in South Africa, particularly stereotyping and blatant poverty and inequality. However, this story is not singular to South African society. To some extent and perhaps under different shapes, it can be seen anywhere in the world, even on a nearby street in… [Read more…]
December 4, 2011
Blajini (“kind ones”) are very tiny people who are kindhearted, just, and very pious. According to Romanian folk belief they were among the first beings created by God to live on Earth. They are so little that a single egg fills the belly of twelve blajini. After creating the humans, God decided to move the blajini to… [Read more…]
November 30, 2011
This post is perhaps wrongfully categorized under “shorts.” Given its profoundly thespian aura, the clip is one example of what happens when film meets theatre. It is a performance of Samuel Beckett‘s Play, directed by Anthony Minghella in 2001. Among other films, Minghella directed Breaking and Entering, Cold Mountain, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and The English Patient.
November 28, 2011
Searching for Romanian shorts with English subtitles I stumbled upon this film directed by Constantin Popescu, one of the filmmakers who are helping to build the New Romanian Cinema, brick by brick. Judging by the the cast (Luminița Gheorghiu and Teo Corban, seasoned Romanian actors) I should have guessed that I was up for a… [Read more…]
November 28, 2011
Something must be wrong when life seems too perfect and too clean. I think this short (PAGINA 23, Netherlands) shows what happens when you realize that the world you live in is in fact a staged simulacrum. Many thanks to THE BIG FAT OVEN, where I stumbled upon this film.
November 26, 2011
According to Romanian folk beliefs, consuming passion stems from hindered love, such as when parents disagree with a marriage, or when the loved one is away. When a person is consumed by such a passion and longing, it is believed that there is a danger for an evil spirit to take possession of the person’s… [Read more…]
March 30, 2012
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