Heimo’s Arctic Refuge: Full Length
Not for the faint of heart.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Alaskan Interior, cutting off 19 million acres of prime boreal wilderness from the mitts of fur trappers, oil tycoons, and would-be lodge owners alike. Only six families of white settlers were grandfathered in and allowed to keep cabins in the refuge—of them, only one still stays there year-round living off the land. His name is Heimo Korth, and he is basically the Omega Man of America’s Final Frontier.
Cannonball
Up There
A beautiful documentary on the lost art of painted advertising produced as part of The Ritual Project sponsored by Stella Artois and directed by Malcolm Murray.
Henry Murals
Favorites of 2009
In no particular order, these were my favorites from what we posted this year:
A Thousand Words
Mono
Two Cars, One Night
Skhizein
Poppy
Red Rabbit
Switch
9
Cinnamon Chasers – Luv Deluxe
Red House Painters – Song For A Blue Guitar
Keith Schofield – Diesel
Oren Lavie – Her Morning Elegance
Last Minutes with ODEN
Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No
Can We Talk?
Simon’s Cat – Fly Guy
¡Perfecto!
Levi’s – America (Go Forth)
Notte Sento
Driftless: Stories from Iowa
Steel Life
Last Minutes with ODEN
So incredibly touching. I am in tears.
Missed Connections
I love the Missed Connections blog. This new video captures it quite beautifully. This new web series is very promising.
A Walkthru with Kathleen Connally
I spent a morning with photographer Kathleen Connally several years back. We talked, we walked. I came back hoping to put something together immediately but life got a little crazy and I had to put it aside. Till now.
Many of things we discussed that misty morning still come back to me from time to time. I think Kathleen has one of the healthiest perspectives on her art & her work. She loves what she does, she has a purpose and she is comfortable with her talent.
You can follow her popular award-winning photoblog at durhamtownship.com.
Driftless: Stories from Iowa
Not a lick of music till the very end. The silence, intermingled with the subjects speaking, is very effective. Of course, the imagery is just tremendous. Beautiful, something I’d love to imitate.
Frontline – Inside the Economic Meltdown
I would embed this great documentary on what went down behind the scenes in the current economic depression but the interface is so damn good that I am just going to link it.
Bali Culture Part 2: Tooth Filing
Bali Culture Part 2:…Tooth Filing (Matatah) from Jan van der Meer.
One of the remarkable ceremonies in a Hindu Balinese life is tooth filing. When girls get their first menstruation and boys voice changes, they let their teeth file. It is called ‘Matatah’ in common Balinese. It is believed that pointed teeth are related to animal characters, witches, or bad evils. So, in order to be fully human, the teeth should be filed. Tooth filing is also done to reduce six evil spirits within a human being, called ‘Sad Ripu’. ‘Sad’ means six and ‘Ripu’ means ‘enemy’. They are Kama (desire), Loba (greed). Kroda (anger), Mada (intoxication), Moha (confusion) and Matsarya (jealousy). After filing, a father’s duties to his female children are generally regarded as complete. This mini-doc shows this ceremony from a smaller family in the mountains between Candidasa and BugBug. To save high costs for an extra ceremony (priest, dentist (!), food, drinks, pigs, tuak, rice, coconut fruits, etc) these happenings also sometimes take place during a wedding or like in this case with another very remarkable ceremony of baptizing a little baby. Balinese children are not allowed to stand on their feet for 210 days. I will show in Part 3.
Lingerie made in Pakistan
Hilarious that the workers have no idea what they are making. Wouldn’t this video get the owners in hot water?
What Would Jesus Buy?
WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? follows Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir as they go on a cross-county mission to save the Holidays from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! The Shopocalypse is upon us…Who will be Saved?
Full version available online.
Kicking It
Feature length doc.
In the summer of 2006, while the football world’s attention was focused on Germany, thousands of players around the globe were training hard and competing to be part of another World Cup … The Homeless World Cup. It had been a wild idea by a Scot and an Austrian—to give homeless people a chance to change their lives through an international street soccer competition. Five years later, the annual Homeless World Cup had become an internationally recognized sports competition. 500 homeless players from 48 nations would ultimately be selected to represent their country in Cape Town, South Africa – coming from such disparate parts of the world as war torn Afghanistan, the slums of Kenya, the drug rehab clinics of Dublin, Ireland, the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, the overflowing public shelters of Madrid, Spain, and the unforgiving city of St. Petersburg, Russia, where the homeless have no rights or identity. Win or lose, for these players it would be the journey of a lifetime.
Best Online Videos for 2008
We have posted some wonderful stuff this year, our annual best-of list gives us a chance to celebrate some of them. Dek has a great round up of his favorites. Also, our 2006, 2007 lists.
Shorts
Best Short: Glory at Sea – A 25 minute tour de force that uses a contemporary tragedy (Katrina disaster) to create a powerful myth that seems as old as the hills.
Special Mentions:
Best Stop Motion: Illuminant – To experience this on a big screen like I did at Carrboro Film Festival was incredible.
We posted quite a few innovative stop-motion video including Lucia & Adjustment
Best Short Doc: Bullet Proof Vest
Best Hidden Product Placement: The Ramp
Best Acting in Shorts: R.L. Jackson & Tori Lee in Remember When
Best Abstract film: Pencil Face
Also:
Special mentions for Animations:
Web
Best Web Video: Dr. Horrible – It is nice to see big name talent doing web content. It certainly lived up to the hype. Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.
Special mentions:
- The Guild
- Goodie Bag
- West Side (nothing since June)
- Rhett & Link
- Epic Fu
Music Video
Best Music video: Fleet Foxes: White Winter Hymnal – After a year full of shocking videos, especially in content, the one video that haunted me was Sean Pecknold‘s animated classic. Simple in style, resonant story and a great fuckin’ song.
Sexiest Music Video of the year: Toe Jam
Special mentions Music videos:
- How much of a woman
- Damien Jurado – Caskets
- Bjork – Wanderlust
- MGMT – Time to Pretend
- The New Pornographers – Myriad Harbour
Commercials
Best Commercial: JC Penney: Aviator – Also the cutest video of the year. The direction is pitch perfect.
- Carrboro Film Festival (it is good to love one’s own work)
- Zürich Chamber Orchestra
Other awards
Best Interview of the Year: Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin – Unintentionally hilarious that changed the course of the presidential elections.
Best Parody: SNL’s version of Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin – Saturday Night Live came back with a bang. Even more wicked than the original.
Best Online Radio: This American Life: Super
Note: Some of these videos were not released in 2008, they are included here because this is when we discovered them.
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