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.
Grand Wheel
An experimental walk through the modern Peace Movement in the United States.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
via Greencine Daily
Hell No! to the bailout
Amy Goodman talks about the bailout.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Bob Scheer, the issue also of this rush to pass this legislation—I’m reminded somewhat of the PATRIOT Act after 9/11: an immense tragedy occurs, and immediately they try to rush through legislation without many of the members of Congress even having a handle as to what it really contains.
ROBERT SCHEER: Oh, it’s absolutely outrageous, and we can’t let them get away with it. I mean, consider that Paulson was the head of Goldman Sachs, OK? He knew about credit swaps. He knew about hybrid instruments. He knew all of this stuff. And now he’s the guy that says Congress has to give him a blank check, it has to be a pure bill? Nonsense!
This is our money. Why isn’t this money used to help people who are going to lose their houses? You miss two, three payments, and they’re going to foreclose on you; then they say, “Well, we hope the banks will work out new agreements.” Nonsense! Do a freeze on foreclosures. Stop the bleeding. Have a year to let it settle, and force the banks to come to agreements.
Listen to or read the show transcripts - via Gruber
The Chronophage
Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking is going to unveil a remarkable clock that has no hands and shows time with the help of light.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Video of 4×100 Mens Relay, Beijing: USA wins Gold
I had zero interest in the Olympics before it began. I happened to catch this relay when I was taking a break from work. It just sucked me in, how can it not? This is easily one of the great moments in sports history. The favorites France were ahead by at least half a body length at the turn with the World record holder at the helm. Somehow, somehow, American Jason Lezak managed to nip the Frenchman to win the gold. Incredible race by both teams.
Video is available on NBC but requires Microsoft Silverlight (WTF!!!!!!!!!!), if somebody is able to find it somewhere else, please leave a comment.
Update: Here is a link, with Italian commentary. Thanks Dek.
Japanese Biwa Player
Japanese biwa player performing Dan-no-ura, a song about the last battle between the Heike and Genji clans.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
Hoop Dream (entire film available)
This film is constantly voted the best documentary of all time. It is available in full at Hulu in 420p HD. Cannot get better than that online.
The film remains relevant just like it did when it first came out. Two young basketball players struggle to fulfill a common dream which is to make to the NBA. The two kids have contrasting styles and personalities, each story could have made a great documentary in of itself. But together, the stories highlight the hi’s and lo’s of each story even better. Once in a lifetime kind of movie.
Oil Addiction
If we’re addicted to oil, our twelve-step program should begin with admitting that we have a problem. As the price of oil creeps higher, finding new energy sources is more important than ever. But the search for alternatives, combined with environmental disruptions, is putting new pressures on other essentials like food. There are some things that are going well in the world. Right now, the economy is not one of them.
Animation and design: Chris Weller. Directed by Max Joseph. Music: Genesis by Justice.
Watch it. (Flash Video)
from Good Magazine
Ticklinks: The party of foot-in-mouth disease
- “In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is.”
- “‘Oreo’ -black on the outside, while white on the inside“
- “The Iraq-Pakistan border“
- “Well actually that was The Joker“
- “Maybe we do whine too much” Yes, you do.
Update: They keep on giving.
- “Eductaion” I like your spelling better.
- “My friends, we have to drill off shore. We have to do it…The oil executives say within a couple of years we could be seeing results from it.” Like I always say, listen to the oil executives!
- No video but you can pretty much see the confusion. Video - Shame on CBS.
Ticklinks: Girls & Goddesses
Some of this isn’t safe for work.
- Woman! Know your limits - Watched this with my wife, laughed our heads off.
- The girl effect - Sometimes, it is important to state the obvious.
- Chile’s Pole Dancing ‘Subway Goddess’ - A revolutionary that we can all get behind. Every friggin’ pun intended!
- Blow It Up Or Knock It Down - What balls!…I mean, what…
- The C-word - Do you get the feeling that these John and Cindy are just getting off with their dirty talk?
- Why Mona Lisa is such a big deal
- Goddess in the Raw
- China’s “Kingdom of Women” - Fascinating! There is a tribe in Southern India that has a similar structure.
- Being a Woman - From our archives.
- Women In Film - You have probably seen it, won’t hurt to see it again.
- A Girl Like Me
Obama: ‘America Already Has One Dr. Phil’
Obama is quite entertaining here. His targets are two of the most respected Republican Senators: John McCain, & Phil Gramm. I constantly disagree with these folks but they aren’t the usual idiotic Republican bobbleheads that talk out of their asses. I personally have never understood why Phil Gramm hasn’t run for the presidency. [oops, he did run] So it was surprising to hear that Phil Gramm call America “a nation of whiners”.
Thankfully, Obama takes both Gramm and McCain to school.
Recent Work from Hillman Curtis
You will find many more of his work in our archives. I love his site redesign. As always, great taste
This happens everyday in so many variations. The struggle between the Female Spirit and the cynical Male.
I love the first tracking shot. Can’t tell if that was a rehearsal or the real thing. Beautiful nevertheless.
Ticklinks: A world of crazy news
- Albino Killings in Tanzania
- Women inmates at a New York prison train puppies to help disabled returning war veterans
- Using false-documentation laws to round up illegal immigrants
- Seeking Cures With No Prescription
- Hmong Hip-Hop Heritage
- Meet the Mangosteen
- Graffiti in Berlin
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
What a trailer! Interesting to see them connect the micro of steroids with the macro of American politics and outlook.
Video of the 2008 Democratic primary in 8 minutes
If you were hiding under a rock, here ya go! (via Kottke)
Update: If you were looking for a deep analysis on why Clinton lost and Obama won, check out Daily Kos staff’s awesome analysis. Best coverage around.
