Two for Tuesday
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Category Archives: Video
Saturday Matinee: Happiness (Short Film)
Happiness – by Steve Cutts
Can we buy happiness? Are we really trapped? An economic textbook about our contemporary society
By Chiara Pascali
Source: GoodShortFilms
Try to google the word Happiness, the first (sponsored) result of your search will be shophappiness.com. Happiness can be bought. This is a plus point for the British animator and artist Steve Cutts, director of the short film Happiness.
Cutts imagines humanity as a horde of rats, adored by the marketing god, bewitched by Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Loose cannon looking for the last offer. Happiness is the penny that is always missing at the prices of super discount products. Happiness is a commodity exchange of the new capitalism.
Happiness, by definition, is the moment in which all one’s desires are satisfied, but humanity always wants more. Like so many rats, we are looking for compulsive crumbs of happiness. Producers sow these crumbs on online and offline advertisements.
There are products that answer any type of question, even for the inability to endure frustration of being constantly dissatisfied.
This limitless race is rendered in an excellent way by the images of Happiness, full of details and oversized information. Chaos. Steve Cutts describes the irrepressible frenzy of modern society, the compulsive and often illogical search to possess new objects, and lastly, the money, motor that moves the world.
Happiness is a short economic textbook and an explicit critique of contemporary society. The final question does not spare anyone – are we trapped?
Two for Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: Last Days of Coney Island
In the cheap glitter and glow of a fading Coney Island a group of characters live out their sordid, strange lives trying to get somewhere fast – any way they can. Desperately trying to love and be loved. These cops, call girls, mafia hoods, transvestites, fortune-tellers, clowns, and freaks are all intertwined, heading on a crazy roller coaster ride into a black hole they think is life.
All of these characters are totally removed from the 60s America that, at the same time, is violently changing its values, fast. It is how hard they try, with the deck stacked against them, that we root for them in amazement. The film is done in funny hand drawn animation which makes their story even more amazing to watch. We invite you to enjoy the show.
Created, Written, and Directed by Ralph Bakshi, LAST DAYS OF CONEY ISLAND is Produced by Edward Bakshi, with music by Mark Taylor. Zac Wittstruck is the editor, animation & backgrounds are by Ralph Bakshi. Sound design and mixing by Kathleen Edwards, Tor Kingdon (Hear Kitty Studios).
The main character voices are: “Shorty” – Omar Jones “Louie” – Rick Singer “Molly” – Tina Romanus “Louise” – Esperanza Quintero “Max” – Robert Costanzo
Two for Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: La Antena (feat. CHI Factory)
“La Antena” (2007) is a surreal Argentine parable written and directed by Esteban Sapir. A non-subtitled low resolution video of the film was previously featured as a Saturday Matinee. However, this is a higher-res version with English subtitles featuring a new score by Dutch ambient band CHI Collective. Whether or not you’ve seen the cult classic La Antena before, this version is definitely worth checking out.
Two for Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: Everything is Terrible! Holiday Special
O’er the years EIT! has built upon their classic Holiday Special, each year creating a more abominable video collage of everyone’s least favorite time of the year! A millennium’s worth of VHS memories of misplaced sentimentalities, fist fights over toys for tots, erotic Santas, Nazi elves, and an endless parade of singing kids will surely teach everyone the true meaning of it all.
Watch the special here.
Bonus clip:
The story behind one of the worst renditions of a Christmas song ever recorded:
After the Crash 