Much to my surprise and delight, I’ve semi-recently discovered that YouTube is more than a digital compost heap of grainy home videos of fat amateur jugglers, ignorant opining talking heads and webcam performances of beginner guitarists sharing their stirring renditions of Stairway to Heaven. It also has worthwhile material. Who Knew?!?! So in an effort to steal some screen time from videos of homeless guys boxing for cheeseburgers, I’d like to share some videos that are actually worth people’s time.
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Do you know those Academy Awards categories like “Best Animated Short” and “Best Short Film” that most people wait for to use the bathroom or refill their drink? This is one of those films you’ve never heard of that wins the Oscar while you’re in the bathroom.
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Ryan, the 14 minute 2005 Oscar winning film by Canadian artist Chris Landreth pays tribute to the life, work and decline of one of the most influential and celebrated pioneers of film animation, Ryan Larkin.
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Landreth uses a method of CGI animation he developed and termed “psychorealism” that aims to visually explore the complexity of the human psyche in a way that realism and dialogue are unable. Landreth’s surrealistic, fractured characters portrayed in this film could have stepped directly out of a Salvador Dali painting. He brilliantly uses vibrant, expressive color to symbolize how the most beautiful and unique parts of ourselves can sometimes cause the most pain.
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Landreth reintroduces the world to Ryan Larkin; or rather his ghost, long stripped of his creative spirit and reduced to a frail, penniless, bitter drug addict left with nothing but his memories and regret of who he once was and what his life could have been.
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(be sure to click the “HQ” button)
Sacred & Profane - Art, Beauty & stuff that doesn't suck 