I Miss Resfest
19 Dec 2007
We’re coming to the end of 2007 and I’m starting to realize how much I missed RESFEST this year. RESFEST is an annual short film/animation/music video/motion graphics/… festival put on by RES magazine. Unfortunately, after 10 years of existence, the magazine and the festival went on hiatus this year. So, I thought I would look back on some of my favourite entries from last year.
RESFEST had only been to Vancouver twice, but it was an excellent way to spend a rainy weekend in the fall. Hopefully, the festival will return one day. In the meantime, here are some memorable entries from last year.
All descriptions, except for the last one, are from the RESFEST website.
Tyger
Former Lobo animator Guilherme Marcondes employs puppetry, illustration, photography and CGI in bringing us this sumptuous mixed media short based on a beloved poem by William Blake. When a giant tiger mysteriously appears in the heart of São Paulo, its presence illuminates the city with magic and wonder, turning the urban jungle into a real one.
Food Fight
Food Fight tells an abridged history of war, from World War II to the present day, using foods to represent the countries in conflict, from sushi rolls to fish and chips to hamburgers and French fries. Watch as traditional comestibles slug it out for world domination in this chronologically reenacted smorgasbord of aggression.
Bugcrush
Based on a short story by Scott Treleaven, this year’s Sundance Jury Prize winner in short filmmaking tells the story of Ben, a small-town high school loner, whose fascination with Grant, the seductively dangerous new kid, and his sinister friends eventually leads him out to a rural farmhouse where he encounters a world darker than he could possibly have imagined.
View Bugcrush pt. 1
View Bugcrush pt. 2
View Bugcrush pt. 3
View Bugcrush pt. 4
Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)
Media artist Stewart Smith programmed this unsolicited video for Grandaddy’s 2000 song “Jed’s Other Poem” using his very first computer – a 1979 Apple II Plus with a mere 48K of RAM. The song’s lyrics run in that familiar old green-on-black, occasionally detouring from the line to form basic shapes, before the camera pulls back at the end to reveal Smith’s scrolling codebase.
Park Foot Ball
Director Grant Orchard used simple graphics to portray a simple game, comically condensing all the atmosphere and emotions of a Sunday afternoon game in the park into what is surely the shortest match ever played.
All He Needs
While the cover song is a well-established form, the cover video is relatively unknown. Enter Nicolas Randall of Australian collective Family, who created this shot-by-shot homage to – and parody of – “All I Need,” Mike Mills’ seminal 1998 Air video, by transforming the original’s heterosexual tale of a skatepark romance into the heartwarming story about two gay Australian rollerbladers who meet and fall in love.
Rodney And Geoffrey visit Nike Air Force One in his Crystalline Lair
Okay, this one wasn't actually featured as a part of Resfest. Instead, it was a Nike ad that was aired at the beginning of each segment and it was shown so many times that it became a bit of an inside joke. The music grows on you after two days of listening.
