A film-poem created for Counterclock Journal's 2023 Patchwork: Film x Poetry fellowship, featuring an original poem by Mackenzie Duan and animation by Evan Bode.
Narrator
In a night of killer comedy, Bill Burr hosts a showcase of his most raucous stand-up comic pals as they riff on everything from COVID to Michael Jackson.
The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.
In a post-apocalyptic future, mankind is color blind. A brilliant scientist suddenly dies, leaving his precious briefcase-filled with a highly-addictive synthetic drug that allows people to see colors again-to Ana, a mere 12-year-old girl. Possession of the briefcase makes her the target of a doctor with wicked plans for the drug, and her only hope to escape his pursuit relies on the aid of the dead scientist's two devoted bodyguards. Together, their epic, perilous journey pivots on a tremendous secret: Ana herself could be the key to salvaging a world in ruins.
Follow the story of how the Old West was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat and tears of many. Spanning 15 years before, during and following the Civil War from 1859 to 1874, embark on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.
Naruto discovers a genie's bottle while he and the gang are at a genin grill party. When everyone finds out about the genie's ability to grant wishes, the ultimate chase begins.
In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
An attorney with a military past hunts down the gang who killed his wife and took his daughter.
As election time nears, current Triad chairman Lok faces competition from his godsons. At the same time, Jimmy looks to increase his business relations with mainland China.
A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.
The arrogant, third most-wanted criminal in Taiwan, decides to get rid of the top two competitors and crowns himself the most-wanted criminal before dying.
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
Paris, 1967. Disillusioned by their suburban lifestyles, a group of middle-class students, led by Guillaume (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Veronique (Anne Wiazemsky), form a small Maoist cell and plan to change the world by any means necessary. After studying the growth of communism in China, the students decide they must use terrorism and violence to ignite their own revolution. Director Jean-Luc Godard, whose advocacy of Maoism bordered on intoxication, infuriated many traditionalist critics with this swiftly paced satire.
Enea chases after the myth he bears in his name; he does so to feel alive in a dead and decadent age. He does so together with Valentino, a newly baptized aviator. The two, in addition to dealing and partying, share youth. Lifelong friends, victims and perpetrators of a corrupt world, but moved by an incorruptible vitality. Beyond the boundaries of rules, on the other side of morality, there is a sea full of humanity and symbols to be discovered. Enea and Valentino will fly over it to the furthest extremes. However, drugs and the underworld are the invisible shadow of a story about something else: a melancholy father, a brother fighting at school, a mother defeated by love and a beautiful girl, a happy ending and a happy death, a palm tree falling on a glass world.
"This piece, with the generic title Film, is a series of short videos built around one protocol: a snippet of news from a newspaper of the day, is rolled up and then placed on a black-inked surface. On making contact with the liquid, the roll opens and of Its own accord frees itself of the gesture that fashioned it. As it comes alive in this way, the sliver of paper reveals Its hitherto unexposed content; this unpredictable kinematics is evidence of the constant impermanence of news. As well as exploring a certain archaeology of cinema, the mechanism references the passage of time: the ink, whether it is poured or printed, is the ink of ongoing human history." –Ismaïl Bahri
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
Max, a witty and brave 12-year-old, feels like he has two families instead of one. In and after school, he spends all his time with his two best friends Tom and Vivian, who are always there to make life easier for each other. Together, they are The Fantastic Three. His real family on the other hand, is messy, with a depressed single mother and a brother in jail.
An ex-CIA operative is thrown back into a dangerous world when a mysterious woman from his past resurfaces. Now exposed and targeted by a relentless killer and a rogue black ops program, he must rely on skills he thought he left behind in a high-stakes game of survival.
Ernesto lives in depression and decides to hire a hit-man to end his own life. However, his plan takes an unexpected turn when he meets Rita, whose love gives him a new reason to live.
The rise of Charles Manson and his "family," who are responsible for a series of famous murders in the late 1960s. Manson, a magnetic and mysterious man, attracts road-weary single mother Linda Kasabian to join his collection of outcasts on a ranch outside of Los Angeles. After murdering actress Sharon Tate, Manson and his followers are investigated by district attorney Vincent Bugliosi.
A short 1979 sand animation celebrating women's spirituality with 80-year-old lesbian poet Elsa Gidlow reading her work "What If."
A kinetic typography animation set to a reading of the poem "The Wings" by Sebastian Fox.
A little boy troubled by a paper bird - Quote : "I am alone in my gondola, I am trapped in the sky, My name's Nathan, I don't like the real"
After meeting one day, a shy boy who expresses himself through haiku and a bubbly but self-conscious girl share a brief, magical summer.
Musicians inspired by the Moon. Since the Apollo landings, the Moon has entered popular consciousness like never before. A journey through pop music's lunar obsession.
On the planet Gandahar where peace reigns and poverty is unknown, this utopian lifestyle is upset by reports of people at the outlying frontiers being turned to stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate this mysterious threat.
The kingdom of Takicardie quakes under the rule of the tyrannical King Charles V-et-III-font-VIII-et-VIII-font-XVI, whose favourite pastime is shooting birds. His archenemy is a cheeky mockingbird, whose favourite pastime is thwarting the king’s attempts to shoot birds. One night, a portrait of the king comes to life and disposes of the real king, taking his place. The portrait king falls in love with a young shepherdess in another painting and intends to marry her. But, alas, the shepherdess has fallen in love with a chimneysweep and together they elope from the king’s palace. Enraged, the king sends his police to capture them and once they are within his power he forces the shepherdess to marry him. The mockingbird must use all his guile and courage to once more thwart the king and bring his evil reign to an end.
Poems by some of the greatest writers of all time are brought to life through lyrical animation and readings by some of today’s most respected performers.
In this farewell letter to Ana (aka Anorexia), I reveal the suffering associated with this illness. I express my desire to regain my freedom and vitality by sharing not only my progress but also my relapses. Through the interweaving of drawings and poetry, I share this quest for reconstruction, which I hope will help raise awareness of this mental illness and bring a little hope to people affected by it and those around them.
Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all who tell her stories that force her to confront her past; the Iranian father she assumed abandoned her and the nature of Poetry itself. It’s about building bridges between cultural and generational divides. It’s about being curious. Staying open. And finding your own voice through the magic of poetry. Rosie goes on an unwitting journey of forgiveness, reconciliation, and perhaps above all, understanding, through learning about her father’s past, her own cultural identity, and her responsibility to it.
Ponders the possibilities of what awaits us at the end of our life.
An animated poem about a dog, her human, and the consequences of a nasty habit.
Yoshiro Ishihara (1915–1977), who burst upon the scene of Japanese modern poetry in the mid-1950s, is now remembered as a “poet of silence.” He said, “A poem is an impulse to resist writing.” This film is an attempt to seek out the landscape from his poem.
In a lush and lively forest lives a hedgehog. He is at once admired, respected and envied by the other animals. However, Hedgehog’s unwavering devotion to his home annoys and mystifies a quartet of insatiable beasts: a cunning fox, an angry wolf, a gluttonous bear and a muddy boar. Together, the haughty brutes march off towards Hedgehog’s home to see just what is so precious about this “castle, shiny and huge.” What they find amazes them and sparks a tense and prickly standoff.
The experimental animated film Song of the Flies (El Canto de las Moscas), translates the desolation caused by the violence of the Colombian armed conflict through the poetic voice of Maria Mercedes Carranza (1945–2003) and the audiovisual dialogue between 9 Colombian women. In 24 places, as a transit over the course of a day (Morning, Day, Night) a map of terror is drawn where massacres took place in Colombia in the 1990s. Archival images, the artists’ personal memories and the use of loops and analogue materials bring to life the landscapes ravaged by violence and build a polyphony of memory and mourning, a universal song of pain.
This visual poetry is a celebration of the full spectrum of womanhood, from the complex vulnerability to the hidden power.
In this farewell letter to Ana (aka Anorexia), I reveal the suffering associated with this illness. I sincerely express my deep desire to regain my freedom and vitality by sharing not only my progress but also my relapses. Through the interweaving of drawings and poetry, I share this quest for reconstruction, which I hope will help raise awareness of this mental illness and bring a little hope to people affected by it and those around them.