A Shot In The Dark

A Shot In The Dark by Dark Rye is a documentary about hope, following the story of a mechanic called Jay Dean who finds a new lease on life after finding inspiration in the unlikeliest of places- His junk heap. Following a serious back injury and an error in judgement that ultimately deprived him of the ability to work on cars, we witness the transformative journey of an individual into darkness and back, thanks to the power of creative inspiration.

Jay Dean was a mechanic and that was that. He’d certainly never considered becoming an artist. But a back injury in his early 30's led to multiple surgeries. Jay found himself unable to work on cars and unable to provide for himself and his wife. He forgot all his goals, took to bed depressed, and tried to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his years. One day, as he was cleaning his tools, empty and lost in existential uncertainty, he suddenly began to see something in the junked car parts in his garage. They called to him. He had an artistic inspiration. Jay began to make lamps out of them. The lamps, in return, began to make him.

Vitamina T - A Colorful Look Into Mexico's Vibrant Food Scene

There's nothing better than a taco when the hunger pangs strike, and Vitamina T is an absolutely delicious look into the world of the Mesamerican street food festival, an event that takes place annually in Mexico City during May.

Colorful, eclectic and filled with flavors for any palate imaginable, we're offered a look at the festival from the break of dawn till the late hours of night. In between those hours we witness the preparation and consumption of an incredible line up of local specialties ranging from tacos, tortas, tamalaes, tlacoyos and everything in between. In a humorous break amidst all the amazing imagery, we even get to see a squirrel enjoying a snack during the day.



Director Nanda Fernandez Berdillard did an incredible job capturing the essence of the colorful city, and it's gastronomical tendencies. I'd skip this one if you're currently hungry, it'll make things a lot worse.

"The Unsung Soldier" Miyu Studio Announces Their WWI Animated Feature

French animated collective Miyu studios just announced that they're hard at work on a new docudrama called Le Soldat Meconnu (The Unsung Soldier), which narrates the unfortunate tale of a soldier in the final hours of WWI.

The feature will employ a mix of live and animated sequences to retell the tale of this unsung soldier, who suffered a most unfortunate fate. The black and white sequences have a truly unsettling feel to them, replicating the gritty look of archival footage from that war.

In November 11, 1918 the war came to an end over an armistice signed in the forest of Compiègne between the Allies and German nations. When word hit the 415th regiment on the bank of Meuse, where intense fighting was still ongoing between French and German sides, soldier Augustin Trebuchon was tasked with spreading the word about the cease fire to the various outposts. Trebuchon would ultimately be killed by a bullet to the head a few minutes before the cease-fire, symbolizing the absurdity of war as a whole. A total of ten million soldiers lost their lives in the conflict.

Becoming Sumo

This cool documentary directed and produced by documentary studio Salazar, featuring a very unorthodox sumo wrestler from Egypt. Despite being a fish out of water in an entirely new culture and environment, it's refreshing to see his passion and the open mindedness of the 'stable master' who accepted an outsider into their ranks.

Ōsunaarashi (大砂嵐金太郎) is the first professional sumo wrestler hailing from the African continent. Born Abdelrahman Shalan near Cairo, Egypt he first became involved with sumo through an acquaintance at the age of 16. In 2011 he came in third place at an international junior championship. The same year he decided to follow his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and moved to Tokyo, Japan.

The Long Game Of Success - Why Leonardo Da Vinci Was No Genius

Delve just delivered one of the best video essays I've probably seen in years in regards to the pursuit of success, and the distorted modern definition of it. This analysis of highly successful figures over the years, with an emphasis on Leonardo Da Vinci's tumultuous rise to fame actually answered a question I'd wondered about for a long time.

Over the last few decades it's become a well established norm propagated by the media that getting to a certain age without accomplishing everything is the end of the line. Even today I had a conversation in passing about someone saying that they couldn't believe they were turning 30, which really made me wonder how society had come to stigmatize aging as having a negative impact with one's own success.

This analysis did an amazing job pointing out how even history itself gleans on every successful persons 'long game,' a period of struggle lasting anywhere from 5-15 years before finally having a grand breakthrough. Everyone from Harrison Ford to Richard Branson shared this same trait, and in the grand scheme of things it seems like we've all forgotten about the fact that it takes a lot of struggle, and time to get successful. There are exceptions to this rule of course, but society seems to put a lot more stock in those few rather than the more common route.

The Long Game of Success really hit home with me, especially my lingering feelings after working in a Silicon Valley startup for a year prior to quitting. Everyone talked about their dreams of hitting it big overnight, getting bought out hastily by a large company, IPO's in record times..The pressure of seeing a few getting rich quick, and ultra young was a pervasive mentality that people embraced in that interesting bubble. Shaving off ten years of my life in an ultra stressful environment for a chance to cash in some stock options was cool and all, but I guess after watching this video I finally have an answer: I'm a believer in the long game.

To all our readers who are struggling, yet powering through the hard times- This really is a must watch. Check out part 2 after the break.

Ai Weiwei - The Fake Case Trailer

After 81 days of solitary detention world famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is put under house arrest. He suffers from sleeping disorder and memory loss, 18 cameras are monitoring his studio and home, police agents follow his every move, and heavy restrictions from the Kafkaesque Chinese authorities weigh him down.

Journalists, the art world and his family all want a piece of him and on top of that he is hit with a gigantic lawsuit from the Chinese government, which he soon names The Fake Case. Ai Weiwei is shaken, but during the year on probation he steadily finds new ways to provoke and challenge the mighty powers of the Chinese authorities in his fight for human rights. Ai Weiwei strongly believes that China is ready for change. And he will do everything to make it happen.

"Life After Pi" - An Intimate Look Into The Troubled VFX Industry

Life After Pi is a documentary born out of a deep sense of frustration over a completely broken system in Hollywood, one that's adversely affected over 21 US VFX Studios in the last ten years or so. In an article that we wrote last year, we noted how foreign subsidies were driving VFX studios to bankruptcy by stretching them extremely thin and forcing them to bid lower and lower for movie projects: Ryhtm and Hues was just one of the companies to fall victims to this trend at a most inopportune time back in 2013, going into bankruptcy while winning Oscars for Life of Pi simultaneously. At the time it seemed baffling that such a thing could happen, but troubling rumors started to pop up while last years Oscars were ongoing.

The event that caused a large stir in the VFX industry came about when director Ang Lee and the Cinematographer completely failed to acknowledge the hundreds of (Now jobless) people that poured their life into making their CG heavy movie a success. This unified artists from many different fields to share their disdain for the current state of the movie industry, which has paid no regard to fostering the home grown studios that made dozens of their movies into visually stunning box office hits. Life After Pi goes into what happened at the studio during and after this period, and the type of broken system in Hollywood that has been driving many studios into bankruptcy.

Considering that we've seen little to no acknowledgement of this problem from studios, we'd encourage you as a reader to share this documentary wherever you can to educate people on this issue. Especially with the Oscars around the corner, it wouldn't hurt to see actors or directors acknowledge the hundreds of people working long, unpaid hours in the VFX trenches out of love for their craft. The same could be said about many other creative industries, where figureheads get all the credit for the work of hundreds. There needs to be a change.

"Jodorowsky's Dune" Trailer

I've always loved documentaries that go into larger than life projects or directions that never came to be. Among a few that come to mind, Lost In La Mancha, which went into Terry Gilliam's attempts to bring a Don Quixote movie to life with Johnny Depp as a lead, as well as the entire saga of The Thief And The Cobbler, which Disney tried to physically destroy before taking the concept an turning it into Aladdin. Jodorowsky's Dune tells the tale of the larger than life attempt by the visionary director, before financial difficulties stunted the project (The movie would be taken over by David Lynch). Of all the film projects that never came to light, this is one crazy project I would have loved to see completed.

The option was then taken over two years later by director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who proceeded to approach, among others, Peter Gabriel, the prog rock groups Pink Floyd and Magma for some of the music, artists H. R. Giger and Jean Giraud for set and character design, Dan O'Bannon for special effects, and Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson and others for the cast.

Frank Herbert traveled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The project ultimately stalled for financial reasons. The film rights lapsed until 1982, when they were purchased by Italian filmmaker Dino DeLaurentiis, who eventually released the 1984 film Dune, directed by David Lynch.

Tussilago

Jonas Odell directed Tussilago, a curious historical short presented using a mixture of live action footage, rotoscoped animation and pop art hailing from a time when Germany was still divided into an eastern and western bloc. Narrating the story of J2M/Red Army Faction member Norbert Kröcher's attempt to kidnap a politican to free his friends from jail (Operation Leo), we are offered this rollercoaster experience from the perspective of his ex-girlfriend.

West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher was arrested on March 31, 1977. He was leading a group planning to kidnap politician Anna-Greta Leijon. A number of suspects were arrested in the days following. One of them was Kröcher's ex-girlfriend, simply called 'A.' This is her story. Tussilago is a short film based on documentary interviews, starring Malin Buska and Camaron Silverek.

The Podium Waltz

These animated clips are taken from Daniel Hanai and Bruno Carneiro's documentary titled A Valsa Do Pódio (The Podium Waltz), which chronicles the story of the Brazilian runner Terezinha Guilhermina's exploits in the 2012 London Paralympics.

Visually impaired, she used the help of a guide to allow her to compete within the various sprint events, ultimately winning two gold medals and becoming a world record holder for the 100m sprint. The clip above captures a rather dramatic moment in the 400m final, in which an injury puts everything in jeopardy. Daniel Bruson was tasked with creating animated sequences to show off what the experience was like from Terezinha's perspective, which I believe he captured very effectively.

Minecraft Documentary - "The Story Of Mojang"

The 2012 documentary chronicling Mojang's meteoric rise to prominence with Minecraft is finally online for free. As one of the titles that sparked a massive game industry shift towards indie game development, we're appreciative for the type of change they brought about in an industry that was beginning to stagnate with stale ideas, an over reliance on sequels and a focus on money over innovation.

It's pretty amazing to see Markus Persson and his studios humble beginnings as the title was still under development. The documentary directed by Paul Owens was just recently released by 2Player Productions in it's complete glory, without any ads whatsoever. For all you startup minded folks, this is the perfect type of documentary to acquaint you with the types of changes whirlwind success brings about, as well as inspiring an entire generation of small developers to seek that same glory.

The Record Breaker

The Record Breaker is an awesome little documentary narrating the tale of Ashrita Furman, an unlikely yet charming man who holds the honor of having the most Guinness World Records of all time. It's quirky, profound and an incredibly interesting tale about a very genuine man with larger than life ambitions. Fuhrman really taught me that most of our limitations are self imposed, and only you can break yourself out of them. Enjoy your daily dose of inspiration.

The Walking Dead - A Decade Of The Dead

Created as a collab between Hyundai, Future US, Skybound and Initiative, this awesome documentary chronicles the rise of the zombie themed comic into prominence. It's amazing considering it's humble beginnings in 2003 from the mind of writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore as a 'bait and switch pitch' through Image comics, tapping into the zombie fad close to a decade before it started.

Fast forward to 2013 and it's a hit mainstream TV series on AMC with a continuing comic storyline powered by the art talentes of British artist Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn. It's one of those rare cases of everyone involved believing in an indie comic project and seeing it through until that lucky break hurtling it into the public spotlight. I also tend use it as my favorite example of how hyper violence is ok but tasteful nudity isn't on TV.

Kubrick's "The Shining" Analysis - Fake Moon Landings And More

Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is one of the most widely interpreted works of film in the last few decades, spawning countless theories,documentaries and articles attempting to decipher the countless implied themes present in that ominous Overlook hotel. Netflix just recently added Room 237, a feature length documentary with various analysis touching upon theories ranging from the implied Native American Genocide aspect, imperialism, and even supposed clues to the supposed faking of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The infamous Apollo 11 shirt - Fuel on the fire.

The insanely meticulous, detail oriented nature of Kubrick helped create that strange aura of mystique around his films (I still get chills thinking about the implied themes of Eyes Wide Shut), which were always packed to the brim with strange visual clues that never quite seemed incidental. This recently unearthed documentary offers one such angle, breaking down The Shining as a facade implying Kubrick's involvement with faking moon landings, rumored to have been filmed at the same time as the film. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but I have to say they definitely make a very compelling case...Was it all just a coincidence? Be the judge, and don't forget to check out Room 237 on Netflix for more Kubrick-conspiracy goodness.

Ai Pioppi

This slice of life mini-documentary offers us a look at the life of Bruno, a wise Italian man who tells the fascinating story of how his restaurant, Ai Pioppi (The poplars) came to be. While narrating the story of how he started building rides to give his rustic 'osteria' a unique calling card, he also shares some truly insightful thoughts on life, existence and death that are nothing short of though provoking. Lovely cinematography and a soothing score ease us into the relaxing world of Bruno's playground. It's inspiring to see a man with so much determination and passion yet, despite his age.

Hidden among the trees of an Italian forest, Bruno has been building swings, slides, seesaws, gyroscopes and roller-coasters for the last forty years. They are his passion and a way to attract clients to Ai Pioppi, the restaurant he runs with his family. 

J, Robot - The Rise Of Robotics In Japan

In terms of advancing robotics for the benefits of humanity, I have no doubt in my mind that Japan is at the forefront of this global effort, spurred by boundless optimism, imagination and distinct societal differences in regards to the roles they might play. If you think about it all we hear about regarding robotics (At least in the US) these days is in regards to aerial drones and robots with military purposes, as cool as it sounds on paper I really doubt anything good will come out of this focus in the long term.

Director Michael Garrigues just recently released his unique documentary on Vimeo, which goes into the mindset of artists, inventors and innovators currently taking the steps to bring these concepts to reality. Centered around the set piece of a giant Tetsuji-28 (A popular vintage anime robot) built in the center of Kobe, the documentary also goes into the true meaning of these heroic mecha to a populace that has seen so much misfortune befall their town. The hour long documentary is currently available on Vimeo for a reasonable rental price of $2.

Lost & Found - Portrait Of A Tinkerer

'One man's garbage is another man's treasure.' That's the saying that comes to mind while checking out Joey Bania's fun portrait of a New Zealand based inventor living in a remote forest in the South Islands. Incredibly ingenious and a tinkerer at heart, Blair Somerville's curiosity is really inspiring to watch, and his entire environment is just visually rich and fun to look at. Every available space, organic and inorganic is imbued with some form of mechanism, bringing everything to life with his incredible range of automata.

For over ten years Blair has single-handedly owned, operated and ceaselessly expanded the Lost Gypsy Gallery, his wonderland of homegrown wizardry and a playground for kids and adults alike. Using only recycled materials, Blair takes DIY to artistic extremes. His creations are ingenious, interactive, and often hilariously impractical. They take many shapes and forms and share an uncanny ability to amaze, entertain and inspire.

Meticulous Ink

Meticulous Ink was crafted by the folks at the Bristol based Cereal collective, which offers a quarterly publication covering food, travel and culture. They created this cool inside look at a company seeking to bring back the art of contemporary letterpress, run by a true group of printing purists with a love of ink, paper and tradition. While I initially found it hard to believe that I'd find a mini documentary about creating upscale stationary, the amount of passion they poured into every piece was pretty impressive.

The Secret Story Of Toys

Anthony Lasedich created an incredibly fun, awesomely insightful behind the scenes look at the small group of folks fortunate enough to work as full time toy sculptors and prototypers. The Secret Story Of Toys offers us the perspectives of a few artists in that position, who are also in a state of disbelief as to how cool their job is, as well as a little look into the process that goes into creating a prototype sculpt before production. Just a look at the space that these guys work in, as well as how humble they all are is incredibly inspiring to say the least.

If you look carefully enough you'll also get a chance to see the early prototypes of the upcoming Spy and Engineer toys from Team Fortress 2 as well as some other cool toys. This playful mini-documentary just left me wanting more, and I honestly hope to see Anthony create more behind the scenes looks at these niche industries. Just prepare for some career path regret after watching these artists talk about how lucky they are to have such a fun, laid back job.

The Photo Man

Mark Kologi has spent years engaged in a truly strange, yet compelling hobby of collecting, curating and selling found photos of strangers lives. Over the course of his entire collectors career he's bought and sold millions of photographs, and lived vicariously through them. While some people might consider owning photos of other peoples lives a little unsettling, Kologi sees them as an 'emotional' art form. This thoughtful documentary by Ben Kitnick offers us an intimate view into the collectors mind, and his passion regarding his niche endeavor.