Valley Of Dolls

Ayano Tsukimi lives in a remote village in Nagoro situated on Shikoku, one of Japan's four main islands. After a boom and bust cycle from a hydroelectric dam, the town's population dwindled from a few hundred to just a few dozen, and Ayano took on a distinct hobby to make her town a little less barren and lonely.

The Valley of the Dolls features a town's transformation into an eclectic wonderland, filled with hundreds of dolls crafted in the likeness of those who've either passed away or left Nagoro behind. The ten year project has ultimately drawn the curiosity of visitors, who stop by to take photos and enjoy the curious visuals. The most telling part of this little documentary is the ending, in which Ayano shares her beliefs on life, death and dolls with us.

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 Art Of Rythm

Our lives revolve around rythms and patterns. The rythm of our heartbeat, the routines that we follow on a daily basis, the rythm we take on during a work day. We all set and maintain a certain tempo in life, and any event that leads to a disruption of that rythm is immediately noticed. This video by Dark Rye goes into the art of rythm, as well as exploring the philosophies of rythms through the eyes of a DJ who crafts them on a daily basis.

DJ Spooky, a Washington, DC-born electronic and experimental hip-hop musician whose work is sometimes classified as illbient or trip-hop, as he is a DJ who keeps the party moving with infectious beats and mixes.

The Rise of Videogame Economies

Game economies have been around since the advent of MMO's like Ultima Online, which offered players a chance to buy, trade and sell real estate, items and equipment, yet over the years have evolved into a micro industry themselves. Titles like EVE actually employ their own currencies and exchanges, and the value is created by a system of scarcity and player demand. Prestigious items entail status or offer gameplay advantages (A tricky balancing act), and PBS Offbook's mini documentary goes into the pros and cons of such systems. Of all the ones I've seen, Valve definitely seems to be at the forefront of tinkering with player economies with successful examples including Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2, including their player generated content initiatives which are quite novel in the game industry.

While players of multi-player games are aware of their in-game economies, their growth and complexity would surprise many outside the world of gaming. With hundreds of millions of players around the world, MMOGs' in-game economies generate massive amounts of real dollars (i.e. MILLIONS), and real world economic theories can even be applied to these worlds. Many are now so big that game developers have hired real world economists to help them manage these complex systems. But with secondary economies, gold farming and other issues surfacing, are these systems in need of more attention, or even regulation?

The Eight Chapters Of Ramen

A good bowl of ramen is a bitch to find stateside, especially after having had the real thing in Tokyo. Over the last 5 years I've probably tried a few dozen ramen restaurants, yet always found that they could never quite achieve the balance that I found during my trip to the region. The broth was typically too rich or too bland, the noodles were not hand made, the chāshū (Pork roast) didn't deliver enough punch..The list goes on.

In this short documentary by Nowness, noodle obsessed chef Ivan Orkin goes into his attempt to start up his new restaurant, and the eight elements of his ramen at 'Slurp Shop,' which opened in New York a little while back (With a mixed response so far). Nonetheless, an interesting look into the development of a pretty complex dish.

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.

In Dreams

Very cool pseudo-documentary directed by Samuel Blain regarding the reoccurring or more memorable dreams that different individuals have had. As an interesting means of making them anonymous and offer some interesting visual flair, Blain used 3D to replace their heads with representative designs of the themes they talk about.

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.