Short of the Week

Nature

Documentary about Nature in Interactive
Leanne Allison, Jeremy Mendes / 20 min / Canada / 2012

The life of a grizzly in a Canadian national park from the perspective of data points and surveillance cameras presents a fascinating look at what it means to be wild in this interactive film from the NFB.

Epic about Nature in Stop-Motion
Daniel Bird, Ben Richardson / 11 min / UK / 2011

An egg and an apple build competing broadcast towers that vie for the attention of a transistor radio. With its complex characterization and narrative of animal evolution, competition and reproduction, SEED is a beautiful and sinister stop-motion story about the struggle to survive.

Music Video about Nature in Live-Action
Michael Ragen / 13 min / USA / 2011

A lone man traverses the desolate Alaskan wilderness in this extended music video for Portugal The Man.

Action about Nature in 3D Animation

A night on the town turns deadly for three sentient plants, escaped from the botanical garden they called homed.

Fantasy about Nature in 3D Animation
Fabian Grodde / 6 min / Germany / 2011

In the quiet of the forest, Firebugs secretly amass for worship only to fall victim to a foe pulling the strings in this realistic CG film from Germany.

Essay about Nature in Live-Action
Jamie Stuart / 4 min / USA / 2011

The film Roger Ebert declared should win the Oscar, this video essay is a homage to Vertov’s classic, “Man with a Movie Camera”.

Adventure about Nature in 3D Animation
Chris Perry / 11 min / USA / 2011

In the dry desert the only water supply is under siege by an unlikely crew of saboteurs.

Essay about Nature in Stop-Motion
Pes / 2 min / USA / 2010

Animation master, PES, brings the deep sea to life using nothing but old tools.

Drama about Nature in Live-Action
Ramin Bahrani / 17 min / USA / 2010

Werner Herzog gives voice to a plastic bag’s existential crisis. A very unique and powerful filmmaking statement by celebrated director Ramin Bahrani.

Essay about Nature in 3D Animation
Jacques Khouri / 2 min / USA / 2009

An animated look at the balancing act between man and nature.

Adventure about Nature in Animation
Erick Oh / 8 min / South Korea / 2009

A dung beetle sets out to roll his prized find back along the long road home.

Musical about Nature in Flash Animation
Ben Meinhardt / 2 min / Canada / 2009

Fuzzy animals break into song in this student parody of the classic Disney sing-along.

Experimental about Nature in Special FX
Ruth Jarman, Joe Gerhart / 5 min / USA / 2009

A beautiful collision of art and science that brings a series of intangible scientific theories to life.—A Sundance 10/10 film: online

Poem about Nature in Animation
Juan Delcan / 3 min / USA / 2008

This chillingly simple animation of Gabor Barabas poem “The Spider” cracks into the depths of the human cycle in a sharp three minutes. The Spider shows us the contradictions of life—love and death, beauty and indifference.

Fantasy about Nature in Animation
Heui Won Jeong, Justin Murphy / 8 min / USA / 2008

A gorgeous experimental animation, JumpTrumpRumpBump brings together recycling, a little girl, escaped convict animals and Jazz.

Comedy about Nature in Animation
Sharon Colman / 7 min / UK / 2007

A tired badger battles with a pair of noisy crows for peaceful rest, but inadvertently falls into a much bigger mess when an underground missile station is placed underneath the badger’s dwelling.