Brain Pickings

Vowels: A Cinematic Homage to the Beauty of Language and Life

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A, E, I, O, U.

Language is beautiful. Vowels — not to be confused with the Ken Burns parody of the same name — is an exquisite reminder of that from filmmaker and visual storyteller Temujin Doran, who has previously delighted us with his thoughtful meditations on democracy and the art of protest, a bittersweet short film about his day job in a dying occupation, and some damn good advice. The film is based on a 1945 Linguaphone instructional recording.

Listen with headphones, watch in full screen.

For a related treat, see Radiolab’s Words.

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