More Shoes: A 5,000-Kilometer Dream Pursuit

From Madrid to Kiev, or what chasing a dream across time zones can teach us about aspiration.

In 2006, after spending a lifetime dreaming about filmmaking but instead droning through an endless string of office jobs, Lee Kazimir did something crazy. He took the advice of Werner Herzog (how’s that for a segue from yesterday’s pickings?) literally.

Every day, my dream of becoming a filmmaker seemed further and further away. My days didn’t change, only my neckties did. Until I read a book of interviews with Werner Herzog. In this book, Herzog says that if you want to learn filmmaking, you should skip school. Instead, he says, you should make a journey alone, on foot, for 5,000 kilometers, and the experiences you have on this journey will teach you everything you need to know.”

So Kazimir embarked upon on of the possible routes Herzog suggests, Madrid to Kiev, and decided to walk the distance. More Shoes is Kazimir’s record of that journey — sometimes comic, sometimes profound, and consistently fascinating

When you come up on foot, you are never denied anything you need. Strangers would invite me into their homes, give me hot meals and cold drinks. They gave me beds to sleep in.”

In a way, Kazimir’s journey is one we all, at one point or another, aspire to take — one of chasing a dream across borders and time zones, against odds, and over unpredictable hurdles.

For the rest of 2010, both parts of the feature-length film will be available online for free, but we encourage you to grab a copy of the DVD and support the bravery and spontaneity of a filmmaker who, like very few of us ever do, actually got up and did that crazy, outlandish thing that would bust him out of an existential rut.

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One Designer, Two Designer: Vintage Australian Animation

Tea cups, cavemen and why consumer research is doing design a disservice.

We have a soft spot for documentaries about design — from Gary Hustwit’s Objectified to the BBC’s The Genius of Design. And while industrial design may seem like a relatively newfound cultural obsession, the design of “things” has been on the minds of filmmakers for a long time.

Today, we look at an uncovered gem from the archive of the Design Council of Australia — One Designer, Two Designer, a wonderful animated short film circa 1978 comically exploring what makes good and bad design.

Style can be very easily confused with design and is very often substituted for that. A trendy hook to a product may be just that. To serve a popular style today is often to perform a disservice to the customer. The real function of the designer is to understand the function of the thing he is designing.

Despite the humorous tone, the film delves into the important misconceptions about design and designers’ role in society, emphasizing the need for developing a design sensibility to better and more critically evaluate the value of objects beyond what advertising slogans may promise.

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Waiting for “Superman”: Education by the Numbers

Why 26 seconds are enough to end up in prison, or what Superman has to do with the economy.

A couple of months ago, we raved about Waiting for “Superman” — an ambitious new documentary about the state of public education from filmmaker Davis Guggenheim of An Inconvenient Truth fame.

The film explores the human side of education statistics, following five promising, talented, intelligent kids through a system that inhibits rather than inspires academic and intellectual growth. While very much a curtain-peeler for a broken system, with all its “academic sinkholes” and “drop-out factories,” the film is also a hopeful manifesto for the transformational power of great educators, whom Guggenheim casts as the only true ushers of education reform.

This week, the film released an infographic-driven teaser in addition to standard trailer, offering a compelling visual narrative around some eye-opening education statistics.

In America right now, a kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. These drop-outs are 8 times more likely to go to prison, 50% less likely to vote, more likely to need social welfare assistance, not eligible for 90% of jobs, are being paid 40 cents to the dollar of earned by a college graduate, and continuing the cycle of poverty.”

The film ultimately asks the most critical question: How do we ensure that talented teachers help their students succeed?

We highly, highly encourage you to see Waiting for “Superman” when it hits theaters this fall — you can even pledge to do so right now. Meanwhile, the site offers a handful of ways to take action and lend a hand in fixing a broken system from the ground up.

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Press Pause Play: The Evolving Creative Landscape

From basement art to media glory, or why ones and zeros are the new chalk.

A few months ago, we raved about a new film about the change in production, consumption and distribution of creative works.

Today, we’re taking a closer look at Press Pause Play, the ambitious effort to dissect and document the evolution of today’s creative landscape.

A new generation of global creators and artists is emerging, equipped with other points of reference and other tools. The teachers aren’t certified schools anymore — it’s web sites, discussion forums and a “learn by doing”-mentality. We see the children of a digital age, unspoiled or uneducated depending on who you ask. Collaboration over hierarchy, digital over analog — a change in the way we produce, distribute and consume creative works.

The film comes from the team behind the 2020 Shaping Ideas Project and features interviews with an incredibly wide spectrum of creative visionaries, from the pop stars to the businessmen, the basement filmmakers to the studio heads.

Set to release in ealry 2011, Press Pause Play will embody the very principles it preaches — cross-platform distribution, a high-quality viewing experience both in theaters and on the mobile screen, and an open model that makes the final film free for anyone to watch, broadcast and distribute.

Catch interviews, quotes and behind-the-scenes footage on the PressPausePlay YouTube channel and take a look at some exculive production photos on Flickr.

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