Saturday 27 March 2021

“Simultaneously stunning and filthy”

is a strange way to describe a short film,


by director Pascal Schelbli but that is how he describes his 2019 short film “The Beauty.” a cautionary reimagining of the world’s rampant plastic pollution, the arresting animation reenvisions waste as lively sea life: a bubble-wrap fish puffs up, a serpentine tire glides through the water, and an entire school of discarded footwear swims in an undulating mass,

in a statement, Schelbli describes the motivation behind the film, which won a Student Academy Award in 2020:

"instead of showing another mournful stomach full of plastic bags, I thought, ‘what if plastic could be integrated into the sea life and nature solves the problem?’ The film should take you on a journey, where all our feelings of guilt will disappear. But in the end, we wake up and realize that we need to change something",

I love the way the pufferfish puffs up into bubble wrap, and the tyre track eel is superb, 

to see the video in full size, have a look here, for more of the Zürich-based director’s poignant animations, check out his Vimeo and Instagramand you can watch a recent Last Week Tonight segment that dives further into the crisis and explains how recycling isn’t the best solution, some one that agrees with me at last!


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