Image Credit: Getty Images, vAns/Flickr

There’s been plenty written on the subject of converting urban space into farmland, from rooftops and abandoned lots to the empty beds of pickup trucks, but this idea always revolves around growing various varieties of vegetables and rarely strays into the realms of animal husbandry. Sure there’s the recent emergence of secret communities of city beekeepers and the age old tradition of rooftop pigeon coops, but now it appears even the humble chicken is getting its due.
A new documentary called ” Mad City Chickens” takes an informative (and often whimsical) look into the increasingly common [...]

The phrases “high fashion” and “Communist Germany” may not immediately conjure images of cutting edge garb, but former model and filmmaker Marco Wilms in his new documentary Comrade Couture hopes to change that by offering a peek into the underground world of 1980’s DIY Eastern Bloc fashion, one of the few artistic movements that was able to bloom under communist rule. By combining film footage and photos from the 1980s with four of the fashion scene’s most vivid personalities, Wilms attempts to share with the viewer “the thrill of freedom and economically unencumbered creativity that lent East Germany’s fashion underground [...]

Director David Lynch has released an interesting new venture called the Interview Project.  Each interview is a fascinating look into unique people from across the USA.
Lynch on the project:
Interview Project is a road trip where people have been found and interviewed.  There was no plan for the Interview Project.  It’s a twenty-thousand mile road trip over seventy days across the USA.  The team found the people going into bars, going into different locations and there they were.  The people told their story.  It’s so fascinating to look and listen to people.  What I hope people will get out of the [...]

Rob Walker points us to the short documentary “Possessed”, a film directed by Martin Hampton that delves into the fascinating world of hoarders and their belongings. Martin tells the story of four individuals who can’t let go of their mounds of stuff, ranging from old furniture to memorabilia to completely valueless bits like used cotton swabs and trash. The film tries to get at what drives hoarding behavior, suggesting it may be a type of mental illness and/or an extreme reaction to reckless consumerism and a culturally-condoned obsession with material wealth and consumption. Martin made the film during a [...]

“The Soccer Project” is the story of two soccer players who quit their 9-to-5 jobs and take off around the globe exploring the less glorified side of soccer: pick up games and impromptu contests.
In Bolivia, the duo plays with inmates in a prison courtyard; in Palestine, they play with a sixteen-year-old girl who defies tradition and plays on the streets with the local boys; and in Kenya, with moonshine brewers in the slums of Nairobi.  The team travels to over twenty countries and tells the stories of the people they meet through the game.  Below is a 15 minute [...]

Of the world’s 7,000 languages, 2,800 are on their way to extinction at a stunning rate of one every two weeks. A new documentary from Ironbound Films titled The Linguists follows the journey of two men - researchers K. David Harrison and Greg Anderson – as they trek across the globe attempting to preserve them. And though the film portrays its fair share of harrowing escapades in an effort to lend some Hollywood-esque excitement to the proceedings, at its root the project is still about creating a lasting record of these dying tongues before their last native speaker is gone. Beyond [...]

As an update to our post from last week on Gary Hustwit’s newest documentary Objectified, the folks at Dwell Magazine directed us to an interview they conducted with the filmmaker for their latest issue. We thought the most telling exchanges centered around Hustwit’s relationship to thoughtful design and consumerism.
How has making this film changed the way you look at everyday objects?
I really think about what I buy now: (A) Do I really need this? (B) What if this is the last of this object that I ever buy? I don’t want to buy chairs I’ll be sick of in five [...]

Objects we use in our daily life have a hidden history behind them. It’s a long journey from idea to physical product, one that’s filled with numerous processes and crafting that define the finished item. Gary Hustwit’s latest film, Objectified examines the industrial designers who help create these objects which shape our world.
Hustwit explains the title:
The term objectified has two meanings. One is ‘to be treated with the status of a mere object.’ But the other is ‘something abstract expressed in a concrete form,’ as in the way a sculpture objectifies an artist’s thoughts. It’s the act of transforming creative [...]

We came across this eight minute animated documentary titled “The History of the Internet” by Mehil Bilgil that touches on the innovations that have made our interconnected online lives possible.  The video uses voiceover accompanied by PICOL icons, a pictorial communication language created by Bilgil for his university thesis.  The project is in the early stages of developing a simplistic and universal sign system to enable easier electronic communication that is free from the constraints of written language.  While the current library of icons available for download is small, the open source system invites more designers to get involved.  We’ll [...]

We recently came across SnagFilms, a great website that hosts and streams hundreds of full-length documentaries for free. Covering everything from Super Size Me and Heavy Metal in Baghdad to obscure international films by unknown filmmakers, the site has plenty of content for anyone who enjoys sitting down and watching a good documentary.
The films all seem to play pretty smoothly and have a clean and intuitive organization.  But what we liked best was the ease with which users can share videos.  With just a few clicks, a small player with the desired film can be living on any of your [...]