by Kambole Campbell

Process and material feels more important than ever. Ask any animator about what it's like working in the "digital age," or more precisely in the "age of AI" (if we really wanna call it that), and chances are that you'll end up talking about revelry in the making of something more than the main result itself. In that regard Paper Trail, the new short film by Don Hertzfeldt, feels like having one's cake and eating it too given that much of it is about following the lines, brush strokes, smudges, splotches, what-have-you of various drawing materials on paper.

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Special Jury Award for Creative Vision: Sundance Film Festival Golden Gate Award: San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award: SXSW Best Animated Short Film: SXSW Special Jury Award for Experimental Storytelling: Seattle International Film Festival ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "'Paper Trail' stands out as one of those rare short films that comes around only every so often, and one that will likely go on to be...

Breaking down animation to a feeling of essentials has long been a part of Hertzfeldt's work if you look at the various stick figures of the existentially-minded World of Tomorrow series or It's Such a Beautiful Day. Not that it's ever simple, mind you, just that he leans in to the ability to relate to a symbol of a person or thing rather than something with a lot of detail. Paper Trail once again follows a life over a vast expanse of time, but on this occasion, through all of the documents they left behind over the course of 50+ years: first drawings, spelling tests, letters to loved ones, signatures on documents.

Given that it's about the transformation of the pen of one individual (a guy named Stevie Richardson) over a lot of time, it feels appropriate that the release has been twinned with an HD rerelease of the earlier Hertzfeldt work, Rejected. There's not a lot in common between the two other than the rough draft nature of the material, but I'm not about to complain about two cakes.

The joy of discovering material over time transforms into self expression, which is then eventually scrubbed out for the monotony of corporate work. It's as melancholy as that sounds, testament to Hertzfeldt's long-held talents to wring emotion out of even the simplest of hand-drawn characters: here, I mean characters as in the shape of a letter. It's not really about AI, if anything it's mostly mournful of seeing creativity stamped out over time, but I did find myself thinking about how sad it is that people are willing to hand over their lives to something immaterial, rather than leave a tangible mark on something themselves.

/out of frame

🐘 Kambole: Regarding Paper Trails, you should check out Juan Barquin's write up of the Sundance shorts programme, which the film first premiered in, over at Little White Lies. In other news, Adult Swim has released a 44-minute behind-the-scenes look at its exquisite corpse animated special, The Elephant. Before you watch that, which is very much worth watching, may I also recommend our own three-part interview series with the creators and artists behind said special.

🕵️ Toussaint: As I imagine most gaming enthusiasts are doing today, I'm playing through 007 First Light at the moment. As a longtime fan of IO Interactive's oeuvre, I'm impressed with what I've played so far of its initial hours. As one can imagine, there's a decent amount of parallels between this new Bond game (the first in over 13 years!) and IO's Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy, including a standout mission in a bustling nightclub à la Hitman 3's Berghain-inspired mission set in Berlin. Too early for me to give a definitive verdict, but I'm having a blast. Cheers IO.

⚔️ Rollin: Just in time for this summer's anime adaptation, I've have been absolutely blowing through Chie Shinohara's classic shojo manga, Red River. I can't believe I waited 30 years; let my experience be a warning and don't wait that long yourself.