Director AG Rojas has discovered another America... Focusing on towns and people and situations you'd likely rather ignore, but need to be seen. "I Am What I Am" is set in Taft, CA, which he previously introduced us to via the short film "Cody," coincidentally shot in the immediate wake of a school shooting and concurrently with this piece.
"I Am What I Am" stars Rory Culkin as a young man very much in need of transcendence. And he eventually achieves liftoff, but I don't know if it leads to a better place.
It's a powerful short film, even if it's likely a tough watch for most people, but one that needed to be seen.
Welcome to America. Land of guns, drugs, oil and booty, filled with geniuses, fools, dreamers, gamblers and daredevils of many myriad backgrounds and situations. Where birth and death, destruction and salvation happen every single day.
This epic production features content shot over a 20 day period spanning 15 states, with a specific focus on the poor places that normally get overlooked when you think of the rich wonders of the U.S.A.
You can watch this and wonder where the money to do something this big came from, or how they pulled off each sequence, or even what it all means. I suggest you just sit back and take it all in as you back your way out of the usually unseen controlling apparatus of a futuristic society.
Meet the kid with a fake plastic dad in a Saccharine sweet town. Luckily, music and dance makes things come alive, even if for only a few minutes.
Check out this fantastic video for Belgian star Stromae — he plays the dad here — directed by Raf Reyntjens, who nails the a vibe that's just on the brighter side of Tim Burton.
Poets: This is a video about heartbreak. Literalists: This is a video about a dude who got stabbed through the chest. Either way, the video works perfectly as you realize how hard it is to stand out in after-hours Hollywood.
Just when you think this video can be easily summed up as "Darwin Deez photobombs a series of cheesy commercial shots," director Keith Schofield takes it to someplace much less simple. The basic structure doesn't change, but it turns out that lonely Darwin is alternately exploding in rage and mourning each phase of love that he'll miss out on as a single dude. Not to give away any spoilers in this fantastically lunatic clip, but he doesn't seem to get lucky in the end, although he does get his aggression out. And that manatee does look pretty cute.
Director AG Rojas gives birth to something sinister in this collection of short cuts for Purity Ring. The opening segment sets the formula: A character leads the viewer on a long tracking shot — think Goodfellas Copa scene, but with malice and mystery — that climaxes and then gets wiped away by a data mosh fade into the next scene. Climax #1 sets the tone as well: A bloody backroom Pieta that puts birth and death at the forefront of your mind as each subsequent story adds another loop to the circle of life. --> watch "Lofticries"
Think of this as the bizarro version of America's Got Talent, where appreciating the talent requires a more refined eye, and instead of commercials, the only breaks are for soul-searching vision quests. --> watch "This Head I Hold"
Seeds planted in barren landscape leads to explosive results in this post-heavy video for Imagine Dragons. Talk about a Green Thumb. --> watch "It's Time"
Imagine Dragons "It's Time" (Interscope)Anthony Leonardi, director | Todd Makurath, producer | Caviar Los Angeles, production co | Brandon Cox, DP | Terry Huynh, editor | Zoic Studios/MassMarket, post | Michael Sagol, Jasper Thomlinson, exec. producer
Civilization has ended and the only surviving non-teenager is, unsurprisingly, Jack White. He's at the mercy of rampaging juvenile gangs that look like a mix of Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road,' The Decline of Western Civilizationand America's Best Dance Crew. Director AG Rojas makes the Adolescent Apocalypse look like bad/good fun with severed fingers, airborne krumpers, ceiling sandwiches and what seems to be BMX-riding versions of the White Walkers from Game of Thrones.
