Sundance Channel  -  Today

A multi award winning short, commissioned by Sundance Channel for their Billy Collins Action Poet, series.

TODAY describes a spring day so perfect - depicted in the film via dancing butterflies, floating dandelion wishes and capricious reveries all set in a flowery field outside a half-timbered cottage - that its beauty inspires an exuberance that threatens to cross over into violence.

The psychological landscape of TODAY is an otherworldly experience. It’s close to reality, contains iconic motifs and real objects but something takes it to another place. The sky, water and landscape blend together. The sun is too yellow. The earth too scorched, the flowers too bright. Lilies float innocently on a stream, Dandelion wishes float in the air and birds fly by - but there’s a feeling of menace trapped just beneath the surface.

As the piece progresses a darker interior emerges and we’re left wondering if it’s a random moment of madness or just a stray thought because today is just that kind of day.

TODAY, one of Sundance's, Billy Collins Action Poet series, won a slew of awards including an AniComm and a Creativity. The series won the prestigious Cannes Palme D'Or. TODAY was featured at Annecy, the Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF), Anima Mundi, the Art of Digital Show, SFIAF, SIGGRAPH, KAFI, Coyote, Festival NEMO Arcadia and many others.

The poem is taken from the collection, Nine Horses (2002). Mr. Collins narrates the film which was directed and animated by Little Fluffy Clouds creative team, Jerry van de Beek and Betsy de Fries. The piece uses Adobe Illustrator, AFX and Autodesk Maya along with hand drawn illustrations.