Video short film "Natives" directed by Jeremy Hersh

Watch "Natives" (20 minutes) Rachel and Anita are a Manhattan New York City same-sex couple. Anita was born Onöndowa'ga (Onondaga, Seneca) Native American, and Rachel was born Jewish. The two women visit Anita’s parents on their Native American reservation in New York state, where Anita grew up. Anita doesn’t want their relationship to be public. Rachel wants to make it public, establish a relationship with Anita’s parents and understand Native American culture - but why? A simple word, simple question - why.

Directed by Jeremy Hersh
About the Cast
About the Crew

Image Credits

Video short film "Toy Man" by Woodruff Laputka

Watch "Toy Man" (8:38 min) "Toy Man" tells the story of artist Dan Gunderson, who's spent his entire life collecting everything he lays his hands on, including toys. Now, after three years in development, Dan applies an astonishing collection of tens of thousands of toys to his world-renowned works of sculpture. A inspirational look into the life and mind of a man obsessed with re purposing found objects. Toy Man offers a unique, vicarious experience of a world comprised of pop-culture, modern symbolism, and the artistic freedoms shared by children everywhere."  The artist's role in society as expressers of life, communicators of the unique, decisions made based on knowledge and Self-awareness - which individualizes you, to live your own life.

YouTube viewing link

Directed by Woodruff Laputka of Laputka Films

Music
"Middlesex Times" and "The Tangent Universe"
by Michael Andrews

"Indian Summer" and "Stokkseyyrii"
by Jonsi & Alex

"Mad World"
by Michael Andrews
Performed by the St. Judes Children's Choir (Florida)

Image Credits

Video short animation "Displacement" by Chris Perry

Watch "Displacement" (3:50 minutes) a short computer-animated film about expectations and assumptions. It was produced by sixteen advanced undergraduates at Hampshire College (USA) who where enrolled in a course designed around collaboration instead of the traditional individualistic approach to animation education. Completed in 2002.
YouTube viewing link

Written and directed by Chris Perry
Produced by Bit Films
Produced within the collaborative animation curriculum at Hampshire College

Chris Perry 2014 Honoree Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
 "Technical Achievement Award" (more background to the award)

Image Credits

Video short film "Oren Lyons - "We Are Part of the Earth" by Sacred Land Film Project and Earth Island Institute

"The law says if you poison the water, you’ll die. 

The law says that if you poison the air, you’ll suffer. 

The law says if you degrade where you live, you’ll suffer… 

If you don’t learn that, you can only suffer. 

There’s no discussion with this law."

~  (Chief) Oren Lyons

Native-American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, 

of the Seneca Nations, Iroquois Confederacy.

Watch "Oren Lyons - "We Are Part of the Earth" (7:38 minutes) How did (Chief) Oren Lyons first learn about his relationship to the Earth? Listen to his story...

Oren R. Lyons, Jr. (born 1930) is a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, of the Seneca Nations, of the Iroquois Confederacy. He is the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honour, the National Audubon Society's Audubon Medal, the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations, and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights. Lyons serves on the board of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, and is board chairman of Honouring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations. Lyons is also remembered for his time as a lacrosse player. He is Honorary Chairman of the Iroquois Nationals. In 1989 he was named Man of the Year in Lacrosse by the NCAA.

Lyons served in the United States Army. He received athletic scholarships to Syracuse University, where he was awarded the Orange Key for his academic and athletic accomplishments. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 1958. A lifelong lacrosse player, Oren was an All-American at Syracuse, and after graduation, Lyons played for several teams, including the New York Lacrosse Club (1959–1965), the New Jersey Lacrosse Club (1966–1970), and the Onondaga Athletic Club (1970–1972). Upon leaving Syracuse, Lyons pursued a career in commercial art in New York City, becoming the art and planning director of Norcross Greeting Cards. Outside of work, Lyons exhibited his own paintings and in 1970, he returned to Onondaga to be closer to his cultural heritage. In recognition of his contributions over many years as a teacher of undergraduate and graduate students in the University at Buffalo, Dr. Lyons is listed as SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor Emeritus of American Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

For over fourteen years he has taken part in the meetings in Geneva of Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, and helped to establish the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, and is a principal figure in the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders. He was a negotiator between the governments of Canada, Quebec, New York State and the Mohawks in the Oka crisis during the summer of 1990. Lyons appeared on a one-hour documentary "Faithkeeper", produced and hosted by Bill Moyers on PBS. He appeared in Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary "The 11th Hour" in 2007. In 1992 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations where he opened the International Year of the World's Indigenous People.

This video "Oren Lyons - "We Are Part of the Earth" was produced by the Sacred Land Film Project, a project of Earth Island Institute. To deepen public understanding of sacred places, indigenous cultures and environmental justice, the Film Project produces a variety of media and educational materials—films, videos, DVDs, articles, photographs, school curricula and other materials. The Sacred Land Film Project uses journalism, organizing and activism to rekindle reverence for land, increase respect for cultural diversity, stimulate dialogue about connections between nature and culture, and protect sacred lands and diverse spiritual practices.

Oren Lyons: Facebook

Video 2016/2017: Oren Lyons "Water is Life"

Video 2016: Oren Lyons on the Indigenous View of the World

Video: 2015/2016: Chief Oren Lyons Gives Keynote Address at the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions

Video 2013: Pete Seeger and Oren Lyons on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

Video 2012: Seneca Chief Oren Lyons Speaks To the UN on Climate Change (10 min)

Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force

Seventh Generation Fund

Video short animation "Everest" by Assaf Hayut

Watch "Everest" (3:46 minutes) music video inspired by a true events that took place on the second expedition to Mt. Everest (1924), where two mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine lost their lives reportedly near the summit. Speculations on whether they reached the top continue till this day, if they did, they were the first UK men in known modern times to reach it. A nice storytelling using closeness and coming together to move through obstacles, with no drama. The characters in the story like each other, and their support of each other increases as the story's tension increases. YouTube link

Music: "Everest" by Public Broadcast Service

Directed by Assaf Hayut
Animation BRUT is run by Assaf Hayut, an independent filmmaker, animator and craftsman. Assaf was educated in art and design at Vital College, Israel, and graduated B.A. studies at Goldsmiths College in the UK. He has recently been training in puppet and animation, in Prague the capital city of the Czech Republic, as part of HAFAN Film and Studio workshop. During his education, Assaf started a career in prop and set design for theatre then turned to animation after graduation. He has since completed numerous commissioned and independent productions, and his work screened at festivals, screening events and online. In recent years, Assaf pioneered the use of animation as a therapeutic healing tool, and facilitated successful healing workshops for staff and service-users in the NHS and other mental-health organizations.

Image Credits: "Everest" by Public Broadcast Service

Video short films NASA "Next Generation: Human Path To Mars", "Next Generation: Advanced Supercomputers" "Next Generation: Human Space Exploration", "Next Generation: Life Support", "Next Generation: Saucer Shaped Vehicle" , "Next Generation SUN/Solar: HMS Heliophysics Modelling and Simulation", "Living With a Star Program", "Next Generation: QuAIL Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory"

Watch: NASA: A Conversation with Harrison Ford (2:45 min April 2014)
Actor Harrison Ford was on location at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., last Nov 2013 to film a segment of Showtime's "Years of Living Dangerously" documentary on climate change. Ford toured the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility where he met with scientists Rama Nemani of Ames and Matthew Hansen of the University of Maryland, College Park, to learn more about how NASA satellite data and research are used around the world to better understand and protect Earth environments.

Watch: NASA to Launch Carbon Observatory (3:59 min June 2014)
NASA is about to launch a satellite dedicated to the study of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) will quantify global CO2 sources and sinks, and help researchers predict the future of climate change.

Watch "One Year To Pluto" (3:22 minutes July 2014)
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is only a year away from Pluto. Researchers are buzzing with anticipation as NASA prepares to encounter a new world for the first time in decades.

"Black Hole"

Watch "Future of Human Space Exploration" (10:52 minutes July 2014)
"Now that the Space Shuttle era is over, NASA is writing the next chapters in human Spaceflight with its commercial and international partners. It is advancing research and technology on the International Space Station, opening low-Earth orbit to US industry, and pushing the frontiers of deep space even farther ... all the way to Mars."

Watch "Space-Time Vortex Around Earth" (2:48 minutes 2011)
NASA has announced the results of an epic physics experiment which confirms the reality of a space-time vortex around our planet.

"Low-Density Supersonic Disk, Saucer-Shaped Test Vehicle " June 2014

Watch "News Briefing Previews Test of Saucer Shaped Vehicle" (38 minutes July 19, 2014)
NASA held a news conference from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii on June 2 about the upcoming test of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project. During the test, a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle will be flown into near-space. LDSD could lead to inflatable spacecraft systems capable of safely landing heavier and larger payloads than ever before on planets with atmospheres.

"Saturn's Hexagon"

Watch "Project IceBridge: The Daily Routine" (3:27 minutes April 2014)
This video shows what the IceBridge team does on a day-to-day basis in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, the base of operations for the mission's April 2014 flights. IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of Earth's polar ice. Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- launched in 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.

Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Don Pettit" (3:18 min May 2014)

Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Peggy Whitson" (3:25 min May 2014)

Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Rick Mastracchio" (3:30 min May 2014)

Watch "Challenges of Spacewalking -- Danny Olivas" (4 min May 2014)

"European Space Agency's "Rosetta" mission camera reveals Comet 67P"

Watch: "Mars Investment" (3:13 min June 2014)
Addressing today's technological challenges for the future of human and robotic exploration of Mars.

Watch "NASA's Human Path to Mars" (2hrs 29minutes April 2014)
Aired on NASA Television from NASA headquarters, featured Administrator Charles Bolden and other agency leadership showcasing NASA's human exploration path to Mars. NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s.

"Rover on Mars"

Watch "Next Generation Life Support (NGLS)" (3:20 min June 2014)
The Next Generation Life Support project develops next-generation life support technologies needed for humans to live and work productively in space.

Next Generation Supercomputers (capability)

Read "HECC Supercomputing RESOURCES AT-A-GLANCE"
If everyone in the world did one calculation per second for eight hours a day, it would take about 1,057 days to complete what Pleiades Super Computer can calculate in one minute.

Read "HECC High-End Computing Capability Project"

Read HECC Facts & Highlights

Watch Slideshow: HECC Monthly Reports June 2014

Advanced Supercomputing Division

Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL)
The NAS facility hosts the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a collaborative effort among NASA, Google, and Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to explore the potential for quantum computers to tackle optimization problems that are difficult or impossible for traditional supercomputers to handle.

Heliophysics Modelling and Simulation (HMS) project team is developing high-fidelity modelling and simulation tools that enable research on the interiors and atmospheres of the Sun and other stars. The science community has long understood that solar activity is caused by magnetic fields generated deep inside the Sun. Solar variability is a leading factor in determining space weather, which has a great impact on Earth's environment and modern human activities. The HMS project supports NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) Program goal to provide a predictive understanding of the Sun's system, specifically of the space weather conditions near Earth and in the interplanetary medium. The HMS team’s support of this LWS goal is to provide improved forecasting of conditions on the solar surface in terms of both velocity and magnetic fields.

The team’s focus ties in with the timely emergence of two technologies:

1) High-resolution space-based instruments (such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Hinode and IRIS) and ground-based instruments, which together produce vast amounts of data from detailed solar observations

2) Petaflop-scale parallel computers that enable realistic modelling of solar conditions. Through the combined power of these technologies, the HMS team is working to advance astrophysical knowledge and to improve our understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with solar activity.

Image Credits and descriptions

Video short animation "Teaching Infinity" directed by Bartek Kik and Jakub Jablonski

Watch and download "Teaching Infinity" (14:48 minutes) A surreal journey of a space castaway. Lost emergency capsules, a remote planet and close encounters with an intriguing Alien. A woman and her little robot companion investigate mysteries of a planet. Time and space play tricks on them. Life and Space is not always what it seems to be, imagine more than what you are experiencing now. Imagine there is more. Alternate link

Directed by Bartek Kik
Born in Proszowice Poland in 1982. Graduated from the National Film School in Łódź with a degree in animation and special effects. Debuted in 2008 with “Teaching Infinity,” a short he directed with Jakub Jabłoński.

Directed by Jakub Jablonski
Born in Łódź Poland in 1981. Studied painting and graphics at the Academy of Art in Łódź. Also graduated from National Film School in Łódź with a degree in animation and special effects.

Image Credits: Platige Shorts

Video short animation "Nocturne" by Kari Casady

Watch "Nocturne" (2 minutes) wildlife takes a magic hour nature walk from the woods, past the ocean, into the human habitat environment.

Created by Kari Casady

A student film made at CalArts

Image Credits: Kari Casady

Video short animation "The Kinematograph" directed by Tomasz Bagiński

Watch and download "The Kinematograph" (12:12 minutes) Francis is an inventor. His invention is supposed to change the world. He learns how important it is to be inclusive, include your loved ones, while manifesting your dreams. Big dreams and love go together to support each other hand in hand.

Directed by Tomasz Bagiński
Born in Białystok Poland in 1976. Dropped out of college where he studied architecture to pursue animation direction. In 1997, he joined Platige Image where he currently serves as a creative director. Directed over 100 ads, game cinematics, animated shorts, and worked on multiple artistic projects. His movies, “The Cathedral” (2002), “Fallen Art” (2004), and “The Kinematograph” (2009) garnered international praise and success. “The Cathedral” was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 and received the Best of Show award at the SIGGRAPH festival. “Fallen Art” received the Jury Honors at the 2005 SIGGRAPH and the BAFTA Award. “The Kinematograph” was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Image Credits: Platige Image 

Video short film "Lichen" directed by Kevin Lim

Watch "Lichen" (8:14 minutes) "Lichen tells the story of how through chance and coincidence, infinitely small decisions can produce new life. In each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations against the odds of our ancestors even meeting and the possibility of how each and every one of us came to be is an improbability marvel. The universe is creative. We are the clay the universe leaves its' fingerprints on most clearly." - Director Kevin Lim, Sydney Australia

"The Idea Behind The Making of 'Lichen'" by Kevin Lim
The initial seed for the idea came to me in 2001. I was completing my film Honours degree and I had (somewhat stupidly) decided my thesis would be a documentary on quantum physics. I became fascinated with quantum computation, specifically in regards to microtubules, a protein found within human physiology. I remember reading this one paper which proposed how microtubules within the human body could potentially act as a quantum hard drive to store memories. So I took the idea further and thought what if inanimate objects could store memories. And what if the keepsakes we hold onto from a relationship could act as a roadmap telling the story of how two people met, fell in love and sired children.

Ten years later, I was working as a television commercial director and like many of my peers, grew wary of an industry where commerce always overruled creativity. So with producer April Tafe and cinematographer Aaron McLisky I formed Soda Honey Films and made 'Lichen', purely for the love of the creative act. Filmed sporadically on weekends between October to December in 2011 in Sydney, Australia, the project was completely self-funded. After a festival run that has taken the film as far and wide as Poland, USA, England and France, as well has having been sold for distribution to Japan and Australia, 'Lichen' has been released online.

Soda Honey Films

Image Credits

Video short animated films by Kirsten Lepore "Move Mountain", "Bottle" and "Mountain"

Watch "Move Mountain" (11 minutes) "A girl journeys through a vibrant, pulsing, macrocosmic landscape, but a precipitous incident compels her to venture up a mountain in an attempt to save herself. A story about illness, perseverance, and our connection to everything around us."

 "Making of Move Mountain"

Watch "Bottle" (5:23 minutes) Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.

Watch "Mountain" (1 minute) A lively mountain full of mountain life.

Director and Animator Kirsten Lepore
Los Angeles based filmmaker specializing in stop motion animation, who studied at CalArts

Image Credits

Video short animation "Innuendo" directed by Tim de Haan

Watch "Innuendo" (3:18 minutes) "an animated graduation short about procreation and reproduction. Life itself is inherently obsessed with this ongoing cycle. With our film we want to show that the whole planet, and not just complex organisms, participates in this sensual dance of life. Created over a span of five months of hard work and three months of conceptual preparation. It is a creative exercise in which we're sketching out a sense of sensuality and fertility without any human imagery using various visual metaphors." - the filmmakers

A student film created at the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands

Facebook and Created by:
Tim de Haan, Kjeld Slingerland, Dieuwer Feldbrugge, Louise van Putten, Niels Bosch and Steven Thans

Tools:
Maya, 3DS Max, V-Ray, Mudbox, Nuke, Naiad, Krakatoa, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects

Image Credits