SOLIPSIST from Andrew Huang on Vimeo.
As I type these words, I’m still in a daze from this short experimental film, and I invite you, too, to come and have your mind turned inside-out. Anything I could say by way of introduction or explanation would only be a hindrance, so I’ll just leave off talking before I’ve even started, and urge you to turn up your speakers or put on your headphones, turn down the lights, set the video to full screen, and devote ten uninterrupted moments to being totally immersed in a truly sublime (wondrous, unsettling, dazzling, transformative) cinematic experience. I concur with one of the hundreds of commenters at the film’s page at Vimeo: I can’t believe this thing exists.
(If you must have a bit of explanation (and I urge you to watch the film first, like I did, without knowing anything at all about it): The project was conceived and created by Los Angeles-based commercial and music video director Andrew Huang — who not only envisioned, designed, and directed it but composed the music — and funded via a Kickstarter campaign. The pitch there includes the following description: “‘Solipsist’ is meant to be a purely visual film built around the idea of convergence and unison between living things. The title comes from the philosophical theory of solipsism in which the self is the only thing that one can know or prove to exist. The isolation of this theory inspired me to imagine a counter-hypothesis — a world in which living beings are not constrained by a singular experience. Rather, the characters in this film are constantly merging into one another, forming a collective consciousness through unison of their minds and bodies…’Solipsist’ is meant to be a meditative and hypnotic experience for dreamers.”)
Matt, that’s got to be one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in ages! Thank you!
This is an amazing work of art, primal yet elegant, violent yet full-of-grace. This gets to the core and taps into some kind of disquieting truth.
Glad it resonates with you, Nick and Pam. As you can tell from the enthusiastic comments I wrote to introduce the film here at my blog in the wake of my just having watched it for the first time, I was completely bowled over and blown away. When last I looked, there were more than 400 comments of a similar tenor at the film’s Vimeo page. As you stated, Nick, this kind of art speaks to something deep within us. I’m glad to see so many people responding to it.
“I can’t believe this thing exists.”
Solipsism.