A moving portrait of DeShawn Willis by New York City-based filmmaker Dan Lior (previously featured here). After his picture went viral on Facebook, DeShawn was laughed at and ridiculed. “Only in Toledo” sheds light on the person behind the picture — allowing DeShawn to tell his story.

This is dedicated to all who persist against all struggle.
#deshawnstrong

Please consider donating at onlyintoledo.com

Featuring DeShawn Willis
Created by Dan Lior
Production Assistant: Kfir Amir
Sound Mixing: Nir Shor
Music: Liquify – Midnight Lofi
Provided by Artlist.io

This video was submitted by Dan Lior and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Fantastic video for Future Islands by Brooklyn-based artist and filmmaker Samuel Jerome Mason. Made during the first two months of COVID-19 lockdown, “For Sure” is a fully animated narrative about two autonomous rental cars who find love on the way across state lines after a climate collapse.

A film by Samuel Jerome Mason
Finishing: John Harrison
Render Farm: GarageFarm
Special Thanks: Anna, Jemima, Mike, Willy, Saad, Eric, Arsen, and Hornet

This video was submitted by Samuel Jerome Mason and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Nice meandering tone to this video for Xavierr Dior by Québec-based director and editor mad. “New York” follows the intimate confessional of a young man going through a toxic relationship. As the song progresses, it’s clear he is so tired of this way of living that he is about to let everything go. The audience is left to decide whether he does or not.

Director: mad
Director of Photography: Paul Dussault
Production: MAD Visuals
Editor: mad
Color: Sam Gilling
Art Direction: Anne-Charlotte Collet
1st Assistant Caméra: Nicolas Morin
Shot on Atlas Orion Anamorphic Lenses

This video was submitted by mad and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A beautiful portrait of Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo by London/Barcelona-based director David Cerqueiro. After leaving Japan in 1978, Sotoo travelled to Europe and, once in Barcelona, became enamored with the work of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. Sotoo has since dedicated his life to completing Barcelona’s legendary La Sagrada Familia — an architectural marvel left incomplete following Gaudí’s death in 1926.

Featuring Etsuro Sotoo
Directed by David Cerqueiro
Produced by David Cerqueiro & José Antonio Cerqueiro

This video was submitted by David Cerqueiro and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Dutch director Puck Litaay (previously featured here) offers up a stylish twist to the typical peepshow set up in this video for Tim Wes. “Face Me” follows three people who pay to take their seat, only to start dancing for the entertainer who barely seems to notice them. As Litaay explains further:

“The voyeur becomes the entertainer, wanting nothing more than to feel seen and desired. Lost in this strange power dynamic they will do anything to feel seen: even pay…. [It] represents the vicious circle of a relationship where two people are unequal to each other. A video about losing ourselves in our desire to love, be loved and feel seen.”

Starring
Sofie Schwab
Luan Barros
Latishia van der Linden

Director & Concept: Puck Litaay
Cinematography: Abel van Dijk
Production: Ami Keita, Puck Litaay
Production Designer: Florian Bart
Art Director: Ella Gerritsen
Styling: Lissa Brandon
MUA: Bas Aarts
Hair: Christine Marie Kat
First AD: Mees Kleijn
Gaffer: Berend Holtkamp
First AC: Eva Heinsbroek
Grip: Jelle van der Weiden
Second AC: Sam Broekman
Best Boy: Daan de Graaff
Set Construction: Chanelle Hool, Julia Holmgren
Assistant Producer: Reilly do Rosario
Art Assistant: Naomi Fijten
Styling Assistant: Jaysy Oosterveen
Hair Assistant: Kayleigh Krabbenborg
Editor: Studio Radijs
Grade: Captcha!, Qianwei Tong
Casting: GEM Faces
Soundscape: Martijn Ruytinx
Runners: Naomi Breedijk, Vasco Narain
Still Photography: Patrick Kenawy

This video was submitted by Puck Litaay and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Love the casual look and feel of this video for Ollie’s track “Feelings” by Toronto-based director Brendan Barnard (previously featured here).

“There’s something about going for a drive by yourself that liberates your mind. This video constructs a collection of thoughts and feelings experienced when our full mind meets an empty road.”

Director: Brendan Barnard
Director of Photography: Jordan Batchelor
Producer: Ryan Cowan
Production Company: Secodo

This video was submitted by Ryan Cowan and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Tons of incredible shots in this passion project by Adam Rubin and Dan Lior of Brooklyn-based collective Raised by Wolves. A beautiful testament to the capacity of the human spirit, “Pathfinder: Life Beyond Fear” follows six world-class slackliners on a mission to achieve something that has never been seen before — walking a line while illuminated by the Northern Lights!

“The yearning that drives adventurers and explorers to climb the highest peaks, sail endless oceans, and cross vast deserts in the name of progress, is the same passion that drives these slack-liners to attempt what has still been unclaimed. Through the extreme conditions and endless challenges, we learn about their elemental desire to explore the limits of humankind.”

Featuring:
Friedi Kühne
Louise Lenoble
Lukas Irmler
Samuel Volery
Sebastian Gum Chung Segraves
Tijmen VD

Created by Adam Rubin & Dan Lior
Production Company: Raised by Wolves
Producer: Adam Rubin
Second Producer: Dan Lior
Assistant producer: Ariel Hadar
Scriptwriting: Dan Lior
Cinematography: Dan Lior & Adam Rubin
Additional Cinematography: Kfir Amir
Timelapse photography: Guy Gefen
Camera Assistant: Nir Rotman
Post Production Supervisor: Adam Rubin
Editing: Dan Lior & Adam Rubin
Assistant Editors: Cara Urban, Kfir Amir, Ariel Hadar
Additional Editing: Edden Ram, Dor Ohayon
Sponsor Video editing: Edden Ram, Roscoe Raz, Kfir Amir, Cara Urban, Adam Rubin
Color Grading: Tomer Bahat – Lux Studio
Sound Design & Mix: Nir Shor
Title Design: Cara Urban
Poster Design: Bat-Or Nae
Fixer: Espen Minde
Shaman: Pierra Jovna Somby

Music Score:
Traditional Sámi Joik by Pierra Jovna Somby
Mass (Re-imagined) by Phoria
Copyright Phoria 2016
Licensed courtesy of Novo
Sileo by Rhian Sheehan
Copyright Rhian Sheehan 2013
Licensed courtesy of Loop Media NZ Limited

This video was submitted by Dan Lior and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Fun DIY feel to this video for Sharlot by Moscow-based director Arthur Gurin (previously featured here). Tapping into their inner child, “Nesokrushimye” was made with an iPhone, two dead printers, and many broken pencils.

Direction/Edit/Animation: Arthur Gurin
Director of Photography: Maria Zherdina
Costumes: Gucci
Makeup & Hair: Sasha Lastochkina
Photos: Roma Uvarov
Special Thanks: Dima Kirbai, Oleg Medvedev

This video was submitted by Arthur Gurin and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Creative animation using a custom-made interface for Bob Moses and ZHU’s track “Desire” by director Owen Brown and Budapest-based collective Airplan Studio. The first of its kind, the video features red and blue filtered visuals that tell two stories simultaneously. Viewers are able to choose to watch the blue-filter story, red-filter story, or both (with the two filters overlaid). The resulting effect allows heartfelt moments to transform into moments of heartbreak, or vice versa. As art director and illustrator Benjamin Kalaszi explains:

“with both filters turned on, a character’s face looks normal, but by applying a blue filter, viewers can reveal a woman crying and by applying a red filter, a face in love. In another, the filters turn a healthy red heart into a blue heart, on flames. As their relationship dies, the characters even transform into skeletons. The filters also make the characters appear and disappear, changing scenes that show a couple embracing lovingly to scenes of a man and woman desiring someone who’s no longer there.”

Watch above or click here to check out the interactive version!

Directed by Owen Brown
Animation Director: Airplan
Creative Producer: Donat Aron Ertsey
Art Direction & Illustration: Benjamin Kalaszi
Creative Agency: CTRL5

2D Animation:
Gabor Filkor
Timea Horvath
David Dell’edera
Doma Harkai
Gergely Liktor
Benjamin Kalaszi
Balazs Simon
Anett Filkor

3D Animation:
Doma Harkai
David Dell’edera

3D Artists:
Juri Agostinelli
Bettina Szremko

Interactive Implementation: Particle3
Executive Producer: Lihu Roter
Creative Technologist: Gal Shaya
Lead Developer: Tal Dinovich
Special Thanks: Oresztesz Nemes, Daniel Balint, Anna Hidvegi

This video was submitted by Benjamin Kalaszi and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A moving short by Amsterdam-based director Flynn von Kleist. “Crows Nest” follows a 13-year-old boy who returns home to live with his mother after she regains custody over him and his younger brother. The film is based on the real life story of Yfendo van Praag, who plays the main character.

Starring Yfendo van Praag, Romana Vrede & Fernando Ferdinandus
Director: Flynn von Kleist
Writer: Jeroen Scholten van Aschat
Producers: Guusje van Deuren, Rianne Poodt, The Rogues
DOP: Tim Kerbosch
Production Designer: Nelli Bodt
Sound: Regard Ibrahim
Edit: Fatih Tura
Music: Terence Dunn

This video was submitted by Flynn von Kleist and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Lots of great shots in this high energy short by California-based director Benoit Lalande and Canadian mountain biker Brandon Semenuk. Watch above as Semenuk makes his way through the vast peaks of New Zealand!

Directors: Benoit Lalande & Brandon Semenuk
DP/Editor: Benoit Lalande
Photography: Toby Cowley
Sound: Keith White
Music: Flying Lotus – Spicy Sammich

This video was submitted by Benoit Lalande and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Florence Arman gets the opposite of “Naked” in this delightfully simple video about a girl finally leaving the comfort of her own home. Directed by Tobias Pichler from Vienna, Austria (previously featured here).

Directed by Tobias Pichler
Cinematographer: Matthias Helldoppler
Assistant Camera: Emanuel Koell
Thanks to Jonas, Matthias, Elias, Izzy,
Emily, AV-Pro and Available Lights!

This video was submitted by Tobias Pichler and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!