Oliver Zahm directs and stars in this short film for Louis Vuitton – an artsy spoof-like short depicting a day in his life as editor at fashion magazine Purple during the glam of Paris Fashion Week. Featuring the Louis Vuitton runway and Marc Jacobs / Louis Vuitton exhibition, a pretty girl, the bad boy, Marc Jacobs and a train driver, this quirky Godard-inspired clip has offers a lighter side to the world of fashion.

Source: Fashionista

Yesterday saw the official premiere of the short film “Cruel Summer” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Written, produced and directed by Kanye West and shot in Qatar, the seven-screen experience was adapted from a script by Elon Rutberg and stars Kid Cudi as a Lamborghini car thief who falls in love with a beautiful blind Arabic girl, ultimately seeking to help her see so that her father will allow them to be married. A precursor to the upcoming G.O.O.D. music compilation, the film was introduced by the hip-hop star himself while the star-studded affair was attended by the likes of Jay-Z, Kim Kardashian, Theophilus London, the G.O.O.D. music crew, and more. “Cruel Summer” will see additional public screenings at Cannes today and tomorrow while the G.O.O.D. music album of the same name is due out later this summer.

Photography: Caitlin Cronenberg

Source: T Magazine

The latest installment to the Vans TV series Pass the Bucket Season 2 arrives with bassist and Pearl Jam co-founder Jeff Ament front and center. Having spent his early life growing up in rural Montana, Ament developed an affinity for skateboarding as an escape from the isolation and tranquility that is often characteristic of growing up with a rural life. Aside from shedding light into his development as a skateboarder and his passion for picking up a board, Ament also speaks on his latest endeavor - Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Despite his replete resume of successes, Ament spends much of his time giving back to the next generation and spreading, not only the skill of skateboarding, but also the belonging, camaraderie and life direction that can come from building a skate park for a community.

Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West takes a second shot at directing with “Cruel Summer” — an interesting short film and art installation endeavor which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last night. The immersive seven-screen experience was conducted in a pyramid-dressed parking lot by the water before a 200-strong audience. Inspired by a soundtrack supplied via the upcoming all-star G.O.O.D. Music album
 of a similar title, the film stars Kid Cudi, Razane Jammal, Ali Suliman and comedian Aziz Ansari. Shot in Qatar, the story plays around a Lamborghini car thief who falls for a beautiful blind Arabic girl whose father will consent to them marrying if he can help her see. More than a storyline, however, the experimental piece attempts to provide a full audio-visual movie experience using split screens to imitate “life” — i.e. our limited perception of the world due to the human inability to catch or process everything that is happening around us at once.

Source: HYPETRAK

London creative agency Topsafe composed this video short “Death is Home” with the help of animation studio ILoveDust, and French street artist Horfe. The whimsical, black-and-white animation is comprised entirely of hand-drawn artwork by Horfe, and whose aesthetic feel harkens back to the early days of animation and silent film. Once you’ve watched the video, you can check out some behind-the-scenes photographs of the sketches here, and then swoop a T-shirt from the collaboration directly from Topsafe here.

Having premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Roman Polanski presents “A Therapy” – a short film made in cooperation with Prada. Starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter, the film was a surprise of sorts and a project Polanski didn’t take lightly. In speaking about the collaboration he commented, “When I was asked to shoot a short movie for Prada, I did not think that I could really be myself, but the reality is that in the total freedom I was given, I had the opportunity to reunite my favorite group of people on set and just have fun. It’s refreshing to know that there are still places open to irony and wit and, for sure, Prada is one of them.” Well-shot and beautifully acted, the surprise treat from a trio of talented individuals is certainly a welcome experience.

Pharrell Williams always seems to have something cooking, so it should come as no surprise that the renaissance man has launched an uplifting video for his media venture: i am OTHER. Seen as way more than merely a record label, and instead a cultural movement of sorts, i am OTHER welcomes “thinkers, innovators and outcasts.” Presented with a slightly sci-fi twist, Williams is clear in his mission – to make “others” and the idea of thinking independently a much more mainstream ethos than merely following trends that have already been presented.

Expertly helmed by Gareth Evans, the 2011 Indonesian martial arts film The Raid made a huge splash at every international film festival it played in. While it’s highly unlikely that claymation savant Lee Hardcastle’s own Claycat rendition of The Raid will make it to Sundance, that doesn’t make it any less entertaining, or action-packed in its own right. And yes, plenty of clay cats were harmed in the making of this short.

Source: It’s Nice That

Some people use airline flights to spend as much time as humanly possible sleeping. If you’re Shingo Ohno of one-man band Merce Death however, you spend it making music on your iPhone. Ohno used his in-seat time from over 50 flights to compose his aptly titled song “STILL IN THE SKY” on his iPhone 4S. Utilizing the GarageBand app, he also edited its accompanying music video seen here.
What do you do to kill time in the air — maybe this is something to consider.

With the rapid decline of art programs being offered in inner city public schools, New York native and visual artist Danny Simmons stepped up to help fill that rapidly widening void. In this installment of Pass the Bucket from Vans Off the Wall, we get a glimpse at the roots of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation that was created through Simmons’ efforts, and his two brothers, Russell and Joseph (Rev. Run of RUN-DMC). The foundation lives to provide the urban poor and underprivileged with opportunities to access the arts and exhibit their own work.