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Bogart und I at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin.

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Osnabruck, Germany for EMAF 2011, a great aggregate of new works in media art.  Definitely left me thinking outside the screen.

Stoking the fires of my long-standing Lotte Reiniger fandom at the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf.

Can we build a miniature forest in multiple seasonal states? Yes!

Can we build a full scale forest in a low-ceilinged church basement? Yes!

Art director Corinne Merrell has been making my dreams come true on many projects.  With help from Louisa Schabas, DOP Michel St. Martin and a wonderful extended crew, we made magic happen for the music video Ringer.

The Delian Mode!

On the set of Albatross with the enchanting Marianna Reis.

And on location at the infamous Cinema L’Amour with smoke, mirrors and our other superstar, Brad Barr.

Copenhagen, despite being cold and wet in November you still managed to impress with your implausibly beautiful people, bike parking lots and smørrebrød!  Some exciting highlights of the CPH:DOX festival included The Delian Mode‘s first screening inside a geodesic dome, meeting long-time hero Peter Mettler and being given a special mention in the Sound & Vision award category.

“The rarest jewel in the crown of the festival-going experience.” – Variety

I’m not sure if it was the altitude or being within spitting distance of many of my film idols (luckily for Herzog and Haneke I restrained myself)  but this fest was definitely a high point for me.

My love of miniatures is no secret.  Tiny worlds have the power to immediately transport me back to a place of child-like wonderment with their mind-boggling attention to detail and the inevitable question evoked of ‘what would happen if I tried to squeeze in there?’  Imagine then, if you will, my glee at stumbling across the Thorne Miniature Rooms, housed in the bottom of the Art Institute of Chicago. I could have lived forever in the glorious grandeur of these diminutive spaces.

So perfect that this discovery came in the midst of preparations for the music video Concrete Lovesong involving the constructions of many miniature sets, beautifully crafted out of paper by the talented Corinne Merrell. Serendipity strikes again.