In Praise of 'Wholphin'

One of the things I'm grateful for about living in this era of media proliferation is that it's a lot easier to watch short films. I'm kind of a completist when it comes to films- if there's a director or actor I love, I want to hunt down all of their work. Not just their major works, bu the TV episodes they've directed or commercials they've done. One of the hardest parts of this quest was tracking down their early films. Lurking there in the depths of of their IMDb filmographies, these were often student films, or projects that were never actually released, and thus pretty much impossible to find.

Until now. Now, if I want to see, say, Quentin Tarantino's first film, or an early bit of animation by Henry Selick, or even the movies Steven Spielberg made when he was running around the Arizona desert with his friends (this last one is definitely an inspiration behind the upcoming Super 8), then it's all just one YouTube search away.

Unfortunately, with all these short films now available, after I've seen all of these long-sought-after gems, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to finding interesting short films to watch. This is why I'm glad for 'Wholphin'.

Published by McSweeney's, 'Wholphin' is a quarterly DVD magazine that collects short films, documentaries, animation, and other ephemera. They've got a great variety of material; some shorts feature A-list stars, while some are super-low-budget films from unknown directors and actors. They even include stuff like foreign sitcoms, such as the Japanese version of "Bewitched".

Here's an ad for 'Wholphin No. 9' that shows the eclectic mix of content:

And hey, look, they have a YouTube channel, which includes some of my favorite clips, such as...

A great little short featuring a few of my favorite people- John C. Reilly, Miranda July, and Mike White!

Also, during the DVD menu, 'Wholphin' has other videos playing such as these (which are even more surreal when watched separate from the menu):

This post has basically turned into an advertisement, but hey, I feel like 'Wholphin' is one of those things that just lines up perfectly with my own eccentric sensibilities, and it's a great way to discover new work by artists I might not have discovered otherwise.