I’ve recently been enjoying Wholphin DVD magazine issue four. It’s a great collection of short films that would otherwise be pretty hard to see. My favorite so far is Olivo Barbieri’s site specific_LAS VEGAS 05. The film features a montage of partially blurry aerial footage of Las Vegas, with only the center of the image in sharp focus. The result is a mesmerizing image that oscillates between reality and an infinitely detailed scale model, as if shot through a macro focus lens.

If you haven’t gotten your hands on the DVD yet, you can check out Barbieri’s next installment in the Site Specific project, Waterfalls, showing at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, opening November 1 and running through December 22.

As Karina mentioned here, Wholphin will be doing their first screening in LA next month, November 27, at the newly reopened Silent Movie Theatre. The description of the event is loaded with delightful McSweeny’s weirdness:

The screening will likely involve short films about- and live entertainment from- drunk bees, bioluminescent squirt guns, a crying competition, Satanic nine-year-olds, super-slo-motion tongues, and if we’re lucky, a never-before-seen short film by Paul Thomas Anderson starring Elliot Smith as a Rastafarian basketball player with a cameo by Bette Midler.

If you still haven’t gotten enough of Wholphin, check out the online screening room featuring web-only content, and stay tuned to FilmCouch, where Paul and I will be chatting about the DVD magazine sometime soon.