Plastic Bag
March 23, 2010 3:54 PM   Subscribe

Plastic Bag - Struggling with its immortality, a discarded plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) ventures through the environmentally barren remains of America as it searches for its maker. A short film by Ramin Bahrani.
posted by HuronBob (32 comments total) 36 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:05 PM on March 23, 2010 [8 favorites]


Cool post. Worth adding this is one of 11 short films at FutureStates:

FUTURESTATES is a series of 11 fictional mini-features exploring possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities. Immerse yourself in the visions of these independent prognosticators as they project a future of their own imagining.
posted by mediareport at 4:05 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


WERNER HERZBAG
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:06 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


"Monsters, be gone!"

I have no idea how seriously I'm supposed to take this. If it was meant to be a little bit silly, it is truly awesome.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:11 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


I will watch any movie starring an inanimate object voiced by Werner Herzog.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:15 PM on March 23, 2010 [13 favorites]


Paging Tom.
posted by Huw at 4:17 PM on March 23, 2010


Does this have anything to do with the plastic bag that followed the 'mysterious boy' around in "Not Another Teen Movie"?
posted by dunkadunc at 4:25 PM on March 23, 2010


This was pretty good, I guess, but do check out Ramin Bahrani's full-length works. They're FANTASTIC. (And they're all on streaming Netflix, btw.)
posted by naju at 4:39 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


I thought plastic breaks down in sunlight.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:41 PM on March 23, 2010


Paging Tom.

Sheesh, you think with all this Web 2.whatever, you'd think we could upgrade our systems to work with SMS, tweets, virtual pokes and nudges, or something more modern.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:42 PM on March 23, 2010


It made me want...something, I don't know what. I feel like I'm going to think about it for a long time. Thanks for sharing.
posted by donnagirl at 4:48 PM on March 23, 2010


A friend of mine mentioned that this is the story of A.I., but with a plastic bag.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:49 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


ART IS NOT A oh, I guess it is. Sorry.
posted by rusty at 4:49 PM on March 23, 2010


Oh don't worry little bag. Eventually the sun will explode.
posted by delmoi at 4:53 PM on March 23, 2010 [6 favorites]


Wow! This says way more than An Inconvenient Truth.
posted by a sourceless light at 5:00 PM on March 23, 2010


By the way, that's not what the Pacific Trash Vortex looks like at all. It just looks like ocean. The plastic in it is in tiny bits. If it were whole bags and bottles and stuff like this, it wouldn't be so destructive.
posted by rusty at 5:07 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


this makes me want to break my dad's nazi china.
posted by fallacy of the beard at 5:11 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


KokuRyu: "I thought plastic breaks down in sunlight."

Break down into.. smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, like rocks into sand. Except sand doesn't look like food, cause hormone disruptions, or generally poison the environment.
posted by stbalbach at 5:11 PM on March 23, 2010



Uh, this is fucking fantastic.
posted by bukharin at 5:13 PM on March 23, 2010


Break down into.. smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, like rocks into sand. Except sand doesn't look like food, cause hormone disruptions, or generally poison the environment.

Cancergeddon!
posted by acb at 5:14 PM on March 23, 2010



I really have nothing of any significance to add, but I wanted to just pop in and mention that, without even reading the linked article, I laughed my ass off at that headline.

I will now get out of the way of everyone else who has something meaningful to contribute.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 5:36 PM on March 23, 2010


Bahrani is a fantastic director, one of the most promising. Three solid, brilliant feature films behind him and only 35.
posted by fire&wings at 5:40 PM on March 23, 2010


fire&wings: "Bahrani is a fantastic director, one of the most promising. Three solid, brilliant feature films behind him and only 35."

Now you're just making me feel even more useless than my life already does.

Oh well, congrats to the director for doing such a good job in such a short period of time. I wish him well. Now back to my problems.... ugh!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 5:46 PM on March 23, 2010


You know that it would be untrue

You know that I would be a liar

If I were to say to you

Girl, I'd never find the gyre
posted by Tube at 6:36 PM on March 23, 2010


You wanna see the most beautiful thing I've ever filmed?
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 6:49 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]


Anything melodramatic and corn-ball + Herzog voice-over is automatically going to be fantastic.

I'm afraid I can't take the recommendation to watch this guy's other films too seriously, though. Unless they have Herzog.
posted by paisley henosis at 7:03 PM on March 23, 2010


I'm afraid I can't take the recommendation to watch this guy's other films too seriously, though.

He is one of the best directors currently working, if you don't believe me check out his films on Metacritic or IMDB. Chop Shop especially is fantastic.
posted by fire&wings at 7:05 PM on March 23, 2010


Found this film to be very captivating and powerful.

rusty: By the way, that's not what the Pacific Trash Vortex looks like at all. It just looks like ocean. The plastic in it is in tiny bits. If it were whole bags and bottles and stuff like this, it wouldn't be so destructive.

Yeah, the real danger is how the plastic has broken down into tiny pieces and in many cases can't be seen by the naked eye.

VBS.tv has an hour long documentary on this (in 3 parts) called TOXIC: Garbage Island - found it really eye opening about what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is really all about.
posted by 3rdparty at 7:24 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]


Look at this Beastie!
posted by kaspen at 8:02 PM on March 23, 2010




That was beautiful.
posted by buzzv at 11:48 PM on March 23, 2010


Reminds me of a music video by Hajime Chitose.
posted by NemesisVex at 6:58 AM on March 24, 2010


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