In this edition of the Short Film Spotlight, we’re going into NSFW (not safe for work) territory! THE BLINDNESS OF THE WOODS is an amalgam of Ingrid Bergman, ’70s Euro porn, the Muppets and the Brothers Grimm. Produced by a kick ass multidisciplinary creative studio called Amauta with offices in Los Angeles, Lima and Buenos Aires, I helped select this surreal, funny and sometimes bittersweet “cute porn” film for the LA Film Festival last year. Check it out for yourself (Graphic depictions of sex coming up, even if it’s done by puppet people): You can download the actual film in glorious Quicktime from Amauta’s site.
I love the aesthetic and production design is amazing. The knitted puppet suits were very detailed, and I love the use of miniatures and CGI to create this strange world. At first, I thought the porn was a joke ala Team America, and in many ways, it definitely is, but it was more so my American Puritan viewpoint that skewed this erotic faery tale. I especially love the bear, especially since he rocks a cool scarf. But all Conan O’Brien masturbating bear comparisons aside, I empathized with the bear and his unrequited love. And like all faery tales from the Old Country, there’s an undercurrent of darkness that permeates. Did the bear eat the lumberjack and pull a Single White Female? Did the blind maiden know that it was actually the bear and didn’t care because it filled the lover void she so desperately longed for? Or should I care and just enjoy the muppet porn?
Holy shit, this is awesome!
Anderson- your description “Ingrid Bergman, ’70s Euro porn, the Muppets and the Brothers Grimm” is so weirdly apropos. And I thought it was only the Japanese who were masters of mashing-up cute and porno sensibilities. Somehow, I suspect this short will do more for crochet than the hipster knitting revival.