Right. Some vid recs from my first pass through Festivids 2025.
Some lighter things to start:
Rather Be, The Way of the House Husband
I’m only vaguely familiar with this source, but this vid is so goddamn sweet and lovely, and so genuine. Tatsu and his family. It’s beautiful.
Dynamite, The Heroic Trio
I have absolutely no idea what this movie (show?) is, but purely on the back of this vid, I am going to watch it. It looks like a wild early 90s Birds of Prey, Hong Kong edition, wall to wall cheese, and I’m here for it.
White Rabbit, Labyrinth
Sarah’s journey through the strange dreamlike logic of the Labyrinth set to Jefferson Airplane. It’s so good, and some of the line matches are exquisite. Trust me, this works beautifully.
Then some heavier, meatier vids:
Good Girls, Strange Days
Oh. Oh this is so good. This vid puts aside the love triangle and the plot, and focuses in on the women, ‘good’, ‘bad’ and everything in between, and gives this little window into them fighting their corners in a world and a genre that will sell them in a heartbeat, not even just for their own sakes but as a prop for someone else. It’s rough, the same way the movie is rough, and if you haven’t seen Strange Days there are some very disturbing images and moments here, murder and sexual assault, so be aware of that, but it’s so good.
Typhon Voices, Interstellar
This vid sets a mood so well and so creepily. A wordless, anxiety-inducing interplay of spaces and times and motion and machinery and gravity that gradually builds and builds. This is such a science fiction sort of vid, in that it encapsulates a concept and evokes a sensation so well and so immediately.
Ciao Amore, Only Lovers Left Alive
Another vid that sets a mood. This sort of languorous, sensuous, haunting and faintly desperate shared isolation, dancing together in an empty room, hunting together in an empty world, finding meaning only in each other. Oh, it works. It works very well.
Vids for sources that have a direct line to my heart and thus I’m only partly verbal when it comes to them:
Marching On, Babylon 5
The way I wept, like a baby. The love I have for this show, for these people. And the way this vid captures so many moments. So many. So much of what I love. I am crying like a baby. It’s fantastic.
Birdsong, The Secret Garden
Mary, and the slowly building changes she makes, to herself and to everyone else. The song works so well. This is another one where I just love everything, and I’m crying gently to myself.
The River, The Secret of NIMH
Such a beautiful portrayal of Mrs Brisby, of every threat that terrorises this tiny mouse woman, and every threat she nonetheless forges through. Jonathan married her for a reason, and she more than lives up to his legacy.
And finally, a fantastic little palette cleanser to finish up:
Hard Knock Life, Canopener Bridge
This is a vid about a bridge. A real life bridge. And the complete human inability to read goddamn road signs, to the dismay but also humour of all.
