Partially Clips
by Robert T. Balder
Updates about three times per week
One of the wonderful things about the internets is the wide and varied formats they introduce. A storyteller is truly free to wend the otherwise-unnavigable fjords of his heart, following their emerald clover-bedotted shores until a sort of artistic nirvana has been achieved. The pursuit may be casual, or relentless, but the result is almost always Modern. As Sean “Puffy” Combs has said more than once of his own creative endeavors, “can’t stop / won’t stop.”
Imagine if you will, figures dramatically trapped in time, a potent reminder of the tenuous grip we each have on our own personal coil mortalis. When our finger-strength fades, only our non-existent Creator can say. But these moments happened, and they are a part of time, worthy of existence, and are captured here, as some long-forgotten insect in honeyed amber.
Partially Clips poses a fascinating question. What if the insects could speak? Their protracted, time-dilated existence doesn’t prevent these everyday figures from holding conversations. And their conversations often cut to the core of what it is to be human — and humorous.
Common themes include wildly-imagined demons, weekend sports enthusiasts, and self-defecating college professors — moments from everyday life (although I was never quite reminded of my own college days). Still it goes to prove McLuhan’s axiom, that the medium was never the message. I would expect nothing less from the Partially Clips Motion Picture than a series of static shots, offering the expectation of motion where none occurs, the hesitance in which so many live their daily lives.
Take a hint from this reviewer and spend a few still moments of your own enjoying what Balder has crafted here. It’s life, beautifully framed.
It’s love.