Light as a feather

A man runs, and so does a nose. There’s fall, can’t get up, and then there’s fall, crisp air and auburn leaves. Words are more than their shape and texture, and that’s the idea behind “Words,” an innovate YouTube video created in conjunction with an episode of the WNYC radio series Radiolab. “Words,” which Steven James Snyder at Time magazine calls “easily one of the most inviting and challenging” videos ever seen on YouTube, speaks for itself.

But if you want more, you can read up on Snyder’s analysis at Time’s “Tuned In” blog:

And so to accompany that hour of radio, we have this ambitious short film, largely wordless, but still featuring some key phrases like "Play Ball!" and "Light as a feather." Directed by Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante, I think there are actually multiple ways you can interpret this slice of life, given the context of its making. The obvious reading, of course, is that we're getting variations on different words - numerous ways of perceiving such terms as light, flighting, blowing, running, etc. But I'm inclined to go even further. Is this an attempt to capture the kinds of fleeting moments that transcend words? The images that are worth thousands of descriptors? Or is it a reminder of everything that is so beautiful, surprising and stunning in this world – this life – that first gave us the inkling to create a language, and the desire to share?