Some experimental short films are simply intriguing only through the vibe they deliver at any given moment. ‘Virtual Memory’ has the power to bring back that old school, post-Woodstock vibe by just rolling in front of our eyes footage of people having a blast. In the twenty-three minute short, there are many different clips presenting various things, but by binge watching them in this set it gives you a sense of enormous achievement.

 

The buildup seems pretty random at first – going from a short clip of a man taking pictures of a squirrel, to a woman looking at some photos outdoor, to the first attempt of movie making. However, if you look closely, the pile of videos is forming a database similar to the one we have in our brain. We will explain: in a lifetime, we as humans are experiencing thousands of things, and our brain cannot remember the whole story as it happens. That is why sometimes, though we remember one story, we cannot have the full visual medium in our minds, reason why we just remember a couple seconds long fragment.

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‘Virtual Memory’ comes with a great soundtrack, bringing back the weird disco vibes we sometimes miss in our day and age. The narrative line that holds together to the whole point of this short, points out the gaps and the connections between all sides of the story. It is impressive to see an actual description of how the mind works, how it sometimes holds tiny parts of certain life events and how others are better represented only because we found an inexplicable way to highlight them in our mental storyline. Julie Goldstein’s project really caught our attention, and we are eager to see other projects made in the same distinctive and ingenious way. It is by far one of the most complex experimental shorts we’ve seen lately, made with scattered elements that at first seem to have no connection whatsoever.

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Written by Vlad A.G