{"id":1319248,"date":"2020-04-03T07:58:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T13:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995272"},"modified":"2020-04-03T07:58:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T13:58:44","slug":"aspen-virtual-shortsfest-2020-inside-the-making-of-the-mind-blowing-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/aspen-virtual-shortsfest-2020-inside-the-making-of-the-mind-blowing-bag\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen (virtual) Shortsfest 2020: Inside the making of the mind-blowing \u2018Bag\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"685\" height=\"921\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/Bag.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/Bag.jpg 685w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/Bag-223x300.jpg 223w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 685px) 100vw, 685px\"><figcaption><strong>Artist and filmmaker Robin Frohardt at work on the set of &#8220;Bag.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This is not how Robin Frohardt expected the past few weeks to go.<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado-bred, New York-based artist, puppeteer and filmmaker was due to open a major years-in-the-works public art show in Times Square on March 18 and to toast the world premiere of her short film \u201cBag\u201d here at Aspen Shortsfest this week.<\/p>\n<p>Like most events in the U.S., the exhibition was canceled along with the film premiere at Aspen\u2019s Wheeler Opera House.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cBag\u201d is getting its audience and a digital world premiere. It is screening at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/ones-to-watch-at-the-virtual-2020-aspen-shortsfest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">virtual 2020 Aspen Shortsfest<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>&nbsp;through April 5.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h4>Bag\u2019s journey<\/h4>\n<p>This stunning eight-minute labor of love traces the lifespan of a plastic bag in a stop-motion creation where everything you see on the screen was made from cardboard and glue.<\/p>\n<p>The titular single-use plastic bag goes from recycling bin to garbage truck, trash barge to dump, from seagull to sea, to melting glacier and eventually back to a city now submerged by rising oceans and into a barnacle-pocked underwater subway station.<\/p>\n<p>While the message may be grim, the tactile form is a feast for the eyes with a dose of unexpected humor. Through her intricate cardboard handiwork and lo-fi effects, Frohardt creates some miracles. All of it is hand-made art and puppetry, without a second of animation or digital effects, from the garbage truck rolling down the street to the crashing waves, a bear\u2019s claw reaching across the screen and a close-up of a whale\u2019s eye opening and closing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe eyeball is as big as a human head,\u201d Frohardt explained of the sculpture she made to get that shot, for which she also sculpted two eyelids and moved them from off-screen with string.<\/p>\n<p>Everything that\u2019s moving on the screen Frohardt is moving physically from off-screen. The uncanny underwater effect is from a physical camera lens.<\/p>\n<p>Frohardt made \u201cBag\u201d without a crew \u2014 making, shooting and editing it herself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOccasionally I would drag someone in when I needed an extra pair of hands,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBag\u201d is Frohardt\u2019s second cardboard stop-motion film, following 2013\u2019s \u201cFitzcardboardaldo,\u201d an all-cardboard homage to Werner Herzog\u2019s epic \u201cFitzcarraldo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea came from taking one of the hardest movies to make and making it all out of cardboard,\u201d Frohardt explained. \u201cI really enjoyed the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new film is part of a larger and ongoing project about the forever life of plastic bags.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no dialogue in \u201cBag,\u201d but the mind-blowing visuals are carried along by composer Freddie Price\u2019s original score. It can at once communicate the passage of centuries and the tension of a moment, with a dose of the whimsy to accompany the sometimes playfully rough-hewn cardboard scenery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can just hand him an idea and he just nails it every time,\u201d Frohardt said of Price. \u201cI feel really lucky to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frohardt \u2014 who spent her childhood just over Independence Pass in Leadville, later living in Canon City and attending high school in Colorado Springs \u2014 made \u201cBag\u201d without a script or storyboard. Knowing she wanted to tell the long life story of a plastic bag, she moved sequentially, and over the course of more than two years, created each intricate scene beginning with the New York City trashcan. She\u2019d shoot each scene, edit it, and then figure out where the bag would go next and add a bit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes it\u2019ll take a couple weeks to build something for one shot,\u201d she said. \u201cI definitely don\u2019t get any faster, I just get into the details more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In between, Frohardt was working on a much bigger project: \u201cThe Plastic Bag Store,\u201d an immersive puppetry showing which everything \u2014 thousands of items from toiletries to sushi rolls \u2014 is made of single-use plastic bags. It had been scheduled to open in Times Square, as part of the Times Square Arts program, on March 18. The exhibition has been postponed indefinitely due to the public health restrictions on crowds due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>She also has a narrative play about a person from the future discovering a plastic bag and wildly misinterpreting its significance to the people of the 21st century.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that work and this film, I want people to understand the context of some of the things that we use and the disposability of thing and how there is no \u2018away,\u2019\u201d Frohardt daid. \u201cThe red plastic straw that you stirred your coffee with in 2003 is still somewhere right now, it doesn\u2019t go anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Narrative art, theater and film, Frohardt believes, have a unique ability to effectively make the case for more sustainable lifestyles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to find visually engaging ways to talk about these kinds of environmental issues that can feel overwhelming and depressing,\u201d she explained. \u201cAn image of sea life choking on plastic bags can be really distressing \u2014 you want to look away and swipe past if it comes up in your feed. But If you come up with something visually rich and engaging, it might sink in more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canceling the opening of her big Times Square exhibition was \u201cheartbreaking,\u201d Frohardt said. But she is proud to share \u201cBag\u201d through the virtual Shortsfest. Frohardt is riding out the COVID-19 quarantine period in upstate New York with the tools of her trade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI brought my camera and a bunch of cardboard and hot glue,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I think maybe I\u2019ll start a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:atravers@aspentimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/entertainment\/aspen-virtual-shortsfest-2020-inside-the-making-of-the-mind-blowing-bag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Artist and filmmaker Robin Frohardt at work on the set of &#8220;Bag.&#8221;Courtesy photo This is not how Robin Frohardt expected the past few weeks to go. The Colorado-bred, New York-based artist, puppeteer and filmmaker was due to open a major years-in-the-works public art show in Times Square on March 18 and to toast the world [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-05 05:13:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}