There Is, There is Not
2026 · 3m
Directed by Vincent Parkes
Genres: animation, essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, surreal
A traditionally animated investigation of thinking around Being and consciousness, inviting a different mode of thought.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A three-minute philosophy lecture wrapped in animation isn't subversive—it's what every art school kid thinks is experimental. Unless Parkes does something genuinely weird with the form itself, this is just a gussied-up TED talk, and I'm not biting.
Parkes situates himself in a lineage of essayistic animation and phenomenological inquiry that traces back through Caroly Leaf and Špelina; the restraint to let traditional animation carry metaphysical weight, rather than overwhelm it, shows real curatorial maturity.
The decision to use animation—not as flourish but as the *only* way to visualize the gap between Being and non-Being—is the hinge; a live-action version would collapse into pretension, but here the handmade image becomes the argument itself.