The Art of Being (2019)

Sundance Film Festival Centerpiece Premiere: Over five years in the making, THE ART oF BE(i)NG is a visual-sonic journey meant to expand one's consciousness and emotional capacity via a story filled with hand crafted art. Ranging from stop motion to animation to graphic manipulation to cinematics, the film aims to engage the more 'subtle' functions of the mind. Thus curating a growth in perception once said story is given enough pondering. And speculation. Loosely following the story of The Little Mermaid's journey 'upwards' in exchange for the loss of her voice, the film features Walt Disney's original animator from the actual film Dave Woodman as well as Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) Mariqueen Reznor (How to Destroy Angels) The Lady Tigra (of 'the cars that go boom' fame) Mayhem Miller (Rupauls Drag race) and others. Where words fail to describe, the 'feelings' and 'sensations' of the film slowly sink into it's viewer in the hopes as the experience flows in front of them, a sort of activation can materialize within. And possibly enable multiple humans to grow upwards in a way that can better the zeitgeist as a whole. At least that is the aspirations of writer/director/editor/artist, JB Ghuman Jr who curated the project. As his second entry into the film festival world, Ghuman is best known for his previous film 'SPORK' that won the Tribeca FF audience award, shortlisted for the Sutherland Award via BFI London FF, best feature award via Miami, S.Korea, Switzerland, Germany among others as well as reached #1 in it's category on Netflix.