Unedited Footage of a Bear

Footage of a grizzly bear, unedited, with a whispered amateur commentary underneath; only a short commercial for Claridryl™ breaks this short film up.

As the title suggests, this film opens with footage of a bear without any edits. This gives way to a commercial which has a "skip" button in the bottom right that will not work; a young mother with two children sings the praises of the wonderdrug Claridryl™ as it helps her cope with the pressures of the demands on her. As the commercial ends, we continue to stay with the woman as she drives home – a drive that becomes odd to say the least. I will not say too much about the specifics of the short film, because one of the good things about it is that it does get oppressively odd and it helps it work if you do not know even where it is going. It isn't that it has a narrative so much as I just enjoyed how it sneaks up on you.

The film's change is very well done. The commercial aspect is totally convincing in its bright colors, cheesy acting, and on- screen text. This settles down a little in terms of color and tone, and at the same time the commercial voice fades onto the car radio in a way that I really enjoyed as a segue from one to the other. Even more impressive though is how well the lead actress Donelli also does this with her face, gradually going from the big smile and insincere joy, down to something more real, then further down from there. Her performance makes a lot of the film work as well as it does – well, both of "hers" since the role is played by twin sisters. Both are excellent in all scenes and convince no matter what emotion or state they are playing. This sense of realism in their performance is what makes the film genuinely unsettling and chilling.

That it sneaks up on the viewer is also what hits hard; the oddity, the sense of weirdness, then suddenly something terrible and relentless. The second half of the film is a little weaker than the first but it still works very well as it piles into the world it has made. It worked very well on me, watching it on a small screen with the sun outside the window – Lord knows what it must have done to people who actually watched it at the original 4am broadcast.

Is this a commentary? Just one big joke? An exercise in Dadaist absurdity? Is there some hidden meaning that multiple viewings and finely tuned analyses will uncover?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and without clear expression otherwise, so is intent. But this much is certain: Even for a format where creators frequently challenge all convention of narrative storytelling and cinematic artistry, this short is an oddity.

Not knowing anything of 'Unedited footage of a bear' ahead of time, I was quite prepared to watch, well, 10 minutes of unedited footage of a bear. Imagine my surprise.

The plot, such as it is - conveyed with a singular tiny thread consistently running throughout the length - certainly keeps our attention. It's riveting, even if the exact course of events is a little unclear. The short is very well made, and I get a sense that whatever the filmmakers' concept was, they held the notion very clearly in their minds and approached the production with unwavering resolve. Not one shot, moment, or scene seems out of place, ill-considered, or given less than 100% of all involved: If I had to guess, the final cut completely matches the original idea, beat for beat. True, this may be partly because of the dark, absolutely whimsical nature that prevents us from genuinely guessing at the writers' vision - but bizarrerie in and of itself, no matter how incomprehensible, doesn't preclude quality of craftmanship, nor one's ability to appreciate it.

Is this review making sense? Should it, under the circumstances? Let they who have understanding transcribe a few words on a peculiar film shrouded in the mystery of an innocuous title without spoiling it, and without also adopting the very eccentricity they hope to evaluate.

Fun, ridiculous, wild, well-made, offbeat. I can't imagine 'Unedited footage of a bear' has a particularly large audience, but for those who dare to give this a try: Welcome.

I mean seriously, this is "Unedited Footage of a Bear", so do we really have to talk about it? I could say a lot of great things about this movie, like how it is unedited, for example. Also one can and should not ignore the fact that this film is real footage. And of course, lastly, it is a movie about a bear; what's not to love? First off, they are brown (mostly) and also they are wild animals. It's really cool to see one (bear) out in the wild, just going about its day. Viewers immediately ask: will the bear be like me some how? Answer: no (it's a bear, duh) but also, bears are cool on their own, they don't need to be like us. In conclusion, watch this piece of cinematic history and enjoy the fact that you're not a bear, because you're "human" or don't, because bears are awesome.

"Horrifyingly abstract" completely describes the entire short. It's approximately 10 minutes long with a bear! Roll credits! No, I'm joking of course. This is adult swim, you wouldn't expect real footage of a bear in a short titled as such. No, it's about 30 seconds of unedited footage of a bear! Then it cuts to an infomercial. This infomercial goes on for a minute, and then follows Donna, who is a likely anxiety-filled, schizophrenic woman. She drives with a horrified look, checking around her, and the next 6 or 7 minutes follow pure dread. She stops, finds a strange clone, and is assaulted by said clone with no dialogue stated. I won't spoil this masterpiece, stop reading this and start watching this!

This short is absolutely incredible, but let me explain myself.

I discovered this thanks to a french YouTuber who analyzed this short in depths and invited people beforehand to watch it for themselves, which is what I did. And oh boy was my first viewing experience unsettling. Like this short was really me being utterly confused and semi-terrified as to what was going on onscreen. But I was mostly confused as to what just happened, I felt like random scenes were put against each other with no real meaning. What an utter fool I was thinking that.

The analysis of this short made me realize one thing: every single detail, object, background... Everything was calculated and put there for a specific reason. Nothing was there randomly. And oh boy with every element there was, it is pretty hard to understand what's going on. But when everything is coming together, you can fully understand how genius all of this is.

I won't explain much since it would ruin the whole point of watching this for yourself, which you should definitely do because it is quite the experience. While I got help in understanding all of this from the video of the YouTuber I've mentioned earlier, I got some parts together myself and it felt quite good aha. This short is a critic of something that is not quite mentioned or talked about in artistic projects, which is the medication and health system in the US, as well as addiction problems.

The rabbit hole goes so far down there is (or was, I don't think it exist anymore) a hidden website with some sort of exploring map of a house (house that is the main location of the short) that kinda remind us of Google Maps or point and click games from the 90s. Either way, the whole "lore" around Unedited Footage of a Bear, and all the details you begin to understand as time goes on make the whole experience really worth it. The only reason it's not a 10/10 is simply because not everybody has the time and will to do all of this research and exploring for simply one short, yet I'd still recommend doing so or just watching the short. It's simply terrifying aha.

Overall, absolutely incredible. I wish to see more infomercials like this in the future!