Themes of Aggression Are Explored Through Animated Adversaries Made From Beads in a 1977 Short Film

In the in 1977 animated short “Bead Game” by Ishu Patel, re-released by the National Film Board of Canada, brightly colored beads take on the shape of classic adversaries in games of power. Every scenario shows the inevitability of both victory and loss, each growing larger until the stakes grow so high that it’s hard to discern between the two.

In this fascinating, innovative exercise in animation, thousands of beads are arranged and manipulated, assuming shapes of creatures both mythical and real. They continually devour, merge, and absorb one another in explosions of color.

via Boing Boing