Dad's Stick

John Smith’s color-steeped DAD’S STICK is a tender portrait of the artist-filmmaker’s late father. It’s built around three paint-coated objects that bespeak the father’s artistic calling. Sensuous close-ups of the objects set against colored backgrounds are overlaid with prominent captions and accompanied by discrete sounds (a spoon stirring, a man whistling) that bring the images to life. (Agnieszka Gratza)