Between the Folds

One enters Between the Folds thinking this is about origami. By the end of it, I realized the implications of paper folding are much richer and more complex than I am able to grasp. The film takes one on an aesthetic trip, a mind trip, a math trip and ends up showing how this (seemingly) simple act can affect/explain/develop/interpret an almost endless set of understandings about our world. It deserves to be shown in every school from 3rd grad through grad school, and if anyone wondered about the intersection of art and science, they will find here. Entertaining, amazing, extremely well executed, one has to be asleep not to be moved and motivated to want this to be minimally on TED and let it spread virally.

Vanessa Gould has done the world a tremendous service by producing a documentary that is breathtaking. Between the folds not only demonstrates the wizardry of great masters of origami, it connects science and art in a way that connects heart with soul. The practical uses of origami, driven by the elegance of the underlying mathematics, are astounding. The contributions of the late Yoshizawa-san on origami have been phenomenal, but those of Dr. Robert Lang, Michael LaFosse, Vincent Floderer and all the others in the film are no less so. The genius in each of these artists is visible in their passion, their creativity, their dedication and their pride. Origami is truly therapeutic. As Dr. Demaine says, it is fun. Thanks to Vanessa and her gorgeous project, we can all enjoy the grandeur of this art form.

There are two creative wonders working here -- the incredible range of artists, scientists and people with vision from all over who have made origami a passion, an art, and a way into understanding their place in the world. The other creative wonder is the film itself, which takes us on a journey from a square of paper to the inside of the minds of creative artists. The film is, in some ways, a work of origami too, for it's folded into different sections, and the whole is even greater than the sum of its parts. If you can catch it at a film festival, don't miss it. And I'm sure this film, by a talented first-time filmmaker, will end up in other venues, win awards, and hopefully someday be available on DVD.

This Independent Lens documentary stays focused on origami however, it is much more a documentary on interdisciplinary art. What is more interesting is what makes origami art can be applied to just about any art or discipline.

The one big plus about this documentary is that it is not a collage of meaningless soundbites. We can almost use this as a training film or at least a professional class.

We start out with the kitsch factor of origami then go through the different forms of origami. Then we get to meet the man that really changed the concept of origami Akira Yoshizawa. From there we learn that there can be more than meets the eye with the mathematical application of origami and the origami application on geometry. We apply origami to potentially all forms of science. Then we even apply it to practical applications as the folding of airbags for automobiles.

Now let us slow down and see that the individual artists and engineers presenting this program also are presenting the evolution of how people become experts in their field. We see that everything starts out (concise or otherwise) as a series of simple skills and progress into complexity. We try to imitate reality. Later we realize that am imitation is just that and drop the effort to imitate in place of capturing its essence. You see this in artists and writers that appear to have gone off the deep end. It also applies to practicality when we stop making robots look like people and instead capture the functions needed.

If we do not take the time to contemplate the impact of origami on the world, the documentary is just fun to see what you can make or maybe purchase in the world.

I would really have liked to see an expanded documentary on papermaking.

Dr. Erik D. Demaine ... Computational origamist and theorist Martin L. Demaine ... Computational origamist and theorist Vincent Federer ... French paper artist Miri Golan ... Origami artist and teacher Vanessa Gould ... Narrator Dr. Tom Hull ... Origami artist and mathematician Paul Jackson ... Origami artist Eric Joisel ... Origami artist Michael LaFosse ... Origami artist Dr. Robert J. Lang ... Origami artist, scientist, and theorist Christopher K. Palmer ... Material artist Richard L. Alexander ... Papermaker Brian Chan ... Origami artist Satoshi Kamiya ... Origami Sam Nathans ... Origami artist Bernard Peyton ... Bear biologist and origami artist Jonathan Schneider ... Origami artist/Mathematician Akira Yoshizawa ... Origami artist (archive footage)

Good film about the different approaches to the ancient yet 'cutting-edge' art of paper folding, circa 2008. Loved it. But some criticisms--1. too many extreme closeups of the faces of the folders--you start looking at their noses or eyelids instead of listening to them. 2. No step=by-step demonstration of folding any one origami figure or work from beginning to completion--this would be helpful and fun to people who don't already know much about paper folding--to see what it's about. 3. The film's 2008 production date places it before another parallel technology that has blossomed since then--3-D printing. There is much in this film about computers and the math and theory behind origami--but 3-D printing and the related computer software and hardware has taken a different approach to some of the same things.