Ikebana (2021) dir. Lily Jue Sheng & Rita Ferrando

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You can learn almost any craft or hobby from a video the Internet. You can see demonstrations of knitting techniques, you can learn decoupage, you can find hundreds of opinions on the proper way to bait a fish hook. How-to videos are their vast own category, one that any amateur home DIY-er (raises hand) will become very familiar with.

You may not exactly learn how to perform the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement from “Ikebana,” but you’ll learn what separates it from sticking plants in a vase. This short is part craft explainer, part verité documentary, and part impressionist experiment. Like ikebana, all these forms are tied together by its central focus, the arrangement itself.  “The original impression does not mean a shape or a form or the real entity, but rather an ideal image of the plant including a history of its life,” the narration informs us, before the short’s trappiest sequence that conveys the sensation of observing that impression.

Editing is sometimes likened to collage, though from what I’ve learned about the artform from this short, I wonder if ikebana wouldn’t be a fuller point of comparison. One can appreciated the overlap in ikebana and documentary filmmaking – the arrangement of elements to inform the intellect and to entertain the eye, relying on a knowledge of the history inherent in the visuals with consideration to their immediate appeal. “Ikebana,” the short, is an enjoyable arrangement appreciable for the reasoning behind its formal choices, or simply as a beautiful object for its own sake.