You are here:

The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter

Name: The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter
Director: Owen Land
Released: 1968
Duration: 9 min

Representation Score

7.9/10

Good

1968

Director

Owen Land

Runtime

9 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Owen Land’s work functions as a meta-cinematic critique that disrupts the boundary between the real and the constructed. By juxtaposing two-dimensional drawings with real-world objects, the film challenges the viewer's perception of objective reality. The film's strength lies in its intellectual subversion and its refusal to adhere to Western, linear, or institutionalized storytelling modes. It prioritizes a postmodern, experimental approach to truth. However, the work lacks demographic breadth. Because it operates in a realm of pure semiotics and abstraction, it does not provide specific representation for racial, gender, or identity-based narratives.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film's abstract nature avoids direct depictions of romantic orientation. However, its rejection of storytelling structures that assume everyone is straight or cisgender creates a space for non-traditional identity expression.

How does The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter portray gender?

Fair

By avoiding character-driven plots, the film steers clear of traditional gender hierarchies. The focus on grotesque, abstract forms prioritizes surrealism over the reinforcement of masculinity or femininity.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter?

Fair

The animation utilizes non-humanoid drawings that exist outside of human racial categories. This approach avoids stereotyping but fails to explicitly center or celebrate specific ethnic identities.

How does The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The work adopts a highly skeptical, postmodern view of media and perception. It aligns with anti-institutional sentiment by deconstructing the real world and prioritizing subjective truth.

Does The Film That Rises to the Surface of Clarified Butter include disability representation?

Fair

Grotesque characters may suggest non-normative bodily experiences. However, it is unclear if these forms are given real power or used strictly as aesthetic tools.

Present on Screen

The film's philosophical stance offers a progressive, anti-institutional critique of media.
Its rejection of traditional narrative structures avoids reinforcing assumptions about gender and sexuality.
The surrealist approach bypasses traditional gender hierarchies and social realism.

Limited or Absent

The heavy use of abstraction prevents the explicit centering of specific ethnic or cultural identities.
The lack of character arcs makes it difficult to assess the roles of non-normative bodily representations.
The non-narrative format precludes the depiction of specific romantic or gender identities.

Official Synopsis

Two artists create grotesque characters; Two-dimensional drawings which somehow have a life of their own, that exist in the same space as real objects. The film seems to ask, "Isn't every filmmaking venture a series of repeated, once-negative images displayed alongside the real world?"

How are these scores produced? →