There is so little of genuine worth to be found while idly and endlessly scrolling through the internet. At least, that's been my personal experience over the last several years. The subreddit r/mildlyinteresting, which I dutifully follow, more or less sums up how I feel about the majority of what I see daily. That's not to say it's all a desert wasteland of ignorable dreck; in fact, I come across at least one thing every day that holds my attention and commands my finger to click/tap/swipe into it. It's always a little disappointing when I know my internet high point of the day ends up happening while I'm sitting on the toilet at 9:15 AM instead of in some other location of the house at some arbitrarily more important and glamourous time of day.
60 Second Docs has been that high point of culture for me more than once. Having followed them on Twitter at some point awhile ago, I'm drawn to their format of a highly concentrated needle of storytelling injected into my feed. As the name suggests, the videos cover a person with a talent, project, and/or passion in around a minute, usually a few seconds more. The videos are well-produced with captions so they can be watched wherever.
Format aside, the stories these short documentaries share are always well worth the minute they take to tell. From a 15-year-old karate instructor teaching the elderly to kick and punch to a pet masseuse who cares deeply about making animals feel good, there's never a dearth of quality subject matter in these videos. They also don't stick to exclusively English-speaking stories and regularly feature people from around the world. I'm particularly drawn to the artists who use unorthodox methods and materials to create.
More importantly, it’s feel-good content that isn't full of superficial fluff. It's been said many times before, but the amount of bummer material to be found online makes the web a difficult place to spend your time if you're not wary of where you are. 60 Second Docs is an excellent place to stop regardless of what your mood is that day.
If you have about seven minutes, take a look at these 60 Second Docs below. They are among my favorites for various reasons.
Marcello Barenghi, analog artist who specializes in hyper-realistic 3D art.
2. Mounou Désiré Koffi, an artist who disassembles old cell phones and uses the parts to create works of art
3. Anna Chojnicka, an artist who bruises intricate designs into bananas before eating them.
4. James Cook, an aspiring architect who uses the restrictive medium of a typewriter to make incredible portraits.
5. Anne, who makes enormous knitted sculptures meant to provide multi-sensory enjoyment for all ages.
6. Michael Reynolds, a man from New Mexico who built an amazing fully sustainable house that doesn’t rely on corporations to provide him electricity, water, or food.
7. Alejandro Pantin, an artist who delicately carves old, dusty books into magical 3D sculptures.
Those aren’t even all the best ones, either. Check out the others and let me know if you have a favorite.
For more, visit 60secdocs.com, and their YouTube channel.