Humanexus wins four more awards at three film festivals

Humanexus has done it again.

The film just received four more awards in a single weekend at three different film festivals around the country. They include Best Short Animation at the Albany FilmFest in Albany, CA, Best Animated Short at the Richmond International Film Festival in Richmond, VA, and the Documentary Shorts Award and Best Director Award at the Macon Film Festival in Macon, GA.

Ying-Fang Shen’s animated film depicts the ever-accelerating spread of information and communication over the course of human history. It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the film itself has been caught up in a similar momentum, with buzz about Humanexus and recognition for Shen building rapidly over the past year. Click here to see the film's full list of accolades.

Humanexus: Knowledge and Communication Through the Ages is the product of a close collaboration between Shen and Indiana University professor Katy Börner, an expert in the theory and practice of data mining and information visualization who suggested the initial story and provided guidance and resources along the way. Viewers of Humanexus will be struck by the evocative relationship between Shen’s visuals and the rich aural landscape created by composer and sound designer Norbert Herber, a senior lecturer in Indiana University’s Department of Telecommunications. The result of their efforts tracks the evolution of human communication from cave scrawls to Twitter feeds. And while the film captures the giddy exhilaration of discovery and creation, it also strikes darker notes as it imagines the crucial point at which humanity finds itself, a decisive moment that pivots between a path of continued creativity and innovation and one of information overload and message breakdown.

Ultimately, Humanexus argues that the question of “What kind of future do we want?” is one that each of us has the power to address. To begin engaging with the issues raised by this provocative and visually striking work, watch the trailer. You can also learn more about the production by visiting the film’s official website.