La Jetée: Intense French Science Fiction Film

La Jetée is a French science fiction photo-novel made by Chris Marker in 1962.  It is composed almost entirely of still photos that tell the story of a man who is selected as an ideal subject for time travel experiments conducted by survivors of World War III.  What I like about this piece is that it is real science fiction.  It’s experimental.  It deals with some sort of future.  It’s about humanity and technology.  It’s mysterious.  It’s everything that most so-called science fiction today is not.  Chris Marker has been a filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer and digital multimedia artist for many decades.  He is considered one of the most influential experimental filmmakers in the world.

Travels of Thelonious: Graphic Novel for Young Readers

thelonious2Travels of Thelonious (Fog Mound)

This is a beautiful graphic novel written by Susan Schade and illustrated by Jon Buller for readers 9 – 12 years old. It’s about a post-apocalyptic world in which humans are gone and only exist in legends and in the artifacts of their once-great civilizations. After being swept away by a flood, Thelonious finds himself in a city filled with criminal animals. As he tries to find his way home again he discovers clues about what happened to all the humans.