A wonderful way to view the art and science of origami. To watch and listen to both the creative and scientific discussions around the idea of a “fold” was delightful. Whether watching the medium being transformed, to illustrate complex mathematics, showcases real-world applications in space and the potential for designing drugs that intelligently attack disease while protecting the host is both mind-bending and entertaining. Dirk Spencer, Creator of Resume Psychology, Corporate Recruiter.

When this 55-minute documentary – which played on PBS – begins you are amazed at how intricate practitioners of Origami (Japanese art of paper folding) are. You see one single piece of paper (though it could be five feet in length) become a lizard or a violist or a beautiful multi-colored abstract sculpture. (They use special colored paper to create the latter). Origami requires that the artist use a single sheet, no cutting and no pasting. )> The word “Amazing” pops into your head. How o they do this? (Answer: hours and hors of folding and a mind that sees the result long before they start.) The high-definition quality of the original film and its DVD transfer will bring out these astoundingly beautiful images on practically any TV set.

But about half way through the film – when writer, producer and director Vanessa Gould has you mesmerized – we move from the artists to the “mathematicians” who use the paper folding to solve long time mathematical questions and teach students in elementary schools about math through origami. You’ll meet the father and son geniuses (the younger becoming a professor at MIT at age 20!) that are using it to help scientists examinethe forms of human body cells and DNA. As the son says, “we may even, someday, find a cure for AIDS”. Then there is the teacher who has integrated origami into the math curriculum in all the elementary schools in Israel and the results of test show that it improves the students’ scores.

This film won many festival awards and deservedly so.

The DVD includes a collection of “deleted scenes” (my favorite is the genius son who says he does this only because it has to be fun) as well as a six-minute short film (also by Gould) about the Israeli school program.

Whether you appreciate art or science or just want to be fascinated for an hour, this is film that I can highly recommend!

Steve Ramm

“Anything Phonographic”

This is the most wonderful kind of documentary showing an art form that has become integrated into mathematical and scientific applications. Models of discovery originating with origami have been used in space, in automobile airbags and beyond. Since proteins fold causing diseases like Alzheimer’s can medicine cause the proteins to unfold and so cure the disease? The film maker showed the history of origami from an early Japanese practitioner who was the first to use wet folding. His figures look like they are about to breathe they seem so alive. She shows a convention of young people from around the world who are competing with one example of a dragon folded from one sheet of paper with complicated scales. Imagine all the bugs in the universe folded magically before you with all the right number of legs to be anatomically correct…every year the invention with origami gets more complex and more amazing. In the 70′s maybe 60 to 80 folds would complete one form. Now maybe 120 to 150 steps are required. And in the future? Over a thousand. She showed the most intricate realistic shapes and then abstract origami. Wow! And its all over the world. She found practitioners in France and Israel all working in very different ways. This documentary would be perfect for use in classrooms to encourage observing, envisioning, innovating and inventing.