The Enchanted Forest

Three short films, all on the subject of smartphones and wireless connectivity in culture and society, will debut today as the New Yorker Festival gets under way. The shorts will be posted on YouTube and promoted on the magazine’s website and social channels in coming weeks. (See below for full video.)

Each film is based on a smartphone-related cover of the magazine. They were produced by TNY Studio, the magazine’s business-side production outfit, along with Condé Nast Entertainment.

In the first film, emerging sci-fi/fantasy filmmaker Emily Carmichael uses hand-drawn animation for The Enchanted Forest, in which the heroine wields her smartphone against enemies both real and imagined. The second film, Screen Time, is by Peter Huang, who has made the festival rounds with 5 Films About Technology. It looks at the role of technology in our lives through the experience of a modern suburban family. In the last film, City Symphony, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning British documentarian Lucy Walker visits a pool on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and portrays the community hub it offers to all walks of life over the arc of a day.