There's something very awkward and true about Brett Vapnek's short films, featured on her vimeo page, alongside music videos for musicians like Cat Power, Spoon, Sleater-Kinney, and more. In both Dream Machine and Fan Mail (the later featuring Monitor Mix NPR-blogger Carrie Brownstein, formerly of Sleater Kinney and James Ransone from The Wire), Vapnek's heroines are music-mad introverts in pursuit of their passions. Dream Machine (which won the Grand Marnier award at the New York Film Festival in 2000) is clearly a labor of love, but the striking visuals of Trixie (musician Mary Timony, who fronted Helium in the 90s) at karaoke illustrate, cleanly, how alone she is in the world. Luckily, the movie has other, cuter, donut-eating ideas in store for her.

It's a sweet film. We very much want to see more from Vapnek in the future. We also have a soft spot for two of her videos in particular, Helium's "Honeycomb," which is very Cindy Sherman-esque, and Cat Power's "Nude as the News," which renders Chan Marshall—before her glamour girl Chanel "The Greatest" days—as the star of a 1960s new wave home movie.
 

Cat Power - Nude as the News Music Video from Brett Vapnek on Vimeo.

Dream Machine (2000) from Brett Vapnek on Vimeo.