Short Film: Michael Landy’s Acts of Kindness and others shorts by artists and filmmakers

Random Acts is Channel Four’s series of specially commissioned short art films which have been screened on the channel since the autumn of 2011, and which will continue to be shown, every week night, until this autumn. Alternatively, you can catch them on the Random Acts website, which is where we watch them. All the films are about 3 minutes long and the film makers range from well known artists (Wolfgang Tillmans, Kutlug Ataman, David Shrigley) and performers (Ballet Boyz, Kate Tempest) to, yes, jellymongers (Bompass and Parr, natch). We’re particularly taken by the three films (so far) by artist Michael Landy, made after Landy invited tube travellers to share any good deeds they had experienced or witnessed on the Underground for his Acts of Kindness series, a commission by Art on the Underground. The films, also called Acts of Kindness, are beautifully animated and genuinely uplifting – especially cheering if you’re about to jump on the Tube yourself. It’s not all bad, it turns out.