The Cube by Jim Henson

Jim Henson - the Muppets creator - was also an experimental filmmaker. The Cube has all the elements of strong storytelling. It was innovative and unconventional in the sense that the entire story takes place in the confines of a cube lined with square white tiles and it explores concepts that probably go over most viewers heads. Henson made this movie in 1969 in just five days. It’s about one hour long. It was recorded in color, but this black and white version with cleaned up video and audio (remastered by Michael Biggins) is a much better viewing experience. Video recording technology of the 1960’s was quite crude compared to today’s technology.

The protagonist, played by actor Richard Schaal, is trapped in a white cube - unable to escape. We never learn his name. The Man in the Cube is visited by a non-stop menagerie of characters who enter and exit the cube through various hidden doors. Several themes psychological and philosophical themes are explored in this quirky teleplay. Henson and his collaborator, Jerry Juhl, also break the “fourth wall” in this production mocking the medium of television.

This was the kind of filmmaking I enjoyed doing when I was a teenager. I used Super 8mm film and an old, heavy 1” Ampex video recorder and camera to create “art-in-motion.” I admit it was not very accessible and most people who watched what I produced politely said (with their eyebrows twitching), “that’s very interesting.” It was self-indulgent no doubt. One of my high-school teachers who had the courage to speak up told me that if I wanted my art to be admired by an audience, it would have to tell a good story that they could understand. While his counsel stung, I knew deep down he was right. It would shape the way I produced video, films, art, writing, and public speaking going forward. However, I never stopped experimenting. I just kept those experiments personal - hidden in my sketchbooks, notebooks, film reels, and digital files deeply buried on my hard drives. I learned from these experiments.

So, keep on experimenting. Jim Henson reveled in experimenting – hence, The Cube. But, Henson also became a very accessible storyteller and performer with The Muppets. There’s room for both.