Wholphin (DVD magazine)

Wholphin was a quarterly DVD magazine containing a selection of short films which had little or no exposure elsewhere.[1] The magazine was created by Dave Eggers and Brent Hoff of McSweeney's publishing house. It was named after the marine animal of the same name, a rare hybrid of a false killer whale and a dolphin, which highlights its unusual nature.[2]

Eggers and Hoff claim they were inspired to create it after the Cannes Film Festival, which is one of very few places at which many of these short films can ever be seen. Short films and documentaries have limited exposure to the general public because, in the words of Hoff, "they're too short to show on TV, and they don't play in theaters because they'd rather show some great trivia about Adam Sandler."

The first issue of Wholphin was released in December 2005, containing among others a documentary by Spike Jonze about Al Gore, by David O. Russell on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, films by Miguel Arteta and Miranda July, David Byrne and Selma Blair, Turkish sitcoms and Iranian animation.[2] Issue 15, the last Wholphin, was published February 2012.

Issues 2, 3, and 4 each came with a bonus DVD of the three parts of the documentary The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis. The magazine did not include any advertisement.[1]

The following films were published by Wholphin:

Issue 1: Al Gore Documentary by Spike Jonze; Soldier's Pay (documentary) by David O. Russell; Death of a Hen (animated) by Brian Dewan; Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? by Miranda July; The Writer (animated) by Carson Mell; The Writer by J. Lisa Chang & Newton Thomas Seigel; The House in the Middle by National Clean Up, Paint Up, Fix Up Bureau; The Delicious by Scott Pendergast; Malek Khorshid by Ali Akbar Sadeghi; Tatli Hayat ("The Sweet Life" aka "The Turkish Jeffersons") (sitcom, English subtitles provided by Jack Pendarvis, Rodney Rothman, Brian Reich, and A.G. Pasquella; Stairway at St. Paul by Jeroen Offerman; The Great Escape by Jeroen Offerman; Issue 1: Copyright 2005

Issue 2: The Movie Movie (An Excerpt) (Documentary, featuring Donald Trump) by Errol Morris; Building No. 7 by Steven Soderbergh; The Pity Card (unaired TV pilot featuring Zach Galifinakis by Bob Odenkirk; American Storage (Comedic Short with Martin Starr) by Andrew Jay Cohen; Home, James, and Don't Spare the Horses by John Dolan; More (Animated short) by Mark Osborne; Sour Death Balls by Jessica Yu; The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (Animated short) by Anthony Lucas; The Mesmerist (recovered film featuring Boris Karloff) by Bill Morrison; Oksuma Wa Majo (Bewitched) (Japanese sitcom, resubtitled by Daniel Handler, Dan Kennedy, Rich Blomquist, Scott Jacobson, and Jason Reich; How to Poke Pole a Monkey-Faced Eel (Instructional Video)

Issue 3: The Russian Suicide Chair (Explosive Performance Art) by Dennis Hopper; The Passion of Martin by Alexander Payne; A Stranger in Her Own City (Documentary) by Khadija Al-Salami; A Bee and a Cigarette by Bob Odenkirk; Never Like the First Time by Jonas Odell; Kitchen by Alice Winocour; Ballistic Jaw Propulsion of Trap-Jaw Ants (Scientific discovery); "Yeah Yeah, We Speak English. Just Serve." by Wholphin; Flotsam/Jetsam by David Zellner & Nathan Zellner; Tactical Advantage by Daren Rabinovitch Bobby Bird by Carson Mell