This 1977 animation uses glass beads to tell the story of life and death

Ishu Patel's 1977 animated film, "The Bead Game," uses thousands of colored beads as pixels to show animals eating each other, giving birth, fighting, and evolving.

From The National Film Board of Canada:

In this fascinating, innovative exercise in animation, thousands of beads are arranged and manipulated, assuming shapes of creatures both mythical and real. They continually devour, merge, and absorb one another in explosions of color. The theme is one of aggression and inevitability, but any conclusion is left to the viewer.

See also: Using colored beads to remind yourself that you will die soon

[via Aeon]