Video Début: “A Better Man,” by Green Like July

Olimpia Zagnoli, who illustrated the “Starting Out” sidebars in the current Summer Fiction issue, just directed her first music video, which makes its début here: “A Better Man,” by Green Like July. Zagnoli, like the band, hails from Italy, though the song has more of a classic American-folk sound. Green Like July recorded their latest album, “Four-Legged Fortune,” in Omaha, Nebraska, with guest contributions from local musicians, including members of Bright Eyes.

“A Better Man,” Zagnoli says,

is about the end of a relationship, narrated through a series of short episodes and memories—like lost pictures found in a old drawer. I’m really attracted to that sort of hidden magic that lives behind common objects and everyday life in general. I chose objects that surround me everyday, like brushes, shopping lists, or cups of tea; but also the ones I’m really attached to, like old postcards, love letters, maps of cities I’ve lived in, or my mom’s favorite plant.

But the real stars of the video are the artist’s hands. I couldn’t watch without thinking of Bruno Munari’s “Supplemento al Dizionario Italiano” (1958), which “translated” common Italian hand gestures. (A bilingual edition, “Speak Italian,” appeared in 2005.) We see Olimpia’s hands constantly composing, organizing, drawing, solving, revising—doing everything an illustrator does. “I shot the video trying to follow the same criteria I use when I draw: I always try to keep it very simple and very colorful,” Olimpia says.

Olimpia also made the album art, which likewise evokes folksy Americana: