This Program of the Worldwide Short Film Festival features a healthy dose of the light, absurd, serious and slightly damaged, under the theme of “What You See Is Not What You Get”
Section 44 (dir. Daniel Wilson)
UK
Out of the blue a man is abducted and placed in a darkened room and interrogated for some unknown crime, which produces a series of random confessions. Essentially a one gag comedy, which because of its short length pulls it off admirably. The punchline is a doozy.
Coagulate (dir. Mihai Grecu)
France
An abstract piece distorting how we view water and liquids. Using hyper-slo, and bullet-time-like photography Grecu exposes us to a series of stunningly pristine beautiful images. Add some unintelligable Thom Yorke lyrics and you have a Radiohead video.
The Last Breath (dir. David Jackson)
UK
What starts out as a comical journey of a father, wife and two young teenage daughters to a quaint British lake to scuba dive soon turns into a nightmare of biblical proportions. Jackson’s smoothly teases us with deadpan comedy then switches gears to action and horror with grace. It’s a tense and dramatic escalation of fear and paranoia directed with great genre-panache.
Pencil Face (dir. Dandy Dwarves)
USA
A Dali/Gilliam-esque metaphysical nightmare about a teenage girl who finds a giant pencil in the playground with an ability to create physical objects from its drawings. This mild one-liner doesn’t even begin to articulate this mind-bending artistic creation. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like this before. A Lynchian soundtrack acts like a monotonous metronome burying a black hole into our brains. A real creeper if there ever was one.
The Hunter and the Bear (dir. Joachim Brandenberg)
Germany
After a revered village hunter dies, in flashback we see the actions of the man in his youth which led to his legendary killing of a polar bear. It’s a unique but not altogether attractive animation piece, unfortunately overloaded with a grand Sigur Ros track (track 7 from their second album) which contains all the drama in the film.
The Refuge (dir. Émile Proulx-Cloutier)
Canada
A French-Canadian tourist breaks the bank to bring a Mexican prostitute to Canada to start a new life. In the style of recent new Quebec filmmakers like Maxime Giroux and Stephane Lafleur, it’s a pedantic pace to this character piece. While the performances and emotions are genuine, in the short form medium which demands punchiness, Refuge may leave audiences worn out and unsatisfied.
Pawnshop (dir. Andrew Bush)
Canada
An awkward young cherub enters a pawnshop looking for an engagement ring only to get the third degree from the nosy owner. “Pawnshop” proudly wears its heart on its sleeve, unfortunately it’s only mildy interesting not quite funny, nor dramatic enough to succeed fully. Though it’s unabashed optimism and sense of goodwill wins over it’s minor failings.
Top Girl (dir. Rebecca Johnson)
UK
A female MC wannabe engages in a sex act to ingratiate herself with a music producer. Though it has the feel of a feature, it’s a fully rendered story with authentic working class brits speaking a form of street English very difficult to decipher. But the peer pressures they experience are the same for everyone – a universal language of youth which is wrapped up with a cool satisfying twist of irony.
The Kinder Sutra (dir. Jessica Yu)
USA
Before sex education I think every kid developed their own theories on where babies come from. Whether’s its a stork, or an oven, or other orafaces in your body, when you say these things out loud its completely ridiculous. Jessica Yu assembles a group of open interview subjects who candidly recall their own childhood theories. Visualized with Kama Sutra-like illustrations and Sex and the City music, it’s a fun cap to this group of intriguing short films.
