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REVIEW of the Edinburgh Future Shorts film festival
25th June 2010
Location: Roxy Art House 2 Roxburgh Place, Southside, EDINBURGH, EH8 9SU, United Kingdom formerly Lady Glenorchy's Parish Church Telephone: United Kingdom: (0131) 629 0039 International: 0044-131-629 0039 email: info@roxyarthouse.org Viewpoint: unpaid guest reviewer |
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Cinema Attic
Melanie Sangwine Roxy Art House Future Shorts |
On Friday 25th June 2010 Cinema Attic, Edinburgh, and Future Shorts, London, arranged their monthly evening of short films and pop corn and a raffle offering prizes of a meal for two at the Caley Sample Rooms and free membership of the Alphabet Video Library. The organisers were Carlos Redondo of Cinema Attic and Melanie Sangwine Edinburgh representative of Future Shorts. |
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Alphabet Video Caley Sample Rooms www.bastiendubois.com Madagascar 15 Malaysia Suleiman Brothers Rojak! Mustard Films makingheartstrings.blogspot wikipedia Heartstrings My Community Newport British Animation Award Kinorama Dalibor Matanic Vimeo - M.I.A. Video Vimeo - Romain Gavras Soixan7e Quin5e Hype Beast: M.I.A. Born Free Pitch Fork: M.I.A. Born Free 
Comment
The short film format is the most neglected and under-represented of all the art forms. Short films provide a unique vehicle for expressing ideas and visual styles; it is a terrible mistake to imagine that a "short film" is "a-feature-without-a-budget" for it is a form of creative art in its own right. The Internet has opened up new opportunities for short film makers and audiences. What is needed is a website that allows small cinemas such as those found in art galleries, pubs and private venues to compile a programme of projection-quality short films. Does such a site already exist? If you know of one, or have ideas of your own, please click the blue tab, 'Add Your Idea' and submit a comment. No sign-up or email address necessary. Radio Home Gallery |
The Programme 1) Madagascar Carnet de Voyage by Bastien Dubois www.bastiendubois.com A visually striking cartoon with impressive 3-D-like effects, highly stylized with realistic, taken-from-life movement. Bastien's animation blends different styles into a coherent whole with a kaleidoscopic effect. The use of depth is particularly effective, taking the viewer into the landscape as well as straight through solid objects. An idea of the style and tone of the film can be seen on his imaginatively designed website though you will need to have a suitable browser with the right plug-ins: Madagascar 2) Rojak! by Suleiman Brothers Released: 16 Sep 2009 "Curry makes the world cooler" an entertaining film on the subject of Rojak the local Malaysian curry. Never mind protest riots, never mind the state of the world, settle down with a good plate of Rojak and all becomes well. A clever piece of cartoon animation. www.15malaysia.com QfW (Quote from Website) : "15Malaysia is a short film project. It consists of 15 short films made by 15 Malaysian filmmakers. These films not only deal with socio-political issues in Malaysia, they also feature some of the best-known faces in the country, including actors, musicians and top political leaders. You may think of them as funky little films made by 15 Malaysian voices for the people of Malaysia." Half a million downloads and still counting. The website is well worth a visit: 15malaysia.com: suleiman-brothers QfW: "Jordan and Mussadique Suleiman are a creative partnership that speicalizes in hand drawn animation, 3D and 2D motion graphics, video compositing as well as image processing." Rojak! QfW: "Synopsis: A Rojak seller’s take on Malaysia’s multi-faceted social political tapestry. Made entirely with CGI special effects. Visually stunning." 3) Bitch! dir: Dom Bridges, UK, Mustard Films Review Contains Spoiler: - to ignore it, please click on the video A joke on screen, simple but well done. While her shopping is being rung up, Big Mama 'adopts' her long lost son's look-a-like at the checkout, except he doesn't look alike at all. The obliging young fellow agrees to humour her by waving to her and calling out, 'bye bye Mum' as she leaves with her bulging shopping bags. All very cute, sweet and sentimental until the mark hands over a pound for his tin of tuna and the checkout girl presents him with a bill of £247 for Big Mama's shopping. His protests fall on deaf ears, after all, everyone heard him call her, 'Mum.' 4) Heartstrings Rhiannon Evans & Gareth Bonello from the University of Wales, UK. Award winner. Two white teddies with only eyes to distinguish them enact a romance with no more than a red thread each. Clever animation, evocative and expressive. Links: makingheartstrings.blogspot wikipedia Heartstrings My Community Newport British Animation Award 5) Tulum (Party) 2009 15 mins dir Dalibor Matanic Brussels Short Film Festival Grand Prix winner May 2010. Review Party goers frolic by a lake, a girl falls asleep. She is woken by a leaves sweeper who tells her she cannot sleep here. As she sits up she sees she is beside a graveyard, her friends are dead and buried. She returns home and again listens to her grandmother as she repeats the same old story of the bearded man with unpleasant intentions. The film has a poetic as well as a surreal atmosphere, evocative as well as provocative. Made by the Zagreb-based production company Kinorama. QfW: "A dark side of innocence. Second film from omnibus of six short films dealing with intimacy of the six girls in six different parts of the planet on the same day. Party is set in a sunny, bright summer day in Vukovar. It is almost impossible to believe that the brightness and joy can be easily interrupted, enjoying and living a day like that." Director's website: Dalibor Matanic 6) M.I.A. "Born Free" directed by Ricky Gavras. Armed American riot police break into tenement flats and arrest a young redheaded man. He is taken away in a secure bus full of other young red heads and driven out to the desert. The vehicles are attacked ineffectually by a group of young redheads. A dramatic and violent video to accompany the well-matched music of M.I.A. Those who saw the film for a second time remarked how it still retained its dramatic impact. QfW: "British singer M.I.A. enlisted the talents of Romain Gavras for the video of her comeback-single "Born Again". The French director created a nine minute-clip filled with explicit, violent, graphic, politically-charged images that come in accordance with the dub-heavy single. M.I.A.’s still-untitled album is scheduled to drop June 29 via N.E.E.T./Interscope." Film: Vimeo Director: Vimeo Production Company: Soixan7e Quin5e Other links: Hype Beast Pitch Fork
End of reviews
For more evenings of short films please keep an eye on the Roxy Art House and the Future Shorts websites. enquiries: edinburgh@futureshorts.com Venue: www.roxyarthouse.org Please note that this reviewer has no personal connections with any of the films or film makers featured here.
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