short film review

Reviews and news about short films, short film festivals, reviews, links and guides to short films online,images from short films,directors,writers,cinemaphotographers. Copyright 2005, 2006 by Allan Maurer. All rights reserved.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Journal of Short Film Releases Vol. 8

The Journal of Short Film releases Volume 8 (Summer 2007)
in July. The JSF is a quarterly DVD featuring exceptional,
peer-reviewed short films. To date, the JSF has published over 80
filmmakers from 10 countries. Volume 8 includes the Journal’s first
films from Romania and Iran.

Volume 8 covers more ground than most previous volumes, walking through
fields in Romania, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899, busing the
streets of San Francisco, and touring a prehistoric site in Mexico.
But before a theme can take hold, the collection of 11 films continues
the Journal’s policy of diversity. Other settings range from urban
Iran to a sheep farm to a morgue to a birthing room full of surprises.

The Journal was pleased to host Chicago-based filmmaker Deborah
Stratman as a guest editor for Volume 8. She is known for her work
through her production company Pythagoras. She was highly praised for
her short work In Order Not To Be Here, and she recently completed
Kings of the Sky, a feature documentary about Muslim Uyghur tightrope
walkers in western China.

The Journal continues to have a free and open submissions process.
Submissions should be sent to The JSF, PO Box 8217, Columbus, OH
43201, USA. The Journal also remains ad-free, committed to independent
and underrepresented work, and insistent that art and entertainment are
not mutually exclusive.

Following is a list of the films in Volume 8:

1. LAMPA CU CACIULA (THE TUBE WITH A HAT) – Radu Jude [Romania] (2006,
23:00) A father and son carry their TV set to the city to have it fixed
before the afternoon movie.

2. THE BOY IN THE AIR – Lyn Elliot (2005,
2:00) An enigmatic advertisement inspires a letter. The corporation
writes back.

3. MANUELLE LABOR – Marie Losier (2007, 10:00) A
collaboration with Guy Maddin leads to a birthing scene unlike any
other.

4. ART/WORK – Avram Dodson (2006, 5:00) A realistic look at
the relationship between the artist and the day job.

5. FLIP-FILM –
Ellen Ugelstad and Alfonso Alvarez (1999, 1:05) A staccato peek at San
Francisco from the inside of a bus. Made in the tradition of Biograph’s
1890 Mutoscope.

6. MARDHA HAMDIGAR RA BEHTAR MIFAHMAND (MEN
UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER) – Marjan Alizadeh [Iran] (2007, 8:00) Two men
and a woman: it seems men understand each other better.

7. UNIFIED
FIELDS – Brandon Walley (2006, 9:00) During a hot summer weekend in the
country with my family, I tried to capture an odd sense of
interconnectedness yet isolation.

8. OUTERBOROUGH – Bill Morrison
(2005, 8:30) A split-screen extrapolation of a film taken while
crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899.

9. NOTHINGNESS – Arzu Ozkal
Telhan (2005, 2:55) Nothingness is about resignation; an unwilling
state of existence under the weight of insatiable humanity. 10.
MARTIN – Bill Basquin (2004, 5:00) Martin is a poetic portrait of a
sheep shearer and his philosophical musings on rural life. 11. TO THE
SOUTH WAS 72 – Sabine Gruffat (2005, 11:00) “A personal guided tour of
the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico.” -Anonymous
For more information:

contact@theJSF.org

UK short Free Speech intrigues at Atomfilms

There's such a wooly wide world of really fine short films available on the Internet, through film festivals, dvds, and mobile media, it's impossible to keep up with all the action.

We just enjoyed a short (five minutes, 13 seconds) little UK film from 2005 on Atomfilms.com called "Free Speech." A husband and wife in a cramped bath fantasize about other lovers, but their imaginary menage-a-trois go wrong.

Both the actor, Danny Dyer, and actress, Jacqueline Oceane (what a great name!) are completely believable in this, restrained despite the emotional intensity, seductively voiced, and do it all sexily without showing any significant amount of flesh, although the language is talk-dirty-to-me vulgar, yet without offense. Until they take offense. Bitta bing. Play hits hangups.

More than 400,000 people have watched this film since it appeared in 2005, 3,000 plus this week.

And really, the only sex in it is verbal.

Skillfully written, acted, and directed. 24 on our 24 frame meter.