Short Film Reviews
With technology rapidly advancing as the solution to even the most basic human tasks, director Ariel Martin’s sci-fi short The iMom takes “what if” to a chillingly stark place. Modern Parenting Set in a not-too-distant future, robotics has evolved to the point of public consumption. Realistic in both appearance and reaction, the affordable iMom (Matilda Brown) is the latest innovation in aiding new parents with the daunting task of child rearing.
Long maligned no matter the medium, the short film is often seen merely as a launching pad for bigger and better things. However, for documentarians, the short is almost the primary form, as it takes a lot of time, funding and quality footage to come up with a feature-length documentary worthy of release. Thus, for documentary, the short is the rule rather than the exception, and the field is stacked with quality, potent films, more or less unhampered by typical commercial expectations.
Watch Our Lad here. Our Lad, brought lovingly to life by director Rachna Suri, is a compelling insight into a British Muslim community and the conflict between two brothers. The short film stars Shazad Latif (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as a young Muslim soldier returning from Afghanistan to an antagonistic brother and community.
Fingers, the Indiegogo-funded short film from writer/director Alex Marx and producer Savannah James-Bayly, is a slick and stylish crime drama that blends Biblical themes with 1960s London glam. From the filmmakers’ own mouths: Fingers is a short crime drama based on the Biblical story of Salome and the martyrship of John the Baptist, reimagined in the murky underworld of a 1960s nightclub in London’s East End.
In this darkly comic short film, director Jackson Mullane explores the age-old question of ‘would you live your life differently if you knew you had two weeks to live?’ Red Nuts features Kevin MacIsaac as Sam, a thirty-something ginger-headed nobody watching helplessly from a rut in his life as his marriage falls apart. But when he is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he embarks on a night of debauchery and anarchy, sticking his middle finger up at the rules and living his life to the full.
Written and directed by Simeon Duncombe and starring Jack Fagan, Trick Meter is an action packed four-minute adventure into another (quite nightmarish) dimension. It tells the story of a young skateboarding enthusiast who quickly finds himself in a deadly game of survival. With only three minutes on the clock, does he have the skills to make it back to reality?
Design studio Art & Graft have injected a welcome sense of humour into 1150 Canyon Road, a dark and stylish crime animation. The London-based animation team, led by creative director Mike Moloney, have done a stunning job of throwing together a narrative and several brilliant characters in just two and a half minutes and a single shot. Combining the paranoid, ’80s crime caper themes of L.
“A Cajun devil hunter goes to the crossroads and meets the devil’s attorney”. The compelling summary of Chasseur had me hooked before I even started watching, let alone the mesmerising central performance from the film’s writer and director, Christopher Soren Kelly. An unconventional structure, perhaps, but a successful one.
Terrance is a documentary short made by Joris Debeij and forms part of a series of films (I Am Los Angeles) that focus on the stories of people who live in Los Angeles. Terrance documents the life of the young black teenager, Terrance Thompson, his losses, and his resulting depression. All things going to plan, Terrance Thompson will have graduated high school by the time you read this review.
Five Minutes is an interactive short horror film set in a future where the world is overrun with zombies. After being infected, dad John knows he only has five minutes before he turns. But he is loathe to leave his daughter, Mia.
Chicagoland Shorts is a new series of films curated by Eugene Sun Park and Kayla Ginsburg (with the aid of Beckie Stocchetti). The series pulls together an eclectic mix of shorts all made by Chicago-based filmmakers. The films range from original narratives to real stories, from animations to found footage pieces (those made using pre-existing film or photographs).
Hereafter is a short supernatural film written and directed by Johnny Kenton. The product of a Kickstarter campaign, the film is about a young woman named Katcher (Lydia Wilson), who is called up to try out for a group called ‘The Guardians’. Who are they guarding?
Super Zero is a short by the filmmaker Mitchell L. Cohen. The story centres around Josh Hershberg, a young guy with not much to live for who discovers he has terminal cancer.
From ideation to financing, distribution to production, the movie industry is just that, an industry. Let’s take a peek behind the projectors and movie screens at all facets of the films, and the people behind them, that we love. Let me direct your attention to these wonderful shorts.
Silo is a short film made by the filmmaker David Soll and starring Chris Green. Like many short films Silo is a silent piece (without dialogue but not without sound). But unlike many shorts, which like to take a brief and artistic approach to a story, Silo has been made with a clearly structured narrative.