Drunken Film Fest Oakland Winners 2019: Short Films That Stay With You Long After

Film festivals are roaring rapids of cinema. Critics and film lovers from all over gather to see as many films as they can fit into their daily schedules. People form quick opinions, and have little time to discuss the movies they’ve seen before they’re thrown in front of another silver screen. It’s a whirlwind of emotions and stories, all flying at your face at a million miles an hour (yes I did the math and that is a very real calculation).

But with short films, we’re given more time to meditate. Short films are in and out, like a shot at the doctor’s office. A pinch of emotion, and then its gone. But you feel it later, when you bend your arm later that day, or your shirt brushes up against it, because even though it was only there for a brief amount of time, the needle went in deep. Such are short films. They’re quick, but perhaps it’s their brevity that causes us to find ourselves dwelling on them later, like a dream we can’t remember was real or not.

Drunken Film Festival

I had the privilege of getting to watch the winners of each of the Drunken Film Festival’s categories this year, and I was reminded how much I love short films, and how sad I am that they’re not as sought after as feature-length films. Especially when we consider how much the internet loves brevity these days. Who among us doesn’t breathe a sigh of relief when someone sends us a Ted Talk that’s under 10 minutes? We all love the Pixar shorts that take place before each of the studio’s films, so why aren’t they more popular?

Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s an honor of mine to spread the good news about these films, and hopefully inspire you, dear reader, to find a short film for yourself to watch! Without further ado, let’s get into the winners of each category of the Drunken Film Festival.

Best U.S. Narrative: Stepdaddy (Lisa Steen)

Meeting up with old friends is always awkward, and Stepdaddy understands that to a painful degree. Watch as the clinking of glasses and the clatter of silverware scores the scene between two friends who meet up after having not seen each other in ages. The dialogue is stuttered as they talk over each other accidentally, each afraid of cutting each other off. Stepdaddy feels like a shortened performance of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, where every line of dialogue heightens the tension until the final explosive reveal, which I will not spoil. Allow yourself to sink lower and lower into your chair as the most wonderfully cringeworthy dinner goes awry.

Best Documentary: Connected (Aleksandra Maciejczyk)

Connected is a beautiful day-in-the-life documentary about a 50-year-old Polish couple going skiing, as they cleary so often do. Krzysztof, being blind, cannot go without his wife, Wiola, who acts as his guide. We learn through the 20 minute runtime of this film that Kyzysztof wouldn’t go skiing without his wife even if he weren’t blind. The film is as much about a couple’s love and passion as it is about skiing. They playfully argue, talk about dancing with each other, and help each other as the day goes on, and they finally descend the mountain together, facing a few hiccups on the way. Connected is inspiring to watch, and is a great reminder for all of us that life is best lived with others, because it’s a long way down the mountain.

Best Animated: Chichi (David Nessl)

Some short films are like dreams you vaguely remember, wondering if they were real at all. Chichi is the epitome of that. It comes in swinging with a bizarre animation style that almost seems like a comic book left out in the rain. There are creatures we realize like dogs and cats and humans that roam around the frames of this short, but then creatures that are the real stars that we’re not entirely sure of. They’re not quite cows or sheep, but they’re not quite ants. “Not quite” describes Chichi pretty well. It’s not quite this and not quite that, but it is quite something. Sit back and let it happen, you’ll only see something like it once.

Best Avant-Garde: Elder Abuse (Drew Durepos)

There’s a authenticity to Elder Abuse that, even with it’s bizarre ending sequence, charmed me as I sat down to watch it. Elder Abuse is a very simple handheld film of a grandma asking her grandson for a cigarette. It’s hilarious and genuine, like there was never a script in sight for this film, because how can you script something that feels like such every day life? The “every day” attitude of Elder Abuse becomes more effective when colors and flashes of light begin to overtake the screen, and it feels as though something is interrupting our signal. It’s exactly what you’d think an avant-garde short film would be, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Best Narrative: The Role (Farnoosh Samadi)

I LOVE The Role. It feels hypocritical for me to say this after I just was singing the praises of short films, but I just want more of this film. I’d take 2 hours easily. The Role shows a family in a waiting room, as the husband waits his turn to audition. When the wife is asked to read with him, the filmmakers say that they’d rather have her than her husband, even though she’s never acted before. The husband reacts as you’d expect, and we’re left knowing that the wife will take the job against her husband’s wishes.

The Role is a tightly controlled family drama that whispers gossip to you that you are dying to here. It’s juicy display of a couple fighting, and you’re pining to know what happens next. Farnoosh Samadi directs this film with the confidence of someone who’s been doing this all her life, and is flexing the muscles she’s been waiting to show off. I hope, no, I beg to see more from her in the future.

Best Music Video: Late Night Feelings (JP Chartand)

If you’ve ever danced in your room alone, this music video will resonate with you. It’s a celebration of the self and lust and every feeling that courses through your veins when you listen to the right song. The colors and set pieces blend together to make this film almost look Lynchian in its design, elevating it to feel like something more than a music video. There’s a great bit of editing going on, weaving a seamless narrative without asking too much of the viewer to keep things in straight in their head.

Best Local Film: The Moon’s Milk (Ri Crawford)

You know those kids books that you read every night before bed that you thought everyone grew up with, but it turns out it was just you? You look back on it when you finally find it in your parent’s basement and realize how weird the illustrations were but…you love it anyway. That’s what The Moon’s Milk is like.

The animation is breathtaking and otherworldly, and though the puppet-like faces of the people in film seem odd, there’s a charm to them that draws you in. The Moon’s Milk feels like a myth, telling of times of old when the moon was in our reach, and how lucky we were at the time. With a heartfelt narration by Tom Waits to boot, The Moon’s Milk is a perfect viewing before bed if you want to fall asleep dreaming of magic and simpler times.

Audience Award Winner: Ale Y Yose (Erin Semine Kökdil)

Ale Y Yose is essential 2019 cinema. Following the lives of two girls growing up in Oakland, CA. it focuses on what it means to be a teenage immigrant in 2019. The film is brutally honest, and director Erin Semine Kökdil allowed her stars Ale and Yose to take control of the cameras so that they could truthfully document their lives. There are tears and laughter that welcome you into the complexity of what it is to live every day in a country that seems to grow more fearful of outsiders every day. Ale Y Yose is an antidote to that fear. It brings you in intimately, and allows you to become fond of its subjects. Two girls who are fearful of the future, yet somehow maintain hope. This film is a necessary wake-up call that I feel honored to have seen.

So there you have it! The winners of the Drunken Film Fest for 2019. Many of these films are still making the festival circuit, but will no doubt be available soon.

Do you have a favorite short film? Interested in seeing any of the ones I mentioned above? Let me know in the comments below!