HollyShorts Film Festival 2023: Adult Animation

One of the biggest surprises of the 2023 HollyShorts Film Festival was its showcase of Adult Animation. Deeply moving and consistently hilarious, this was one of the segments not to be missed.

Shit Show (Evan Halleck)

To be honest, this is one I’m still not sure how I feel about. It fits the likes of a raunchy adult animated segment all with the humor one would expect – but not how you would expect. Utilizing a mixed media of live action and animation. Evan Halleck‘s Shit Show opens with two brothers playing tennis in a rundown parking lot. With an overzealous serve, the tennis ball goes out of bounds and drops into the sewer below. Audiences travel along with the ball, as it makes its way to its final resting place – along with all the other shit.

Enter Tampy the Tampon, Thomas the Hypodermic Needle and Steve the pile of shit still sporting a kernel of corn. The short wants to be funnier than it is, however. The three of them each merging with live action to show their interaction with mankind that have turned them into the piece of trash they now are. It is a strange and quirky short that finds its deepest moments of humor just as Tampy, Thomas and Steve are finding the strength to unite, a snake like condom slithering in to crush their dreams.

American Sikh (Vishavjit Singh and Ryan Westra)

“This is a film dedicated to anyone who felt unwelcome in America”. The end title to this short cuts deep.

For Vishavjit Singh and Ryan Westra‘s American Sikh, audiences witness how unaccepting America can be, yet how determination, resilience and confidence of self can make a difference. The short opens to violence, its narrator, Vishavjit Singh, speaking to a war that would drive his family to find refuge in America. The opening history is short, recalling his immigration to the US and the subsequent return to his home country. Yet, Singh‘s heart remained in America.

Returning in 1990, however, he finds the country vastly different than his childhood memories recalled. For 10 years, he would attempt to find his identity, cutting his hair and removing his turbine, finding himself lost in a country’s rejection. As he began to find his true self once again, the tragedy of 9/11 would strike, piercing fear into the hearts of an already fearful country. Where he was once just rejected, he was now hated.

American Sikh captures this devastating reality through comic book like illustrations. Story and media merge to craft a world of darkness and hate, making Singh‘s transformation into Sikh Captain America even more impactful. Inspirational and deeply moving, American Sikh is by far one of the best shorts of this year’s festival.

Spring Roll Dreams (Mai Vu)

My list of favorites at this year’s HollyShorts continues to grow with Mai Vu‘s Spring Roll Dreams. What was immediately noticeable about this particular showcase of Adult Animation was the diversity and emotion it was able to capture through each of its films. While most speak to isolation and the need for acceptance, each has its own voice and its own unique story to tell. For Spring Roll Dreams, it is the story of culture and the enrichment of one’s own roots.

Spring Rolls Dreams boasts incredible stop motion animation. There is a fluidity to it that will instantly take your breath away. Yet, it is the story that will capture your heart. A mother and son growing up in America, they have each acclimated to this country’s way of life. TV and macaroni and cheese are prominent aspects within the house. Yet when Grandfather Sang comes to visit from Vietnam, he brings with him the culture his daughter grew up with.

There is a sweetness in Sang that speaks louder than words. He does not judge the culture she is raising her son in, but he wants to share the one he holds so dear. For Sang, many of his memories are in the moments he was able to make spring rolls with his daughter. There is a push and pull of acceptance, the introduction of Vietnamese culture of handmade spring rolls cut off from Alan by his mother. Though it is not Alan that is pushing back, rather his mother. We do not know why she pushes against the memories of her father, but the rift between then is deep. Yet as much as her father wants to reconnect, so does she.

Spring Roll Dreams will leave you with a catharsis that sneaks up in the quiet moments. It balances itself well with humor, all while delivering a message that is not limited to a particular audience. It is as welcoming as Sang, its heart ringing loud long after the credits have begun to roll.

Welcome to 8th Street (Yoo Lee)

Bringing in another whopping success, the HollyShorts Film Festival knows its Animation. There is something so real to Yoo Lee’s Welcome to 8th Street. It may have been the familiarity, New Jersey and New York so close to to my hometown. It might have strictly been the emotion the animation was able to emote. Let me tell you, the squirrel alone will steal the limelight – and your heart.

Having recently moved to eight street from Seattle, it is almost as though the young couple the short focuses on have moved to a foreign country. There is a different culture, a different feel, a different way of life. As they make their way through the neighbor hood, something feels a bit off as they are engaged in conversation about trunk meat, invited to dinner after a Turkey has been injured and restaurant service is not what they are accustomed too. In these moments, you can feel the couple’s growing worry that they may have just made the biggest mistake of their life. That their new home is anything but welcoming.

Welcome to 8th Street is one of the cutest shorts of the bunch. Even with only a run time of just seven minutes, you too will feel the warmth and the deeply rooted welcoming nature of eight street.

Broken (Farzaneh Omidvarnia)

The longest short of the bunch, at a run time of seventeen minutes, Farzaneh Omidvarnia‘ s Broken is anything but. Deeply moving, and humorously engaging, audiences will find they can not look way. The short opens with a panning shot of the inside of an apartment, the photographs on the wall brought to life by the sounds they emulate. While there are cheers for photos of baseball, sounds of war ring heavily on the photographs of a young soldier. As the camera lingers on the soldier, the film quietly takes on the loss of youth and the unrelenting impact of war on the human soul.

As the camera settles on an old man sleeping, his pet chicken in his lap, the silence is broken and his window is shattered. Awoken with a fright, he cautiously peers out the window to discover his assailant. But to his dismay, there is none. The short humorously continues with this pattern, each time the window is broken the old man escalating his methods to capture the assailant. You can feel the lingering effects of war in his actions, giving authenticity to the quiet moment at the beginning of the short. This is a man who has never truly been able to move on, the veil between peacefulness and memory shattered by anything or anyone.

Broken will connect with its audience on a deep level, many finding themselves holding their breath for the safety of the chicken – who gives the film its strongest moments of comedic relief. By film’s end however, there is a state of peace and a return to a moment of innocence. While war can have a lasting effect, so too can the reconnection to activities that brought joy both in our youth and at our darkest times. And in the end, no one is ever truly broken.