Film ReviewsThe Manhattan Short Film Festival
Sep 17, 2015 Anchorage Press
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That is the essence of the 18th Annual MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival. MANHATTAN SHORT is a truly global short film festival. This year alone there were 678 entries from 52 countries. The highly competitive nature of the festival and the notoriety it has achieved in almost two decades of evolution have resulted in 10 exceptional finalists for 2015. The films making the circuit between September 25 and October 4 will be seen by approximately 100,000 moviegoers in 250 cities. Viewers will have a chance to vote for their favorite and choose a winner, which will be announced on October 5, 2015.
The 2015 MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival packs a punch! Together, the 10 finalist representing eight countries, reflect the bittersweet reality of people's lives and histories around the world. The festival has heartfelt beginnings that set the tone and shaped its spirit, from that evening on September 27, 1998 when founder Nicholas Mason (no connection to Pink Floyd), attached a screen to the side of a truck on Mulberry street in lower Manhattan and projected 16 short films to an audience of some 300 people.
The Festival opens up with one of the strongest, most compelling films of the batch, Listen, a Finland/Denmark entry about a Muslim immigrant trying to break free and the power of communication. Like good short stories, short films are transformative when done well, and the 10 finalists are done exceptionally well, under relatively small budgets and leveraging technology to capture plots and scenes that easily rival any feature production. More importantly, the final 10 are storytelling at its best, making the all the films worthy of the approximately 200,000 hours that 100,000 viewers will give unconditionally to the shorts. The lineup is a mix of films that are smart, heartbreaking and funny. The storylines transform the characters as well as the viewers because most viewers will be able to relate to the contents, experiences, and intellectual curiosity of most or all of the entries. Collectively, the films help viewers explore that fine line and definitive moments between innocence and experience. The collective nature of the films and the democratic nature of the audience selection process make the MANHATTAN SHORT films as reflective of the world as any collection of chronological analysis of politics, economics, society, and human conditions. The films provide a glimpse of the world as it sees itself. Some of them are preceded with introductions from the filmmakers, which help provide context, but one can take them or leave them, after all, the films speak for themselves; and although they need no introduction, here's a brief description of the 10 finalists:
LISTENCountry: Finland/Denmark
Directed By: Harry Ramezan and Rungano Nyoni
A Muslim immigrant has taken her son and left her husband. She's a foreigner in a foreign land, navigating a system in a language she doesn't understand, and although she has an official translator, what happens in the interrogation room is not simply lost in translation, its deliberate confusion, like in the tower of Babel, with dire consequences.
Papa Dans Mum (Dad in Mum)Country: France
Directed By: Fabrice Bracq
Two young sisters are up at night and out of their room. The noises from the other side of their parents' bedroom are curious, so naturally the sisters investigate and discuss Dad's "seed" and the planting process. How big is the seed? Where does it go?
Bear StoryCountry: Chile
Directed By: Gabriel Osorio
This animated short tells the story of a bear who makes mechanical figures to tell a story and then takes his magic box to the streets to earn money. The story designed by the bear is his own. The film is a strong critique of the political conditions under the Chilean dictatorship and the hope that persists even when people are disappeared or lost, maybe forever.
Forever OverCountry: Germany
Directed By: Erik Schmitt
Change is good. When a young couple is bored with one another and the relationship and the obvious course is they should go their separate ways, they opt for making a list of things they've always wanted to do. As they go down the list their relationship becomes more interesting but not necessarily better. This is perhaps the weakest of the 10 films, but also has some of the best acting.
SHOKCountry: Kosovo/UK
Directed By: Jamie Donahue
Courage is often unspoken, it doesn't depend on an action, and sometimes it comes in the form of a gaze held strongly and defiantly. This kind of quiet courage is explored through the friendship of two Albanian teenagers during the Kosovo war. SHOK, based on a true experience, is a loving and courageous homage from one friend to the other.
GroundedCountry: France
Directed By: Alexis Michalik
The kindness of others goes a long way, as a passenger finds out when she has forgotten her three-month old's documents and is trying to leave the country.
SundownCountry: Turkey
Directed By: Sinem Cezayirli
Childhood ends for a young woman on a sunny summer day filled with swimming in the ocean and playing in the garden when she comes home to her mother.
PatchCountry: Switzerland
Directed By: Gerd Gockell
Painting and time-lapse animation reveal a visual poem á la Gerhard Richter, revealing, textures, colors, shapes and movement.
El Camino Solo (The Lonely Road)Country: USA
Directed By: Shawn Telford
The long and winding road feels extra long when one runs out of gas, as the protagonist finds out in this film. In a society in which people are too busy, and too self-absorbed-like the protagonist-getting help is harder than it ought to be.
Bis Gleich (Until then)Country: Germany
Directed By: Benjamin Wolff
Two elderly strangers sit at their respective windows, across the street from one another, watching the world go by. They notice everything, and the patterns become cemented in their daily existence. As it turns out, the smallest of disruption to the patter signals the biggest of changes and they find that perhaps they weren't strangers after all.
The MANHATTAN SHORT festival shows on Friday, Sept. 25 at 10:30 p.m. at Bear Tooth.
The 2015 MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival packs a punch! Together, the 10 finalist representing eight countries, reflect the bittersweet reality of people's lives and histories around the world. The festival has heartfelt beginnings that set the tone and shaped its spirit, from that evening on September 27, 1998 when founder Nicholas Mason (no connection to Pink Floyd), attached a screen to the side of a truck on Mulberry street in lower Manhattan and projected 16 short films to an audience of some 300 people.
The Festival opens up with one of the strongest, most compelling films of the batch, Listen, a Finland/Denmark entry about a Muslim immigrant trying to break free and the power of communication. Like good short stories, short films are transformative when done well, and the 10 finalists are done exceptionally well, under relatively small budgets and leveraging technology to capture plots and scenes that easily rival any feature production. More importantly, the final 10 are storytelling at its best, making the all the films worthy of the approximately 200,000 hours that 100,000 viewers will give unconditionally to the shorts. The lineup is a mix of films that are smart, heartbreaking and funny. The storylines transform the characters as well as the viewers because most viewers will be able to relate to the contents, experiences, and intellectual curiosity of most or all of the entries. Collectively, the films help viewers explore that fine line and definitive moments between innocence and experience. The collective nature of the films and the democratic nature of the audience selection process make the MANHATTAN SHORT films as reflective of the world as any collection of chronological analysis of politics, economics, society, and human conditions. The films provide a glimpse of the world as it sees itself. Some of them are preceded with introductions from the filmmakers, which help provide context, but one can take them or leave them, after all, the films speak for themselves; and although they need no introduction, here's a brief description of the 10 finalists:
LISTENCountry: Finland/Denmark
Directed By: Harry Ramezan and Rungano Nyoni
A Muslim immigrant has taken her son and left her husband. She's a foreigner in a foreign land, navigating a system in a language she doesn't understand, and although she has an official translator, what happens in the interrogation room is not simply lost in translation, its deliberate confusion, like in the tower of Babel, with dire consequences.
Papa Dans Mum (Dad in Mum)Country: France
Directed By: Fabrice Bracq
Two young sisters are up at night and out of their room. The noises from the other side of their parents' bedroom are curious, so naturally the sisters investigate and discuss Dad's "seed" and the planting process. How big is the seed? Where does it go?
Bear StoryCountry: Chile
Directed By: Gabriel Osorio
This animated short tells the story of a bear who makes mechanical figures to tell a story and then takes his magic box to the streets to earn money. The story designed by the bear is his own. The film is a strong critique of the political conditions under the Chilean dictatorship and the hope that persists even when people are disappeared or lost, maybe forever.
Forever OverCountry: Germany
Directed By: Erik Schmitt
Change is good. When a young couple is bored with one another and the relationship and the obvious course is they should go their separate ways, they opt for making a list of things they've always wanted to do. As they go down the list their relationship becomes more interesting but not necessarily better. This is perhaps the weakest of the 10 films, but also has some of the best acting.
SHOKCountry: Kosovo/UK
Directed By: Jamie Donahue
Courage is often unspoken, it doesn't depend on an action, and sometimes it comes in the form of a gaze held strongly and defiantly. This kind of quiet courage is explored through the friendship of two Albanian teenagers during the Kosovo war. SHOK, based on a true experience, is a loving and courageous homage from one friend to the other.
GroundedCountry: France
Directed By: Alexis Michalik
The kindness of others goes a long way, as a passenger finds out when she has forgotten her three-month old's documents and is trying to leave the country.
SundownCountry: Turkey
Directed By: Sinem Cezayirli
Childhood ends for a young woman on a sunny summer day filled with swimming in the ocean and playing in the garden when she comes home to her mother.
PatchCountry: Switzerland
Directed By: Gerd Gockell
Painting and time-lapse animation reveal a visual poem á la Gerhard Richter, revealing, textures, colors, shapes and movement.
El Camino Solo (The Lonely Road)Country: USA
Directed By: Shawn Telford
The long and winding road feels extra long when one runs out of gas, as the protagonist finds out in this film. In a society in which people are too busy, and too self-absorbed-like the protagonist-getting help is harder than it ought to be.
Bis Gleich (Until then)Country: Germany
Directed By: Benjamin Wolff
Two elderly strangers sit at their respective windows, across the street from one another, watching the world go by. They notice everything, and the patterns become cemented in their daily existence. As it turns out, the smallest of disruption to the patter signals the biggest of changes and they find that perhaps they weren't strangers after all.
The MANHATTAN SHORT festival shows on Friday, Sept. 25 at 10:30 p.m. at Bear Tooth.