These are fantastical stories traveling that will make you wonder, think and maybe even have a laugh or two.
88:88 (14 min)
Val Kelly has been anti-social lately and no one knows why; she’s missed appointments, and has been away from friends and family who are concerned. It seems like she’s been working on some kind of contraption in her bedroom but it’s difficult to tell what it is for, based on the individual elements of the contraption. The girl secures herself to her bed and at 3:26am the clock changes to 88:88 and something radical happens that can’t be explained. It seems her contraption has done exactly what it needed to.
Strange noises emanate from a workshop and a security camera is capturing a horrific creature. In this tale of intrigue, the true nature of the creature slowly becomes clear through a series of interviews. Tense and suspenseful throughout, it seems that a pharmaceutical company is at least somewhat responsible. The film becomes mostly silent and reveals more details of the horrific epidemic and the paranoid feels strangely familiar while still strangely alarming. A great little slice of this alternate universe uses an interesting technique to tell the story.
Out of Erasers (15 min)
A sign in a shop window reads “Out of Erasers”. Why would that happen? A young woman is puzzled by this but then sees something strange. An odd phenomenon that couldn’t be ignored, so she touches it – lines emanating and animating wildly – and it begins to grow on her. The desolate city is a backdrop to a chase with a figure completely covered by the aforementioned phenomenon – it’s something that doesn’t seem to make sense and yet, is wholly frightening. It appears that erasers are the only cure but the world has become so scarce of erasers. This film plays off tropes of the zombie series but, with a haunting ending that pays off the built-up suspense.
Codes of Honor (14 min)
There’s something about battle that creates brothers in arms. The main character reminisces about his career in video games – the closest he’s ever been to battle – and his most memorable bouts. The narrator compares his feats in video games to those of great warriors because, in the world of video games, that’s exactly what he is.
Pioneer (16 min)
A man tells his son the gruesome story of how he met his mother. The epic story begins to add elements of the fantastic and the fates of the two characters suddenly become more immediate and understood.
Tumult (13 min)
A group of Vikings travel in tatters after a hard-fought battle when, suddenly, they stumble upon a fantastic ship and the world takes a tone humor – darkly violent humor – but altogether great in execution.
- Douglas
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Douglas Does ‘The Laughter Without Borders’ Programme - Next Up ‘Shorts For Shorties: Mission to the Milky Way’ - MovieJay Reviews the ‘Date Night’ Programme - Xavierpop Breaks Down the Popular ‘Scene Not Herd’ Programme - Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
International Comedy: Laughter Without Borders (81 min) is a fun collection of shorts from around the world that pokes fun at human tendencies.
Awkward Goodnight (2 min)
After a date, it appears that he feels more deeply about the night than her. This awkwardly hilarious micro-short kicks off the program.
Bear (11 min)
A young couple wake up together and, for some reason, the man is being horribly mean to the woman. Instead of fighting, the woman goes for a bike ride. This is exactly the plan, as he then sets up an elaborate surprise because today is her birthday – but the plan is half-baked and backfires, horrifically. One thing leads to another and the situation just keeps getting worse for the two – albeit funnier and funnier for us.
’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card (12 min)
This portrait of a dysfunctional family is hilariously over-the-top. These two brothers haven’t grown a day past 12 years old, but after their father passes away, they’re forced to spend some time together. Selfish, self-righteous and childish, these two are at each other’s throats for petty differences and the conflict comes to its peak at dinner in a climax that will have you in stitches. In the end, however, family always transcends pettiness with and in an unexpectedly heartwarming way.
Jesus Lover (1 min)
Another micro-fiction, in this short a Christian family welcomes their son home after college, excited that he loves Jesus.
Stronger (14 min)
When a pretty girl asks for a favor, it’s difficult to say no – even if it means posing nude for a life drawing class. Two former best friends who clearly don’t follow the rule of “bros before hoes” find themselves posing naked together for an art class. Their friendship has soured after fighting over a girl and, being in their compromising position(s), suddenly all of their past problems come to the surface while on display – much to the chagrin of the art instructor.
Show me Yours (2 min)
In this micro-short, two old school chums meet after many years and one is trying to make amends for something that happened long ago, as part of her Alcoholics Anonymous recovery. Meanwhile, her friend probably wishes they could have let bygones be bygones
The Heist (9 min)
An average group of friends prepare to perform a heist but keep getting delayed by their bickering over petty details. The conversation deviates and the audience begins to wonder if the heist will ever happen. Finally, the plan is decided down to the last detail (including where they’re going to eat after they’re done.)
Babies & Tiaras (2 min)
Another micro-short, this is a parody of toddlers in Tiaras and the southern folk that pervade those beauty pageants. Although details are exaggerated, it’s still a little too close to reality.
Bertie Crisp (8 min)
Trailer-park folk who are trying to have a child together are having a difficult time (probably because one’s a rabbit and the other’s a bear.) A dynamic and interesting mix of 2D and 3D animation, it suddenly occurs to the male to simply steal someone’s child but, then again, child-rearing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Mulvar is Correct Candidate! (1 min)
Selling Mulvar as a candidate is quite easy, considering how many features he comes with. This micro-short is a hilarious critique on what we look for in politicians.
School Portrait (3 min)
A photographer of school portraits is unusually downbeat – in an effort to make the children worldlier, he’s also trying to crush their spirits but some are more resilient to the trials of life than others.
Scr__ble (3 min)
A couple friends catch up over scrabble in a café. When one advises against getting a dog, the other says they’re thinking of getting a “povern” instead.
- Douglas
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Next Up ‘Shorts For Shorties: Mission to the Milky Way’ - MovieJay Reviews the ‘Date Night’ Programme - Xavierpop Breaks Down the Popular ‘Scene Not Herd’ Programme - Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
Shorts For Shorties is a series of 12 mostly short-short to micro-short films, all animated, and carrying themes that are urgent to youngsters of about 8 and under.
The Little Bird and The Leaf (4 min) is a neat little Swiss film that follows an intrepid little bird on his journey to retrieve a leaf that had been sharing his perch up in a tree.
Colosse – A Wood Tale (3 min) is the story of an unlikely friendship between a woodpecker and a robot puppet. Neat stop-motion animation piece this one.
Dreampacker (3 min) follows Catalina, a young girl whose backpack starts overflowing with the amount of precautions she has inside of it for whatever scenario she may find herself in in life.
Moving Forward (1 min) is meant to reassure young ones that trying new things is a healthy part of life, even rollercoasters!
PL.INK! (3 min) follows what appears to be a baby doodle doodling away in his little pen, making designs on the wall that morph into a surreal experience. Trippy.
Ernesto (7 min) is a delightful and musical short that follows a young boy who really wants to lose his front teeth because none of his friends have theirs anymore, but then learns from his singing front teeth that they just aren’t ready to come out yet.
Brad & Gary (4 min) are two crittery varmits who would be waiting for Godot if they weren’t so distracted by picking their noses and whiling the hours away getting involved in one mess or another. A neat story about misfits.
The Lost Years (2 min) is perhaps the best micro-short in this volume, a stop-motion piece that follows Nilla, a turtle, as she takes her first trip out to sea. Wonderful creation, this one.
Gadget Boy (1 min) is a surprisingly droll micro-short that follows G. Boy and his sidekick G-Bot as they help a couple of other animated fellows who find they’ve got a broken wheel.
The main event here is the incredibly ambitious The Itch of the Golden Nit (34 min), from Aardman Animation Studios (Wallace & Gromit). It’s a short that is entirely made by hundreds of UK children in a program sponsored by the Olympics where kids helped to draw images and choose which way the story would go online and then the studio put all of the wonderfully hand-drawn images and dialogue and story together into one big story involving Beanie and an intergalactic mission he takes in order to save the world. Inventive and alive.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- MovieJay Reviews the ‘Date Night’ Programme - Xavierpop Breaks Down the Popular ‘Scene Not Herd’ Programme - Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
The 7 shorts it the Date Night Programme examine romance in all its quirkiness, from book covers who tell their own stories late at night to what really goes on after the credits of a movie that has just ended “happily ever after”, or so we think.
Lunch Date (11 min) is a charming British dramedy about a young woman waiting for her date to show up at the restaurant when his 14 yr-old brother arrives instead, sent by his older brother to break up with her.
Rhinos (17 min) is an unlikely Irish dramedy that finally wins you over with Thomas, a Dubliner, and Ingrid, a German, meeting cute one afternoon on a park bench and then hanging out the rest of that afternoon barely understanding a word between them.
Co-directors Spike Jonze and Simon Cahn deliver a rather explicitly weird but stylish stop-motion animation piece in To Die By Your Side (6 min), which sees characters from major works of fiction involved in their own bizarre stories once their bookstore owner departs for the evening.
Cafe Regular, Cairo (11 min) considers a young adult couple examining where their relationship is and where it’s going now that they’re approaching their two-year. She wants to have sex and he keeps trying to talk the both of them out of it in this intriguing and intelligent scene that would be interesting as a feature.
We Refuse to Be Cold (8 min) is quite literally a pact a young Montreal couple makes in this experimental short about themes of promises kept and broken.
I Could’ve Been a Hooker (24 min) is the best in this bunch, a dark French dramedy about a 30ish woman, her pair of hedge clippers, and the panic attack she has in public that ends with an overnight stay at a stranger’s house, a 40-something man. In theory, this is a totally preposterous situation, but the writing, direction and acting pull us along and we find ourselves engrossed by the film’s open-ended conclusion. This stuff reminded me of Haneke, but with a wink to the audience.
After the Credits (15 min) is a droll Australian short about a young man who flees his own wedding in order to profess his love to a woman about to board a plane out of town. Everything goes swimmingly until the credits are done rolling and the woman has to try to get her fare back while the man is raking up a huge taxi bill because he told the driver to keep the meter running. And then they’ve got to figure out their happily-ever-after arrangement as the woman had left her job to move somewhere else. But they’ll figure it all out, right?
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Xavierpop Breaks Down the Popular ‘Scene Not Herd’ Programme - Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
This marks the WSFF‘s 9th edition of the popular Scene Not Herd program showcasing world-class and cutting edge music videos of the last year or so. This year’s crop of vids are about as good as ever, IMHO.
Gotye (feat. Kimbra) kick things off with the visually delightful two-shot in Somebody That I Used To Know (4 min), a song most folks are familiar with from the over 100+ million viewed video by Canada’s own Walk Off the Earth. I love this original version just as much.
Stellan Skarsgard (Melancholia) stars in Lykke Li‘s Sadness Is a Blessing (7 min) in a wonderful dogme-style short before the young Swedish songstress dances away her sorrows in the middle of a restaurant.
M. Ward is the revelation in the pack with his First Time I Ran Away (3 min), a Nick Drake-like production of restless guitar picking with a lush arrangement of brushes on drums and bouncy bass-line with character, the impressionistic animated video tells of a youngster going out to venture on his own. Beautiful song.
Annie Clarke is the front woman in St.Vincent, and their new single Cruel (3 min) is a delightful 80′s-infused pop melody with a terrifically surreal and derivative video accompanying it.
Fryngies (4 min) plays like a suspense-thriller involving a young woman and the smoke-filled box behind the wall of her new apartment in this electro-pop song from Karin Park of Denmark.
Woodkid‘s Iron (4 min) is a lush, black and white experience with tribal drummers, rich horns, and amazing imagery involving the funeral of a boy overseen by a priest. Hypnotic.
M.I.A.‘s latest single Bad Girls doesn’t have the same catch as Paper Planes, but her tough-as-nails street attitude is all over this video.
Rihanna (feat. Calvin Harris) stars in the free-spirted comeback hit We Found Love that forces us to contemplate the diva as a troubled figure who can’t seem to avoid messiness when it comes to matters of the heart.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a sociopath and a killer in perhaps the best single performance from any male actor in any short this week in The Shoes’ Time To Dance (9 min), a UK band with an electro-punkie-industrial-dancy feel that will remind you of 90′s Bowie in this stylish, urgent, haunting vid.
Innovative escalator sequence with a man who just can’t get himself out of a fix where he’s falling down the up elevator in My Machines (4 min) from U.S. rock band the Battles, feat. Gary Numan on electric guitar.
Canada’s own synth-pop group Grimes is filmed at a dirt bike rally in Oblivion (4 min), a hypnotic song.
Walk Off the Earth continues their success at cover songs with the legendary Little Boxes (2 min), in this clever and innovative effort.
Legacy (4 min) comes from Danish indie-rock group Alcoholic Faith Mission in a video that contemplates funeral customs and an unfortunately cute little mouse that meets its maker.
The set concludes with the animated epic The Shrine/An Argument (8 min) from indie-folk geniuses the Fleet Foxes, from Seattle. A great song made even greater with this achingly good video that follows an elk on a mysterious journey of its own evolution. Wonderful drawings here in deep hues of brown, orange and red and then finally in the blue of the sea. Terrific.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- Xavierpop Reviews The ‘Short Dramatic Films” Programme - MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
The CFC will celebrate 25 years next year, and has graduated over 1,000 residents to date. The Short Dramatic Films is a program of 4 shorts from recent graduates.
Parkdale (15 min) is the first and best short, shot on-location in Toronto, directed by Lisa Jackson. It tells the story of a teenaged girl and her younger sister as they try to avoid another stint in foster care when Children’s Aid is onto the fact that their father is too busy getting high or into trouble to care for them. It’s well written and well performed and directed with grittiness by Jackson, making fine use of several recognizable locations in Toronto and giving the city a tough and sad feel for the kinds of folks who’ve fallen through the cracks. Terrific.
Silent Cargo (16 min) is a brutal experience that considers weeks in the life of a dozen illegal immigrants being shipped in cargo containers across the ocean. They live in filth and squalor and there is no guarantee that any of them will survive the ordeal, but it’s the chance they’ll take in order to taste a better life anywhere than where they came from. The actors go through a process that sees them clinging to their hopes of making a new beginning but who end up hoping to just survive an extraordinarily brutal trip.
Oliver Bump’s Birthday (16 min) lives in its own universe and has its own set of really strange rules, like how 12 year-old child prodigy Oliver will end up having to die on his 13th birthday, which occurs at 9 pm on the day that it happens. Do you suppose he was born at 9 pm, or is it more likely that 9 is this universe’s midnight? Oliver’s parents are nice folks, and they’ve seen their other 3 children off to death on the occasion of their birthdays as well, but Oliver doesn’t want to be just another statistic. With the help of a friend and his imagination, he is literally aiming for the stars with a secret spaceship he’s built up in the attic. Terrific acting and some interesting ideas here in a story that would find trouble trying to stretch itself out into feature territory, but that works better as a short episode.
The Secret of Goat (15 min) is such a kooky and peculiar film. You may get seriously annoyed by it, or you may find it droll with its young lovers who live out in the woods. They talk like Canadians but they go around looking like leftovers from a bad Oktoberfest commercial with their frilly costumes. He wants to love her long-time and in practically every location — indoor, outdoor, you name it. But she isn’t really into pleasures of the flesh and it causes a disturbance in the force one day as she catches him pleasuring himself out in the woods. I’m sure that’s crucial character development, but I just can’t really say how that is exactly. Anyway, they buy a goat one autumn that only he can milk, since apparently he’s got the “touch” or something, while she can only get the goat to shoot blanks. Then a funny thing happens when he starts to take on goat-like characteristics. The Secret of Goat is a must-see only because it wouldn’t be fair that I am the only one who has those images burned into my brain. You deserve them, too, so that you can then decide if this is one of the worst shorts you’ve ever seen. This one’s a turkey dressed as a goat, methinks.
- Moviejay
Check out our coverage of the WorldWide Short Film Festival:
- MovieJay Really Enjoys The ‘Celebrity Shorts’ Programme - Douglas Breaks Down The ‘X-Ray Spex’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’ Programme - Now Onto The ‘Homeland Security’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes On The ‘Someone To Watch Over Me’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The “All Tomorrow’s Parties” Programme - Douglas Godhino Reviews The ‘Superfans’ Programme - Xavierpop Takes on The “Creative Control” Programme - MovieJay Reviews the “War, What Is It Good For?” Programme - MovieJay Reviews ‘The Family Compact” Programme - Next Up A Look At the ‘Iron Ladies’ Programme - Xavierpop Covers ‘The Love Hurts’ Official Selection - A Break-Down The ‘Who’s Your Dada?’ Programme - MovieJay Reviews The Opening Night Gala: Winners From Around the World - The @xvrpop Ultimate Worldwide Short Film Fest Preview - The CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival’s Screenplay $50,000 Giveaway is Back!
