I went to two Shorts programs at the Brooklyn Film Festival screenings in Brooklyn Heights.
The mood was friendly. The theater is lovely. The problem seemed to me was that most of the people in attendance were connected to the shorts. Its great because it provided and audience but isn't that preaching to the converted?
As for the shorts themselves, they were a very mixed bag. There were some really WTF ones and some really good ones.
A brief over view of the films goes as follows:
BROOKLYN BRIDGE: Unremarkable look at the Brooklyn Bridge. Its three minutes of shots of the bridge with people talking about it. Frankly I wanted to go outside the theater and just look at it.
ONLY IN DREAMS: Intriguing idea of a film shot on a flat bed scanner. The idea is more clever then the execution.
AD INFINITUM-Beautiful travel into the fractal universe.
I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT- no you don't otherwise you wouldn't have rerun this film a second time. This got two screenings because of a focus problem. It didn't make the film any better the second time. Its basically words on the screen seeking to be clever.
ONE SECOND A DAY- Animated film made one second a day for a year. Its all abstract and very cool in idea and execution.
MELT- Interpretive dance on a wall. It looks good for a few minutes but I'm not a dance person so it was lost on me (and was the only one of the first set in true wide screen - all if the others were in a widescreen TV image)
SEE WALL- Awful collage of images of a sea wall in Guyana
WANDER- Pretentious-but good looking- twaddle of a camera passing by a frozen tableau of people.Utterly pointless film that belongs in an art instillation and not a film festival.
WALZER-The film ends and NO ONE APPLAUDED, then someone seemed to realize the filmmakers were there and and it got token applause. A great looking but otherwise leaden comedy about a scrap metal guy who finds a treasure and tries to hide it from his coworkers. Its really unclear what it going on and the comic timing is horribly off that you would think it was made by an unfunny dead man.
DAY IN AND DAY OUT- I really wanted to see this. I saw the clip on line and it was what made me want to go to the screenings tonight. I ended up walking out about five minutes in. Beautiful shots of people working ruined by awful music and annoying image manipulation (Fast, slow, stutter)
Unrelated to the screening I went to find some antacid.
The Second Bunch:
CASUALTIES OF LOVE: A WTF film of a dropping doll.
NATURAL PLASTIC: Old school computer animation has flowers grow on a woman's face. Your guess is as good as mine.
DWELLINGS: Short sweet pencil animation of "abstracts".
DREAM GIVER: Neat little film about the Dream Giver having to rescue a little boy.
CONFUSION OF TONGUES: Someone's nightmare on the screen. Intriguing images, not sure it amounts to much.
EVERYONE IN THEIR ROOM: The dark stop motion group of the Brothers Quay, Svankmajer and Jiri Barta have another potential member. A strange dark stop motion film that looks way cool.
STICKY ENDS- Other than the look I have no memory of this film.
MILLHAVEN- Great looking film about a young girl...
BIRDBOY- Another Small Gem
MOONFISHING- A man has to fish for the moon...it's just gorgeous, forget my bad synopsis and just see it.
SINISTER SISTERS SLAUGHTERHOUSE- Dark. Not quite my cup of tea.
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