Worldwide Short Film Festival (June 14-19) Rating: NNNN
Rating: NNNN
So suddenly everyone’s a Svankmajer. In what seems to be a bumper year for short films in general, the animators are kicking everyone’s asses up and down the block.
Case in point: Egg (Saturday, June 18, midnight, part of the Freaky program, Isabel Bader), which has to be by far the weirdest, grossest stop-motion take on Moby Dick ever to occur on an egg on a conveyor belt. (Don’t ask, just watch.)
Likewise, The Separation (Friday, June 17, midnight, part of Creepy, Isabel Bader) is a baffling but engrossing story about waxy little Christopher Walken-like conjoined twin puppets. Guess when you don’t have to worry about actors or a huge feature film budget you can pretty much do whatever you like, even if it’s sick and anti-social, which is what makes this festival great.
Not that there aren’t decent conventional films here, too: sci-fi tidbits Milo 55160 (Thursday, June 16, 9:15 pm, part of Celebrity Shorts, Isabel Bader) and Cost Of Living (Sunday, June 19, 9:30 pm, part of Sci-Fi Out There, Innis Town Hall), f’rinstance, are gracefully executed little dramas with the clever, economical appeal of good 1950s SF short stories.
Also of note: 80s-infused music videos, a spotlight on India and an evening with the god of digital animation, Chris Landreth (Saturday, June 18, 7 pm, Isabel Bader).
For festival venues and times, see listing, this page.
