Unrestricted view wednesday shorts

Wednesday Shorts.

I love short films on two levels. One, the shittest one won’t last long anyway, and two, you really do get to see something new. Wednesday’s unrestricted view had a high bar, and I’ll probably be more anecdotally trying to avoid spoiling the films.

My Week with Maisy (Mika Simmons)

I never went to Marsden with Mum. My job was house cleaning while she got the bus there and back, occasionally going to the bank and shopping on the way back in the early days. She had a sure defiance that is crucial in cancer treatment, “I’m old, you and your brother are men, not boys now, I can just see what happens”, but when it came to the children there, she changed radically and just wanted the best life for them. My week with Maisy is a tremendous thematic construction of show, not tell, as the chemistry with Maisy and Mrs Foster as the life lessons learned in the face of adversity and how reaching out can be challenging, but staying within oneself could be terminal.

Monochromatic (Karen Bryson)

My brother was born in 1969. His memory of the late 70’s, as related to me, is sadly typical at points. Glasgow didn’t have time for an Irish Catholic mum in the first place, let alone the fun of a “your dad’s a P=ki” brigade. My life, born in 76 in Lambeth and raised there for the first 18 years, has been more nuanced. I had the delight, recently,  of being accosted by a black brexiteer asking me, “Do you even belong in this country?”. The notion that racism is racism is prevalent, that black communities have themselves to blame, and that its mentality and attitude is a prevalent narrative with Asians. As we follow and are gifted with the first-person perspective of our young black protagonist and her six-year-old vision of events, we see it all and have it thrown into that cacophony everything can be when you’re little. And the reliance and internalisation we experience then, being passionate and joyful while fearful and perpetually uncertain. It’s unapologetic in its outcome and an excellent rebuttal. If it is indeed about ‘mentality’ or ‘attitude’, then indeed, as a society, we have to ask collectively where it comes from. This film is a bloody good answer. And that brexiteer?…He was about 11, tops. See this film.

Mother Daughter (Sophie Wu) 

I have lived in Edinburgh and spent a brief time in Glasgow. I have Glaswegian relatives, who were where my mum and dad met. Watching this film was like watching my cousin and her daughter at a function. Then afterwards, when we were safely in the Deb zone and would lose all the ‘Hiyaas’ of polite society and start being compassionately dysfunctional in that way, we get told it’s all bad when it’s all heart. That dynamic of once your kids are old enough to try and be young at heart yourself while they push themselves irrational maturity is the chemistry that sells the comedy in this short that scales the heights of those bloody stairwells while keeping the depth of the darkness close by—a great feature.

The Snip. (Ben S. Hyland)

Firstly, I knew that a vasectomy was not about getting your balls cut off; shut up.

Secondly, I don’t want kids because of two key things: I’m 48 and maths.

Thirdly, This film is a zingy one-liner of scenes after the next. Its gormless lead never loses our sympathy as a classic bloke and as far as keeping the laughs, anxiety and reality fear-free. This film is about the dog’s bollocks.

Fourthly: no, I’m not a virgin fuck you! I just don’t pay for sports.