Saturday shorts

Little Mary Duncan Paveling

Parents die. It’s a fact. I was at a table watching friends about two years ago. I didn’t say anything, but I knew out of the five of us. Only one still had both. It’s a post-40 fact of life. Little Mary is a scenic sense of a lovely couple living their salad days, and how we may prepare for death, we don’t always prepare for illness, and how to get through that with a quality of life. Serene and melancholic with great performances. It’s a lovely drama to spend time with.

Venus (Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds)

When I was at university, we were in student halls. I was 18. He beat his girlfriend. He was intimidating and charming in equal measure. I had no idea what to do. I remember seeing him in the halls and how he would hold a girl’s wrists at the wall and wonder what to do. My fear and confusion. She wouldn’t leave him; our conversations were full of weird justifications I couldn’t fathom. That was 1994. This film explores the emotional turmoil of a talented artist and how people never start a relationship this way. They reveal their toxicity over a slow drip time. It’s a great use of cinema as canvas and colour, telling you everything you need to follow the plot and leaving you to judge your emotions and emphasise that you should follow them and bloom.

Hearts desire. (Loren Alleyne)

Look, it’s a Dungeons and Dragons ride. It’s the first rule of wishes. Maybe there were others. I don’t know. Ask Robin Williams. But you know, get the deck of many things and find out—2nd edition. Green screen. Dot matrix. And it’s a hell of a zinger ending that manages to be relatable during a sideswipe simultaneously—an excellent aperitif of film time.

I’m looking forward to what’s next.

Pushing Daisy.  (Leah Revivio)

Gen Zed works for the dead. Daisy is the overachiever of synergy. We don’t need to put the fun in a funeral parlour. The word back and forth of this daisy has genuine sitcom potential. It has taste but in all the wrong places.

Blessed by Sunlight. (Sebastian Krolak)

It was the early 90’s. She wasn’t in my year; she was in the year above. I did not know her well. I remember talking to her about being mixed race and her being an Albino vs being 2nd or 3rd generation. Neither of us spoke of anything outside the social. And while bullied, no one was going to kill us. Blessed b y sunlight shows a simple life and the horrors that can enter it. Just for breathing, it’s a shocking empathy and intellectualised eye opener that captures and captivates immeasurably. Seek this film out and open your eyes to its harsh light.

A day in February.(Klaas Diersmann

In 2014, I barely knew Ukraine. Even before then, it was something I had barely touched while studying Russian. I scored 6%, and this was 1994. The referendum was in 1993. I’ve read Zelensky’s collection of speeches and am about 50 pages into the Serhii Plokhy Russo-Ukrainian war. It dates back to the Bolsheviks in the 19th century. I think. But none of that matters when in the space of a few minutes and that mid-shift phone call none of us want at work. Be it the school for your child or a call you think is from your parents, and it’s a nurse at the hospital they have just been admitted to. A Day in February moves beyond the date, the times, and the logistics of tanks and focuses solely on the emotional logistics of panic, heart and the need for family in the most fragile of situations. Seek and support this feature.

Rose.(charlotte Couture)

I have a gaze that is so male Laura Mulvey would buy me horse blinkers if I turned up to a season she curates. So, making a film about strippers in a strip club is automatically getting my attention. However, as there is always more to that, the film explores Rose beyond her working life and her definitions of herself as a woman and a mother. The reality of her appearance is that her sense of self and her need for employment play into each other with a great sense of drama and humanity. The minor moments and tensions extrapolated in the feature could have held a short in and of themselves. However, they are neatly tucked into the larger story of a woman coming to terms with her situation, not for acceptance but to live with defiance—a great watch.

Midnight ride (Alessandro Farrattini Pojani)

I was at college in Richmond, and my mate Danny, who was like me, one Asian parent and as such had that glow we both had of being ‘Italian by proxy’ had a side job as a pizza delivery guy. It was hard work. I am waiting for tips and being pressured to finish the job in less than 30 minutes. Soon after, the rules changed around that promise because people were hurt by something that wasn’t a real job. Now, I see the lines of mopeds divers have to rent, the box they have to rent. It’s not even a job; it’s arguably not a life. But existence beats the alternative. We follow Saverio, trying with charm to better his situation, turning to desperation, and with a great ending that shows who the actual exploitation is in this film. Taut, tight and impactful, it’s a zippy pace and a real mouthful to chew on how far we are willing to treat others for cheap burritos.

Canned laughter (Chris Brake)

Comedy is tragedy plus time. The Dead Dad show. These are singular notions I would hear around Edinburgh at festival times. While we watch in Thai short material that will last for ages, Canned Laughter shows how ridiculous it is to spend time and energy on endless repeats, and once you reform Dad’s army in any way…you need to lead them somewhere. It is an incredible journey of fantasy worth voyaging. 

Hedged (fergus March)

Heist movies have great locations, exotic riches, twists, and betrayals. Well, it’s got more shiny Easter eggs than a rare Faberge and a winning combination of old mates trying to hedge their bets safely while staying in one location. There is the gratuitous blonde in a swimsuit, but frankly, I think that’s James’ vanity. A lovely double act that does a lot with the form. Worth a watch.

Sherbert. (Danny gibbons)

Taxi driver and passenger confessionals are not the most original premises, but they’re filmed well, and the techniques to try and add other parts of the gig work out. Sometimes, though, what you want is craft. The lines are well-placed and well-paced, and the characters have the chemistry that elevates the film to its destination, leaving you satisfied and rating it highly on your app.