The World According to Shorts

Quick Links > Hans Petter Moland > New Yorker Films > BAM

While there is indeed no shortage of short films, there is a need to collect some of the best stuff out there to make it easy for lazy folk like me to actually want to indulge in this fine cinema form. Curated by Jonathan Howell, The World According to Shorts a series of 6 internationally acclaimed short films that were premed at major European film festival will opened on July 21st in NYC at the Cinema Village.

1. La Perra – Hugo Maza, Chile, 17 min.
Maza celebrates class structure differences found in most Latin American countries all through a tasty tale of sexual perversion and domestic espionage in a multi-level setting. An urban couple set a mouse trap where the mouse isn’t even touching the bait. The apartment is filled with color palettes in the home artifacts, soiree-garments and the comical, sometimes exaggerated acting. Think of a madcap game of clue without the bloodshed but with all of the nutty drama.

2. We Have Decided Not to Die – Daniel Askill, Australia, 11 min,
Part perfume ad, part compositions a la Matthew Barney, Askill delivers a gorgeous trifecta of temporal and spatial defying acts. Heavy on the manipulation of film speeds – this non-narrative short looks at the fine art of suicide with glorious backdrops and perfectly shaped solo individuals. Part one uses water, part two is heavy on moving chunks of metal and the final part shows a beautiful entrance into a plate glass window (see poster image).

3. United We Stand – Hans Petter Moland, Norway, 9 min.

Scandinavian’s outlook on the world and society often best comes across like those witty Ikea commercials. Norway’s Hans Petter Moland made this short as part of the collective feature film Utopia: No One is Perfect in the Perfect Country – inspired by the Norway’s Labour Party. For international audiences this simply comes across as a charming tale about how a hiking trip of hard of hearing senior citizens end up saving the life of a young woman stuck in a swamp, only to take her place instead and suffer the ill-fated trip from the waste-down. It seems that golden aged citizens have always been second class citizens. The tracking shots of the men singing in a single file line while they await their fate is the cherry on the sundae moment.

4. Antichrist – Adam Guzinski, Poland, 28 min.

Think of the Lord of the Flies crossed with an elongated Tide commercial. Guzinski films a foursome of tender-aged anarchists and delivers what might be one of the most demented shorts that one might see in an entire lifetime. The key word here is lunacy and the games that boys play are the pre-school version of a deadly game of Russian roulette.

5. The Old Woman’s Step – Jane Malaquias, Brazil, 15 min.

Slice of life from remote fishing village sees a grandmother’s journey into the heart of the city: the market. Trading in a live chicken for enough money for a gift for her grandson, Malaquias’ offers a rich tapestry of life in the slow lane with a protagonist that can be found in many villages of the world. Superb editing, shot selection and hand-held photography makes this a different language hallmark card worth keeping close to one’s heart.

6. Ring of Fire – Andreas Hykade, Germany, 15 min,

Animation and narration merge together as one, exploring in a fantasy sort of way what preoccupies cartoonists such as Robert Crumb. Using a cowboy backdrop as an exploration of man’s quest for the ulimtate in promised lands – the imagery from Hykade is a sexual oasis in a 2d animated world. No accompanying Johnny Cash soundtrack.