For film buffs who like their servings petite and sweet, the weekend gone was a smorgasbord of stunning shorts from around the world.
The 27th International Short Film Festival Flickerfest [Palace Centro] kicked off in Brisbane on Friday night with a selection of ten Australian films while Saturday’s programme was dedicated to the international competition. Covering Animation and Live Action the diversity of these productions was stark and if this year's programme is representative of the direction of modern cinema the future looks bright indeed.
Among the slate of outstanding offerings was 'After The Smoke' by emerging Brisbane Director Nick Waterman. Co-written by Nick and singer/songwriter Bertie Blackman this powerful film is set in a remote outback mining station where a town gathers for the annual rodeo – but as a series of events unfold, a young man bears witness to something he will never forget.
Also worthy of mention is 'Miro', an Aboriginal western, shot in and around Condobolin in NSW. When Miro returns home at the end of World War II he finds his land taken, his people gone, his daughter stolen and his service record treated with contempt, but the New Guinea battlefield has taught him how to fight and he sets out to reunite his family waging his own form of justice. This powerful and moving picture directed by Victoria Wharfe McIntyre stars Mark Coles Smith.
'The World in Your Window' (NZ) written and directed by Zoe McIntosh is a sombre but uplifting story of eight-year-old Jesse who lives in a twilight world of sadness and silence, squeezed into a tiny caravan with his grief-stricken father who has shut out the world with heavy drapes. They are trapped in the past until an accidental friendship with a V8 car-driving transsexual unlocks the means for Jesse and his father to liberate themselves. Exquisitely shot and directed, there are only three lines of dialogue in the film, which relies on its brilliant visual imagery to carry the story.
Flickerfest Highlights
After The Smoke (Australia)Fysh (Australia)
Kill Off (Australia)
Lost Property Office (Australia)
Martha the Monster (Australia)
Miro (Australia)
Second Best (Australia)
All Of Us (Watu Wote) (Germany / Kenya)
Five by Five (UK)
An Imagined Conversation: [Kanye West And Stephen Hawking] (Canada)
The World in Your Window (NZ)
LOU (USA)
