Flicker Fest 2011

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to attend short film festivals. I’ve always been a big fan of the short film format, and enjoy the notion of spending an evening / weekend with like-minded folks, engaging in the viewing of a series of great, and possibly not-so-great, short films produced by people from all over the world, with various stories to tell, and with varying levels of technical and artistic ability. So with that in mind, it was with great excitement that I recently attended all 3 sessions of the 2011 Flicker Fest competition at the Dendy Cinemas, Portside. Over the course of 3 sessions, I was able to view about 50 films, and in the following review I want to highlight the ones which I found the most engaging or interesting. This isn’t every film I saw, but in all honesty I feel as though these were the strongest from what was on offer.

Ana’s Playground was a bleak story about a girl living in a dangerous environment being forced to undertake the simple task of retrieving a soccer ball, all the while being shot at by an unknown sniper from a nearby apartment building. Despite the nondescript set of characters, and virtually no dialogue, this film was bleak, and tense. Writer/Director Eric D Howell has put together a short film that epitomises everything I love about the short film form - taking a very simple concept, and exploring it in a very good way. The cinematography and location work here was excellent, also, which helped give the film such a nice dose of realism.

If Babel has only one claim to fame, then it is the absolutely breathtaking use of CGI elements seamlessly fused with real-world footage to create what is easily the most visually impressive short film I have ever seen. Once again we are presented with a simple story, that of two peasants taken from a small village into the dizzying heights of a metropolis, but it’s the visual style employed that makes this film so beautiful and engaging. Truly a work of art. I spent most of the film muttering the phrase “OK, that’s cool” under my breath. Pure visual poetry.

Bee Sting was a quirky Australian short film about a father and son who both fall in love with the same teacher. While I am getting a bit over the whole notion of quirky Australian comedies (as at times it seems that is the only type of film we ever seem to produce), this was quite an enjoyable short. Brendan Cowell and Matilda Brown are excellent in their performances as the two adults involved in the newly minted relationship, and this film holds the honour of having the single dirtiest line out of all the films on offer in FlickerFest 2011. The fact it is delivered in such a beautiful way by Matilda Brown is the icing on the cake. I loved it.

Protect the Nation was an interesting entrant in FlickerFest 2011 - a short film based on the real-world incident of xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2008. Given this close connection to reality, it was a grim if enjoyable piece of film-making, and while it was more a character exploration than a film with a plot, I have to say that the films offers an interesting insight into what shapes a person’s beliefs and attitudes at a particular point in history.

The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger was the strangest of all the films on offer, and despite the low-grade animation level on offer, it was a funny little diversion from some of the heavier stuff we were being hit with. It’s worth seeing just on the title alone, and continues the long tradition of fables being used to explore bigger and deeper issues.

The Lost Thing recently won the 2011 Oscar for Best Animated Short, and it’s clear to see why. This was a charming Australian short film about a lonely guy that collects bottle caps, and one day when out doing this in near-future dystopian Perth, he stumbles across a strange “lost thing”, which he offers to help find a home for. The CGI on offer is excellent, and the plot is touching and moving in a way that a real-world version of this same concept might not have worked. Animation certainly has its strengths as an artform, and here we seem them at their best.

The Telegram Man, another Australian short film starring Aussie heavyweights Gary Sweet, Sigrid Thornton, and Jack Williams, is probably one of the saddest movies in the entire collection. Focussing on the role the telegram deliverers have played in Australian life, especially when it comes to delivering bad news, this film explores what it is like to live in a community where you have a reputation for being the bearer of bad news. A poignant tale which will have you thinking long and hard about how some jobs involve carrying terrible burdens. Life in this film is presented in a simple, relaxed manner, and is miles away from the glitz and glamour of certain other films we were presented with. I really loved this film, despite the emotional weight it carries.

Last, but by no means least, When The Wind Changes was another quirky Australian comedy short film about a bunch of guys running a charter boat business in a lake that has almost lost all of its water. The film takes as its starting point the age-old children scare tactic of not being caught out doing something stupid when the wind changes, because if you do, you’ll be stuck doing it forever. In this case, two of the guys discover that when the wind changes for them, they both starting saying the exact same thing the other person is saying - and much hilarity ensues, including a wonderful job interview one of them has at the same time as the other guy is having sex with his girlfriend. In many ways this is the most American of all the films, as you could almost imagine this being the plot for a 90 minute Will Ferrell comedy. But overall a lovely piece of work.

In all honesty, I could keep going on and on about the quality of the films on offer. Sufficed to say, FlickerFest 2011 was a great short film competition, and I am looking foward to seeing what the 2012 competition has in store. Do yourself a favour and get along to see one of the sessions that are left in the tour, which is running through until the end of the month. Click here for details. The sheer volume of variety and quality is worth the price of admission.