I started this article about Sundance a little while ago, but am going to lock it down today.
70 shorts were chosen from 6092 submissions, which was an 8% increase from last year. Sundance has an incredible reputation for discovering the hottest directing talent when it comes to shorts – and while it does seem to be especially welcoming to celebrities getting behind the camera (it is Robert Redford’s festival after all), I have usually been able to discover a gem from someone whom I wouldn’t have expected.
One day I’ll get to Sundance, but it won’t be this year. However, due to the high profile nature of many of the shorts (and the fact that a number sit outside the traditional distribution system, and are designed as exposure seeking calling cards rather than commercial properties) there is a good chance of seeing a large part of the programme online. The festival had a partnership with iTunes last year which saw them release a number of the shorts for download through the portal during the festival – alas I don’t think it’s running again this year. In the interim, I thought I’d give you the lowdown on my most anticipated shorts, and point you in the direction of some interesting works from different directors’ back catalogues.
The fact that this year’s programme will showcase James Franco’s directing debut has dominated the headline of most articles dealing with the programme. I hope his film “Herbert White” lives up to the expectations that have inevitably been bestowed on it. In terms of theme, we know that “Based on a poem by the same name, a man struggles with his inner demons while trying to live a normal family life”. Is it a poem by Frank Bidart that inspired the film, a poet that Franco discovered at college:
“This teacher brought it into class, and everybody was kinda shocked. It’s very dark and it’s about this guy. He’s a murderer, a necrophiliac, and it’s in a poem, right?” said Franco. “What struck me is that it’s a kind of a confessional poem, or a dramatic monologue. It’s as if the poet is using this crazy man as a mask to express certain feelings and go to an extreme place where those feelings could be felt.”
He later met Bidart, who told him that he’d based the poem on a case study he’d read and injected his own feelings about being a young gay man in the closet. Michael Shannon, who is most memorable for me as the mentally unstable son of the neighbour in Revoutionary Road, plays the lead.
Also in the US dramatic shorts category is Family Jewels by Martin Stitt. Stitt himself is British and a very interesting character. We spent some time together at the Tampere Film Festival in 2006 (notably at the airport), where his first short film ‘What does your Daddy do?’ was showcased. Stitt and I bonded rather quickly when we realised we’d both been to Oxford (where I remembered reading about his success in the student newspaper), and had much to discuss about abandoning the traditional Oxford career paths in favour of film. Stitt had actually started out as a banker, whilst maintaining a keen interest in photography. He eventually left banking to travel the world as a press photographer, which evolved into his directing of shorts. Whilst perhaps not the most financially sound career diversion (at least at that stage), he said that he was incredibly happy with his decision. Hence I’m really very pleased that he’s not a one short wonder, and that his next film is making waves. I can't embed 'What does your Daddy Do?' but you can watch it fromthe UK here
The anticipation for another short by Spike Jonze is not unexpected, with stills being leaked just last week. Jonze is really incredibly inventive filmmaker – I haven’t liked all of his stuff, but the things I do like, I really like. One of his lesser known works is ‘How they get there’ – directly inspired by a certain scene in Paris, Texas, but with rather more tragicomic consequences.
Of course more recently Jonze’s talents were brought to our attention for his work with Kanye West. ‘We were once a fairytale’ had all the ingredients to light up the blogsosphere, an apparently coded mea culpa after Kanye’s unwelcome outburst at Taylor Swift, this film shows him in self-aware mode, his flaws on display like open wounds. It’s official posting on Vimeo was taken down, for some reason, so I’m embedding it from somewhere random:
Here is your trailer from 'I'm here'
Rob and Valentyna in Scotland comes to us from London-based US director Eric Lynne. Signed to the supercool Partizan production company, his short film ‘Neighbour’ is a classic and shows a talent for comedy that I imagine has only improved in the 4 years since Neighbour:
Jim Owen is another London-based filmmaker I met during my Future Shorts days. Working for commercial production company BCD, Jim teamed up with Chris Durban to direct a Straight8 film, ‘Class of 2005’. Straight8 is a great scheme leading the super8 revival – directors entering the competition shoot their 3 minutes of film and are not allowed any editing. They add sound separately and the first time they watch the finished production is with their audience. Some of the best films have been taken to Cannes for a showcase in recent year. Once of the best Straight8 films I’ve ever seen is Heel by Mexican Director Diego Arredondo, but Class of 2005 is one of the most eloquent and touching. The images fit perfectly with the texture of Super8, and the choice of haunting music is excellent:
Class of 2005
Trailer for ‘Can we Talk?’
Finally, it’s worth giving a shout out to David O’Reilly for his short ‘Please say Something’. Depicting a troubled relationship between a cat and a mouse set in the distant future, this animation is the latest in a series of cyberpunk neon adventures from the Berlin-based Irish director who won the Golden Bear at Berlin last year. Whilst in my own heart, for some reason there is something stopping me from warming to O’Reilly’s warped and witty technicolour style (I was definitely in the minority during the Berlin Film Festival screening), I know that this guy is going to be a huge talent in the years to come.
Update 24.01.10: Anticipation for the Spike Jonze short has gone up yet another notch: read this
Update 25.01.10: More shorts now online courtesy of Sundance!
Also learned that Jonze's short was produced with Absolut Vodka - brands funding short films is becoming a more and more common business model.
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