Creative Energy & Apocalypse:
For its 10th
anniversary, the HollyShorts Film Festival
Pulls out all
the stops and gives genre films their due.
by @EmilieFlory
Daniel Sol and Theo Dumont have
successfully fulfilled the mission they took upon themselves since 2005 to
“create a destination to help filmmakers advance their careers,
knowledge-share, meet industry pros, while talking about their short movies and
collaborating.”
The HollyShorts Film Festival features dynamic, unbiased, international
and independent movies, it lasts for ten days and not only proposes non-stop
screenings (no less than 400 short films were shown this year) to a wide
audience made up of newcomers and passionate film buffs, but also panels hosted
by those professionals who are best informed about the evolution and workings
of the film industry, plus fantastic red-carpet parties and TV interviews.
Enough going on to allow filmmakers to exchange their experiences, talk about
their projects and, more importantly, meet their audience.
Because what has changed and is going to continue to change even more
from now on are the direct ties creators and audiences are forging. Filmmakers
have come to a better understanding of their own work and what the audience
wants. New technologies, a subject at the center of all HollyShorts panels,
impose a new system that is spreading like wildfire and should allow the film
industry to renew itself and reinvent itself, not only concerning its
production system but its distribution system as well. The personalities who
represent this new system and truly love movies find their greatest allies
among filmmakers. So new life will be breathed into the seventh art. Movies are
reasserting themselves once again.
And rest assured, film genre isn’t left out, on the contrary, it remains
the measure of adaptability that we refer to. Whether it’s taken as an example
during panels like the well-known “A Terrifying Calling Card: How To Best Use
Your Horror Short For Business”, which HollyShorts devoted to it or that it is
simply given a choice slot among the screenings scheduled during the festival,
“film genre” isn’t being forgotten: it’s asserting itself!
Creative,
brilliant movies that talk about an apocalyptic world and borrow their
attributes from “genre films” …
In view of the program proposed by HollyShorts, an obvious observation
comes to mind: The boundary between different movie genres isn’t as clear as it
once was. Most of the movies shown in sections seemingly far removed from genre
films, dealt with themes genre films are fond of or played with formal codes
that are a specific characteristic of theirs.
Nevertheless, the HollyShorts program which goes from video clips to
comedies to school movies, web series, animated films and drama, welcomed
“genre films” with honor by reserving several sections or “blocks” for them
that packed the house: “Horror Program”, “Sci-fi Showcase”, “VFX Showcase”, “3D
& Visual Stimulation”. Some of the shorts shown in the blocks “Action
Shorts” and “Thriller Shorts” were clearly very close to joining these
blocks… Let’s just say that HollyShorts made horror and science fiction film
fans very happy indeed… All the more so since the level of movies shown was
especially high.
By the way, we should mention that for opening night, festival-goers
really enjoyed themselves watching the crazy Footprints and Cheatin’
by the king of independent animation Bill Plympton.
A brief
look at the movies acclaimed in the abovementioned blocks: Horror Program,
Sci-fi Showcase, VFX Showcase, 3D & Visual Stimulation…
Horror
Program
Lasting 117 minutes, the Horror
Program presented by Eli Roth’s “The Crypt” at the Chinese Theatres offered
viewers, who packed the theater, a dozen short films, all of them beautifully
made: Good Samaritan by Jeffrey
Reddick, Carolina Parakeet by A.J.
Briones, Ticket to the Haunted Mansion
by Nuntakul Sakulchai, The Body by
Paul Davis, Dark Origins by Evan
Randall Green, Visions by Gene
Blalock, Luna by Antonio Perez, One Please by Jesse Burks, Drudge by Kheireddine El-Helou and Barista by Rebekah McKendry.
- Drudge by Kheireddine El-Helou
Storyline: What was supposed to be a
romantic night in for a young couple, quickly turns into a terrifying encounter
with Drudge... A new face of horror is born.
Award for Best Horror, Drudge
benefits from spot on directing that is supported by an effective storyline and
the rereading of slasher codes reinterpreted by Scream. The gradual buildup of suspense (we go from laughter to
fear to a feeling of icy horror) and the creation of a new style of
unclassifiable and terrifying monster (a masked man, half Iron Man, half
Michael Myers) make for a success in every respect.
- One Please by Jesse Burks
Storyline: Mommy and daddy love you...very
much.
More focused on black humor, One
Please (or how a mother’s finger turns into ice cream on a stick for her
child) talks about adults’ extreme, sometimes terrifying, dependence on their
kids… Very graphic imaging and the actors’ sensitive, incisive acting
definitely put it among the festival’s gems.
Sci-Fi
Showcase
This two hour program offered the
HollyShorts’ audience 9 eccentric movies that were skillfully done: North Bay by Adam Grabarnickd, Atrium by Dave Paige, The Pale Moonlight by Tin Pang, The Escape by Ivano Di Natale &
Alessandro De Vivo, Distance (Best
Sci-Fi) by Daniel Allan Langa, Raker
by Ande Cunningham, Fist by Gavin
Hignight, The iMom by Ariel Martin
and the very funny Future Hero by
Ramin Serry.
- The iMom by Ariel Martin
Storyline:
When technology exceeds humanity...
This dark tale, which triggers laughter before moving and finally
horrifying us, takes us into a near future where, thanks to specific jobs by
stylish androids (in the tradition of The
Surrogates), husbands and wives think they are rid of the chores imposed on
them by the bringing up of their children: No more changing diapers, goodbye to
the children’s sentimental /sexual education! Until the day…
But when the worst happens, it’s
already too late!
A
special mention for especially fine acting performances given by the actors and
the lovely Marta Dusseldorp.
- Fist by Gavin Hignight
Storyline:
Mark Smitt has just signed up for a five-day medical research study to make
some quick cash... but will the following experiments not only be the end of
his personal freedom... but his very life?
Based on real scientific data and directed very effectively with limited
means, Gavin Hignight’s Fist takes us
back to the Prometheus myth and more widely to the catastrophes caused by
respectable researchers playing God… Claustrophobic, disturbing and staggering!
VFX
Showcase
The VFX Showcase, which preceded
the Sci-Fi Showcase, lasted for two hours as well. 10 especially inventive and
superbly directed movies made up the program: On/Off (Best Editing) by Thierry Lorenzi, Glow by Douglas Jessup (Panavision future Filmmaker), Nova by John Albanis, Serpent’s Lullaby by Patricia Chica, Recurring Symptoms by Peter Szewczyk, Mouse-X by Justin Tagg, Ghost Light by PJ Germain, Recoil by Evan Matthews, Inner Demons by Ben Caird and Corona (Find Your Beach), a commercial
by Mike Smith Rivera.
- Nova by John Albanis
This is a science fiction thriller whose post-apocalyptic atmosphere,
extraordinarily lunar, is totally bewitching. Very ambitious, the story shows the spectacular transformation of a
man into a supernova. The
magnificent VFX do much more than just serve the story: Nova is a movie with infectious energy, you come out of it feeling
like you’re ultra-powerful!
Albanis says his movie is a "visual essay about the cyclical nature
of societal mass consumption”. He adds: “It's a spectacle short film piece.
Short films always have to be breaking new ground. That's the point of them.”
- Mouse-X
by Justin Tagg
Storyline: Mouse-X is a mystery/sci-fi story about
Anderson, a man who wakes up in a building with no idea where he is or how he
got there, before slowly discovering that in each of the rooms around him are a
thousand clones of himself, all of whom woke up into the same mysterious
scenario. To escape he needs to outwit his 'selves' while overcoming the
realization that he is not the only Anderson...
Mouse-X offers us the following diabolical trip: “Who are you, if you're not the only you?”
Magnificently directed, the movie displays an hypnotic atmosphere and plays
with chromatic contrasts (blood red, forest green) and the opposition of sets
(contemporary design, classical design). The movie’s opening with that red
corridor, those off-center paintings of pin-ups and the phosphorescent maze at
the very end, stun the moviegoer and take him into a disconcerting world
of make-believe.
3D &
Visual Stimulation…
Probably one of the festival’s most
enjoyable and specialized blocks as much by the quality of the screenplays as
by the absolute formal creativity of the movies shown, the “3D & Visual
Stimulation” block greatly impressed the Chinese Theatres 1 audiences with its
10 very eclectic movies: String Theory
by Jonathan Pezza (the intersecting lives of two lady musicians), Call Her Lotte by Annekathrin Wetzel (a
story of wrecked friendship during WWII), Eve
by Eric Gandois (an ecological science fictional tale), The Adventures of Barty & The Pirates by Mark Chavez (a
humorous animated movie), Hotline by
Deva Blaisdell-Anderson & Lee Miller (a blood-curdling drama), Domino Falling by Siavash Farahani (a
thriller in the desert), Face In The
Crowd by Alex Preger (a film of pure feeling that follows the emotions of
an uptight woman in the middle of a crowd looking like something out of a 50s
movie), Oceans by Maria Juranic (a
sensual video clip fantasy), Sure Thing
by Deborah Reinisch (an explosive comedy based on the show All In The Timing by David Ives) and The Chaperone 3D by Fraser Munden (“an action-packed, badass short
film using a combination of animation, stop-motion, live-action, puppetry and
exploding piñatas”).
- Sure Thing by Deborah Reinisch
Storyline: Bill takes the only available seat in a
cafe--at Betty's table. Could she be the 'one'? Could he? Are there any
guarantees when we open our hearts? Sure thing.
This dazzling comedy plunges us right into
the middle of what could turn out to be… will turn out to be… or maybe won’t
turn out to be… a tryst! Deborah Reinisch’s brilliant directing plus Gia
Crovatin and Luke Kirby’s impressive acting make this movie a moment of pure
delight. All the paths these hearts could take by opening up to or closing out
the other person are suggested, followed and mocked. So much stimulation and
intelligence is exciting. It could be a simple conversation, but this eminently
creative and visual movie takes us into the minds, hearts and bodies of these
people in search of true love. A total success!
- Oceans by Maria Juranic, a video in 3D
Fantastically constructed from a narrative point of view, Oceans is absolutely visually
breathtaking. Its very polished 80s esthetic embraces the ballet created by an
octopus-woman’s movements. The moviegoer, just like the man who watches her and
gets taken in by her seductive game, doesn’t understand until she attacks that
she was nothing but a predator. But what a predator!... And what a ballet!
“A mix of stop motion, manipulation of paper, high speed, slow motion
and avant-garde editing defines Maria Juranic’s films and music videos. She
combines a seasoned experience in animation with live action to create a
special magical realism.”
- The Chaperone
3D by Fraser Munden
(Best 3-D)
Storyline: The
Chaperone 3D tells the "hand drawn true story" of
teacher/chaperone Ralph, DJ Stefan and the-kid-at-the-concession-stand Peter as
they kick ass and take names after a motorcycle gang invades a Montreal youth
dance that they're watching over. The use of an interview with the real- life
Ralph and Stefan as the voice-over for the short film only makes it that much
more fun.
Best 3-D award, The Chaperone 3D is an amazing little
masterpiece roundly applauded at TIFF, the Slamdance Film Festival and BTUFF,
winning the creativity award and best short at the Fantasia Film Festival. To
say that it left its mark on HollyShorts audiences is an understatement. This
short film had Chinese Theatres 1 laughing so hard, it was all people could
talk about during the festival. If you have the opportunity to see this movie,
don’t think twice and jump right in, you’ll be seeing something absolutely
unique. The combination of elements making up the movie: animation,
stop-motion, live-action, puppetry and exploding piñatas, is quite simply
extraordinary.
Many
thanks to Daniel Sol, Theo Dumont and Nicole Castro who make up the HollyShorts
winning team. An absolutely wonderful team ably assisted by the fantastic Kevin
Anderson, Edith and Ozzie Torres, Alexandra Schwab, Leimoni Coloretti, Allison
Powell, Jerome Curchod, Philippe Casseus, Valérie Dumont, Frantz Durand, Damon
Campbell and Joanna Fang.
English
translation by Cameron Watson.
http://hollyshorts.com/ https://twitter.com/hollyshorts
FULL ARTICLE:
http://crashpalaceproductions.com/2014/09/18/crash-analysis-support-team-creative-energy-apocalypse-hollyshorts-guest-post-emilie-flory/
