“Wishful thinking, playing with the moon. Won’t you realize we’ll get there soon.” These landscapes prove indelible characters all their own in short films where the tension with their inhabitants plays out in dramatic ways. In Manuel Alvarez Diestro and Sergio Belinchon’s gorgeous The Trader (Spain 2016, 12 min), a busy executive has a very unlikely commute to work. In Aaron Stoller’s very funny Killing the Coat (US 2015, 4 min), a man takes retribution on a particular item of clothing. Marc and Karina Ripper’s The Child and the Dead (US 2015, 18 min) is a rich gothic tale of a family stranded in a brutal and mysterious wilderness. A Romanian folk song is the jumping-off point for a stunning musical voyage in Kirk Kelley’s Lamentation (US 2015, 5 min). In Freddy Syborn’s quirky story, a fiancé in mourning, seeking to come to terms with his loss, takes an unexpected trip to Isla Traena (UK 2015, 15 min) for some stark revelations. And history comes vibrantly to life as Bob Yothers’ Down South (US/Netherlands 2016, 6 min) takes a fierce, poetic view of the horrific legacy of slavery. This is sublime, concise filmmaking, epic in sensibility, writ large on the big screen.
Guests in attendance 10/12 & 10/13: Marc Ripper & McKenzie Stubbert (The Child & The Dead); Bob Yothers (Down South); Manuel Alvarez Diestro (The Trader)