The 5th Short Film Hall of Fame

I have even started yet

I mean, you can go from not having started to being done in less than the time it takes to watch a baseball game.

Yeah, I'm just a slacker when it comes to writing reviews.

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IMDb
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Do like I did.. break it up into 3 sessions. Its so much easier.

I generally do one at a time, but I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.

4 to 5 short films are less than the actual movie time. I watch one, write its review and then move to the next. I know you like to think about what you watch before you do your review. I cant do that.. and its funny because I think of things I want to say about mine while watching it but never actually put what I had in mind.

I'll probably finish up the 28th HoF in a few days and then I'll be able to commit myself more to this Hall. That way, it'll likely be easier to handle.

I think I have two for this.. Theif's nomination and my own.. and I have 3 films for the other. I hope to be done this week with both unless someone else joins this.

I figured out how to get the site to play on my Fire Stick... just a bit of adjusting here or there.

Yeah, I'll add your stuff to the OP soon, but you can join and share the video of your nom until I can get it updated.

Here it is...

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Deep in the Norwegian Arctic a man is being held prisoner by a group of native dwellers, not all that different from us, but beholden to their own customs and way of life. The prisoner is guilty of killing this group's leader, and the leader's daughter has it on her head to either rescue or condemn the man. A ritual plays out where her father's body is cremated in a canoe while a second one with a village elder, the daughter and the transgressor in it row out to deep waters - seven knots in a rope, and seven seconds to decide if he lives or dies. The story almost plays a secondary role to the majestic scenery and there are some pretty breathtaking and satisfying shots that do justice to the Norwegian seaside landscape. Oil rigs dot the coastline, visible reminders of the conflict that goes on, of which our small band are a part of. It's beautiful stuff, and just the sight of it gives the impression that anyone who visits would be compelled to film there.

I left Seven pretty hungry for more of this story, but everything is expertly divulged to us in the mere 10 to 11 minutes the film runs - from the different outlook the youth has in comparison with her older mentors, to the conflict going on and differing characteristics of all three characters. It seems more geared to be a comment on capitol punishment rather than the intrusion these oil and gas companies make into what were once pristine landscapes and unmolested communities. The prisoner seems to have had a kangaroo court decide his fate, and his linguistic difficulties does nothing to further any hope we might have that it was fair. Instead, it seems that the anger these locals have towards what is happening to their home has been transferred to this unfortunate man who happens to have made a really bad mistake, without any malicious intent on his part. It's an okay story, but what I really took away from this were the visuals, which are superb.

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Beirut, 1982 - The FIFA World Cup is about to commence and Gabriel is pining for his fiancé Houda, who he hasn't seen in months. Israel invaded just days ago, and the Palestine Liberation Organization remains under fire - meaning that the bridge Gabriel must cross is under constant attack. He outlines a plan he has, to cross the bridge while the opening game between Argentina and Belgium is played. There is much interest in superstar Maradona, and Gabriel thinks eyes will be glued to television sets around Beirut, allowing him and driver Mokhtar to race across to the other side without getting killed. Helping them will be Mokhtar's lucky charm, but before the drive even starts, Gabriel will have to survive the day in a war zone, with explosions and ricochets sending shrapnel flying.

Un obus partout utilizes an animation technique that uses silhouettes and cut-outs, and it is one that director Zaven Najjar has developed and used in other films (including a one-minute version of Steven Spielberg film Jaws.) This film has a personal connection to him, for he's of Lebanese descent, although he's based in Paris - he also does work illustrating. I think his work is very stylish, and looks very attractive - he can really accentuate aspects of the animation to bring something to the forefront of our mind, such as the soccer balls and Maradona posters - getting us to really realise how popular the sport is at this time, or else blood, which is being spilled on the streets on an hourly basis. When night falls, much of the shapes in the world Najjar has created turn ink black, and the sky becomes blood-red - which is really effective. He won awards for creating this work, and I enjoyed watching it very much. Gabriel is young and reckless, and risks everything to see the one he loves - and also to prove himself in a World turned upside down. Visually impressive and impactful.

Seven, 2018

In a small village, Yohana (Dagny Backer Johnsen) has lost a loved one due to a conflict with a local oil company. The leader of their village (Trond Teigen) wants Yohana to go through with a tradition of retribution against an oil worker (Nicholas Boulton) responsible for her father's death.

The most memorable part of this film was definitely the stunning setting. The beauty of the surroundings seems to condemn at once the intrusion of the oil company AND the ugly actions of the villagers.

Something that the film seems to get right is the way that anger at corporations or large institutions gets aimed at the people on the front line. There's no way that the man who has been captured by the village actually has power over the company's actions. From the little dialogue we get from him, it seems as if his job was to escort a geologist to the shore.

It's also an interesting look at two different points of view. On one hand, the leader's insistence that they have to send a message to the company, that they have to impress on the company that there are consequences. At the same time, Yohana's own sense of justice that actually takes into account the larger guilt of the oil worker.

I found myself wanting just a little more from this one. Maybe more of Johana's experience with the oil worker, or an interaction with anyone else in the village.

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The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, 2000)

I haven't seen much of Maddin's work but he's kind of always been someone I appreciated more than actually liked but I think this is easily my favourite thing I've seen from him. Recreating a style of filmmaking I really love and doing a more than admiral job of capturing the vibe. I often lament how films aren't able to have this kind of energy anymore and I'm glad to see it brought back here like 70 years later lol. Maddin really nailed this. The visuals, story and energy all ring true of this style and its a blast. Loved it.

I haven't updated the OP entirely yet (I can't keep up with y'all), but I have added Thief's nom. We have technically started now. I'll take some input on when y'all think the deadline should be.

Maybe we could do two reviews each week. That should probably be feasible.

A Gun for George (2011) -

This short centers around Terry Finch, an unsuccessful writer of pulp-fiction crime novels who struggles to find publishing for them. Given the lack of success he finds throughout the short and the trouble he gets himself into in the process, it seems clear that he should give up. Via flashback though, it's implied his brother was killed by a group of carjackers, thus making the main character in his novels a stand-in for his brother and the act of publishing them a tribute to him. As a result, I felt sympathy for Terry and hoped for him to find success. Terry copes with the setbacks he experiences throughout the short by imagining himself as the character in his novels who "kills" the people who give him trouble throughout the short. As others have noted, these scenes are technically impressive for how they accurately recreate the look and feel of a 70's grindhouse film. They're also quite humorous given how Terry often shoots people in their balls in them. With that being said though, while this short offers a handful of interesting concepts, I don't think it wrapped itself up well. Since the short wasn't about Terry facing death, the implication that his life might be in danger at the end didn't work for me and seemed to come out of nowhere. Maybe if the short fleshed out the "fantasy and reality becoming intertwined" theme more, the ending would've appropriately chilled me. Still though, I found a lot to like about this short and I'm glad I watched it.

Next Up: The Heart of the World

It's messy, looks a little unfinished, and headache inducing, but there's something about Goodbye Mommy that makes me want to watch it over and over again. A detective, sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit, gets out and finds himself embroiled in a search for a Queen's extraterrestrial child and husband, the King. The animated world that the story takes place in pulsates, rips apart and disintegrates and absolutely anything can happen from one moment to the next. Parts are very crudely put together - but that's where a lot of it's meaning is, and you get a sense that the world this detective lives in is crumbling, as is his mind after his wife leaves him and he finds out he's not immune to the schemes of the criminals who put him behind bars.

The stated aim of Goodbye Mommy is to make you “feel like you’re on drugs”- and it probably does better on that count than many other animated shorts. The film acts as it's own Psychoactive Fungi. It has a coherent story, which contrasts the insane visuals we're presented with - everything happening for a reason no matter how crazy or seemingly strange and exotic. Little clues litter the margins, and seeming lunacy is stitched together with reason. Jack Wedge takes us beyond our own imaginings, into overload - and I have to admit not only having a headache after I watched the short film, but also feeling a little motion sick. But I'm drawn to this strange thing like a moth to the flame - despite that slight aura of ugliness it has about it from time to time. But as I said, that fits in with the world Wedge's detective lives in. It's a really artful, cool little piece of animation.

I'm sitting here after watching Night and Fog without knowing the words to describe what I've seen - Alain Resnais, with the help of poet Jean Cayrol and collaborator Chris Marker walk you to the gates of the Nazi-era concentration camp - it's ruins in 1955, then back to 1933 going through the whole process of how they were built, by whom and for what. Step by step, every detail from architecture, building methods, contractors, design - and then they populate them with already tormented souls - we try to imagine, if it had been us - who have endured those train journeys, with comrades dying in the suffocating cattle wagons. Once you're there, really there in your mind, we are hit with the full horror - the disease, cruelty and bizarre practice of recycling all of the women's hair for blankets, skin for writing on and body fat for soap. We see the horrors that were finally captured on film once the allies had discovered and liberated the camps. Bulldozers pushing masses of arms, legs, heads and bodies. More horror, and more. Images that defy description.

This film was the landmark first step, and since then the film world has tried to slowly come to grips with what happened during that era. Resnais wants to go further though, because he doesn't believe that the history of the concentration camp started, or finished, there. That the 'monster' of brutality he speaks of may be subdued, but not dead. We hear of them from time to time - for example, in China recently. They still spring up - and that's what he really wants to warn us of. We have a responsibility to fight any return to the practices enacted by the concentration camp. Night and Fog was the name given to a decree in Nazi Germany that would make Partisans and Resistance leaders disappear without anyone ever knowing what happened to them. We were never meant to know what happened in those camps I guess. The Germans thought they'd win the war and shrug their shoulders when people began to question what had happened to all those people.

Night and Fog shakes you up when you watch it. That's for sure. It so expertly encapsulates what it wants to say in those 32 minutes that it's a masterful piece of work. Those slow tracking shots of the overgrown remains of the camps, intermingled with the historical footage, give a bridge to everything that happened there that wouldn't otherwise exist with straight grainy black and white film - snippets of awful stuff, always somewhat removed. The poetic, emotionless narration is haunting. I'd seen this short before, but it got me all over again like I was watching it for the first time - especially the "hospital", "surgery" and "prison" inside a camp and what went on in those places. A landmark, and very important, documentary and short film.

Yahoo! I finally started this...but I have no idea about how to critique short films? So I guess I'll just be unastute and go by what I like.