Archive for the ‘Short films’ Category

  • 26 May

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    Disturbingly Hot Centigrade Trailer

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    Centigrade Movie StillWriting about short films can be a bit disheartening mostly because they’re so difficult to see and track down but when something impresses me this much, I have to share.

    Last week I had the chance to see a few minutes of footage from Colin Cunningham’s award winning short film Centigrade and it really blew me away. Not only was the clip brilliantly cut together, it was well acted, well scored and looked nothing like a low budget production. Seriously, this thing looks really fantastic. Cunningham is a talented actor who has been involved in a load of locally shot TV shows and film productions but beyond that, he seems to have some additional hidden talents including that of writer and director.

    According to the press info on the official website, the film is the story of a man:

    who lives in an old, busted up camper trailer… but wakes up one morning to find himself
    (and it) rolling down the highway. Towed by a mysterious black pick-up truck, the Man is taken
    hostage aboard this rolling nightmare and will have to use his wits in order to survive.

    The film has played a number of big festivals so chances are a few folks out there may have heard of it, if not necessarily seen it. If you’re in Vancouver, the film will be shown at The Celluloid Social Club on Wednesday, May 28th (all details here) or you can check it out double billed with the next run of The First Weekend Club‘s “Canada Screens” series.

    In the meantime, be sure to check out the fabulous trailer. I’ll also keep you posted when we get word of a DVD release.

    Trailer tucked under the seat!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 May

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    Michel Gondry Apprentice?

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    Going to the bar on a school night isn’t always the best idea. But some good came of it. My good friend, who is a video editor, and I got talking about video editing and what-not and he mentioned this little video he stumbled across that has some of the most pain-staking, stop motion animation he’s ever seen. Like a good soldier, he sent me the link to the video this morning. I thought it was definitely worth posting.

    For those that appreciate animation, short films or just some old fashioned hard work, this is quite impressive…



    Made in Buenos Aires and in Baden (fantoche)
    by blublu.org/
    Music by Andrea Martignoni
    Produced by Mercurio Film

  • 22 Feb

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    All Oscar Nominated Shorts Online

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    Madame Tutli-PutliWanna really impress your friends at your Oscar party? Want to have more to say at the Live, RowThree.com “There Will Be Blog” experience on Sunday night? Now you can have more to say in the middle of the evening when some of the more obscure awards are given out by seeing all of the Oscar nominated live-action and animated shorts.

    Some of these films, although not as widely recognized as the main stream, full length feature stuff, are perfect examples of hard work, innovation and quite often brilliance in the art of film. It’s looking like this year is no exception and proves that small indie film makers are just as, if not more, important than the heavy hitters.

    Unbeknownst to me (and thanks to Sean from FilmJunk for pointing me in this direction), most of the shorts are already online over at YouTube (which is pretty much becoming the greatest web site to ever exist). Instead of searching for them all yourself, I’ve placed all of them under the seat here in the third row. I haven’t watched them all yet, but I can tell you that Madame Tutli-Putli is easily worth the 17 minutes of your life for one creepy train ride.

    check em all out right here:
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Jan

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    Red Princess Blues: The Book of Violence

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    Red Princess Blues posterQuite some time back, I had the opportunity to check out a short film entitled B R O K E N by writer/director Alex Ferrari. It was an amazing feat for such a small budget short film with great action, great kills and an interesting and “I wanna see more” type of storyline. So when Alex let me know about his newest film, this time an animated film entitled Red Princess Blues, I was more than eager to have a look.

    Red Princess Blues: The Book of Violence is an animated prequel to the upcoming feature length, live-action film, written by Alex Ferrari and the directorial debut of Dan Cregan, who worked as the visual effects supervisor on B R O K E N.

    In this tale we meet Princess as a 12 year old little girl who finds herself in a strange country looking for her father. She is then taken in by a “unique” looking man who goes by Nino. The short film is completely from the perspective of Princess and what she is going through. She soon discovers the “Book of Violence” and slowly begins her journey that one day will lead to vengeance.

    As one who’s not particularly interested in animation of this style, I have to admit that the animation is gorgeous. Each segment is a mix of both true animation and also still frames in which the “camera” is able to move around in. Each segment is hand drawn and the details are equisite.

    While there’s not much of a story here (as it’s only 7 minutes long), it sets up nicely what is sure to become a great action-oriented, indie feature with a strong, female, lead performance by the lovely Paula Garces (Harold and Kumar 1 & 2, FX’s “The Shield”). I’ll be sure to be watching for the release of this film as soon as it’s available.

    But hey, don’t take my word for it, you can head over to LatinoRaview and check out the full version of this short, animated prequel. Feel free to leave your thoughts below, but I’m sure you’ll see the technical wizardry in the animation right from the get-go.


    Paula Garces

    Links:
    See the short HERE
    IMDb profile – full cast and crew
    Official Site
    MySpace Profile for Red Princess Blues

  • 18 Jan

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    Films for Awareness – Free at Jaman

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    AIDS Jaago LogoI‘ve come to be really impressed by some of the free material that’s available on the net and leading the way form some of the best free video content is Jaman. The growing site is currently hosting AIDS Jaago, a collection of four short films by some of India’s top talent including directors Mira Nair, Vishal Bhardwaj, Santosh Sivan and Farhan Akhtar.

    At this point I’ve only seen two of the films (Mira Nair’s Migration and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Blood Brothers) and they’re both gorgeous films. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the other two are just as excellent.

    You can take a look at the films below or head on over to Jaman for the “better than DVD” versions of the films and then help spread the word by sharing them with others.

    Mira Nair’s Migration

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 17 Dec

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    Hummus Hut vs. Kosher King: Watch the Greatness Unfold

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    West Bank Story Movie StillI don’t always search out short films, I have a hard enough time keeping up with the full length features, but once in a while, something comes up that encourages a search. That was the case last week when IGN ran a news story that Ari Sandel, the director of last year’s Academy Award winning live action short film West Bank Story, has signed on to direct an upcoming comedy for Fox Atomic.

    I wasn’t all that interested in the announcement of Sandel’s new project but the story did kick off a search for his award winning short film and nearly an hour later, I was watching one of the funniest things I’ve seen this year; a year that sported some pretty funny comedies.

    It’s a musical complete with Disney-like singing and dance numbers that look like they’ve just come out of a classic Hollywood musical (I kept getting flashbacks to Singing in the Rain). It’s also a comedy that makes use of every conceivable stereotype while not being offensive – it’s a bit too sweet for that.

    If you’re curious to see the greatness that is West Bank Story, I suggest you put aside 20 minutes and prepare yourself to laugh out loud. Check out the film after the jump.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 04 Dec

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    Scorsese Does Hitchcock

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    If you’re a fan of Martin Scorsese, you probably know that over the years he’s been dedicated to film preservation and restoration, in order to save plenty of old decaying film stock. As a play on that, Scorsese teamed up with the makers of a foreign alcohol beverage to create a short film called The Key to Reserva. The whole idea in the short film is that Scorsese uncovered a few pages from a lost script of Alfred Hitchcock’s. As Marty puts it in the short film: “It’s one thing to preserve a film that has been made, it’s another to preserve a film that has not been made.”

    Anyway, you can check out the short film advertisement below. It’s some awesome stuff, especially if you’re a fan of Scorsese (a man I could listen to talk for days on end about movies and never get bored of) and/or Hitchcock. It’s also a lot of fun to try and spot all of the Hitchcock references during the actual “movie” part (which should surprisingly come very easy if you’ve watched Hitchcock’s greats). Which references did you spot?

  • 27 Nov

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    Actors “Speak” Up on the Strike

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    While I don’t care to dwell too much on the writers’ strike (enough blogs and news sites do that already), I thought it fun to see some of the videos that Hollywood’s actors have put together envisioning a season of film and television without writers. They don’t seem to be offering an opinion on the strike; just thoughts on what it’s like to not have the writers around. There are several. Featuring David Schwimmer, Kate Beckinsdale, Susan Sarandon, William H. Macy, Laura Linney, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Garlin, Sean Penn and more. I’ve posted some of my favorites here. To see the complete line-up (about 14 videos so far as of this writing), head over to the “Speechless” channel on brightcove.

    While this one is less creative, it was still one of my favorites.
    Susan Sarandon, Chazz Palminteri:

    After the jump, you can see » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 26 Oct

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    Review: Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

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    Director: Attila Szász
    Writer: Attila Szász
    Producer: Dalma Hidasi
    Starring: Vitéz Ábrahám, Ernõ Fekete, Dóra Létay
    Country of Origin: Hungary
    Running time: 30 min

    When I received the request to take a look at the screener for this short film and give my thoughts on it, the title intrigued me, but I was even more interested in the cover art. I know, I know; never judge a book (or a DVD) by its cover. But sometimes one just can’t help themselves. The cover is caring and heartfelt, yet at the same time a little bit creepy. A mother and child silhouetted on a back porch in front of what looks to be a warm, inviting home. But just inside the home is a shadowy figure that looks slightly haunting and menacing. Great cover.

    So given the title, imagine my surprise when the DVD arrives and it’s actually a subtitled Hungarian film entitled, Most látszom, most nem látszom (Now You See Me Now You Don’t). It’s not very often I’m asked to screen and review a film out of Hungary. In fact, I’m not even sure if I’ve ever seen any films from that country. So now even more intrigued, I dropped the film in the DVD player. Wow.
    » Read the rest of the entry..

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