Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2011

The beauty of film festivals is seeing movies from a sweeping panorama of countries, that treat a range of topics and genres even the most esoteric film boffin would be hard pushed to find anywhere else. Meanwhile, the beauty of short films is ten for the price of one. All kinds of goodies can be savored in the time it would normally take to watch Pearl Harbor. And you won’t end up repeatedly stabbing a pen into your leg while you watch them.

So it seems a no-brainer to put the twain together. That’s what the brainy folks at Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia did back in 1999, and it has paid dividends. Their festival is now an Academy-Award qualifier, and one of the most prominent fests of the region.

The short film is nothing new. In the early days of cinema, it was rare to find a long one. One of the most famous early short films, Un Chien Andalou (1929), by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, helped define the surrealist movement with its abstract expressionism. Today short films remain one way in which filmmakers can find a space for such experimentation away from the demands of profitability—as well as gain recognition and contacts. So open your mind to the range of offerings, and remember—even if you don’t like something, you won’t have to wait long for the next.

Short Shorts runs until June 26 and offers a range of thematic programs as well as six competitive sections—International, Asia International, Japan STOP Global Warming Competition, Let’s Travel Project and a 3D competition. At the Metropolis office we decided to do our bit to fill you in on one section at least: The International Competition. With 35 films from 16 countries, here’s our pick of what to look out for…

Coming Clean

J. J. Winlove, Australia This hilarious and wonderfully creative tale is told via animated characters of squiggly hair on a bar of soap. Dennis finds pubic hair on his soap that neither belongs to him nor his girlfriend, and decides to exact revenge—which involves stealing a bag of pubes from a waxing salon, naturally. A story of love with a lighthearted ending, this offering from New Zealand-born, Sydney-based director J. J. Winlove will change the way you look at pubes forever. (7:42)

Interview

Sebastian Marka, Germany A German investigative journalist gets a scoop to die for when he interviews a suspected serial killer, then gets deeper and deeper into dark secrets on both sides. Think Seven, but compressed to a scant 20 minutes, and mixed in with a warning for over-keen reporters (we’ll remember that). Well acted, well scripted and the back story is woven in creatively. Debut director Marka was born in Geneva and works as a freelance film and commercial editor. (19:10)

Oppressed Majority

Eléonore Pourriat, France A film of role reversal set in a matriarchal society, the short is at first hilarious and absurd. Topless female joggers run past as a house husband picks his kid up from nursery and discusses the rights and wrongs of Islamic clothing regulations with the hijab-wearing (male) Muslim teacher. But what begins as a comic inversion of social stereotypes turns darkly humorous and then terminates with a spine-chilling finale that puts the thematic core of the piece into perspective. Debut director Eléonore Pourriat is also an actress on French TV, cinema and theater, which perhaps explains the masterful direction of her cast. (10:41)

Catharsis

Cédric Prévost, France
Post-post-modern-modern comedy that wavers between the old breaking of the fourth wall (between the film and us lot) and self-help. A filmmaker gets trapped inside his own movie and gets so sick of it that he finally understands his wife’s exasperation with his own cinematic obsessiveness. This is Prévost’s eighth short film, so one feels for his poor wife, really. (18:01)

All images and stills © Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia

Casus Belli

Yorgos Zois, Greece
Beautifully shot with smooth tracking, we start with a trolley full of food and then progress lineally through a supermarket, nightclub queue, church aisle, art gallery, betting shop and homeless queue, with the same crop of actors reappearing in different costumes and guises, exhibiting the mannerisms of their particular setting. You think you know where this one is going, when one homeless guy rebels at not getting his supper and the whole thing plays out blisteringly in reverse. Debut director Zois hails from Athens and was awarded a scholarship to study film in Berlin by legendary Hellenic filmmaker Costa-Gavras. (11:11)

Conversation Piece

Joe Tunmer, UK
This innovative musical comedy should get a laugh all round. A husband-and-wife story is told through jazz music (Rex Stewart’s “Conversation Piece”) with one low wah-wah cornet riff for the man’s voice and another high-pitched squealer for the woman’s. Most relationships would be better off that way. Tunmer has written and directed six award-winning shorts, as well as ads, installations and music videos for bands including Gomez and Animal Collective. (6:53)

Crossword

Vincent Gallagher, Ireland
When her crossword-obsessed dad passes away, a lonely woman begins to do a daily puzzle during her lunch break from her monotonous job. People around her begin to floatingly interact with her clues in a dynamic stylized way, setting this film apart as something memorable and appealing. Lives meet and paths converge among the black and white squares. Gallagher has directed commercials, corporate promos, music videos and three short films. (13.06)

Last Passengers

Ricardo Soto, Mexico
A moody Mexi-mélange of life down in the subway from the point of view of two hoary homeless guys engaged in a complex rivalry, one of whom carries around a large, hairless killer gerbil as a cherished pet. Sultry dreamlike shots and the cranking rhythm of the trains edge you forward to an uncertain finale. Soto studies and works in Mexico City, which is where he gets his urban morbidity from, one supposes. (20:00)

Little Children, Big Words

Lisa James Larsson, Sweden
“When I grow up, I want to be a rapist,” says a pupil at kindergarten. The female teacher promptly takes it upon herself to explain what this means to her innocent charges. The teacher’s performance is heartfelt and intense and a difficult subject is treated in an eye-opening way by this clever film. Larsson was born in Potsdam and studied film in Stockholm and London. (12:00)

On Reflection

Renaud Philipps, France
Reminiscent of Black Swan, except replace the ballerina with an actress and the driven director who bullies her to perfection with the main character’s own reflection. The problem is, of course, that making a pact with your duplicate can be a troublesome business. An impressive double-edged performance from the lead. Philipps is a former winner of the SSFF Grand Prix in 2006 with Rien de Grave. (22:17)

Sudden Death

Adam Hall, USA
Political Science major Hall “left the corrupt world of politics for the simple life in Hollywood,” according to his biography, which gives you some idea of the acerbic sense of humor at work here. Sudden Death begins with an advertorial introducing a love drug, before turning into a story of an epidemic of “musical theater disease” that threatens to decimate California by forcing people to burst into song and then drop dead. Line of the movie: “So far we’ve only succeeded in making people’s heads explode.” Twenty minutes of brilliant, laugh-out-loud hilarity. (20:00)

To Kill a Bumblebee

Sharon Maymon & Tal Granit, Israel
When one of two Israeli hunters sitting in a car splats the eponymous bee at the start of the film, his comrade asks “Why didn’t you just open the window?” A tale of misadventure and spiralling violence follows that is far more comic than the short’s billing of “drama” would suggest. Tightly acted, shot and edited, this compact story will fill you with laughter and horror in equal measure. Mayman and Granit are currently developing their script My Sweet Euthanasia. (7:30)

Touch

Jen McGowan, USA
Touching in many senses. A suicidal old woman on a train platform (no, not the Chuo line) is interrupted by a hurried young woman asking directions. This prompts a moment of connection that changes the old lady’s life. With deliberate echoes of (and an explicit allusion to) Wim Wenders’ 1987 masterpiece Wings of Desire, this film about human contact is delicately crafted by McGowan, who received her BFA from NYU before going west to USC for her postgraduate film study. (13:25)

A Fine Young Man

Kevan Funk, Canada
Pete is a perfect man living the American dream with his apple-pie wife. Or is he? One day, two mysterious guys from the CIA visit him and interrogate him to make god darn sure. The shiny world is fabricated and presented immaculately by Funk—only to be shattered with a shocking finale. Funk has spent most of his life behind the camera and studies at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design. (12:34)

The International Competition is just one of the many programs being shown as part of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia. The festival takes place from June 16-26 at Laforet Museum Harajuku, Omotesando Space O, and Brillia Short Shorts Theater Yokohoma. There will also be a 3D showing at Cinemart Shinjuku and an all-night screening in TOHO Cinemas, Roppongi Hills. For more info, see our dedicated page: http://metropolis.co.jp/ss11