AIFF 2014: Short Narratives In Competition: A Box of Chocolates

This category is like a box of chocolates - lots of little delicious bites of films.  So many choices, which should you pick?  Which will be best?  I haven't seen any of these films, but I've gathered crumbs from each, but not enough to spoil the surprise.

The Short Narratives in competition are spread over three different short narrative programs.  Plus there are several other Short Narrative programs.  I've color coded the programs - the reds are in Global Village, the greens are in Love and Pain, and the purple is in Mixed Bag.

OVERVIEW

1. THE LIST OF SHORT NARRATIVES IN COMPETITION
2. DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH GROUPED BY THE PROGRAMS THEY'RE IN
3. LISTS OF THE OTHER SHORT NARRATIVE PROGRAMS

1.  THE LIST OF SHORT NARRATIVES IN COMPETITION

Narrative Shorts In Competition √
Film	Director	Country	Length	Program
Arena	Martin Rath	Poland	23m	Global Village
Given Your History	Molly McGlynn	Canada	15m	Global Village
How Hipólito Vázquez Found Magic Where He Never Expected To Find It  [De cómo Hipólito Vázquez encontró magia donde no buscaba]	Matias Rubio	Argentina	15m	Global Village
Till Then [Bis Gleich]	BenjaminWolff	Germany	20m	Global Village
Tom in America	Flavio Alves	Brazil	17m	Mixed Bag
Universal Language	Kirsten Russell	USA	35m	Love & Pain
What Cheer?	Michael Slavens	USA	17m	Love & Pain

[UPDATE, Dec. 6, 2014:  It turns out I left out Full Windsor - a super short narrative in competition.  It plays in the Love and Pain program.]

2.  DESCRIPTIONS OF THEM GROUPED BY THE PROGRAMS THEY'RE IN

There are four films in competition in the Global Village program.

Global Village - Shorts Program

Sun, Dec 07 3:00 PM  AK Experience Large   Thu, Dec 11      7:30 PM  AK Experience Small

Into The Silent Sea | Andrej Landin 2013  **How Hipolito Vazquez Found Magic Where He Never Expected | Matias Rubio 2013    Intermission | Marielle Gautier 2014  **Arena | Martin Rath 2013   **Given Your History | Molly McGlynn 2014    **Till Then | Benjamin Wolff 2014    **= films in competition

Screenshot from trailer - "shot in a perpetual twilight"

Arena
Martin Rath   
Poland
23m √

Culture.Pl lists this Polish film, with a German director,  among The Most Interesting Debut Films of 2013

It won what appears to be the main international prize at the Cork Film Festival where they posted this brief assessment:

"Grand Prix International (€1,000)
Martin Rath, Poland
Jury Statement: From the first to the final frame, Arena maintains a threatening ambiguity. Shot in a perpetual twilight, things are always about to get dark, and Rath’s immense skill is to hold the tension as the film oscillates between machismo and sensitivity.
Cork Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards 2014

ARENA"

From the Krakow Film Festival:

"A hitchhiker is taken in by an remote Polish mountain community. Absorbed by the charismatic locals and unforgiving harshness of his new environment he constitutes his presence in the mountains. But to whom do we have to prove of what we're made?"

Part of Global Village Program that plays:

Sun, Dec 07 3:00 PM  AK Experience Large  

Thu, Dec 11      7:30 PM  AK Experience Small

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Given Your History

Image from  National Screen Institute Canada:

Canada
15m √

This is the US premiere of this film.  It's only been publicly shown once so far - in Hamilton, Canada

From the National Screen Institute Canada:

NSI Drama Prize short Given Your History, from writer/director Molly McGlynn and producer Laura Perlmutter, is getting even more festival exposure.
Next month it screens at the Hamilton Film Festival on Saturday, November 8 at 9 p.m. as part of the drama shorts 2 programme at the Staircase Theatre.
The short also screens in Alaska in December at the Anchorage International Film Festival as part of their short film selections.
Given Your History is an honest look at two sisters trying to move on after their mother’s death from breast cancer.

This means, Anchorage audiences will be among the first to see this film, and it's possibly an US premiere.  There apparently has been a shorter (4 minutes) version that's played in fesitivals Seattle and elsewhere.

Part of Global Village Program that plays:

Sun, Dec 07 3:00 PM  AK Experience Large  

Thu, Dec 11      7:30 PM  AK Experience Small

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How Hipólito Vázquez Found Magic Where He Never Expected To Find It  [De cómo Hipólito Vázquez encontró magia donde no buscaba]
Matias Rubio
Argentina
15m √

From Two Short Nights Film Festival website:

"Hipólito Vázquez is a talent scout. With his loyal partner Cholo, he is looking for a little child whose supposed to “do magic with the football”. Therefore they go on a long journey to the distant Club “La Camelia” following the advices of a mystery man. But as the trip goes along, not everything goes as planned and maybe what he ends up discovering was not exactly what he expected to find."

Based on a map on the films Facebook page, this appears to be only the third US showing.  It got the Grand Jury Prize at the Indiana Short Film Festival in October this year.

Part of Global Village Program that plays:

Sun, Dec 07 3:00 PM  AK Experience Large  

Thu, Dec 11      7:30 PM  AK Experience Small

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Image from Spiffest

Till Then [Bis Gleich]
Benjamin Wolff
Germany
20m √

From a review by Beth Groundwater at the Breckenridge Film Festival:

"A man and a woman sit at their respective windows across from each other on a busy street in Berlin, Germany, and observe the interesting minor dramas unfolding on the street below them. They never speak, but they acknowledge each others presence. But then one day the man does not appear. What should the woman do?
Instead of relying on on a preponderance of dialogue to express emotion and move the story forward, the scriptwriter, Tara Lynn Orr, and director, Benjamin Wolff, expertly use the characters' actions to tenderly reveal the story to the viewer, the courage it takes for the woman to act, and the bittersweet result. This nineteen minute smile awaits you!"

Part of Global Village Program that plays:

Sun, Dec 07 3:00 PM  AK Experience Large  

Thu, Dec 11      7:30 PM  AK Experience Small

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Two films in competition in the Love & Pain program.

Love & Pain - Shorts Program

Sat, Dec 06  12:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large Thu, Dec 11  6:00 PM     Alaska Experience Large

Four Brothers. Or Three. Wait ... Three. | Philip Buiser 2013 The Mourning Hour | Susan Cohen 2013 **Universal Language | Kirsten Russell 2014 Beneath the Trees | Kitty Mahoney 2014 Reaching Home | Kenneth Murphy 2013 Full-Windsor | Faraday Okoro 2014 **What Cheer? | Michael Slavens 2014 **= films in competition

[UPDATED 12/6:}  Full Windsor

Image from Ari Fulton Design for Stage and Film

Faraday Okoror
USA
6m

A 10 year old boy battles his mother in order to wear his father's tie to school.

Part of Love & Pain Program that plays:
Sat, Dec 06  12:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large

Thu, Dec 11  6:00 PM     Alaska Experience Large

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Universal Language
Kirsten Russell
USA
35m √

Excerpt from Universal Language's Kickstarter page:  (It got more than its $3500 goal)

"In the spring of 2013 I had plans to be in Austria for two weeks.  I got a call from a long-time friend (and gifted actress), Frederique Nahmani who had moved back to France.  And she threw and idea at me.
"If you're going to be in the neighborhood, why not swing over to Paris...and shoot a little film."Now what normal person, let alone filmmaker, is gonna turn that down?
the scriptI just had to write a script. So I started with the most obvious thing…the language. Or for me the language barrier since I'd be shooting a film as a stranger in a strange land.  I knew who my lead actress would be (clearly Frederique) and since I like to write for specific actors, like dysfunctional muses, I approached Marcel Simoneau, another long-time friend and filmmaking buddy.  And with these two, I made up Dan and Sophie... "

The film she did for Kickstarter probably gives us a good introduction to the film:

There's a long interview at FilmCourage if you want to know more.

Part of Love & Pain Program that plays:
Sat, Dec 06  12:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large

Thu, Dec 11  6:00 PM     Alaska Experience Large

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What Cheer?

Michael Slavens

USA

17m √

It's hard to find something about a lot of these movies that isn't just a copy of the official description of the movie.  I want you to get a sense of the movie without giving anything away that might spoil it.  So, here's what a film maker Patrick Longstreth wrote on his blog 

"One of my favorites was “What Cheer?” starring Richard Kind. We shared a Q&A with director Michael Slavens, who is a thoughtful filmmaker and really nice guy. I was very happy to see his film win the “Filmmaker’s Favorite” award."

What Cheer?  won the The Black Bear Award for Best Use of Sound at the Athens (Ohio) International Film Festival.

Part of Love & Pain Program that plays:

Sat, Dec 06  12:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large

Thu, Dec 11  6:00 PM     Alaska Experience Large

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And one film in competition in the Mixed Bag Shorts Program:

Mixed Bag  - Shorts Program

Thu, Dec 11 8:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large

One Armed Man | Tim Guinee 2014 Samantha '66 | Dan Wainio 2014 **Tom in America | Flavio Alves 2014 The Ladder | Pete Fitz 2013 Zugwang | Yolanda Centeno 2014 **in competition

Tom in America

Flavio Alves

Brazil

17m √

This one only plays once as far as I can tell.  And although its director is a Brazilian and this is categorized as a Brazilian film, it takes place in New York, with a couple who celebrate their 50th anniversary, and then . . .  It stars two academy award nominees - Sally Kirkland who was nominated according to Wikipedia

"1987 for Anna, for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama"

and Burt Young, who, again according to Wikipedia, was also nominated for his role

"as Sylvester Stallone's brother-in-law Paulie in Rocky (1976), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor."

He's also been in a lot of other well-known movies television shows from Chinatown to M*A*S*H and the Sopranos.

The clip below is NOT the official trailer, but the opening theme scored by Walter Schick.

Part of Mixed Bag that plays:

Thu, Dec 11 8:00 PM    Alaska Experience Large Unfortunately at the same time as Global Village Program with four other Short Narrative films in competition.   So see Global Village on Sunday Dec. 7 at 3pm

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3.  LISTS OF THE OTHER SHORT NARRATIVE PROGRAMS


Three More Narrative Shorts Programs:

• Alaska Grown (Thursday 8pm), 
• Mexican (Friday Dec 12)  and 
• Chinese Short Film Programs (Sun Dec. 14)

Plus fifteen, mostly 2 minute, shorts from kids in the Iditarod School District.

Alaska Grown

Sat, Dec 13  5:00 PM   Alaska Experience Large

Russian Jack | Jonathan Lang 2014 Speak No Evil | James Elden 2014 Wrong Side Up | Henry McComas 2014 STORYTELLING | the movie | Stefanie Black 2013 Six Dead Bodies Duct-Taped to a Merry-Go-Round | Kevin T. Bennett 2014 Look What You Did | Eirin Strickland 2014 Beneath the Trees | Kitty Mahoney 2014

Short Films From the Guanajuato International Film Festival

7:00 PM     Fri, Dec 12  Alaska Experience Theater - Large

Under The Sun [Bajo el sol] | Arcadi Palerm 2012  Fifteen Years [Quince Años] | Liliana Torres 2012  An Eye [Un ojo] | Lorenza Manrique 2012  No Brakes [Sin Frenos] | Pancho Ortega  Eskimo [Eskimal] | Homero Ramírez 2011

UAA Confucius Institute  Short Films from China

Sun, Dec 14  2:30 PM  Alaska Experience Large

Return to Prairie | Liqi Yi Can’t Piss | Xinqi Song Summer Secret | Zeng Zeng Grandfather’s Wishes | Yu We

There are also feature films as part of the Mexican films and the Chinese Films.