Ten Films - Two Hours - One Week - Around the World - Manhattan Short Film Festival

The films have been narrowed down to ten.  From Peru, Canada, Hungary, Scotland, Australia, USA (2), Egypt, Sweden, and Switzerland.  The shortest one was 8 minutes, the longest 18, but most were right around 10 or 11 minutes.

We were at this Festival in 2008.  My blog post shows that tickets then were $10.  They were only $7.50 this time.   At the first one I was madly writing notes in the dark on a piece of paper so I could remember all I'd seen.  This time there was a fancy program and each film had a whole page. 

The audience gets a card with all the films listed and you can only select one.  They are all tallied and the winner will be announced October 2 on the Film Festival website. 
Each was a story.  These were pretty straightforward story telling.  They were all very good as stories.

They are played around the world in a one week period.  Actually, it looks like a little longer.  From the list in the program, it appears tonight was the first night in any venue. 

Tomás, they are playing in Salamanca Oct. 1 and 2 at Auditorio de la Hospederia del Colegio Fonseca!

Jay and Gene, they'll be in London.

Ropi, even though there's a Hungarian film among the ten finalists, there are no showings in Hungary.  I'm guessing the closest place to see them is in Vienna or Krakow.

Anchorage folks, they're at Out North Saturday at 7pm and Sunday at 4pm.
Palmer folks, you get them next weekend, October 1 and 2.
I just noticed Talkeetna (Sept. 24) and Petersburg (Sept. 29) have showings.

The rest of you can check locations around the world where you can watch these ten films and help chose the winner.  There are lots of venues in Russia and even one in Beijing.

These were good films.  Selecting one as the best is both hard and probably unfair.  The finalists were all good stories.  No artsy stuff in this festival - all very straightforward narratives.

The festival founder, Nicholas Mason introduced, on screen, the show.  Each director also introduced his or her film.  It was unfortunate that they had a beer commercial at the beginning and before the intermission.  I understand the funding isn't easy.  I hope they gave a lot of money to be able to add their own commercial. 

Dogs played significant roles in I Love Luci and in David and Goliath, both of which I liked a lot.  The relationship between Marjory and Tommy is truly sweet.   Perhaps David was so powerful for me is because I know people like David - the real David at the end of the movie.  I didn't see how the title of David and Goliath fit - in the original, they don't become friends in the end.

I found the first film, Incident by a Bank, compelling film making - the film makers recreated a bank robbery they originally witnessed and filmed with a cell phone.  DIK was easily the most fun yet it had a good lesson about communication and assumptions.  And Sexting was a tour de force for Julia Styles - talking pretty much the whole ten minutes full face into the camera. 

There were only two that I were easy to eliminate from consideration when picking 'the best.'   Mak and A Doctor's Job both were in the competition for my vote too.

These are good films.  Different from run-of-the-mill Hollywood stuff.  They show 10 films selected from over 500 submitted from 48 countries. 

There was also a spectacular fabric show at Out North.  I'm going to find out more - but the lace was incredible.  Here's a preview from Beverly Bronner.  The card said Bobbin Lace (Binche Belgium) 120 Cotton.

This isn't normally something I'm into, but when you see anything that is really high quality, it's worth paying attention to.  All the lace was exquisite as were the other fabric creations - scarves, jackets, and other items.  If you are interested in this sort of thing, it is well worth a stop at Out North kittycorner from Costco on Debarr.