AIFF 2013: Shorts In Competition - Irish Lambs, Danish Street Kids, Alaska Dream, Pregnant On A Hot Day, Fantasy v. Real Life

Short Narrative Fiction (10 min to 54min 49 secs) seems to be films made by film students and/or as way to show what you can do, or to get started on a feature film.  The AIFF saw, for example, Dear Lemon Lima first as a short and then as a feature a couple years later.

This looks like an interesting group of films - all quite different.  All the films have a √ because that's how the Festival identifies those films in each category that are 'in competition' - that is, in contention for an award.

I'm organizing the films here by the group of short films they are showing with.
 
Group 1:  Real/Reel Life 
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater



Fucking Tøs (Damn Girl*)
Kira Richards Hansen
Denmark 
13m √

Den tolvårige drengepige Alex har svært ved at forholde sig til at være pige. Hun har opbygget sit eget drengeunivers, hvor hun maler grafitti og strejfer rundt med sine venner. Aggressivt kæmper hun for at holde sine følelser og sin spirende seksualitet fra livet. (From Ekkofilms)

 Don't read Danish?  Try this from the Danish Film Institute:

A coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old girl who has a hard time dealing with being female. She has built her own boyish universe in which she paints graffiti and roams around with her male friends. Aggressively she struggles to keep her emotions and her budding sexuality at a distance. Her best friend challenges her and that makes her go to even further extremes to keep her emotions at bay. She fights hard to sustain her position in the hierarchy amongst her homies. The accompanying music video "A Long Time Ago" with music by Malk de Koijn won awards in Honolulu and Vancouver.

*I'd note that when I put "Fucking Tøs" into Bing Translator, the English came out a lot rougher than "Damn Girl."

Part of Real/Reel Life Group that plays:
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater

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Reel Life
Laurence Relton
United Kingdom

Adam Sinclair Reel Life Screenshot from Twitter

13m    ✓



Anchorage will be only the second showing of this film which just premiered here in LA on Nov. 14.  After AIFF it will go to the London Short Film Festival.  So despite being a far off northern outpost, Anchorage audiences will see this film before anyone except the LA audience, even before this UK film plays in UK. 

Don't read anything about this film!  Just see it.  Trust me, it's beautifully made and the concept is good and well executed. It's a great spoof of film making.  I think it will be  more fun to watch it with no prior knowledge of what you're going to see.  Discover it as it happens. But I can give you this short quote from the director's statement that is relevant but not a spoiler.

"Which leaves the fundamental question for Maddy and the viewer: is the fantasy world we are presented with at our local multiplexes better than real life?" 

I had the whole description up for this film from the LA Comedy Fest, where Reel Life won the best actor award and tied for the audience award.  I contacted the film crew and got to talk to the producer Oliver Dennis who sent me a link to preview the movie.  After seeing it, I took down the description.   I haven't seen any of the other shorts, and they look interesting too.  But I know this one is well worth watching.  I suspect people involved in film will especially like it, bu it's definitely accessible to anyone who watches a lot of movies. It's the kind of movie that makes you think about stuff you take for granted - a perfect fit for what I try to do on this blog.

The time gap between the LA Festival and Anchorage is just too long to stick around here - Oliver said they all have young kids at home - but they really want to come to Anchorage and I encouraged them to do so.

This film is so new that the website is just getting developed.  Here's what's up so far.

I'd note that another British film - the documentary Lion Ark - also just showed in LA but the directors are flying back and forth to a couple other festivals before going to Anchorage.  But they have all their warm weather clothes back in England. 

Part of Real/Reel Life Group that plays:
Sunday Dec. 8 at 3:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 11:30 am at Alaska Exp Small Theater

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Group 2:  Global Village
Saturday Dec. 7 at 2:30 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater 
Saturday Dec. 7 at 1:30 pm at Alaska Exp Small Theater


Jonah
Kirill Modylevsky
Russian Federation 
25m    ✓

I'm having trouble tracking down information on this film, but I'm working on it.  Here's what I've found so far about the  director Kirill Modylevsky:

Born in 1963 in Irkutsk. In 1985- 1988 worked at the “East Siberian” newsreel. In 1985-1990 years studied at department of economy of the VGIK. He is currently a student of the department of additional professional education “Cinema drama” of the VGIK (workshop of D.Rodimin). (From Kinoglaz)

Part of Global Village Group that plays:
Saturday Dec. 7 at 2:30 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 7 at 1:30 pm at Alaska Exp Small Theater

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Group 3:  Destination Unknown
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater


Lambing Season
Jeannie Donahue

Not a Video - Screenshot from Kickstarter video

USA
15m    ✓

From her Kickstarter page:

Lambing Season is the offbeat tale of Bridget, an Irish-American woman who travels to rural Ireland with her husband in order to track down the father she's never met.  She poses as a stranger in order to conceal her identity, but when things don't go according to her convoluted plan, it's clear that Bridget and her father have more in common than anyone guessed.
My inspirations for the film range from my personal experiences in Ireland: meeting a distant family member, seeing newborn lambs join the flock... to Jay-Z's potent lyrics about family and identity: "Damn that man's face is just like my face."

Of course, this description would have been before the movie was made, but I like the idea of comparing the original concept to the finished film.

Part of Destination Unknown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

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Pyro and Klepto
Justin Chandra
USA
26m    ✓

Screen shot from Pyro and Klepto trailer

"When Wyatt James, a lonely kleptomaniac, meets Mindy Michaels, a troubled and outspoken, pyromaniac, they begin an adventure of stealing and burning in pursuit of her dream of going to Alaska. However, when Mindy's antic's escalate to the point of recklessness, and their relationship is called into question, will they be able to look within themselves and their past, for answers?" (emphasis added)

This was a thesis for the American Film Institute.   Here are Justin and editor Kyla talking about the film with Asians on Film.

 

Part of Destination Unknown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

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The River
Sam Handel
USA
12m    ✓

From a mostly not there website (but the home page is a good start):

  FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT The River was an idea initially hatched upon learning of my wife's pregnancy and realizing she would be ridiculously pregnant during the summer months. With The River, I wanted to simplify everything and create a strong lead character with a clear, easily understandable, and completely relatable goal. In order to capture the sense of place that is so important to the film, I shot The River with a heavily local crew, many of whom had little or no experience in filmmaking. The talent that everyone involved brought to the set was humbling and the experience of making the film reinforced my love of our little mountain town. 

I also found this short trailer for The River at Lauren Ambrose's Tumblr page.  Lauren Ambrose, the star, from what I can tell, was Claire Fischer, the daughter in Six Feet Under




Part of Destination Unkown Group that plays
Saturday Dec. 7 at 7:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater
Saturday Dec. 14 at 8:00 pm at Alaska Exp Large Theater

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Remember these are just the shorts in competition. There are other shorts and I'm sure everyone will find some not-in-competition that they think are better. The advantage of the shorts is that they play in a groups, so you can see films not in competition too.

The scheduling for these is going to make planning necessary to see all those in competition because they are spread out over three different programs:  Real/Reel Life; Global Village;  and Destination Unknown.

Here's the first week schedule link. (Sat. Dec. 7 and Sunday Dec. 8)
And the second week schedule.  (Sat. Dec. 14)

There's one more shorts program - Horror Program - that doesn't have any of the 'in competition' films.

And don't get confused with documentary shorts or animated shorts or even boxer shorts.