AIFF 2016: Super Shorts In Competition - Matches, Magic, Weight Loss, And More

Super Shorts are under ten minutes.  Films in competition are those chosen by the original screeners to be eligible for awards.  Super Shorts are shown in programs so they can be hard to find in the program.  Below is

• a list of the super shorts in competition
• list of the programs where they appear and when
• description of each super short in competition in alphabetical order

I'd note that while these are the screeners picks, screeners don't always agree, so some would have chosen other super shorts as the best.  I often disagree with the screeners, but this is a good start.

Super Shorts in Competition	Director	Country	Length
20 Matches	Mark Tapio Kines	USA	10 min
Death$ in a $mall Town	Mark Jones	USA	7 min
How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps	Benjamin Berman	USA	7 min
A Magician	Max Blustin	UK	3 min
On Time	Xavier Neal-Burgin	USA	8 min
A Reasonable Request	Andrew Laurich	USA	9  min

Program (right)   Film (below)	HARD KNOCKS Saturday - 1st Dec 3, 2016 11:30am -1 pm - AK Exper Small Thursday -2nd Dec. 8 5:30-7:30pm AK EX Large	MARTINI MATINEE Friday. Dec 9 2-4 PM BEAR TOOTH	LOVE AND PAIN Wed.  1st Dec. 7 5:30-7 pm BEAR TOOTH Sat 2nd Dec. 10 5:45-7:15pm AK Ex Small	GLOBAL VILLAGE Sunday, DEC. 13  1PM-2:45PM AK Exper Large
20 Matches			√  √
Death$ in a $mall Town		√
How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps			√  √
A Magician				√
On Time	√  √
A Reasonable Request		√

As you can see, three of these films are only showing once, so you're going to have to work hard to see them.  In the past they've occasionally shown super shorts before features, so maybe they'll do that, though A Reasonable Request will need to be with a mature audience feature.  Fortunately you can see the whole film below.

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20 Matches

Mark Tapio Kines

USA

0:10:00

"A young woman (Nina Rausch) sits alone in a pitch black room and lights twenty matches, one at a time.
Her face illuminated only by the flame from each match, the woman tells the story of a Viennese serial killer who kidnapped and murdered twenty immigrant women – one per year."

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


Death$ in a $mall Town
Mark Jones
USA
0:07:00


Can't find much about this one.  From IMDB page:

"A mayor has a unique way to revive the fortunes of his small town that had been losing citizens, businesses and tourist prior to his taking office."

Based on these first two pictures, the team that chose the super shorts in competition had a thing about matches and the dark.


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How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps
Benjamin Berman
USA
0:07:00

Here's the guy whose story is told in the film writing on the film's Tumblr page:

“'How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps' is a short film is based on a true story from my life: I went through a bad breakup, then hit the gym as a way to get over the heartbreak - and ended up losing 90 lbs in the process. Then I did what anyone else in this glorious age of the Internet we live in would do:
I wrote a blog post about it.
Published on my small personal Tumblr as just a cathartic way to somehow make sense of my heartbreak and what I had gone through, The Little Blog Post That Could surprisingly went massively viral and struck a chord around the world with millions of people: It turns out (unfortunately) that there are a lot of people out there who have gotten their hearts broken, and almost all of those people turned to the gym to get over it. I wasn’t alone.
One of those people who had gotten their heart broken and stumbled across the “4 Easy Steps” blog post was director Ben Berman, who contacted me through a friend. He said “let’s make a film!”. So we did. "

It continues, including how the actor suggested that he actually lose weight during the filming.

There's also an SNL connection.

Here's the whole movie.  It's got over 4 million hits already on Youtube.  Who needs film festivals anymore?  If a film was in every festival in the US, it wouldn't get 4 million viewers.







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A Magician  Global Village*
Max Blustin
UK 0:03:00

Image and description from Agile Ticketing;

"After witnessing a man behave violently towards his girlfriend, someone decides to intervene."

⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️ ⌚️

On Time
Xavier Neal-Burgin
USA
 0:08:00

Image and description from the Bureau of Creative Works:

"'On Time' is a short form adaption of the feature length script 'Rough Around the Edges' written by Xavier and Tiara Marshall. The script made it to the first round of the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. We can't wait to see this story unfold into a feature length film."

NOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOTNOT

A Reasonable Request
Andrew Laurich
USA
0:09:00

If you let your child watch this, you might have some explaining to do.  I'd suggest you watch this on your own first.  Below is the whole movie.