Who wants free shorts?

Last updated 11:10 09/11/2009

fot There's a teeny little film festival that travels New Zealand with a vast array of teeny, tiny films. It's the Show Me Shorts Film Festival - New Zealand's only national competitive short-film festival.

Now in its fourth year, Show Me Shorts brings together 40 of the latest short films from the brightest Australian and Kiwi film-makers. The films are divided into six themed sessions: Brothers in Arms, Curious Child, Meet the Locals, Calamitous Love, Wrong Turn and Random Encounters.
Festival organiser Gina Dellabarca says: "The high calibre of film-making has been deeply impressive. There is a bit of everything from rocking special effects to tender, tearful moments. Nearly half our programme are world premieres and we've made the themed sessions this year less genre-based so viewers can enjoy a wide range of shorts films in each sitting."

She says the best short films convey one key idea, introduce us to a unique character or finish with a twist. "The time limit distils these stories to their essence and allows no time for superfluous elements. That's what makes them so powerful. Short films are the cutting edge of creativity and technology. They are a popular first step for film-making virtuosos out to impress with a tool-bag of tricks, and a favoured experimentation arena for established veterans flexing their filmmaking muscle. Both such filmmakers sit side-by-side in our programme."

Highlights according to film reviewer James Croot include:

A Break in the Monotony (Wrong Turn): Although only four minutes long, Damien Slevin's subversive story contains enough innovation and ideas to equal many feature-length efforts. Colour mixes with black-and-white, rotoscoped still images with animation, and film-noir concepts with postmodernism in this tale of a man (who looks remarkably like Hawaii Five-O's Jack Lord) questioning the futility of working in a corporate wasteland.

FOT: The Next Big Thing (Brothers in Arms): Alex Dron's angular animated-comedy is basically a showcase for Rhys Darby's special blend of interior monologuing and self-effacing humour. He plays Fot, a delusional footballer who talks up his own abilities in the locker room after a big game. A series of vignettes that take place in the sauna, the shower and the bath, it has Fot musing on rotational policies, scouts and his overall awesomeness (pictured above).

Isosceles (Calamitous Love): Innovative editing and outstanding cinematography are the features of Anton Steel's haunting story. Overhead shots, askew angles and split screens combine to slowly reveal the connections between a man contemplating suicide and the woman trying to talk him down. Auckland has never looked more bleak.

An Unfinished Romance (Calamitous Love): From Australia comes this near-silent romantic-comedy about two strangers, two hookers, two paper boats and a whole raft of assumptions. Alison Heather's short is notable for fine acting from Matt Rosner and Zoe Ventoura and John Blenkhorn's toe-tapping, swing jazz guitar-infused soundtrack.

Mixed Bag (Random Encounters): The title refers to a lolly bag shared between an older white woman and a young Aboriginal girl. Imogen Thomas's film is a leisurely paced meditation on the commonalities between people despite differences in colouring and race. It boasts both an opera-heavy soundtrack and an eclectic mix of outback imagery.

See showmeshorts.co.nz for more info.

Due to not receiving the tickets until after I published a story about the festival (D'oh!), I have five double passes to any session you like of the Show Me Shorts Film Festival to give away.

To win tickets, email go@press.co.nz with "Give Me Free Shorts" in the subject line and your name and postal address and we'll send them out, quick smart.

Sadly, the (short) festival is nearly over in the vast metropoli of Auckland and Matakana, so the offer is best left to entrants from Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Motueka, Papakura, Arrowtown and Whitianga.

Good luck!

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