We are now just hours away from the opening night of the 2013 Show Me Shorts Film Festival! To celebrate, Francesca Rudkin shares with us some of her favourite short films.

We are now just hours away from the opening night of the 2013 Show Me Shorts Film Festival! To celebrate, Francesca shares with us some of her favourite short films. 

I’m Francesca Rudkin, film reviewer for the NZ Herald, and blogger and presenter for Rialto Channel. I’ve been asked to discuss three short films based around a chosen theme, which, as it turns out, is simply that I admire these films and their directors.

Short film is a wonderful medium. It offers filmmakers the opportunity to hone their storytelling skills on a manageable scale and learn how to lead a cast and crew towards helping them achieve their vision. Short films offer everyone involved the opportunity to work on something more experimental and creative than mainstream mediums such as television or commercials, and they often have a long life on the festival circuit, introducing filmmakers to industry people and audiences all over the world.

But what I was reminded about recently, at the launch of the 2013 Show Me Shorts Film Festival in Auckland, is that short films aren’t just a great stepping-stone for storytellers; they’re also wonderful entertainment in their own right. Here’s the work of three filmmakers I admire.

Night Fishing

Directors: Park Chan Wook and Pack Chan Kyung (2010)

From the director of Oldboy and Stoker comes a 31 minute film shot entirely on an Apple iPhone 4. It sounds like gimmick filmmaking but you can only marvel at what Park Chan Wook has achieved. Working with his brother Pack Chan Kyung, he takes us on a fantastical, chilling journey exploring the mysterious space between life and the afterlife.

It has all the characteristics you’d expect from Park Chan Wook: his trademark visual metaphors, a good dose of claustrophobic suspense and a highly stylised aesthetic, as well as an exceptional soundtrack. But what’s really remarkable is how the brothers aren’t afraid of their equipment, turning the camera upside down, using tricky tracking shots, shooting in both colour and black and white, and even taking their camera underwater. They push this camera to its limits, and occasionally it gets a little blurry, but overall the result is suspenseful, magical and meaningful.

Scenes from the Suburbs

Director: Spike Jonze (2011)

Scenes From The Suburbs from Katherine Louise on Vimeo.

To be honest, I could have selected a short film by Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham or Michel Gondry. They’re three of my favourite music video directors turned short and feature film directors, who I fell for during my 10-years working in music television. All three created influential videos that pushed the boundaries of short films visually, conceptually and technically – with artists such as the Beastie Boys, Bjork, Madonna, Fat Boy Slim, Daft Punk and Aphex Twin. But I’ve chosen Spike Jonze’s Scenes from the Suburbs.

Spike Jonze often collaborates with musicians (his collaboration with Kanye West called We Were Once a Fairytale is worth a peek) and in Scenes from the Suburbs he collaborates with Canadian indie band Arcade Fire. This half-hour short is inspired by the band’s Grammy winning album The Suburbs, and was created to celebrate the release of The Suburbs Deluxe album. It’s the story of teen melancholia, friendship and growing up in an alternative reality where pleasant, non-descript suburbs are actually at war with each other. It’s beautifully shot in widescreen with Arcade Fire’s music interspersed throughout in a thoughtful and reflective manner. Life in the suburbs – metaphorically, it’s a war zone folks.

Friday Tigers

Director: Aidee Walker (2013)

Once again I’ve gone off brief; you’re supposed to be able to watch these films online. You can’t watch this film online yet – you’re going to have to attend the Show Me Shorts Film Festival! I watch a lot of feature films and many of them struggle to tell their story in 90 minutes as articulately as this one does in 16. It’s the film everyone is talking about. It won the Best New Zealand Short Film at the 2013 New Zealand International Film Festival, as well as the Audience Award, and is one of the reasons to visit the SMS Festival this year. It’s the story of a dedicated young mother who protects her daughter from the complexities of adult life with a secret fantasy world. It’s a film filled with whimsy and charm and yet set firmly in reality.
Friday Tigers is showing during the Our Place and Highlights sessions of the 2013 Show Me Shorts Film Festival.

There is little that’s more enjoyable than watching a perfectly formed short film – so I hope you get to take advantage of Show Me Shorts this year.