Worldwide Short Film Festival - Preview #2


Worldwide Short Film Festival 
Toronto - June 1 to 6, 2010
Film School Spotlight - Mexico's Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica

The Worldwide Short Film Festival fires up soon - from Jun 1 to 6 - here's the second in a series of previews I'll be running of some of their programmes. For a full listing and more details, please check out their link.


CCC is considered to be Mexico's premiere film school, and this selection of mostly dramatic shorts was put together to commemorate the bicentennial of Mexican independence.
   
A Trip (Un Viaje)
Gabriela Monroy Mexico - 2004
10 minutes  Beta
Fiction - Toronto Premiere
A bit of a gut wrencher about a single father looking after a special needs little boy. It's a nice piece of visual storytelling, effectively conveying the father's tireless vigilence - tireless until a moment of weakness lets him contemplate an escape from the task that consumes his life. A neat series of close ups on bubbles and other objects gives us insight into the highly charged world of the little boy himself.

The Life and Times of John H. (La vida y obra de John H.)
Lourdes Rébora Mexico - 2005
14 minutes Beta
Fiction - North American Premiere
This absorbing story combines a labyrinthine plot with Kafka-esque dimensions and a stylish gothic sensibility. John H. goes to the theatre only to be enlisted in the plot of the bizarre period melodrama. He thinks he's figured his way out of the wormhole, but that's the thing about wormholes...


Dirty clothes (La ropa sucia)
Yoame Escamilla del Arenal Mexico - 2007
15 minutes  Beta
Fiction - Canadian Premiere
The story begins with the nightmare of Tatiana, the wife in a stultifying marriage. It's a finely rendered domestic drama of marital stagnation that revolve around the repair of a washing machine, complete with flashbacks to happier times. It had a great sense of colour and composition - pleasing to the eye as well as on point. Those of us who are or have been married will relate.
    
Reality show
Federico Schmucler Mexico - 2007
17 minutes  Beta
Fiction - Canadian Premiere
This short has an imaginative story within a story kind of plot that will surprise you to the end. Ramon enlivens life in a dreary apartment with reality shows on TV and a pizza on the way. The trouble starts when the TV begins to show a version of reality - his reality - and what will happen just a few minutes into the future. It lags somewhat in the middle, but ends strongly.

The Desire (El deseo)
Marie Benito Mexico - 2008
14 minutes Beta
Fiction - Toronto Premiere
Ana's left alone in a big house after a divorce, and this drama follows the reawakening of her sense of desire. The outlines are just a little too familiar - the masturbation, the makeover with make-up and heels - and the scenes depicting the boredom of her mundane world just a little too boring.
The Eye on The Nape (El ojo en la nuca)
Rodrigo Plá Mexico - 2000
26 minutes Beta
Fiction - Toronto Premiere
This film opens with a bit of a voiceover on the historic context of the story - the military persecuted, tortured and executed many in Uruguay's former military regime, and a law has pardoned all those reponsible. Pedro, now living in Mexico, is obsessed and returns to exact his revenge. You'll learn about an interesting twist to Uruguayan law in this story about the continuing and destructive legacy of violence.

Comments