Short of the Week

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Dark Comedy François Jaros
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Life’s a Bitch

Love. Shock. Denial. Bubble bath. Mucus. Masturbation. Pop-tarts. Pigeons. Toothpaste. Hospital. Bye. Hair. Chicken. Bootie. Kids. Rejection. Squirrels. Cries. Awkward. 95 scenes. 5 minutes. Life’s a bitch.

Play
Dark Comedy François Jaros

Life’s a Bitch

Love. Shock. Denial. Bubble bath. Mucus. Masturbation. Pop-tarts. Pigeons. Toothpaste. Hospital. Bye. Hair. Chicken. Bootie. Kids. Rejection. Squirrels. Cries. Awkward. 95 scenes. 5 minutes. Life’s a bitch.

Life’s a Bitch

Directed By François Jaros
Made In Canada

Trying to fit the entire story of a feature film into just 5-minutes of screen-time is no easy feat, but this is exactly what French-Canadian director François Jaros attempts with his bitter sweet rom-com (although perhaps that should be unromantic comedy) Life’s a Bitch. Exposing his audience to a barrage of the briefest vignettes, featuring scenes of sobbing, panty-sniffing and overzealous ear cleaning, Jaros and writer/star Guillaume Lambert take their viewers on a roller-coster ride of emotions as their heartbroken protagonist experiences the highs and lows of romance.

Reminiscent, both in structure and ambition, of fellow SotW favourite This Is It, Life’s a Bitch features some real laugh-out-loud moments and plenty of emotion. Though each moment you spend with Jaros’ anti-hero feels like the blink of an eye, the journey you embark on with him is impressive.

Shot over twenty days in sixty locations and featuring forty characters, Life’s a Bitch employs somewhat of a bombardment approach with its storytelling, but it’s an approach that works and something the director seems proud of:

“We squeezed ninety-five scenes into a five-minute film”, Jaros explains to NOWNESS Video Commissioner and SotW-contributor Katie Metcalfe, “the idea was to illustrate each scene into a single shot, presenting only its key element”.

Life’s a Bitch screened at both Sundance and Telluride film festivals in 2014 and if you like Jaros’ work he currently has two other shorts touring film festivals – you can find out more at his website below.

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Dark Comedy Graham Parkes

The Voice in Your Head

Dan spends his every waking hour tortured by the negative voice in his head, until he learns something shocking that allows him to break free.