Short of the Week
With the Oscars dominating film news in early March, we were as excited as anyone to join in the cascade of joy raining down on The DANIELS, as they walked away with the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards. To celebrate their rise to success, we took an in-depth look at their career so far and provided an introduction to their work over on Shortverse.
Although they were impossible to ignore, March wasn’t all about the Academy Awards, as we also spoke a trio of S/W alums about their features at SXSW, provided an update on some of our previously featured filmmakers and explored Netflix’s new short film anthology African Folktales, Reimagined. We’ve already got some exciting films lined up for April, including a number of real crowd-pleaser coming to our YouTube channel. – Rob Munday, Managing Editor
Team Favorites
Love, death, the life of a freelancer, the vengeance-fuelled journey of a legendary sculptor with a prosthetic chainsaw arm – the trio of films selected as our Best of the Month picks for March will really put viewers through the emotional gamut. From the devastation of a Polish stop-motion about a dying woman to a light-hearted look into the world of a struggling artist, the 29-minutes presented in the three films below offer as a feature film.
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Freelancer by Rosco 5
Adapted by the prominent UK production company Blink Industries and the directing duo Rosco 5, Freelancer is from a comic book Babak Ganjei (star of the short) wrote, but even at only 8min long, it has rhythm of a repeatable TV setup, with an A-plot concerning Ganjei navigating a birthday dinner for his ex and B-plot centered on a scene where a bow-tie manufacturer weasels into paying Ganjei for his freelance work in free products. It is no surprise therefore to learn that a potential TV series is in the works.
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Hidari by Masashi Kawamura and Iku Ogawa
Proof of concept shorts created to help raise funds for feature adaptation aren’t really our raison d’etre here on Short of the Week, but when they’re as good as Masashi Kawamura and Iku Ogawa’s stop-motion Hidari, they’re impossible to ignore. A six-minute tale of a vengeful sculptor with a mechanical prosthetic arm, Hidari is a contemporary take on a Japanese legend, brought to life with jaw-dropping craft.
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Jestem tutaj (I’m Here) by Julia Orlik
Placing it’s viewers at the bedside of a paralysed woman, Julia Orlik’s Jestem tutaj (I’m Here) is one of the most emotionally devastating films you’re likely to see all year. Told via stop-motion, with some impressive lifelike character design, we stick by the side of this immobile wife/mother as her family fuss around her trying their best to care for their loved one. Simple in approach – the camera stays bedside focused on the woman throughout – with a complex, layered narrative, the impact this 15-minute film has is a testament to short film and all you can achieve in such a short run-time.
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Most Viewed
The Diver by Anderson Wright
On March 11th, 2011, in East Japan, a powerful tsunami took the lives of thousands. That day was the last time Yasuo Takamatsu saw his wife. Twelve years later, Yasuo has not given up on searching for her and every weekend explores the depths of the ocean. In his short documentary, The Diver, director Anderson Wright paints a deeply moving picture of love, grief and the act of remembrance through the life of Yasuo.