Last week we introduced the GoShort Festival’s online slate of short films, providing quickie reviews of 5 of the 10 selected films. Today we finish up the coverage by taking a look at the remaining 5 films. Overall I think it’s a much stronger selection that last week’s. Remember to grade the films after you watch in order to help your favorite win the online audience award.

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We Love our Clients, dir: Beppe Tufarulo—5min

Since the employees of a supermarket are experiencing the night shift, they perform their duties with great boredom. Until they find a new way to plan the attention to the consumer…

The highlight of the program for me so far—simple, sweet & well-shot. Not the most original, but does everything right and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Bravo!

Palindrome, dir: Roger Vilarroya—3min

This documentary filmed in Barcelona tells us about the treatment and care that we all need at certain moments of our lives. When we find we can’t fend for ourselves we sometimes need the help of others to be able to progress. Palindrome shows us a tough but touching reality with a studied simplicity, effectiveness and a degree of tenderness free of over-the-top theatricality.

Hmm,  a twist documentary. Not so much a surprise if you think about the title, but it caught me off guard. Most of the footage in the film is of folks in nursing homes, and via the lens we are privy to some powerful scenes that show the elderly at their most vulnerable. Their condition is so common, and yet it is striking, because as a culture we are generally so well insulated from this reality. I was dramatically confronted by this when spending time with my dying Grandma this past summer—I was shocked at how affecting the experience was even though, theoretically, I knew what to expect. A good film.

Leave Not a Cloud Behind, dir: Pablo González—7min

Super-8 love-story about dreamers

An ok film that frustrates because it could have been great. I was quite swept up with the look and whimsy of opening scenes, comparing it to another lo-fi shot-on-film favorite, Jettison Your Loved Ones. The love arc however is clumsy: the dry narration becomes laughable when the dialogue attempts poetic profundity, and the pacing + shot visualizations vacillate between visionary and mediocre.  Also, a wholly unsatisfying ending. The spark that drew my ardor in the first place is the hard thing though, Pablo González might be one to watch.

Lost, dir: Alberto Dorado—4min

“Lost” (Perdido) is a 3 minutes long short film that transports us to Western Africa’s wide landscapes and deserts. As soon as we get there, we meet Saliou an eight years old Somalian kid who seems lost. He has just met a UN Patrol. Is this his lucky day? A camera turn shall show us reality…

A social advocacy film that’s not especially subtle. There is not a lot to the film, so its difficult to recommend for or against,  though it focuses on an important subject.

Out of a Forest, dir: Tobias Gundorff Boesen—5min

“Out Of A Forest” is a student film, about a young rabbit who, gets invited to a late night dinner party in a forest. With lamps and chandeliers in the trees, the moon in the starry sky, and his elders around him sipping wine and telling stories, it all seems too good to be true… And maybe it is. A forest at night holds many things.

This is a film that has had good success on Vimeo with almost 200K views over the last year. A student work from The Animation Workshop, an institution that recently came into even more internet prominence with this year’s graduation films, which include recent SotW pick,  The Backwater Gospel. I like the look, and the twist of this film, but the storytelling needs a bit of work, as the music video approach is not terribly effective..

Watch these selections and more at the GoShort Online Festival Web Site