This was the second collection of hand-picked shorts of the festival. This time there were nine films on offer:
- The Witches: This reasonable animated film tells the tale of three fishwives attempts to escape the outing of witchcraft from Scotland during the reign of James VI. It was quite a fun little story that certainly did not bore, but the animation, whilst being interesting, did not make for a particularly beautiful experience. It would be good for kids though I guess.
- The Plot: I was watching this film and thinking “so, what?”. The lack of story line was immediately apparent and even though the film looked good there was not that much development to keep you hooked. Then I became aware that the film was completely digitally animated, using cunning lighting effects the film looked like it was very real, and it took me a while to decide that everything in fact was artificially created. The movement of the “camera” was very good in particular.
- At the End of the Day: This very ghoulish fly-on-the-wall documentary was very interesting, being shot behind the doors of a funeral director’s. The “human interest” angle was a bit blatant but this could have easily have been shown on BBC1 or ITV as a series.
- The Expedition to the South Pole: This was quite a good film in its own way but I’m glad that the filmmaker kept things simple, I liked the fact it was shot simply (like a home movie) when in fact it was not a home-made film! Keep your eye out for writer/director Bernd Thiele in the future…
- S=4(pi)R^2: This off-beat Italian film about a man taking a special journey with a cactus was very interesting. Although it was quite accomplished, however, I think it could have gone just that little further to make it a very amusing piece indeed.
- Qn Office Worker Thinks of Their Lovc, & Home: I was not thrilled to see this film at all, yes it was shot on 16mm, yes the shots were nice, but it just did not hit the mark as far as I was concerned.
- Behind the Mirror: This pretentious film (also 16mm) was quite good for an out and out art movie. It benefited enormously from a couple of very interesting shots with brilliant editing which took you out of the realm of normal film making!
- Post Mark Lick: Another art project! Images of postmarks, stamps and other post related material were used to great effect in this non-narrative animation. Visually interesting, but what you see is what you get in this one.
- SAP: This lovely animation about two monks’ pilgrimage had no dialogue but got its meaning across very well. It reminded me very much in style of a film I saw a few years ago based on Hemmingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, the animation was done almost like a series of oil paintings and must have taken a huge amount of effort.
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