Images Festival 08 Day 5 - Monday April 7/08

I'm happy to be back in the land of experimental film and moving images and loved the presentations on Day 5 of the Images Festival. I attended both shorts programs of the day: International Shorts Program V - Just Before the Road Ends, There'll Be Another Road and S is for Student curated by Lesley Loksi Chan, Dan Neuhaus and Serena Lee. All in all that is 19 short films and 8 of the filmmakers were present for Q&A's. Kudo's to the insightful audiences at Images, they certainly had thought provoking questions.


(Left to right: Kim Sheppard - Here We Are, Penny Lane - She Used to See Him Most Weekends, Andrea Cooper - Fickle as Poison, Christine Negus - Blue Water)

International Shorts Program V - Just Before the Road Ends, There'll Be Another Road

This was a very strong program with shorts themed around memory and loss. There was a haunting truth to these stories, even the ones which were fictional. Here are the highlights.

Fickle as Poison
Dir: Andrea Cooper
Canada, 15 minutes

Impressions: A wild account of the history of a relationship from the perspective of both the people involved, however played by the same actress. Enticing.

She Used to See Him Most Weekends
Dir: Penny Lane
USA, 4 minutes

Impressions: A tale of the absent father told through animation and stills and a creative use of a dinosaur alphabet. Great use of text and graphics.

Blue Water
Dir: Christine Negus
Canada, 17 minutes

Impressions: Longing, loss and lament are explored in seven parts described in the Q&A by the Christine Negus that how the memory of things don't live up to what you want them to be.

Here We Are
Dir: Kim Sheppard
Canada, 5 minutes

Impressions: Exclusively using footage from You Tube to create this haunting work of side by side images exploring family and memory.



S is for Student
curated by Lesley Loksi Chan, Dan Neuhaus and Serena Lee


(Left to right: Josiah Aien-Drake - Countdown, Dylin North - Memory Thief, Sak Tatham - Drawn Close)

Countdown
Dir: Josiah Aien-Drake
USA, 3 minutes

Impressions: A simple idea with ingenious execution in this exercise of counting back from 10 to 1. Brilliant.

Countdown won for Best Student Film. Congratulations!

Memory Thief
Dir: Dylin North
Canada, 3 minutes

Impressions: With the screen split in three we and images and text float by us as we have to decide which to give our attention to, shall we read? listen? watch? or attempt all three. This short film felt very interactive and really made you think.

The Last Samosa
Dir: Ryan McClure Scott
Canada, 4 minutes

Impressions: This short film cracked me up, using many different styles of filmmaking including various forms of animation we see a lively tale as the last samosa attempts to escape the hungry humans.

Drawn Close
Dir: Sak Tatham
Canada, 3 minutes

Impressions: Subtle humour and literal repetition are created from what was initially an exercise in rotoscoping.

Drawn Close won for Best Student Video. Congratulations!

From The Ground Up In Order, Embrace
Dir: Nick Briz
USA, 2 minutes

Impressions: Binary code becomes art in this vocal and colourful short.

Life is Good
Dir: Jesse Bellon
Canada, 3 minutes

Impressions: Jarring images of layered signage, this felt oddly meditative and profound.

Sports and Diversions
Dir: Bum Lee
USA, 4 minutes

Impressions: Brilliant animated short of mixing and morphing recognizable images in and out and all around. Gorgeous.


(Jesse Bellon - Life Is Good)


(Nick Briz - From The Ground Up In Order, Embrace)

If you want to follow along with more daily fun, check out the Images Blog, and the iFpod an experiment in with a collection of 10 Canadian films entering the mobile YOUniverse. Find iFpod on the main Images Festival site, and select iFpod icon on the left hand side.

Remember, if you missed something on the schedule or can't make the scheduled time you can visit the Images Mediatheque at the Gladstone Hotel, Room 204 from April 4-12/08, 12-6pm. Free.

The Images Festival runs from April 3-13/08 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.