WSFF 2008 Award Winners

Ah, at last. The WSFF has announced all of its award winners, a list that includes a number of films I saw.

Because I'm a little blogged out, allow me to simply redirect you to the official announcement from the fest.

See you at TIFF...

WSFF 2008 #5: Going Out With a Bang...of Thunder!

As I stood at the northwest corner of Bloor and Avenue Rd., waiting to cross the street and head to the Cumberland, I looked north along Avenue and saw a giant wall of darkness approaching overhead. To my right, sunshine and blue skies...but to my left, and just at the cusp of Bloor, was an endless expanse of black, rumbling clouds. Before I finished crossing the street, the area was already dropping slowly into the menacing shadow of a big, fat thunderstorm.

Then some wicked, nasty weather hit.

Thankfully, by the time it did, I was already sitting in the theater, waiting for my first screening of the day, the Film School Spotlight: Universidad del Cine, a collection of shorts from the UDC in Buenos Aires. They were all technically strong and well-made, but only two truly impressed me:

* Crummy Café (7/8), a clever, one-location story about what would happen if two renowned composers debated their merits – and their music – at a run-down little bar. Smartly written and nicely acted, it made me smile.

and

* Amancay (6/8), a moody, languid, atmospheric character study (or, perhaps, location study) about a despondent young woman (Carolina Presno, left) who returns to a remote cabin where she lost a lover. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was any dialogue at all save for the main character shouting her boyfriend’s name at one point.

Immediately after the closing credits on the last Argentinian short rolled, I hopped next door to catch Official Selection 9: Father’s Day, a series of shorts relating to dads...appropriate, given the day. Even though this screening was kind of a last-minute addition for me, and I wasn’t particularly excited to go, I was pleasantly surprised by the offerings.

In fact, one brilliant short -- Boar Attack (8/8) -- might just be my favorite film of the fest. Much sweeter than its title would suggest, it made me tear up...even though it’s less than 4 minutes long.

Also impressive, and just as touching, was New Boy (7/8), a slice-of-life drama about a nine-year-old boy adjusting to life in a new school in a new country...and reflecting on the life he left behind in Africa. Again, choked me up.

Two honorable mentions for performance go to a pair of actresses in two other shorts screened as part of this programme: little Marie-Felixe Allard (right), the bespectacled, foul-mouthed and completely charming tot in Gilles’ Lili; and veteran Canadian thespian Mimi Kuzyk for churning out some impressive, emotional work in the war-vet tale, Homecoming. Well done, ladies!

And that’s a wrap on the alarmingly Myrocia-free WSFF 2008. The award winners were announced earlier tonight, but I can’t seem to find the results anywhere. I’ll post ‘em when I get ‘em.

WSFF 2008 #4: Kids’ Flicks Never Disappoint

Before we chat about the annual Shorts for Shorties collection of short films geared towards kids – which was excellent, as usual – can we talk for a moment about what seems to be an unsettling trend among filmmakers at this year’s fest: killing dogs. Good grief, it’s like someone put out a memo requesting more canine deaths in film. Today, two more films featured dogs dying in unpleasant ways. Thankfully, though, unlike Death of Shula, neither of today’s victims were actually harmed during filming.

But I digress...

First up today were the kids’ shorts – hooray! I don’t know why, but filmmakers catering to a younger set are always much, much better at making short films that are both short and films. They’re usually under five minutes, often animated and almost always great – smart, funny, vibrant and able to hold the attention of audience members under 12. Today’s collection contained 18 films, and I’m having a hard time narrowing down my favorites. Most memorable were the trio of Shaun the Sheep shorts (7/8 for them all) -- Stick With Me, Hiccups and The Snore Worn Shaun. Aardman Animation (home of Wallace & Gromit) are masters at their craft, so it’s no surprise that these three films were by far the most popular today.

Also extra-good were:

* My Happy End (7/8), a black-and-white story about an animated dog who finds a best friend in his hind quarters

* the South African tale Jungle Beat 2: Because You’re Gorgeous (7/8), in which a self-absorbed warthog learns the perils of vanity.

and

* Rebelle (7/8), about a note that decides to shake things up within its piece of classical music.

I ducked out after the last film and quickly got back in line for Official Selection 4: Creatures Great and Small, a programme containing films that somehow relate to nature, wildlife, animals or pets. I picked this screening largely because of one film: actor Paddy Considine’s directorial effort, Dog Altogether (6/8), which was not only written and directed by one of my favorite UK talents, but which stars Peter Mullan...whom I’d like to just read me stories with his deep, gravelly voice.

Dog... was good, but didn’t wow me as much as I thought it would. Mullan stars as Joseph, a rage-aholic who’s unable to control his temper (the film opens with repeatedly kicking his dog, whom he later puts out of its mortal-wound misery), and I actually wanted to see more of this particular story because it ended at a various interesting point. Alas.

I also enjoyed:

* Hot Dog (7/8), animator Bill Plympton’s offering about a bulldog who wants to be part of a fire department

and

* the eco-centric Journey to the Forest (7/8), an experimental film examining the issue of clear-cutting.

And then I called it a day. Tomorrow’s the last day of the fest, and I think I only have one screening...maybe two if I can squeeze a second one in. And STILL no Myrocia. This makes me sad.

Total films screened today: 27.

WSFF 2008 #3: Half-Hearted at the Halfway Mark

If I were a Telus representative attending the WSFF, I think I’d be kind of peeved.

Today was the third day (not including opening night) of the festival, and Telus is a presenting sponsor – so their ads play before each screening and their logo is slapped on each audience-choice ballot, for starters – yet it seems that no one involved in the fest has bothered to find out what the Telus Mobile Experience is...yet they plug it every single day. Before every screening I’ve attended so far, I’ve heard the exact same half-hearted, confused “pitch” for this Mobile Experience from the person handling the introductory announcements (“Mobile Experience? I have no idea what that is, so somebody please check it out and tell me!”), and it’s starting to get old.

Shouldn’t someone have bothered to find out what this is by now? Given that Telus is obviously handing over a big chunk of change, and the faux-anti-establishment vibe that (intentionally or not) comes across during these pre-film announcements about their product seems more irritating than irreverent on the part of the fest?

I mean, it would take, what?, one quick phone call to someone in the marketing department at Telus? Could it have anything to do with this initiative, announced last year, which I found after three seconds of Googling? Come on. This shouldn’t be difficult. [Note: I am somewhat tempted to believe, or perhaps hope, that this "we don't know what this thing is!" schtick is actually an act, done on purpose to *drive* people to check it out for themselves...but I'm not 100% convinced this is the case. Or, if it is, that it's working.]

Anyway...

I only hit two screenings today, the first of which was largely forgettable. I didn’t really adore Official Selection 10: I Want to Be Adored, a collection of films related to fame, celebrity and entertainment. Honestly, none of them stood out to me, good or bad, and my mind started to wander at some point during each one. The only short that left any kind of impression was Zietek (5/8), a creepy Polish film about an old man who's spent his life carving life-sized pin-up models out of wood...which I thought was fiction but which (I learned afterward when I checked the program book) was a documentary. Um. Yipes.

Thankfully, my second screening of the day – Official Selection 12: Watch What You Eat -- was fantastic. Almost all the films in this collection were great, and the ones that weren’t amazing were still quite good.

I loved Le Grand Content (8/8), an Austrian look at society’s foibles as demonstrated through animated charts and graphs. You can watch the film on YouTube! Other highlights in this grouping were:

* Personal Spectator (6/8), Emmanuel Jespers’ tale of discovering self-worth through the eyes of another. (Note: let me go on the record now as saying that I expect actor Tom Harper to hit Hollywood hard in the future.)

* The Sweetest Sound (6/8), a darky twisted story about the perils of reconnecting with someone you dumped.

* The Frozen City (7/8), a documentary about Winnipeg, MB – the Slurpee Capital of the World. Seriously, these people lurrrrrrrve their frozen beverages!

and

* No Coke (7/8), a hilarious little Scottish film about a British tourist, a broken vending machine in Norway and an apathetic hotel clerk. So fun!

Tomorrow, one of my favorite programmes every year: the kids’ collection, Shorts for Shorties! This year’s set features three Shaun the Sheep entries. :-D

And STILL no Myrocia sightings. I am starting to have Roger Ebert at TIFF déjà vu...

Total films screened today: 17

WSFF 2008 #2: Dying Dogs and Depressing Dramas

Know what’s super-fun? Sitting in a screening and realizing, to your horror, that the big, cuddly dog dying onscreen is actually dying. That was part of how I spent my afternoon on day two of the fest. (Note to anyone who isn’t clear: the aforementioned incident was decidedly *not* fun.)

My first screening of the day was Official Selection 6: Teenland, which was supposedly a collection of films relating to being a teenager, but a few reeeeeally stretched that classification. Most of the films were meh, and seriously depressing, but two stood out:

* Mats Grorud’s claymation tale My Grandmother Beijing (7/8), a sweet story that, on the surface, seems like a man reflecting on his love for his late grandmother, but which in fact contains more than a little political commentary buried within the titular character’s wrinkles.

and

* Death of Shula (4/8), a depressing and ultimately frustrating drama (?) about a family’s disconnect as reflected through the death of the family dog. This film bothered me for a number of reasons. First and foremost was the fact that, as mentioned, we’re forced to watch – in a lengthy, static close-up – a dog being euthanized...right down to its last gasps of breath. That same dog can be seen here in an earlier scene, where it is clearly in distress (if you’re sensitive to these sorts of things, you might want to skip watching). Filmmaker Asaf Korman obviously shot the canine footage via a veterinarian preparing to put a dog to sleep...and then inserted that footage into the film. At no point are any of the actors (Korman’s actual family) shown with the dog, and dialogue has been looped onto the euthanasia footage. It all felt very cold and exploitative, and the camera holds way too long on the lifeless body, in my opinion. But equally frustrating is Korman’s decision to leave the camera running at the end of his film after he (off-camera) yells “cut.” It completely voided the emotional impact of his story, and took me right out of the action. Too bad. Another example of a crappy ending ruining a movie.

Then came the supremely awkward post-screening Q&A session. I understand that it’s great to have filmmakers or members of the production team on hand, but when it’s obvious they have nothing to say or are perhaps not really wanting to talk about their work (as was the case with a pair of filmmakers at this screening), why not just scrap it? And, if you’re a filmmaker who agrees to take part in a Q&A session, try to at least pretend to be interested in your own project or marginally aware of your own work so that you can answer questions when they’re asked instead of giving the equivalent of a shoulder shrug. My moviegoing pal and I actually had to leave because it was that painful to watch.

Next up was the Celebrity Shorts package, which is always a blend of really great and really self-indulgent filmmaking, and this year was no exception. Falling into the latter category were Kate Hudson’s directorial effort, Cutlass (5/8), which seems to equate love for your kids with buying them expensive things, and Occupations (4/8), director Lars von Trier’s bizarre and ultimately grotesque look at dealing with a chatty Cathy in a movie theater. Oh, and then there was the short that seemed to be funded by the Church of Scientology, given the fact that its entire cast was made up of B-list Scientologists. Kind of creepy.

Two comedies won me over, though. CTRL Z (6/8), features Tony Hale as a frustrated office worker who thinks he’s found the solution to all his problems, and FCU: Fact Checkers Unit (7/8), which follows a pair of dedicated magazine staffers trying to check one final fact about Bill Murray (who co-stars as himself). You can actually watch the film in its entirety here. And one animated film, Descendants (6/8), proved surprisingly moving. It’s the story of two forest flowers (one voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) and the need for love vs. revenge. I got a little choked up at the end.

As an aside: where is Myrocia Watamaniuk??? Five screenings so far and nary a sighting. Alas.

That was it for the day. Tomorrow: humidity and thunderstorms. Drat.

Total films screened today: 16

WSFF 2008 #1: Monologues, Monoliths and Mangled Children!

Okay, so I almost missed the first day of the 2008 Worldwide Short Film Festival.

For some reason, I woke up this morning – and spent the first half of the day – thinking it was June 10th. So, in my mind, the only WSFF screening on the docket would be the opening-night gala. Imagine my shock and awe when, around noon, I realized that, no, it’s June 11th...and the fest would be in full swing...and I had three screenings earmarked for the afternoon...and I hadn’t even picked up my press pass yet.

Yipes!

Some scurrying around and rescheduling ensued, and I made it to all my planned shows.

First up was Official Selection 1: I Have a Dream, a collection of seven films relating to dreams, sleep, imagination and goals. Of the pack, only two really stood out for me:

* Frankie (6/8), Darren Thornton’s curious drama that exposes the inner monologue (spoken outwardly) of a 15-year-old Irish delinquent who’s about to become a father.

and

* Debora Diniz’s fascinating documentary Alone and Anonymous (6/8), which follows a nameless old man who’s trying to starve himself to death. It was at once heartbreaking and really weird...especially given its surprising final few minutes.

I hopped outside and immediately back in line for Official Selection 2: Crime & Punishment, which featured eight shorts relating to, well, crime and/or punishment. While a number of these films started off really strong, more than a few left me feeling meh as they ended because they lacked endings...they just kind of faded out. I dunno, I understand leaving the audience guessing, but in the 10+ years that I’ve been going to the WSFF I find that many short filmmakers seem to just end their films rather than giving them endings. That is to say, they just peter out or stop abruptly. If these were short stories, readers would feel cheated. Viewers of short films should be no exception.

Two prime examples of this in this particular programme were Chief (6/8), the story of a Samoan chief-turned-taxi driver in Hawaii, which probably would have received at least seven slices had it had an ending, and Tomboy (5/8), which “ends” with a strange and half-hearted whimper that seems to imply murder is okay if you get to kiss a boy for the first time.

Thankfully, two wonderfully clever films in this set more than made up for what the others may have lacked:

* Trevor Cawood’s brilliant Terminus (7/8), which is a visually impressive little gem that seeeeeamlessly blends CGI with live action in a story about a persistent stone monolith following a hapless office worker. It was terrific and I literally sat there trying to figure out HOW they created some of the images onscreen.

and

* How Much Do You Love Me? (7/8), a hilarious Australian offering from directors Nick Ball and Gus Johnston, which centers on a the perils of a young couple putting quantitative values on a relationship. So good!

Last up was a program I was very much excited to see, and it did not disappoint: Accidentally Funny: Order is Restored, a collection of instructional and educational films from the 1940s-‘70s which, when viewed now, are hysterically funny. Unfortunately, this particular program isn’t repeating during the fest, which is a shame because it’s so much fun and more people should get to see it. My faves of these ten shorts were:

* Making a Decision (6/8), a 1957 NFB film about a high-school girl forced to decide between a date with a boy and a family obligation.

* I’m a Mammal and So Are You (6/8), a musical explanation of mammals from 1972, with a very catchy tune.

and

* The Finish Line (7/8), a 1977 UK film – which was intended for schools but was promptly pulled from circulation for its completely twisted and surreal content...which, of course, makes it that much more entertaining now. It was meant to be a cautionary tale about playing on or near train tracks and is, instead, this freakishly demented story of kids being killed one after another. Best part of the whole movie? A wide shot where a girl playing one of the young “corpses” sits up among her fellow bodies (clearly forgetting she’s supposed to play dead!), looks around and readjusts herself. Priceless!

A full day. Tomorrow: movies about teens and the annual celebrity-shorts program!

Total films screened today: 25