Its eight years since Shorts kicked off and this year it represents 60 of the best entries received from local and overseas producers. Presented for the first time in the somewhat iconic Norwood Concert Hall, patrons can relax at tables, serving themselves wine and food and enjoying a very different kind of movie experience. Perhaps the best part is that if you don’t like what you are watching don’t worry; in ten minutes something new will appear.
As is emphasised over and over, this all about the art of storytelling and one may be surprised that even in these modified forms of the movie genre, it remains as hard to sustain that as in the more usual two hour format.
The three standout films from last night came included one from an Adelaide crew. Bad Language is a South Australian comedy where older Greek men are settled into a long afternoon of card playing, seeking to steal time away from their wives. A bet with a young local manning the bar sets off great fun. This is a tightly and brilliantly scripted romps by Viron Papadopoulos (who also directs and produces) that features our favourite RAA man, George Kapiniaris, in a thankfully more endearing role.
Made in NSW, Via Gori is a gripping tale of mothers and their young children on a bus trip, they hope to safety, through a war waging Balkans. If nothing else, the ability to make you feel you are in Eastern Europe by director and screen writer George Barbakadze is admirable.
The biggest production values that also (but by no means necessarily) carried with it a engrossing story resided with an entrant from London’s Soho Rushes Festival, West of the Moon. Here an old man with a grenade for a heart seeks redemption with a decrepit robot and a wayward monkey.
If quick animations are your scene, then local Luke Jurevicius’ Horace in Slow Motion is terrific fun.
Each film on each night is different and from 10-12 showing each evening, there is plenty to enjoy this week. From Tuesday to Friday at 7pm, with the presentation night on Saturday.
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