SXSW 2021's short films are nothing short of wonderful - Daily Californian
SXSW 2021's short films are nothing short of wonderful - Daily Californian |
| SXSW 2021's short films are nothing short of wonderful - Daily Californian Posted: 30 Mar 2021 08:54 AM PDT Short films aren't the kind of movies that just fall into your lap. Works of tight and taut storytelling, short films often elude mainstream consumption and tend to serve only the select bevy of viewers who seek them. In 2021, the South by Southwest, or SXSW, Film Festival demonstrated the short film's versatility by highlighting filmmakers who enhance and advance the short form. The festival's selection spans several categories: narrative shorts, documentary shorts, animated shorts, midnight shorts, Texas shorts and Texas high school shorts — films of five minutes or less created by high schoolers in the Lone Star state. Within this wealth of stories and styles, SXSW's program clearly demonstrates that the short film's potential cannot be exhausted, underestimated or undervalued. Here are some standouts from this year's lineup. "Our Bed is Green" Loneliness emerged as a recurrent theme in the short film categories. "Our Bed is Green" enlivens this emotion in a unique and colorful psychedelic world from the imagination of director Maggie Brennan. The film follows a young woman named Cecily's (Caitlin Duffy) visit to Realm, a virtual reality facility able to satisfy her unspoken erotic desires. Brennan's creative worldbuilding makes "Our Bed is Green" immersive to the point that the characters' dialogue feels superfluous. The film's soundscape, as well, thrives as a faithful and clever companion to a story about unrequited desire and repression. "Marvin's Never Had Coffee Before" SXSW shared a number of films that tackled the current pandemic's grim realities, but few movies were able to offer a refreshing take about our current way of living. "Marvin's Never Had Coffee Before" is a gentle comedy directed by Andrew Carter that highlights a young man, played by Charles Rogers, who struggles to connect with his coworkers over Zoom. The anecdote? Coffee. With an endearingly awkward lead, the short film is simple and unassuming, with levity that's delightful to the last drop. "Opera" Amassing well-deserved critical acclaim, "Opera" won its category's SXSW Audience Award and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. Directed by Erick Oh, "Opera" is a work of thematic and visual mastery, unfolding as an epic 8K size animation installation project that's able to be played and replayed on an infinite loop. "Opera" fashions an expansive tapestry of human history in nine minutes, brilliantly encapsulating its cyclical procession. The short's hypnotic details manage to mesmerize even after the inevitable fourth or fifth viewing. "Ten Leaves Dilated" What if the lore of the Cabbage Patch Kids allegorized society's inability to candidly discuss childbirth? Directed by Kate Hinshaw and Ebony Blanding, "Ten Leaves Dilated" gives a clever answer to a question almost too absurd to ask. This trippy documentary explores various birthing myths, focusing on the collection of famous dolls said to be born from the head of a cabbage. "Ten Leaves Dilated" is commendable for its unique premise and bold direction, but the story feels jagged and incomplete when the credits finally roll. "A Tale Best Forgotten" Based on a poem by Helen Adam, "A Tale Best Forgotten" tells a simple story in five minutes, yet exalts it through rigorous and impressive camerawork. Tomas Stark directs this avant-garde murder-ballad, which chronicles the fate of a father (Ola Wallinder), his daughter (Julia Sporre), her lover (Adam Stålhammar) and a dog-headed man (Jerker Beckman). The camera builds suspense through mind-bending and haunting unbroken tracking shots depicting a shadowed house and its bleary reflection. Mystery shrouds the short film as disturbing events take place beyond the frame, and their aftershocks begin to creep into our vision. Stark cleverly finds beauty in the grotesque, which makes "A Tale Best Forgotten" a memorable entry in the midnight shorts category. "KKUM" The art of stop-motion animation demands rigor and discipline, which makes the dreamy quality in Kim Kang-min's "KKUM" deeply impressive. The film is a personal and visually stunning exploration of a mother's premonitions through the eyes of her caring son. It offers a touching love letter to an openly treasured relationship. The black-and-white film uses Styrofoam, molding the material with liquid smoothness as if it were clay. Every moment, every movement — even the excretion of a bug — is visually exciting, crafted with care, respect and a sense of humor. Maya Thompson covers film. Contact her at [email protected].  |
| New Hemingway documentary shatters myths, explores writer's Michigan roots - Detroit Free Press Posted: 30 Mar 2021 03:04 AM PDT CLOSE  There were few places Ernest Hemingway could slip away into obscurity. But Michigan was one of them and offered the famed writer a safe haven and place of inspiration. The northern Michigan woods helped Hemingway taste some normalcy and a connection to his childhood. Hemingway could walk on Mitchell Street in Petoskey without anyone knowing who he was. A new three-part Public Broadcasting Service documentary, titled "Hemingway," by Lynn Novick and Ken Burns, will explore the writer, giving insight into his Michigan roots while shattering popular myths surrounding his life. The documentary's filmmakers used a Michigan historian's book as a research starting point. The team also used Central Michigan University's Hemingway Collection from the Clarke Historical Library for other primary sources to paint the picture of Hemingway's life in northern Michigan. Burns and Novick used Michael Federspiel's book, "Picturing Hemingway's Michigan." Federspiel is a former CMU history professor and high school English teacher. He originally started his Hemingway in Michigan research as a way for his ninth grade students to connect with Hemingway's words and life, he said. Hemingway's Michigan roots start in 1898 when his parents, Clarence and Grace Hemingway, bought waterfront property and built a cottage on Walloon Lake, formerly named Bear Lake, according to Federspiel's book. The Hemingway family lived in suburban Oak Park, Illinois, and the Michigan summers exposed Hemingway to a different kind of life. After Hemingway's mother received an inheritance, the family bought a farm across from their Walloon Lake cottage, Federspiel said. Hemingway's family named the farm Longfield Farm, and they planted fruit trees, potatoes, and vegetables. "Ernest (Hemingway) would spend his teenage years, often overworking on the farm, reporting back to his dad about how the crops were going there," Federspiel said. "So, Ernest Hemingway the farmer is not one of the images that quickly comes to mind when people reference Hemingway. But that farm was on the Horton Bay side of Walloon Lake, so that also put him over there, and he would oftentimes spend nights actually right there on that farm, even though there wasn't a home there for him to stay in." Federspiel's book said Hemingway returned to Michigan every year until he got married to his first wife, Hadley Richardson, in 1921. "I think he just absorbed northern Michigan," Federspiel said. "I think it shows up as a writer when he finally understood that after writing crime fiction, in essence, stories that he thought would sell in popular magazines, he realized and took the advice of experienced writers who said, 'write what you know.' " The advice would follow Hemingway even when he went to Paris in the 1920s. More: Local Iraqi American film, novel aims to bring unity to Chaldean, Muslim communities More: Michigan Opera Theatre shocks world again with addition of acclaimed singer In the City of Lights, Hemingway rubbed elbows with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Despite the glitz and glamour of Paris, Hemingway tacked a Michigan map on his writing room wall and wrote stories about Seney, a town in the Upper Peninsula; Horton Bay, located in Charlevoix County, and Kalkaska, a town 30 minutes from Traverse City. "He wrote what he knew and like any great artist, he invented parts, he left out parts," Federspiel said. "He wrote for his own experience and tried to not make it autobiographical. But it was time that the character Nick Adams was born. Nick had many similar traits to Ernest Hemingway, but Hemingway himself would say 'It's not me. It's absolutely not me,' but you can't help but see the parallels between the two." Northern Michigan life served as a hard drive of experiences, places and observations for Hemingway, Federspiel said. He would pull these memories when he started writing. Eventually, Hemingway would go on to write about his other experiences in World War I, the Spanish Civil War and Cuba. "He (Hemingway) would look for that next adrenaline rush of experience, and use that as motivation for what he wrote," Federspiel said. "But that first generation of writing, even his first published novel, 'The Torrents of Spring,' it's set in Petoskey." Federspiel said some people would argue that Hemingway's first generation of writing, often set in Michigan, is some of his best work. In terms of the new Burns and Novick documentary, Federspiel said he's curious to see what the filmmakers come up with. From conversations he has had with Novick and the short clips he has watched, Federspiel said audiences will hear more about Hemingway's mental and physical health. Filmmakers looked at the possibility of Hemingway having a closed head injury. The documentary will also explore the topic of Hemingway and gender. In an interview with the "Today" show, Burns said Hemingway inflated the idea that he was a brawler, a deep-sea fisher, a heavy drinker and an overall "man about town." Although these were true Hemingway traits, Burns said these traits were hiding insecurity. Hemingway's masculinity obscured his art, and he often observed how men and women got along or didn't, Burns said. "What we discovered when we pierce the veil of the toxic masculine image is that there's a person who's curious about gender fluidity, who has put himself in several amazing short stories 'into the mind under the skin,' the writer Edna O'Brien said, of the women in it," Burns said. Burns said the reputation of Hemingway being a misogynist and an "ultra-macho guy" doesn't completely crumble, but it's only part of the story. "Hemingway," the three-part and six-hour-long documentary is set to air on PBS on April 5. On Wednesday, WCMU and the Clarke Historical Library will be hosting a livestream event that'll offer people the chance to have an exclusive view of Burn's and Novick's new documentary. There'll also be a live conversation with Novick and producer Sarah Botstein after the screening. To register, click here. Contact Slone Terranella: STerranella@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @SloneTerranella. Support local journalism here. Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/03/30/hemingway-michigan-documentary-explores-writers-time-mitten/7016155002/  |
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