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Film: Manhattan film fest makes
Vineyard visit
September 15, 2005
By Brooks Robards
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Martha's Vineyard is one of only two Massachusetts locations that will host the Manhattan Short Film Festival Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18. Arranged by the Silver Screen Society, the event features 12 finalist films that will play at Vineyard Haven's Katharine Cornell Theatre starting at 7:30 pm each night. The program will be the same on both evenings with all 12 films screened.
Each audience member who attends the screening either Saturday or Sunday will receive a voting ticket. Votes will be collated and a winner announced at Union Square Park in New York City after the final screening on Sunday, Sept. 25.
Viewers are invited to attend a post-screening discussion and free raffle at the Beetlebung Coffee House across from the Vineyard Haven Post Office on Saturday night. A number of items will be raffled, including a 60-minute massage at the Center for Therapeutic Massage in Vineyard Haven.
A total of 30 nations submitted more than 500 entries to the festival, billed as including the most creative short films in the world. Audience members at each of 166 sites in 31 states will vote on the grand-prize-winning director, who will have an opportunity to make a full-length feature film next year.
"We're honored to present the finalists for the Manhattan Short Film Festival here on Martha's Vineyard," said Silver Screen Society director Richard Paradise, "and we look forward to those who are really interested in independent film coming to the theatre and letting their votes be counted."
Adam White's 10-minute Australian film, "A Black & White World," is a tribute to silent films, while American actor Francisco Lorite's "Cuco Gomez-Gomez Is Dead," is a whodunit. Mostly all the short films range from 10 to 15 minutes in length; one is only six minutes long.
The Israeli film "Crickets" by Matan Guggenheim takes the emotional impact of terrorism as its theme, and "Gravity," a six-minute English film by Colin Hutton examines guns and violence.
"Sister," the Welch family drama by Daniel Mulloy, takes place on a school bus; Irish director Brendan Muldowney uses the horror genre for his 10-minute film "The Ten Steps." Australian filmmaker Siobhan Bowers puts a fifties-style spin on her seven-minute "Instructional Guide to Dating," while "The Lump," an Irish film by Ed Godsell tells a grotesque tale about a homeless alcoholic.
English director Hattie Dalton's "The Banker" is a 12-minute story about unrequited love, and Spaniard Alex Pastor uses a "Memento"-like time twist in "La Ruta Natural." "Hibernation," a 15-minute English film by John Williams, tells a children's story that is set in a tree house; Andrew Kotatko's "Everything Goes" narrates the relationship between a young couple and a lonely man escaping his past.
Mr. Paradise expects plenty of debate. He says people love to discuss short films because they are more immediate and convey a single plot twist that the audience reacts to, positively or not. The Manhattan Short Film Festival was founded in 1998 by Australian film impresario Nicholas Mason.
The Silver Screen Society is also planning a film show to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina on Friday, Sept. 23.
Manhattan Short Film Festival, Katharine Cornell Theatre, Vineyard Haven, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 17 and 18, 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7 pm. Admission $8; $6 for members.
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