“One World. One Week. One Festival” is the motto of the 28th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival. The festival screens the top 10 short film finalists during a single week. More than 100,000 audience members around the world, including those in the seats at the M.V. Film Center, will cast their vote for the best film and best actor, starting on Sept. 25.
The first entry is “Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting,” from the U.S. Directed by Alexander Thompson, the film explores relationships between mothers and their young, whether they be human or terrifyingly ugly griffins. In an alternate version of the 1930s, Selma (Pollyanna McIntosh) takes her daughter Em (Milly Shapiro) through the sacred ritual of killing her first griffin to prove Em’s readiness for womanhood. Initially, Em has her heart set on killing a queen. But soon the battle of wills between beast and humans becomes a battle between mother and daughter.
An absurdist sensibility flows through Ignacio Rodó’s comedy “Al Fresco.” This Spanish entry takes an ironic look at the real-life issue of the housing crisis. Marc Pujol plays a potential tenant responding to an ad for a room in a large apartment. He is greeted by the fast-talking owner, Roc Esquius, who gleefully takes him through the space. As the tour proceeds, the light-filled apartment in a dream location begins to be a little less appealing, forcing Pujol to decide how far he is willing to compromise to have a place to live.
American director Jessie Komitor’s “Chasing the Party” is a poignant coming-of-age story. Seventeen-year-old suburbanites Melissa (Lucia Ryan) and Stephanie (Kitana Turnbull) fantasize about becoming trendy socialites in Manhattan’s Lower East Side party scene in 2007. With music blaring and dancers performing as though in a music video, all seems cool beyond their wildest dreams … until a photographer they idolize brings in the harsh reality of playing in an adult world.
A disconcertingly earnest voice narrates the animated short “Paradise Man” by American director Jordan Michael Blake. Paradise Man speaks with seeming non sequiturs: “Do your feelings just feel too big? Sometimes mine feel pretty awful. Other times I can’t contain the joy I feel … I wanted to talk about golf and hope we learn a thing or two and laugh at three. Have you ever chased after some kind of perfect hole-in-one?” Paradise Man goes on, delving increasingly deeper into his vulnerable psyche as the intriguingly animated story unfolds, continually touching on golf, which oddly fits perfectly.
The Israeli film, “We Have Sinned Before You” by Ifat Nener Orgad, looks at the price of total honesty. To pass the time during the fast for Yom Kippur, a mother, father, and their three children play what turns into a dangerous game with a holiday theme. Each must share the worst thing they have done over the year and be completely forgiven. The stakes rise as family members share their secrets.
Lisa Jones stars as Amanda in the U.K. short “I Have My Reasons,” by Mikey Altof. She breaks the fourth wall, turning and speaking directly to us during an after-work Christmas gathering at the local pub. Amanda comments on her annoying co-workers who keep asking her questions, which she simply answers, “I have my reasons.” As we learn about a singular childhood incident, suddenly Amanda’s “reasons” behind every choice, from drinking apple juice instead of alcohol to remaining childless, make sense.
The Norwegian stop-motion animation entry, “Ovary-Acting” by Ida Melum, is an immensely humorous exploration of a woman’s experience of her biological clock ticking away. Stuck at her sister’s baby shower, thirty-something Eva unexpectedly gives birth to one of her reproductive organs, Ovy. Through witty repartee between the two, Eva is forced to decide whether motherhood is or is not her destiny.
Who will speak up and who will not sits at the heart of “Beyond Silence,” a poignant film by Dutch director Marnie Blok. Eva (Henrianne Jansen), who is deaf, brings her sister Anna (Sigrid ten Napel) as interpreter to a meeting with an academic advisor (Tamar van den Dop). Eva wants to put a stop to the sexual abuse she is suffering at the hands of her Ph.D. advisor, for whom she works. Although Anna verbally communicates Eva’s words so we can hear them, it’s Eva’s expressive anguish that is most piercing. However, the situation, which should be straightforward, is anything but. Scared of committing academic suicide, Eva has “let” the situation go on for a year and a half, and the advisor explains there is little Eva can do, for reasons that only become clear as the film unfolds.
In the Belgium entry “Zodiak” by Hans Buyse, two forty-something close friends are out fishing at sea. Thomas (Bart Hollanders) is pining over his lost love when they come upon Somalian refugees in a Zodiac with a broken motor. Tension fills the air and tests the friends’ relationship as Thomas sympathizes with the refugees’ plight, and Louis (Titus De Voogdt) takes a harsher stance.
In Mexican director Natalia García Agraz’s endearing short, “Passarinho,” a mother drives her daughter and friend to the final soccer match of their beloved goalkeeper, who is retiring. The girls, wild with passion for the sport and their favorite player, cook up an elaborate scheme to meet their idol, only to have it thwarted when one of them gets her first period.
Audiences will be hard put to choose the best film and actor. But as founding director of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, Nicholas Mason says, “These 10 short films bring a much-needed positive energy to the world.”
For tickets and more information, visit bit.ly/MVFS_ManhattanShorts.
