Oh dear. What has driven us into this short film program?! Where should I begin? I think it must have been the only program that could fill a slot in our schedule and not collide with films we really wanted to see. With our all-access passes we didn’t have to buy tickets for this, and didn’t lose anything except a few minutes of our lives. In the end it was more amusing than upsetting to me.
Some of the experiments in the Potpourri Shorts program just did not work for me. Now, experiments can succeed in science, art, music, film, where ever you step on unfamiliar terrain and explore new creative ideas, but they can also fail. There is nothing wrong with failures.
Untitled
A macro-experimental visual representation of color reactions in less than 60 seconds.(from the filmfest-guide)
It was quick and painless, probably well done from technical perspective. But although I can usually make up my own interpretation about an artist’s work, there was not much I could extract from Untitled.
Passage
An inquiry into memory, landscape, and departure, this work visually catches sight of experience as it moves past. In this work, the artists create a layered encounter with streams of imagery and sound. The music employs 19-tone equal temperament tuning, which provides many acoustically very pure melodic and harmonic intervals, but also ‘blue’ notes and intervals that tend to sound ‘stretched’ or ‘compressed’. The music is anchored by a slowly evolving flute-like theme that is threaded through an ever-changing landscape of harmonic, rhythmic and coloristic textures. (from the filmfest-guide)
May be something for somebody with an art and music degree, but not for an idiot like me.
Torn Asunder
This video creatively explores the increasingly frayed American national psyche. The young urban voices are two of Tampa Bay’s most popular performance poets. The art and post-production were handled by two baby boomers. (from the filmfest-guide)
I didn’t enjoy it at all–but I have to admit that I never was able to appreciate much “performance art”. I suppose the same is true for “performance poets”.
Anti-Narrative Number 4
A man’s life is examined; a narrator gives the audience insight into a man’s thoughts and feelings. The narrator eventually confesses that he is in fact the man in the film; the narrator is making a film about himself. (from the filmfest-guide)
This film was actually very refreshing after the first shorts. I enjoyed its humor.
Simulacra
In a world populated by machines, a robot discovers the joys of organic life. (from the filmfest-guide)
This short moved me. It was a very sad and very well done. The best I have seen in the Potpourri Shortsprogram.
Invoice
The soundtrack has been partly mined from an American military training video found on the Internet and altered. Thrown pennies represent ritualized violence, a body count, helplessness and absurdity. (from the filmfest-guide)
This thing really was absurd, probably the longest two minutes of my life.
Runa’s Spell
Runa’s Spell conveys a moment of connectedness with the sensual persuasions of an imaginary world. Image and music interact in a dramatic way to deepen and enhance the perception of enchantment and longing. The visuals consist of digitally interwoven and layered animated hand-paintings on 35mm film stock, animated objects and cut outs, and pixillation of live creatures. The music attempts to create a spiritual sense of journey through the fractional evocation of ancient Egyptian folk song. The sonorous texture of trembling and contorted sound-images illustrate the hesitation, solitude and endless dream-scape of the human mind. Runa’s Spell is a collaborative work by the animator and the composer, from concept through realization. (from the filmfest-guide)
I was so ready to leave the theatre at this point.
I really feel sorry because all these comments are so subjective and should not influence anybody else. Art itself is so subjective, too. One might be attracted to one piece of modern or experimental art, but then absolutely dislike another work. Sometimes art is created to purposefully shift the viewer’s emotions into a directions of love or hate. Art can be insulting, emotional, thought-provoking, inspiring or emotional. But sometimes it can also feel like a joke, as if somebody wanted to try what interpretation it takes to sell the joke to the audience. Sometimes the amount of words needed to describe a work of art feels reciprocally proportional to the amount of appreciation I can feel about a work. I don’t know if this and some of the other films were meant as a joke, how much thought, emotion, sweat, blood and work was put into them… some might have put a lot of themselves into the work. I will probably never know, but I surely was the wrong audience.
Death of a Matriarch
Based on an episode of “Kana’ti and Selu,” a Native American folktale, this animated story explains how the Cherokee Nation believes farming was brought to Mankind. (from the filmfest-guide)
This was quite a scary story with scary looking characters. Wikipedia provides some background information on this story and the Cherokee mythology which will help to appreciate this animation. Interesting. I have never heard about this tale before.
The Green Grass of Twilight
Three vignettes exploring the role of mortality in our lives. As a single time-lapse shot of cemetery headstones progresses to night, we are surprised to see the occupant step out to mow the grass and prepare for anticipated morning guests. (from the filmfest-guide)
Nothing much to add to this description.
And that’s when we left the theatre to get ready for our next film.
