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How many among us can honestly say that they are ‘connoisseurs’ of short films? So limited is the range, I would bet, that the concept of short films sends people thinking about the shorts at the beginning of Pixar films. In fact, short films are a standalone genre and require a certain technique in their story-telling to present an aspect of life in the short time they have to unfold. One of the oddest things about short films is how they contrast so drastically to feature films, in means of subject, plot, focus and their typical lacking of a story with a beginning/middle/end. It’s all so compact that it almost doesn’t seem right to watch. This alone gives short films a ‘marmite’ appeal. However, the Asthetica Short Film Festival is one of the limited places that allows you to experience some of the most celebrated short films in recent years.
It has sprawled itself across York City Centre, enticing strangers into back-streets, down alleyways and up never-before-seen stairs to expose make-shift screens on which the entire focus are the short films. On Friday 4th November, I went to watch a number of these screenings across town. At my first venue I entered a room at the Mansion House (no, not Ziggy’s) to find chairs placed in orderly rows focused dead to the screen. The atmosphere felt like I was attending a back-street lecture and I guess that, in a way, I was.
I cannot claim to be an expert on short films, nor can I claim to have a vast array of experience on the matter, so I was a pair of fresh eyes, witnessing this event that brought together works from 37 countries across the world. The shorts I saw almost all felt like they belonged in the same bleak world, as the tone the majority created wasn’t one of contentment and peace, but of loneliness and loss. This feeling resonated within me till I got home, just showing how effective the medium of a short film is for portraying atmosphere.
Obviously, the films weren’t all depressing and they weren’t all good either. To be honest, only a few stood out among the ones I watched yesterday; special mention would have to go to The Holiday, Adam’s Tallit and Rickshaw Rick. The three vary greatly and present different stages of life and how different personalities cope with the disease of ‘living’. Another fine piece was The Calculus of Love which mastered suspense and deceit through mathematics equations.
After watching them yesterday, I believe that I can say now that the ASFF has successfully brought culture to York this weekend and I would strongly urge you to attend its final couple days this Saturday and Sunday if you have not already. If the hard ‘drama’ isn’t your cup of tea, that’s okay, because there is variety of genres for any taste; there’s art/experimental, comedy, family, thriller and even music videos and documentaries; and personally, I don’t think I had enough yesterday.
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