Hot on the heels of last night’s party-slash-kick off to the 2011 CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival at Yonge-Dundas Square, Criticize This! continues its coverage of the biggest short film festival in North America with a look at several more high profile programs from the festival that are full of films worth more than the small amount of time it will take to watch them. The festival kicks off its six day run this Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema with their Gala Presentation (with after-party to follow at C Lounge, 456 Wellington Street West, included in the $20 ticket price) and runs through to the award winners being screened at the ROM on Sunday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m. Let’s take a look now at some programs that involve male bonding, turning negatives into positives and confronting your deepest fears along with some films with some really big star power and some of the finest films the CFC has to offer.
Much like the other Official Selections program titled The Hipster, Bromance (Friday, June 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the ROM and Sunday, June 5 at 4:30 p.m. at the Varsity) takes a look at another buzzword on everyone’s lips and focuses on films that largely surround the platonic relationships of male friends. Swim is a short, but affecting piece about a man reflecting on a childhood friend that passed away while out for a swim. Needle Exchange is a documentary about two former addicts in Ireland who have replaced drugs with tattooing in their personal relationship that is told in a very straightforward and respectful manner even when their personal relationship hits a pretty big snag. 35MPH is a pretty rocking look at motorbike enthusiast friends. If those three don’t sound like they would appeal to all audience members, you might be right, but there are three shorts in this program that will appeal to all audience members on very emotional levels. Andy and Zach is the story of two roommates (Zach Woods from The Office and Andy Kachor) and the passive aggression that threatens their friendship with some big laughs and a touching conclusion that is hard not to tear up while watching. North Atlantic is the low-key but quietly intense true story of an air traffic controller on a small island who anticipated a quiet night but ends up having to calmly talk to a hopelessly lost pilot who is quickly running out of fuel. The program ends with the undeniably powerful film To All My Friends, about two hardcore punks who seem to be drifting apart not in ideology but in the paths their lives are about to take. This film boasts not only an impressive soundtrack, but manages to ground a lot of manly bluster in a real sense of emotion that brings you inside the heads of the characters without merely observing them as stereotypes.
The greatest number of crowd pleasers can probably be found in the Official Selections branch, Silver Linings (Friday, June 3 at 3:15 p.m. and Sunday, June 5 at 2:15 p.m., both at the Varsity), a group of films that focus on finding joy on the other end of great sadness. There isn’t a weak film in this entire bunch and it is easily one of the must-see packages of the festival. Rubika is an animated feature that looks like a cross between an 8-bit video game and a Lego playset about one man who has very unfortunately lost touch with the laws of gravity. Cold Blood is a touching story about how scary it is to be a child in a doctor’s office even for the most heartfelt of reasons. A Lost and Found Box of Human Sensation is a Tim Burton-esque animated film about a young man (voiced by Joseph Fiennes) ruminating on the nature of grief and how the world works after the death of his father from pancreatic cancer. As an added bonus, Lost and Found is also narrated by Ian McKellen. Life and Death of Yul Brynner is a darkly comedic story about a man receiving some terrible news upon returning from his vacation that is told almost entirely in answering machine messages. Holding Still is a very relaxing documentary about a paralyzed shut-in who finds comfort in being almost completely invisible to the outside world that will make viewers take more notice in the smaller pleasures in life. Altarcations is a funny skit (that probably won’t be for everyone’s taste) that involves a soon to be married couple arguing in front of their priest because he wants their wedding song to be something horrendously inappropriate. A Doctor’s Job focuses on a doctor in Peru trying to make ends meet by moonlighting as a taxi driver in hopes of keeping his sick mother in a nursing home. Going Nowhere is the funny and incredibly realistic story of two brothers, one of whom is a former marathon runner now confined to a wheelchair, who have to help each other overcome the problems that neither of them wants to admit they have.
There are two programs of horror shorts at this year’s festival, one which is intent in scaring the audience and the other which intends to bend their minds a bit more. In Midnight Mania: Creepy (Friday, June 3 at 11:59 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema), the scares come quickly and often. The Circular Glance is an intense look at a family quickly besieged while on a trip to the beach and the efforts of the children to escape from captivity. This film has a twist ending that is bound to be divisive to audiences, but it will definitely get people talking and debating it’s merits. Ella stars Buffy’s Anthony Head (nearly unrecognizable and looking more like Rutger Hauer) in a nearly wordless and intense subversion of the Red Riding Hood story. This program also offers two of the best shorts in the entire festival, the opening film The Legend of Beaver Dam and the closing film, Ninjas. Beaver Dam is the story of a hopelessly picked on young boy forced with saving his boy scout troop from being massacred by a deformed killer. The short, which is also partly a kick ass musical, takes the viewer through a full range of emotions before leading to a killer final twist. Ninjas isn’t really a horror film in the strictest sense of the term, but it is a shockingly intense morality play from Brazil about a police officer struggling with his own impending corruption. This Brazilian import is guaranteed to spark debate and court controversy, but it is an astoundingly well realized piece of work that sticks with you long after it is over. For those who prefer their horror a little less scary and a little more freaky, there is Midnight Mania: Freaky the following night (also at the Bloor Cinema at the same time), which focuses more on films that are more trippy than frightening. This program, which was not reviewed, closes with the latest film from Harmony Korine, which should tell you the general tone of the films for this program.
