Honestly? I’m a little filmed-out right now. But I’m trying to watch as many of these can before I run out of time to do so, so I’m jumping over to animation for now.
Animation Short Film Program
Christopher at Sea – Dir. Tom CJ Brown
Christopher embarks on a transatlantic voyage as a passenger on a cargo ship. His hopes of finding out what lures so many men to sea sets him on a journey into solitude, fantasy, and obsession.
*homoerotically smokes cigarette on cargo ship* Skipped this one around the halfway mark, might come back.
Well Wishes My Love, Your Love – Dir. Gabriel Gabriel Garble
Newly orphaned and freshly wounded from a loss, a boy lends his companion a prosthetic arm for the day. The companion records the limb being exposed to textures and materials. What will become of the limb and the video recordings?
I want to know how this was made. It almost felt like rotoscope in certain moments because of how the characters moved. The moving patterns were so trippy; I wanted to watch this high and I don’t even smoke. I liked the music and how it scored everything and gave the characters a voice. That made it feel like an old looney tune cartoon.
Oxytocin – Dir. Jeron Braxton
Cash for organs and anything for love.
I loved how everything moved in this one!! It was so unsettling, so off-putting, and absolutely drew me in. It felt like a rollercoaster glitch matrix mindfreak nostalgia trip. Phew!
And I don’t know why, but I suspected the creator was Black before I looked at the bio. I’m not sure why. I’ll think on it more.
fur – Dir. Zhen Li
A crush gone moldy…
oh this one was GNARSTY. it was SCRUNGLY. To say it less descriptively, it was gross. The way bodies moved and bent and twisted and detached and the squishy sticky itchy sound effects. The thin lines especially accentuated that. Nasty! Good!
I got like a minute into the next short and my laptop shit the bed again, so I guess I’ll continue this later
Garrano – Dir. Vasco Sá
A Garrano horse is forced to pull a heavy load under a blazing sun. A young boy named Joel discovers a man who is about to set a forest on fire.
I think one of the benefits of doing an animation indie is that you can be absurdly textural. It’s more about the feeling and the artistry than it is the on-model-ness of the characters. This short was painterly, to the nth degree. I almost didn’t finish it because the feeling it was building was a bit too tense and bleak for my tastes.
By Water – Dir. Iyabo Kwayana
An unlikely hero's journey into his own memories becomes a vehicle for reconciliation and healing for himself and his sibling.
This one was exceptionally pretty but I wasn’t really feeling it, so I skipped after I was about a third in.
BurgerWorld – Dir. Maddie Brewer
Two co-workers at a derelict fast-food franchise accidentally discover a yonic meat portal to another realm — a “burger” world, wherein they’re the only ones who can liberate an oppressed vegetable populace from the all-controlling hand of big meat.
I really liked this one! It was weird as hell
The Sea on the Day When the Magic Returns – Dir. Jiwon Han
Sejin once had the power to have anything she wanted just by thinking about it. Now she has lost her magic. Hours before her interview to be a tourist interpreter, Sejin heads to the weary sea to save her father.
This short was mesmerizing. I don’t want to call it surreal because that makes me think of something less tangible than what this was. I think the closest word I can use to describe this is dreamlike. It’s not that the lines between each moment are blurred, they don’t exist. It was mesmerizing.
Midnight Short Film Program
In the Flesh – Dir. Daphne Gardner
Tracey is just trying to jerk off with her bathtub faucet like normal when some old memories dredge themselves up, the pipes explode with dirty water, and she starts leaking black goo.
This one was noxious. I’m pretty sure it was about assault but it was also just extremely gross.
Pipes – Dir. Kilian Feusi and Jessica Meier and Sujanth Ravichandran
Bob is a plumber hired to fix a broken pipe. He lands, to his surprise, in a gay fetish club.
ohhhh I’m in the horny screening got it
Who doesn’t love some really well animated black and white sex dungeon plumbing? No? Just me? Oh, well, I had fun.
A Folded Ocean – Dir. Ben Brewer
A couple get lost in each other.
Oh?? My god??? This one was weird as SHIT and I LOVED IT. A couple is having sex and their bodies start fusing, until they end up passing through each other completely and coming out the other side again. It’s so freaking weird, it’s kind of very gross, and I want to know how they did all of it!! What was practical and what was digital and what was a combo?? It was super well done, super gross, super weird, super cool and I loved it.
A fun fact about me is that I fucking love stories where two beings/people fuse together and become a new, separate being/person (that sill has some of those traits). I blame the Ellemist Chronicles, but I also think it’s a Gay Fixation in general, if the media I consume is to be believed. The gays love fusing together. That’s my gay agenda. (I’ve had this recurring dream/story floating in the back of my head since I was a kid of the world or maybe just this community being taken over by an invasive species of emerald. It’s believed they are parasites, but they fuse with the people they ‘infect,’ making a new, different kind of being. Maybe I’ll put more thought to it.)
You know what? I was gonna watch another one tonight but I’m pretty tired and I have to work tomorrow. I’m gonna leave it there for now and end on a high note for the evening. Ciao!
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2/3/23 note: And that was what I ended with! Work wiped me out that next day so I actually closed out with the wild body melting one, and I couldn't be happier with that as my finale. If you like films, especially weird indie ones, plan to get a Sundance Explorer Pass next year, it's worth every penny.