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Shorts offers international variety of features
By Spencer Essey
sessey@mscd.edu

Courtesy of worldaccordingtoshorts.com The World According to Shorts Not rated 95 minutes Opens Sept. 15

Tired of movies full of hackneyed dialogue and tired plot lines? Lost your taste for big-budget features supported by special effects and catch phrases?

In The World According to Shorts, independent film producer Jonathan Howell offers an international alternative to the standard Hollywood fare. The compilation brings together six short films from around the globe and showcases some of independent film’s brightest voices.

In 2000 Howell began showcasing short films, bringing the world’s best short movies to an American audience. Many of his selections went on to garner Oscar nominations and appearances at the Cannes film festival. Thanks to Howell’s efforts, many short films that would normally have stayed in their home countries made it to U.S. theaters.

In The World According to Shorts, Howell has brought together six of the best selections in a retrospective that deals with various issues of the human condition. The shorts spotlight individual filmmakers and point to the latest global trends in filmmaking.

Ranging from experimental to animation to traditional narrative fiction, the diverse shorts come together to form a whole that is both entertaining and frightening with their honesty and insight. The films’ content deftly switches from humorous to unsettling.

In the Polish short Antichrist, a group of playmates finds a leader who believes he is (surprise!) the Antichrist. Against the cold, lifeless backdrop of a stone quarry, the would-be evil prophet has his band of followers partake in dangerous games. The games begin to spiral out of control and the boys are left broken and looking for lost hope.

While Antichrist deals with the loss of hope and our search for leaders, an experimental film from Australia, We Have Decided Not to Die, takes a more overarching view of life’s different stages. Director Daniel Askill examines the three cycles of life: birth, life and (in lieu of death) rebirth. The film features stunning visuals and camera work reminiscent of David Lynch techniques.

Ring of Fire, An animated film from Germany, mixes the psychedelic ambience of Pink Floyd’s The Wall with an unsettling amount of Freudian sexual imagery. This unlikely combination takes place before a western backdrop as a story of innocence lost. The narrator’s gruff tone recalls Sam Eliot and lends credibility to the film’s perverted Western mood.

In uniting different cinematic voices Howell has created something more than the film’s composite parts. The World According to Shorts provides something a standard feature length cannot: instead of one artist’s insight into what it means to be human, it provides six.

The diverse tableau that emerges is a provocative and engaging alternative to bloated budgets and vacuous content.