Birger is old and retired from work. Still, he goes back to work since he has nothing else to do. Back home he gets a rare visitor.
Keeping the rhythm for twenty or so minutes in Ravel's Boléro can be an arduous and excruciatingly tedious task for the orchestra's unsung hero: the drummer.
Charlotte and Veronique, two French teenage girls, go on a date with the same man, Patrick, without each other's knowledge. However, Patrick soon shows his true colours.
Unknowingly, a copy shop employee sets off a bizarre series of events with utterly unforeseen consequences.
Sadly, there is nothing more left between Nadja and her husband, and as a grim epilogue, Rainer has to pack and go. But even now, is there a chance to salvage what's left of their tattered marriage?
In a squalid tenement building in Glasgow, two toughs lock a helpless young boy inside a broken fridge-freezer.
The work and obsessions of director Nanni Moretti when the Iranian movie "Close Up" is scheduled to open in the movie theater he owns in Rome.
Across a futuristic city's narrow streets, a coven of modern witches chases a thief on motorized flying brooms.
After witnessing an act of unprecedented violence without even flinching, an emotionally numb real-estate agent visits his ailing mother at the hospital, and then, the graveyard. Is there a speck of happiness in this cruel and short life?
With two fabulous tickets to tonight's ball in his hands, the solitary Mr Phelps needs to find the perfect head to please his charming date. Will he risk it all for love?
A young couple leave a lake campsite on motorbike at the same time as a bus full of youths. The boy accidently loses a tent along the road which is picked up by those in the bus who offer a trade of the tent for his girl.
Lewis Carroll's poem is read and followed by a free-form animated depiction of images and toys from childhood, repeatedly overturned by a live cat.
Disaster after disaster, an already frail man descends into madness after his talking dog announces that he is actually his defence lawyer.
A troubled and solitary woman who suffers from an acute light sensitivity summons the strength to escape her persistent trials; however, the fateful morning which is only hours away, still seems so distant and pale. Can she take the step?
On the run from the police in a desperate attempt to escape a pair of Civil Guardians, a peaceful gas-station worker embarks on a frenzied road adventure.
On his way to the polls, an idealist, yet absent-minded voter has to endure continuous waves of racist cab drivers and their offensive remarks.
Director Adam Davidson made THE LUNCH DATE while he was a student at New York’s Columbia University. The film went on to become a worldwide success. In 1990 it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for best short film, the Student Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Outstanding New Director by the Directors Guild of America and, in 1991, the Academy Award Oscar for Best Short Film. The film explores ideas about fear and stereotyping through the story of a well-to-do white woman who is forced to confront her prejudice while stranded in a train station. Adam Davidson currently works in television where his credits include LAW AND ORDER (for which he received a DGA nomination) and LOST.
FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING is an inspired look at sexual innocence and discovery set in the distinctive world of New York City’s Lower East Side, where Victor, a twelve year-old boy, experiences what growing up is all about. Peter Sollett graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1998. His thesis film, FIVE FEET HIGH AND RISING, won a string of awards including the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and the award for Best Short in the Cinéfondation section of the Cannes International Film Festival. The film also provided the inspiration for his feature debut, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS, which premiered at Cannes in 2002 and went on to win several international awards as well as five Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Available in Europe for the first time, FREIHEIT (the German word for freedom) was George Lucas’ senior film project while at the University of Southern California. The three-minute film depicts a student, played by classmate Randal Kleiser (who went on to direct GREASE) escaping across the border from East to West Germany. The short is a rare chance to see the early work from a director whose impact on modern filmmaking is nothing short of astounding - starting in 1971 with THX 1138, and continuing on through AMERICAN GRAFFITI, the INDIANA JONES trilogy and, of course, the STAR WARS series.
D.A. Pennebaker has been making films for over 50 years, amongst them the Bob Dylan classic DON’T LOOK BACK (1967). He is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of cinema verité, a style that revolutionized the documentary genre by using uninterrupted observation, creating a fly-on-the-wall sense of immediacy. Set to a Duke Ellington track of the same name, his early short film, DAYBREAK EXPRESS, takes the audience from one end of a New York subway route to the other, propelling us through the mid-20th century metropolis. “I didn’t know much about film editing, or in fact about shooting, so I bought a couple of rolls of Kodachrome at the drugstore, and figured that since the record was about three minutes long, by shooting carefully I could fit the whole thing onto one roll of film. Of course that didn’t work since I couldn’t start and stop my hand-wound camera that easily so I ended up shooting both rolls and even a few more before I was through. It took about three days to film, and then sat in a closet for several years until I figured out how to edit it and make a print that I could show on a projector.” D.A. Pennebaker
VINCENT is one of Tim Burton’s earliest directorial works. The short was filmed while Burton was still an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he worked on films such THE FOX AND THE HOUND and THE BLACK CAULDRON. A stop-motion animated film shot entirely in black and white on 16mm film stock, it was based on a poem Burton had written himself. The short film tells the sad tale of Vincent Malloy, a suburban boy who wants to be just like his idol, Vincent Price (who provides narration for the film). It marked Tim Burton’s first teaming with collaborators who would have a great impact on his oeuvre, including Rick Heinrichs, who would go on to design several of Burton’s later films, including SLEEPY HOLLOW and PLANET OF THE APES.
This debut short by Stefan Nadelman, who had been working as a print and web designer, prior to making films, is a stunning portrait of a hidden corner of New York City. TERMINAL BAR is a Flash animated documentary about one of the toughest most eccentric bars in the city, as seen through the haunting black-and-white photographs taken by the directors father, Sheldon, who was a bartender at the 42nd Street bar from 1972 to 1982. Amongst its accolades the film won the Jury prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.
Following his graduation from the University of Southern California, where he earned an MFA in producing, Rawson Marshall Thurber came up with an idea for a short. It was Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, a film about an American football player office manager whose job was to tackle anyone who breaks an office rule, no matter how benign. He shot it over a weekend for $2,000, hoping to sell it to one of the many Internet companies looking for content. Terry Tate ended up being bought by Reebok and re-commissioned as a series of shorts, which were played during the 2003 Super Bowl. The shorts were a sensation on the internet, where they were downloaded over 15 million times. Here we see the first in the series of shorts, which introduced Terry Tate to the American audience. Rawson Marshall Thurber went on to direct DODGEBALL, starring Ben Stiller in 2004.
An underground classic, cited by Richard Linklater (SLACKER, A SCANNER DARKLY), as one of his favorite shorts, NECROLOGY is an anthropological film about life and death in New York City - a roll call of the recently deceased. Shot in Grand Central Station, director Standish Lawder, who is best known for his photography, captured 12 minutes of anonymous commuters in their daily routine. The finished film shows lines of people ascending and disappearing into a shadowy abyss with the haunting suggestion of people on their eventless way to hell. Lawder added a lengthy list of bogus credits to the end for a touch of morbid humour that leaves viewers to ponder their own fate. "The film is one of the strongest and grimmest comments upon the contemporary society that cinema has produced". Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice
THE DISCIPLINE OF D.E. is one of the finest shorts by Gus van Sant who made as many as fourteen between 1967 and 1991. Van Sant would go on to make many of the hallmarks of modern independent cinema, notably DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989), MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) and ELEPHANT (2003). In this narrated version of a short story by William S. Burroughs we learn the principles of "Do Easy" and the complications that can arise from the quest to perfect each movement in order to find the most efficient way of doing everything - even nothing. The black and white short culminates in a gun fight with the poignant question "How fast can you take your time, kid?".
When teenager Felix, from a deadbeat Brooklyn home, is asked by Mr. H, the kindly corner store owner, to mind his dog while he's away, it's up to Felix to either reciprocate the benevolence Mr. H has always shown him, or perpetuate the neglect handed down as a family legacy. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Adam Parrish King went on to get degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. He has directed eight short films prior to The Wraith of Cobble Hill, and has also worked in sound editing, mixing and writing. THE WRAITH OF COBBLE HILL won the Jury Prize at Sundance 2006.
Three years after graduating from USC, Joe Nussbaum directed and co-wrote the short film, GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE. This short satire of STAR WARS and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, shot over two days, has Lucas searching for the true origins of the Star Wars saga during the creator's college years, and introduces an assortment of characters that serve as the director's inspiration. The film was a download sensation when it was made available temporarily online. George Lucas wrote to the filmmakers to let them know how amused he was by the film.
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON is one of the most influential works in American experimental cinema. A non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the trance film, in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. The central figure in Meshes of the Afternoon, played by Deren, is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality. Made by Deren with her husband, cinematographer Alexander Hammid, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States directly inspiring early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers.
CARMEN was Alexander Payne’s first short film, made while he was studying at UCLA Film School. It is a silent comedy, derived from the opera of the same name. In the film a mentally challenged gas station attendant is put in charge of the store, which leads to love and a tragic-comic end. With his films ELECTION, ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS Payne has since become known for his auteur distinctiveness - amplifying the disappointment and regret lurking within the can-do civic culture of middle America, while acknowledging the sweetness and innocence that’s still there.
Todd Solondz is one of the most singular voices in American cinema. Over the past 10 years his films WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, HAPPINESS, STORYTELLING and PALINDROMES have marked him out as a provocative and maverick talent. Amongst the shorts he made while studying film at NYU is FEELINGS. Solondz himself takes the lead role in the film where a sensitive young man finds he can no longer endure life without his beloved. "My movies are not for everybody, especially for people who like them." Todd Solondz.
For more than a decade, Mike Mills has bridged the worlds of film, music video, commercials, fashion, art and design, working with artists including Air, Moby, Beastie Boys, Beck and Sonic Youth. Amongst his short films is PAPERBOYS - a beautiful exploration of the unique and ever-changing role of this symbol of American life and culture. Mills’ debut feature THUMBSUCKER starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton and Vince Vaughn was released in 2005.
Andy Warhol's Screen Tests were filmed from early 1964 to November 1966. Factory visitors who had potential "star" quality would be seated in front of a tripod mounted camera, asked to be as still as possible, and told not to blink while the camera was running. Warhol manipulated light and shadow in increasingly inventive ways to capture the appearance, style, personality, and mood of both famous and lesser-known visitors to his studio, the Factory. His subjects included Dennis Hopper, Gerard Malanga, Edie Sedgwick, Susan Sontag, and Salvador Dalí. Although each film was shot at standard sound speed, or twenty-four frames per second, Warhol specified that prints be projected at a slower speed of sixteen frames per second, a rate used in the projection of silent films. The result is an unusual fluidity of pace, a rhythm gently at odds with the starkness of the lighting and the boldness of the close-ups of face and hair. In total more than 500 Screen Tests were made. Helmut was the seventh. 16mm film, black and white, silent, 4.4 minutes at 16 frames per second
A young girl talks candidly to camera about her life with her mum and dad and her hopes for the future. But she is hiding more than we think. Brian Percival was an established commercials director when he made his first film from a script by his wife Julie Rutterford. The film, with a standout performance from young actress Ashley Thewlis, won a multitude of awards in 2002 including the BAFTA for Best Short Film.
Using a Bolex camera borrowed from art school Ridley Scott (BLADE RUNNER, GLADIATOR) shot his first film over the summer of 1956 in his hometown of Hartlepool. Scott used his brother, Tony, then 16 years old, and his mother and father as actors. There are few signs of what audiences could later expect from a Ridley Scott film. It was shot over six weeks, with voice-over and synchronised dialogue added later. The first audiences for BOY AND BICYCLE were Scott's teachers and fellow students in the Theatre Design department of the Royal College of Art. Scott finished the film in 1958 with a £250 grant from the British Film Institute, following his graduation. He cites the experience of making this short the one that made him and his brother Tony Scott (ENEMY OF THE STATE, SPY GAME) want to become filmmakers. "I was heavily into Kurosawa at the time. I knew he used certain filters for his monochrome films. So I was stuffing on red filters every chance I got. I used a lot of hand-held camera and even drafted my father to act as a camera-car driver." Ridley Scott on Boy and Bicycle
A surreal celebration of a former English icon – the red phone box. DEAR PHONE is one of the early works of Peter Greenaway (THE PILLOW BOOK, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER). It questions film forms and documentary traditions, and displays an intriguing mix of method and madness, featuring a set of characters who all happen to share the initials H.C..
This early short film from the director of MEMENTO, INSOMNIA and BATMAN BEGINS was made when he was a student in London. Nolan was studying English Literature at University College London when he started to make 16mm films at the college film society, of which the surreal short DOODLEBUG was one. This early film shows the preoccupation with narrative boundaries Nolan would later explore in his feature films and has the simplicity common to many good shorts. The film was produced by his now-wife and producing partner, Emma Thomas. A man waits patiently in his apartment to squash a bug, but he could be hurting himself more than he realizes. "We did the effects on the best machines we could at the time, for free. We painted our own blue screen with paint from John Lewis shop that doesn't actually work very well. It's worth paying for the proper paint it you're ever faced with a similar dilemma." Christopher Nolan on Doodlebug
His name is Jonathan and he is eight. He loves football and he loves his Dad – even though they've never met. EIGHT was the film debut from Stephen Daldry who was previously acclaimed for his work in theatre. He directed the film from a script written by Tim Clague, which won the Jerwood Film Prize in 1998. In many respects EIGHT is considered by Daldry and producer Jon Finn of Working Title to have been a rehearsal for BILLY ELLIOT, which they went on to make the following year. Daldry has been Oscar and BAFTA nominated for his recent film THE HOURS.
Ramsay graduated from the UK7's National Film and Television School in 1995. In 1996 she won the Cannes Prix du Jury for her graduation short film SMALL DEATHS. Her second short, KILL THE DAY, won the Clermont Ferrand Prix du Jury and GASMAN, made the same year, won Ramsay her second Cannes prize in 1998. GASMAN also received a Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film. Ramsay's debut feature RATCATCHER screened at Cannes in Un Certain Regard and went on to open the Edinburgh International Film Festival where Ramsay received the Guardian New Directors prize. She also won the Carl Foreman Award for Best Newcomer in British Film at the 2000 BAFTA Awards, the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival and the Silver Hugo for Best Director at the Chicago International Film Festival. Her second film, MORVERN CALLER, features Samantha Morton in the lead role. Once again Ramsay reunited with the director of photography, production designer and editor who she worked with on all of her short films. "I started writing short stories at film school. I wanted to make something that meant more to me than the films I was asked to photograph. I felt everyone was trying to make a calling card for the industry. In the end, I ended up filming three of the stories I wrote, and in each of them I tried to play with different ideas and styles." Lynne Ramsay on Gasman
A humorous treatment depicting the director’s wish for total control over the world in front of his lens. GIRL CHEWING GUM was filmed on an East London street in 1976. John Smith’s idea was to expose the illusion of cinema, making us aware that we are looking at something that is completely contrived - an ambition in total opposition to that of mainstream Hollywood Cinema. Since 1972 he has made over thirty film, video and installation works.
A social worker investigates the squalid living conditions of several Scottish dwellings. Assisting those in need and investigating complaints may seem commonplace but his day is far from ordinary. A graduate Edinburgh College of Art and the Scottish Film School, Morag McKinnon’s commercials promos and four short films have proven that she is one of the most exciting talents to emerge in recent years. A sequel to HOME is in the works and also a feature film. HOME won the Short Film BAFTA in 1999.
A power-line repairman heads for home early, but before the evening’s end he will regret it. Kidnapped and locked in the trunk of his own car, he struggles to find a way out. Jim Gillespie had directed for television for several years before making JOYRIDE with funding from the BFI. A screening at the Telluride Film Festival led to Jim Gillespie getting development deals with several studios and ultimately to directing his first feature film, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.
A researcher is surprised when attempts to stop pedestrians catch the eye of a beautiful window dresser. Inside Out is the second in a series of three short films from brothers Tom and Charles Guard about brief encounters in the city. This silent film in contemporary London stars Simon McBurney from Theatre du Complicite and Lena Headey, who has featured in all three of their films.
London co-stars as Paris in JE T'AIME JOHN WAYNE, the story of a young man who lives out his dream of being French cinema icon Jean Paul Belmondo, star of Jean-Luc Godard's new wave classic A BOUT DE SOUFFLE. He’s got the sharp suit and a pack of Luckies, but will he find the perfect girl to complete the picture? This first film from director Toby MacDonald and producer Luke Morris was a hit at film festivals around the world, was BAFTA nominated and won the European Film Award for Best Short in 2001. Shot in 35mm in black and white, it stars Kris Marshall (LOVE ACTUALLY, FOUR FEATHERS) and Camilla Rutherford (GOSFORD PARK, THE DARJEELING LIMITED). Luke Morris and Toby MacDonald were recently BAFTA nominated for the second time for HEAVY METAL DRUMMER, a film about a young heavy metal fan in the Middle East. "One of the great things about the film is how London substitutes for Paris. The script lets us make London look romantic, it lets us make it look cool. If you have black and white it can look really beautiful at times. London looks how we wish it looked." Toby Macdonald on Je t'aime John Wayne
The young street kid, Tashan, is branded for theft and left for dead. He awakes and embarks on his journey through rural India, during which he discovers he has a gift. The SHEEP THIEF was Asif Kapadia’s graduation film at the Royal College of Art and was shot in Rajasthan, India. It won numerous awards including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999. Kapadia’s debut feature, the critically acclaimed THE WARRIOR, saw his return to the epic landscapes and themes of this earlier film.
A shop girl and her admirer struggle to find love and some common ground. This early signature comedy by Mike Leigh, starring David Thewlis and Alison Steadman, saw Leigh collaborate with many of the cast and crew he has gone on to work with throughout his career. The film was the first in Channel 4’s series of short films to which it lent its name.
The morning after the night before, a rapid spiral of increasingly disastrous telephone conversations chart the certain ruin of young Phil’s day as he attempts to fib his way out of one scrape after another. This tale of modern manners and communication breakdown is told entirely in animated captions that invite the viewer to share the truth behind the soundtrack's excuses and lies. Written, produced and directed by Nottingham’s Simon Ellis, who has made nine short films. TELLING LIES is a comedy of errors and erroneous information.
This five minute documentary takes us on a tour of some of the recurring images in Parr’s work: Blustery seaside resorts, dogs, tents, families and service stations, and introduces us to one of his favourite themes - the British demeanour in the face of chaos. This series of documentary shorts from Magnum photographer Martin Parr was produced for the BBC. Parr has developed an international reputation for his innovative imagery, his oblique approach to social documentary, and his input to photographic culture within the UK and abroad. He had a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Barbican in 2002.
A touching and amusing depiction of a young boy on the verge of puberty experiencing passion for the first time. New director, Adrian McDowall’s graduation film from the Edinburgh College of Art was shot in his home-town of Wigtown in Scotland, using locals and the director’s mum as actors. The film was made for a budget of £3000 and won a raft of awards, including a BAFTA in 2000.
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
Two different families claim the body of a woman killed in a catastrophe.
An Inuit hunter drives his dog team out on the frozen Arctic Ocean in search of seals, but instead, becomes a witness to murder.
Policemen Bienvenido and Chato rent rooms in a house owned by Doña Lupe, an elderly woman in financial trouble. Doña Lupe mistrusts the men, but allows them to stay, as she needs the money. When they change the locks and begin smuggling suspicious materials into the house, Doña Lupe decides to take drastic measures.
In seductive central Paris, an undernourished gendarme willing to go to great lengths to feed himself hatches a desperate, yet utterly cunning plan.
Two young men are hungry, so they decide to rob a bakery. Adaptation of a short story by Haruki Murakami.
Sometimes first love is found in the most unlikely of places, like in the carpark outside the Te Kaha pub.
Weaves together a bank of images from German and Soviet archive footage, drawing out a psychological dimension from the historical landscape at the end of World War II.
A short film in which Isabella Rossellini discusses the life and work of her father: Roberto Rossellini.
Short film depicting a fictional educational film about fork lift truck operational safety.
A nephew recalls the sometimes-lonely and often-eccentric life of his beloved uncle.
The story of a young man who lives alone in his house, and his indifference and solitude with the world around him.
Solitary, exhausted, and profoundly melancholic--the anachronistic, Madame Tutli-Putli--waits patiently to board a train, surrounded by a lifetime's worth of personal belongings. Is she running away from a bleak past?
A look at three girls, young teens, in the era of the Beatles. Pam lives with parents who haven't spoken directly to each other in two years, using their daughters to talk across the table to each other. Gloria wants to play games with her boyfriend Graeme and ends up pregnant after a kissless, passionless introduction to sex. Stella becomes popular and puts her friendship with Pam on hold. Meanwhile, Pam's father and other predatory men lurk in the shadows around the girls.
Boron Sarret is arguably the first film made by a black African. It illustrates poverty in Senegal, particularly for the working man
A father rediscovers his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.
