THE LONG SHORT WEEKEND ROUND UP
This weekend, we had the incredible privilege to witness one amazing short film after another at the ever-wonderful Belfast Film Festival. With a wide-ranging programme chock-a-block full of fantastical shorts, there really was something for everyone, and especially us, Best Boy Magazine.
It’s absolutely impossible for us to pick a favourite short from across the weekend, so instead we’ve done the next best thing and selected our favourite five shorts from both the competition programme and the selection programme. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here’s our top shorts from across the programme that we recommend you try your very best to see!
COMPETITION SHORTS
GROWING PAINS (Dir. Ellie Wildman and Conor Toner)
Sometimes we get to experience a completely unique film with entirely its own vision, concept, and realisation. It’s rare to find this in a feature film, and it’s maybe even rarer to find it in a short film. Lucky for us, we found it this weekend in Growing Pains. The film follows a lonely widower whose life is changed after he sees an infomercial and buys a “Grow your own girlfriend kit”, and is as funny as it is bizarre, as it is tender-hearted and emotional. Instantly wrapping us up in its zany world with a delightful opening credits sequence, which we here at Best Boy would love to see more of, the film quickly had us moving between crying with laughter to crying with raw emotion, powered by the central performance of Nigel O’Neill as Bernie. In fact, all the performances in the film are spectacular, each bringing a new layer of life into the world. From the set design, to the cinematography, to the editing, to everything else- you honestly couldn’t pay us to find a fault in this film. In fact, you COULDN’T, because there are no faults. It’s perfect.
Nigel O’Neill as Bernie, with his grow-your-own-girlfriend.
LARGE MCDONALD’S MEAL (Dir. Benjamin Porter)
Do you ever feel like a crazy person? Here at Best Boy, we feel like that everyday! And how nice it is to see that represented on screen by this short! Following a man’s descent into madness after finding a large McDonald’s meal wrapper and an ominous plastic bag discarded on the street. He needs to decide if he should throw the items away, or leave them where they lay. Either option could have disastrous or victorious results, or maybe everything would stay the same. Strikingly shot and edited, the film brings you right inside the mind of its main character. We don’t miss out on anything, every irrational thought, every worry, every possibility, the audience is privy to it all. The audience was a united front, laughing along with every new development, waiting with bated breath to see what could possibly come next. The film is deeply funny, the insanity portrayed on screen perhaps reminded us of our own irrationality, which is hopefully on a smaller scale. If you’re given a chance to see this film, don’t waste it, don’t throw it away, your life and everyone you know might depend on it.
PUREBRED (Dir. Caleb J. Roberts)
The winner of this year’s Lumi Award, this film follows Owen, a transgender man taking a pregnancy test, and upon reading the results, visiting his occasional lover, Seán. The film is raw, and grounded in realism, from the set design, to the costumes, to the pumping music that seems to be coming from all around Seán’s flat, and perhaps most importantly, the stunning performances from both actors, everything just feels alive. Emotional and intense, even if it’s not a situation you have directly experienced, there seems to be something for everyone to relate to as the film is, at its core, strikingly human. Beautifully shot and beautifully written, with as much importance between the two characters unsaid as it is said, this film was beyond deserving of the Lumi Award. In an age where we see a horrible rise of hatred towards the trans community being pushed by propagandists and right-wing grifters, this film feels like a fresh breath of bold perspective. The film shows deeply real characters in their most intimate moments, moments that people may not even consider, in a beautiful, naturalistic way. Purebred is currently available on the Channel 4 player and we would implore everyone to watch it as soon as possible, it’s absolutely not one to miss.
NOSTALGIE (Dir. Kathryn Ferguson)
The Troubles have been represented on screen more times than we could possibly count, in feature films, in TV series and of course, in short films. A lot are good, some maybe not so much… It is rare that they offer a unique take on this history we can’t seem able to move past. Nostalgie does exactly that. Based on a short story by Wendy Erskine, the film follows long-forgotten, retired 80s pop sensation Drew Lord Haig, who has been brought out of retirement by what he thinks must be a dedicated group of fanatics. He travels from his home in England to a small pub in the middle of nowhere, Northern Ireland, and finds that things weren’t quite what he was expecting. Rather than a dedicated fan club, he finds a group of people you might see out walking an XL Bully, and they don’t even seem to like him very much. His set goes pretty badly, talked over, ignored, possibly even sneered at, all until his last song. Their anthem. The crowd knows every word, and the rug is pulled out from under us. His song (an absolute ear worm, by the way), has been co-opted by this group, a celebration of an act of extreme violence by a paramilitary gang. The film builds such an atmosphere, with every character on screen, the set design of the musty looking pub, the realism, you can’t help but be on the edge of your seat, the suspense of what they could do the Drew Lord Haig agonising. Laugh-out-loud funny and horrifying at the same time, this short film manages to perfectly offer a completely fresh take on modern life after the Troubles. If you get the chance to see this, SEE IT!
GABRIEL’S TRUMPET (Dir. Thomas Bennett)
We live in the age of visual perfection. 4K ultra HD is all around us. AI-upscaled films are taking over YouTube. It’s exhausting. Gabriel’s Trumpet doesn’t fall victim to this face tuning, but rather does the opposite; it exists in its own liminal space. Shot on VHS, the film is textured and strikingly beautiful in a way we rarely see anymore, especially with short films. It’s hard to take the risk, to make everything look pristine and clean, and thank God this film did. At the centre of this film is a missing person, but it’s much more than that; haunting voice messages, riots across Belfast, feeling like it might be end-of-days times, the film is a wide spectrum of the experience of a group of young people trying to navigate their lives. Shot in locations anyone who’s ever visited Belfast will recognise, and on that beautifully textured VHS, the film puts us right in the middle of the narrative. Utilising the special skills of a VHS camera in its favour with long zooms and shooting inconspicuously in busy public places, this film reminds us of the simple joy of films and filmmaking. Sometimes it’s better to put limitations on ourselves, to inspire ourselves to push them.
SELECTION SHORTS
HOT YOUNG GEEK SEEKS BLOOD-SUCKING FREAK (DIR. HEATH VIRGOE)
Folks, Halloween has been and gone, but great films last forever. H.Y.G.S.B.S.F follows Max, who’s been fiddling with Twilight roleplaying message boards- as we all have, let’s be honest! BUT through Max’s fiddling, they’ve drawn the attention of a REAL LIFE VAMPIRE! Max turns to flatmate and friend, Ricky, for help, and through their struggle, revelations spill out like good blood from’eth the cup’eth of Dracula himself. This short has fangs, it’s bitingly fun neon-laden visual style, quick-fire comedy, and Twilight references sink their teeth into you. Its comedy stylings had us cracking up, but they don’t take away from the emotional crescendo of the film, which will have you more choked up than a bat trying to eat a green grape. Who knew Twilight could help someone become their true self so beautifully? It’s the sort of film for people who love computer- and we love that type of film, and computer. Bonus, they all have great accents! It’s fun, it’s camp, and it’s available to stream on Channel Four now!
METEORIC (DIR. PAUL Ó MUIRIS)
BEHOLD! (DIR. CONALL MCCAULEY)
This hand-painted masterpiece was cleary a
