THE LONG SHORT WEEKEND ROUND-UP
THE LONG SHORT WEEKEND
FOLKS! This you had to see.
This weekend, we were treated to a delicious buffet of cinematic short treats at the Belfast Film Festival. Elegantly sprawled across the weekend like a rich cat across a luxurious futon, with both the Competition Shorts at the QFT on Saturday 2nd and the New Irish Shorts on Sunday 3rd at the Black Box. An eclectic range of films across a number of programmes on both days made for a lovely weekend that sent the crowds’ Letterboxd numbers through the roof. From films on Irish dancing to Golems, to facing your childhood bullies, to taking experimental new childbirth drugs, to sex addiction. Here, in no particular order, are 10 of the Best Boy Highlights from films across both days.
Die Bully Die, Nathan Lacey, Nick Lacey
A dark comedy that sees its protagonist literally face off with his childhood traumas when he meets with his homophobic bully from high school, who is now out and proud. Violent daydreams ensue, and revenge is a dish best served… This is funny, ha-ha. And sort of therapeutic for anyone who’s been on the receiving end of bullying. Who am I kidding, if you’re reading this, of course you were!
IN HEAT, Rory Fleck Byrne
Ben Whishaw, voice of Paddington, delivers a tour de force of horn as a man struggling with sex addiction. We joke, but it’s a serious issue that leads him into a world where he cannot believe what he sees around him. He must face the darkest parts of himself and try to navigate through. What begins as an idyllic beach scene then turns into an erotic daydream, and then a guilt-soaked nightmare. This film displays the world of addiction and handles it carefully and properly. It tells of the toll it takes not only physically , but mentally.
Popper, Bonnie Sanderson
Popper is a fantastically stylised 50s candy-cane nightmare. In this Lynchian short, a pregnant young woman becomes enticed by a drug that would ensure her unborn daughter is beautiful. Once at the medical trials, she realises that this endeavour is not for her or for her daughter, but for the male gaze. She must escape through a womb-like nightmare with perverted junior doctors at every turn. The scale of the terrifyingly kitsch world that this short creates in its limited runtime is highly impressive, while also reflecting the very real-world pressures put on women from pregnancy and after to be "beautiful".
Clodagh, Portia A. Buckley
In this visually striking short, the housekeeper of a rectory, who also teaches an Irish dancing class , lives a life of humble monotony. Until she encounters a young girl named Clodagh. Her talent for dancing brings out the best in those around her and seems to bring a spark of hope, yet forces a moral question for the woman of God. This is one to warm your hearts, folks, and it took away the prize for Best Short, deservingly so.
Peat, Paudie Baggott
Peat takes old Jewish folklore and transposes it to rural Ireland, with great results. A recently widowed farmer is forced to pick up the slack with a Golem when her son refuses to help her. The Golem starts to become more than an extra pair of hands around the farm. This wacky short manages to be beautifully shot, funny , and touching — a great mix by any film buff’s standards.
The Stone Claims, Mervyn Marshall
When’s the last time you heard a good ghost story? Well, The Stone Claims is a spooky short that breaks down the folk horror genre to its origins of word-of-mouth ghost storytelling. A woman sits alone in a church retelling a seemingly paranormal experience she had as a child. She delivers the story direct to camera, telling it directly to you. The performance is immense, with Luna Kalo displaying the storyteller. She delivers it with a certain amount of tense fragility. We watch her tightrope walk between reliving pure fear and trauma, and telling a good story. As she opens her soul to u , recalling her terrifying experience, the camera moves in uncomfortably close to her mouth — the most powerful tool in all of horror, for it has the ability to recount. Spines are well and truly tingled by the end.
To Break A Circle, Kalia Firester
Told like an old tale, To Break A Circle is a beautifully animated short that places Irish mythology into the very modern question of industrial expansion. A young man named Bog wants to escape his hometown, so he takes a job literally building a road out of there, but in doing so, he must go through an ancient stone circle. In doing so, he awakens the Pagan spirits of old. Paranoia sweeps through the small town , and a regular at his local even begins wearing his coat inside out from fear of reprisals from fairies. This short captures the feeling of listlessness that can come from small-town life, but also focuses on the still prevalent-as-ever beliefs in the Pagan ways that reside deep in the Irish people. Is personal and modern growth at the expense of culture and history worth it?
Karavidhe, Eoin Doran
This short features Dee, an immigrant worker who gets an off-the-books job painting a house, along with a newcomer to this sort of work, Adrian. The two men are eventually taken advantage of and left unpaid. They realise they don’t even have enough money to eat for the evening, so with some ingenuity from Dee, the two men get to work, catching their own dinner. This film feels raw, real , and touching. It has a message for the racist fucks out there: the hardest working people are usually the most downtrodden.
What Do You Want?, Penny McGovern
What Do You Want? breaks down the relationship between director, actor, and audience, asking the question that all three participants in cinema need to be asked: what do you want? This film breaks down the dynamic between subject and director, questioning the nature of the power structures that are created. It proposes perhaps a new way to approach filmmaking that makes the process about communication , not orders. It’s meta and sometimes it’s also funny, while not losing its philosophy.
Farmers!?, Freddie Leyden
Farmers!? is a magic mix of dance, song , and the rural life of farmers. The film seems to seek to force the audience to open its mind up about the preconceived notions about farmers after a local death leads to an outpouring of self-expression. It shows creativity resides in everyone and can bring a voice to those who traditionally are told and thought of, to have no voice. It’s funny, sad, cathartic, strange and surreal and beautifully shot.
