Films presented at the Fourth MIT Short Film Festival 2008
Imago (Cédric Babouche, France, 2005), 12’
Antoine, 8 years old, has lost his father in an air crash. Incompetent to accept his death, he will finally revive and accept this loss through a metaphorical dream, and find the ability to grieve. (animation)
Pauls Opa / Paul’s Grandpa (Ove Sander, Germany, 2007), 19’
Eight-year old inventor Paul yearns to make his all-time dream come true. He wants to have a grandpa, just like all the other children. So he builds himself one, and sets about doing things with him he would never dare do alone. Just as Paul begins to realize that his grandpa could never take the place of a real one, a small miracle happens ...
Karaoke (Carolina Hellsgård, Germany, 2008), 15’30”
“Karaoke” is the story about Liselotte, an elderly actress looking for a new role in theatre or film. In a series of scenes we follow her as she visits different casting-sessions. Without significant success, she interacts with the people around her. Her only hope remains an old friend Vera, to whom she has not spoken to for years.
Diente por ojo / An eye for an eye (Eivind Holmboe Salmon, Spain, 2007), 20’
One night, seven people are brought together through a chain of desperate events illustrating that in life, we do reap what we sow, and how nature has it’s own merciless way of evening out the score.
El hombre feliz / Does the happy man exist? (Lucina Gil, Spain, 2007), 14’
Does the happy man exist?
Elena quiere / What Elena wants (Lino Escalera, Spain, 2007), 19’
Elena has only one night to get her ex-boyfriend to relive the past they had together. A few hours to make up for all her mistakes. But that is not all Elena wants.
Equipajes / Baggage Claim (Toni Bestard, Spain, 2007), 10’
Baggage claim of an airport. Two passengers waiting for the suitcases. They don’t know each other, but they make a bet. Which suitcase will appear first?
Jazz song (Jorge Gonzalez, Spain, 2007), 8’
New York apartment bedroom. Charles Lewis, Jazz trumpeter, must decide between life with his partner, or the love for his music. (animation)
Abschiedslied / Farewell Song (Markus Beck, Germany, 2007), 7’07”
The last minutes of a woman in a coma. Since several years she depends on artificial respiration. Now her daughter will fulfill her last wish. For the last time she visits her mother to say good-bye – for ever. Her mother manages to get in touch with her
once again.
Dealer (Michael Venus, Germany, 2007), 7’
In order to save his parent’s marriage, a boy becomes a thief. Realizing that his efforts aren’t worth it, he comes up with a new plan.
Einladung / Invitation (Katrin Gebbe, Germany, 2007), 7’
An old man at the end of his strength. The doorbell rings and his little kitchen gets filled up with life. “Oh, man, learn to dance, or else the angels in heaven will have no use for you.” (Anonymus)
Love is hard as walls (Marvin Kren, Germany, 2007), 2’30”
Two men in an old abandoned building about to be reconstructed. One of them is there to tear down the graffiti-adorned walls. The other man is there to save them - especially one wall, which has come to mean everything to him.
Narzissen / Daffodils (Katrin Gebbe, Germany, 2007), 13’
Throughout his whole life the boy - tortured by his mother’s disdain - has been struggeling for love. Katharina, the girl next door, raises new hope. For her, he cultivates a garden.
Tembûr (Hannes Treiber, Germany, 2007), 7’
A kurdish immigrant reacts to physical closeness with violence.
His eleven year old daugther forces him unknowingly to face up to his traumatic past.
Trio (Marvin Kren, Germany, 2007), 10’45”
Anita’s father lives on in her dreams - even after his death. Is Anita the only one who sees strange things happen all around her? Or is her father still there, watching her play the piano at his funeral?
Anonymous (Cristian Pozo, Spain, 2006), 19’
ANONYMOUS is a love story, a love in a daydreaming universe, with no time, no reference of any concrete place. FRED & LAURA's love.
DVD (Ciro Altabás, Spain, 2006), 17’
This short film includes: scene selection / trailer / selected cut scenes / alternative ending / eliminated scene / videoclip / featurette: “What's a freak?” / audiocommentary / character selection and a boy-meets-girl story.
Mimoune (Gonzalo Ballester, Spain, 2006), 11’
Illegal immigration is not only a problem for our society. Not only does the illegal immigrant suffer from social uprooting but also the most difficult part of this situation: the family division.This document was born of the desire to bring together, even if it was only through a camera, a family that since long ago wishes so.
Dos veces / Twice (Joseba Fuentes, Spain, 2006), 24’
Laura wants to divorce Mario. He agrees to give her whatever settlement she asks for on one condition: she must accept to reenact with all the details the first time they met.
Boletos por favor / Tickets please (Lucas Figueroa, Spain, 2006), 14’
A train, a pursuit, only one way to escape.
Cinema at 92.3FM (Florian Michaelsen, USA/Germany, 2007), 8’10”
A picnic on the tailgate of a pick-up truck, in place of an extra-large popcorn in atheater seat? Ball games under the big screen, instead of blockbusters in 15 identical screening rooms? Ultra-short wave in place of Dolby Surround? Drive-in versus multiplex? In the land of boundless superlatives, a German cinematographer searches for an alternative cinema experience.
Vivace (Guido Rambeck, Germany, 2007), 8’04”
The word "Vivace" is Italian and is used as a description for the speed of a musical piece. It means lively or alive. The film is a study of senior citizens who stay in a "vivace" condition by dancing. Not only their bodies are capable of astonishing performances, they have also retained a youthfulnes of their minds.
The film was shot in 16mm black and white negative material (Orwo N74) with a Digital Betacam finishing.
Der kleine Ben / Little Ben (Piotre Reimer, Germany, 2007), 15’
Little Ben lives in a trailer park with his parents. He dreams of traveling with his father's theater group, but first he has to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels.
Innen | Nachts / Interior | Night (Eva Stotz, Germany, 2007), 9’20”
Evening, in an apartment.
A child feels the threatening unholiness of the break of night.
Intre ziduri / Zwischen Mauern / Between Walls (Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu, Germany, 2007), 15’30”
The film tells the story of illegal workers from Moldova on a building site in Berlin. They are permanently afraid of German authorities, but are also rubbed by their own compatriot, who is the middleman, between them and the German construction supervisor. The situation gets out of control, when Igor, the main character needs more money and a dangerous game begins…
Les petits hommes vieux (Yann Chayia, France, 2005), 13'
Imagine, a short moment, that you are a young person, minority, in a world of old people. Worse again, imagine that the current situation is reversed in a few minutes. You awake one night and everything was reversed. Old people seized the power, they are more numerous, stronger and more malignant than you.
Atención al cliente (Marcos Valín y David Alonso, Spain, 2007), 7’
This film situates us in 20xx. Consumer culture dominates all, or that’s what is believed. Against a changing and dehumanizing environment, a modest old lady takes on the crusade against the system to find some food for her loyal little dog. (animation)
Business as usual (Tom Zenker, Germany, 2006), 4’40”
Downtown Area. Clerks, businesspeople and a bum grubbing in the garbage. A bored security man behind monitors controls everything... Two elder businessmen meet in an unconventional way, and they begin a fight. People passing by don’t notice the action. One of the businessmen goes to the ground. All remains of the clash are removed in routine. Business goes on as usual, ready for a next encounter.
Colorful EU (Peter Vadocz, Hungary, 2006), 1’21”
As you walking on the streets, the flags of EU-countries are come into sight anything you just look at. The EU is in the objects, in the creatures, in the people. The colorful EU is around us. An experimental spot to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Union.
Asleep on a train (Vivien Weyrauch, Germany, 2007), 5’09”
During work rush hour on a Monday evening at a subway station a young girl suddenly starts to dance. Watching her performance we loose ourselves in a mist of reality and fiction
Im Treppenhaus-Dein Lächeln ist schon oben / In The Staircase- Your Smile Is Already Upstairs (Roman Zenz, Germany, 2007), 4’02”
Something is holding her back, the young woman who already pictured herself swirling among leaves on the roof. On the stairs her legs go heavy in this autumn sonata of dance and suggestive pictures, movements and looks
24 Stunden / 24 Hours (Fabian Röttger, Germany, 2007), 3’
The film is about the terms rhythm and movement in the city. it starts very easily and ends in the night, 3 minutes later
SHU (blue hour lullaby) (Philipp Lachenmann, USA/Germany, 2007), 12’
A remote prison in the desert during the blue hour. The compound prepares for the night, the lights are gradually switched on. Simultaneously to the illuminating on the ground approaching aircraft lights appear in the evening sky, one after the other, slowly accumulating, hovering, floating.
Othello (Kay welf Hoyme, Germany, 2007), 5’36”
Based on the conflict of the three protagonists of Shakespeares play Othello the film is constructed by a body-and cinematographic choreography. Its visual dramaturgy is strongly related to the music of the Italian band Giardini di Miro. The visual pattern and the atmosphere and dynamics of the music create a unity. The three dancers develop a reduced plot within.
I love my car (Stephanie Roland, Belgium, 2007) 3'
I play with narrative codes of different film genres. Here I use commercials with the drama Cynch Code (Sound / repetition / deconstruction) to give commercials emotional content they don’t have.
Sie könnte zu Ihnen gehören / She could belong to you (Eran Schaerf, Germany 2007), 37’
Schaerf creates a cinematic sculpture by using a montage of three films: Alle Jahre Wieder [Next Year, Same Time] by Ulrich Schamoni, shot in December 1966, Desperate Journey by Raoul Walsh, filmed in 1941/42 in Hollywood, and the documentary Zwischen Hoffen und Bangen [Between Hope and Fear], made from private footage of the Jewish family Gumprich from Münster, filmed between 1937 and 1939. The montage of scenes from these films and new footage creates a new cinematic dimension – a cinematic town in which the boundaries between fiction and documentary dissolve.
Zwischenwelten / Betweenworlds (Parisa Karimi, Germany 2007), 37’35”
“Betweenworlds” is an interdisciplinary film featuring six people from different migrant backgrounds, uniting them for the search of an inner homeland. The film uses dance to move between documentary and fictional levels, as the protagonists journey togther throiugh adreamsacep connecting the stations of their biographies. “Betweenworlds” is a project of the Heimatlos/Grenzenlos (“HomelessLimitless”) Network.
For further information please contact the Festival Organizer, Kurt Fendt <fendt
mit.edu>
