Tag Archives: Short Film

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The Bootleg Files: The Selfish Giant

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BOOTLEG FILES 878: “The Selfish Giant” (1971 Oscar-nominated animated short based on the Oscar Wilde story).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There might be a right issue that is unresolved.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this time.

One of the most poignant animated films ever made is the 1971 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s story “The Selfish Giant.” Directed by Peter Sander and produced on behalf of Reader’s Digest, it is a truly wonderful production that received an Academy Award nomination. However, today the film is almost completely forgotten, which is a major shame.
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A Corner in Wheat (1909)

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Notable as being among D.W. Griffith’s earliest attempts to blend cinema and politics, the 1909 short film “A Corner in Wheat” depicted the rise of the “Wheat King,” a speculator who manages to corner the commodity market on wheat. His success brings him great wealth that is spent on opulent entertainment for his friends, while the farmers who grow the wheat are stuck in hardscrabble lives and the lower classes who cannot afford the price gouging by the Wheat King – the cost of bread loaves is hiked from five to ten cents, forcing many to go hungry. However, the triumph of his business ruthlessness occurs moments before a freak accident where he crushed to death in a grain silo.
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Singapore Sue (1932)

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This 1932 short film from Paramount was designed to highlight the musical comedy talents of Anna Chang and Joe Wong, vaudeville performers in search of a movie niche. Instead, the film unexpectedly launched the career of an unbilled actor who stole the show from the two stars.
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At Capacity (2024)

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I admit I was a bit skeptical about approaching “At Capacity” because a lot of these films always feels so cynical, Thankfully, Spencer Jamison is so talented she lends a fresh gloss to a tired formula. Having had its world premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, “At Capacity” is an entertaining and intelligent romance comedy about serendipity and salvaging good out of what might seem irreversibly bad.

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The Bootleg Files: A Doonesbury Special

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BOOTLEG FILES 875: “A Doonesbury Special” (1977 animated film that received an Oscar nomination).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On VHS and laserdisc plus a blink-and-you-missed-it DVD release in an anthology collection.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: There might be a rights issue that is unresolved.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: A re-release on DVD and Blu-ray is not likely at this time.

As a prefix to this column, I need to confess that I’ve never been infatuated with Garry Trudeau’s comic strip “Doonesbury.” Yes, I am highly aware of its awards and cultural resonance, but I never found Trudeau’s brand of satire to amusing or provocative. That being said, I was curious to explore “A Doonesbury Special,” the 1977 production that marked the only time that Trudeau’s comic strip was adapted into an animated film. Trudeau collaborated with Oscar-winning animators John and Season Hubley on this work – John Hubley died while the production was in the storyboard phase, but he still received co-director and co-producer credit with his wife and Trudeau.

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Bananahead (2024)

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Selected to screen at the 2024 HollyShorts Film Festival, director Christopher Greenslate’s “Bananahead” is an unnerving and well told tale about legacy and impostor syndrome. It’s very much a horror movie, but it’s also a very stark movie about hitting a bar that someone previously left and a lot of what they can leave behind after they have gone. Sally Maersk is a stunner in the role as Andi Sanger, a young performer who gives herself the inherent pressure of taking on a role in the adaptation in her mom’s best selling book “Bananahead.”

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American Daydream (2024)

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Where is the American dream bred? In the heart or in the head? Director-Writer Ziyu Luo’s “American Daydream” is a classic ode to the idea of the American dream and our pursuit of it. Is the “American Dream” an unreachable goal, or something that we each have within us, personally? Recently having its world premiere at the HollyShorts Film Festival, “American Daydream” is a brilliant beautiful short drama comedy that explores ideas about immigration, assimilation and Americanization.

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