{"id":22145,"date":"2016-08-28T00:42:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T04:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=22145"},"modified":"2016-08-30T10:45:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T14:45:05","slug":"hollyshorts-film-festival-2016-shorts-selections-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/28\/hollyshorts-film-festival-2016-shorts-selections-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"HollyShorts Film Festival 2016 Shorts Selections Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Quenottes\"<\/a>The short film festival HollyShorts took place in Hollywood August 11th<\/sup> to 20th<\/sup>, 2016.\u00a0 It showcased a ton–yes a ton–of short films from the US and around the world.\u00a0 Here are more short reviews of some of these bite-sized films. This is Part two of the HollyShorts Film Festival Round Up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Flesh of my Lovers (USA) (2015)<\/strong>
\nA man lives a dark, dark life while daydreaming of his beautiful but cold neighbor and fantasizing of violence and murder.\u00a0 When a cute and bubbly new neighbor moves in across the hall and is friendly to him, he starts to fall for her and wants to better his life.\u00a0 This dark comedy has talented acting from its leads Aaron Pont and Kristina Pesic.\u00a0 The film looks and sounds great.\u00a0 The contrast between the gloomy life in Connor\u2019s apartment and the happy and colorful one in Gracie\u2019s apartment perfectly encapsulates each character.\u00a0 The sound design, particularly in the fantasy sequences is shiver-inducing and gooey.\u00a0 It\u2019s a funny short film with lots to love if your sense of humor runs on the dark side.<\/p>\n

Quenottes (Pearlies) (France, Luxembourg) (2016)<\/strong>
\nIn some areas of the world, the Tooth Fairy is replaced by \u201cLa Petite Souris\u201d or \u201cThe Little Mouse\u201d who collects kids\u2019 fallen pearlies or teeth.\u00a0 When a man returns to his childhood home with his son following his mother\u2019s death, they disturb the mouse who turns out to be more homicidal than whimsical.\u00a0 This mouse will stop at nothing to get the tooth lost back.\u00a0 Quenottes is a bloody mix of live action and animation that works.\u00a0 Writer Pascal Thiebaux co-directed with Gil Pinheiro this violent take on a childhood favorite.\u00a0 Their take on this contains fantastic animation by Mickael Coedel and Ghayth Chegaar and great special effects by David Scherer.\u00a0 The small cast of Lionel Abelanski as the father and Matthieu Clement-Lescop as the son with the mouse voiced by Frederique Bel, all do amazingly well, especially Abelanski and Clement-Lescop as they has to act with an animated character.\u00a0 Quenottes shows amazing talent from the people behind it while building a tension filled take on a childhood tale.<\/p>\n

Indigo (Canada) (2016)<\/strong>
\nThis Japanese language Canadian short follows an alien and a small robot waiting to go home.\u00a0 When the signal comes, Takumi must choose between love and going home.\u00a0 Written and directed by Jody Wilson, the film poses an interesting choice for its lead but unfortunately it could not keep this reviewers attention.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautiful and sad story, yet comes off a bit boring.\u00a0 The look of the film, its cinematography by Ryan Petey is interesting.\u00a0 The acting by Kohei Shinozaki as Takumi, Keiko Boxall, Elizabeth Davison, Yumi Nagashima, and the rest of the cast is good.\u00a0 The small toy robot is adorable.\u00a0 Yet the film doesn\u2019t hit right with this reviewer even though the story should resonate.<\/p>\n

Descry (USA) (2016)<\/strong>
\nAs Clay sits in a dinner at lunch with his experiences and fears come crashing in a series of confrontations that feel all too real.\u00a0 Descry approaches the subject of racism by showing its blatant forms as well as less obvious ones.\u00a0 The subject here is very timely considering the racial tensions and issues in the United States and around the world.\u00a0 Director David Michael Yohe co-writes with Jenna Bleecker and they build a short film that is effective and eye opening.\u00a0 Their lead actor who supports the bulk of the film being at the center of all the confrontations had to be absolutely perfect for the part and talented.\u00a0 The lead of Clay is played by Quincy Ndekwe who shows a great connection with his part and a lot of control over his craft.\u00a0 The other cast members show talent as well.\u00a0 Descry shows a view of racism from the inside, it shows how it feels to live with it every day.\u00a0 It also makes the viewer think and hopefully will make some revise how they act and think.<\/p>\n

Atis (Poland) (2012)<\/strong>
\nDirector Grzegorz Ziolkowski builds a depressing yet necessary film about homelessness and what some need to do in order to survive.\u00a0 The leads in this are a mother and her son named Atis forced to live in a building\u2019s ruins and beg for enough money to eat when they cannot find enough in dumpsters and other places.\u00a0 The film is also completely devoid of dialogue for a lot of its running time yet it grabs the viewer and doesn\u2019t let go.\u00a0 The film is full of emotions and a very well done without judgment, a lesson in what it really is like to be beyond poor and homeless.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad, heavy, and depressing to drive its point across.<\/p>\n

Break My Bones (USA) (2016)<\/strong>
\nA 10 year old girl, Violet, fights what looks to be cancer.\u00a0 Her mother, trying to help, sets up meetings for her with their elderly neighbor who\u2019s also been sick.\u00a0 During those visits to his home, Violet hears and sees things that would scare most adults.\u00a0 Co-written by David Graham Haynes and director Anthony Collamati, Break My Bones layers sadness with creepiness until it all culminates in a satisfying ending that may not work for all viewers.\u00a0 The film\u2019s heavy themes mix well with the creepy house and building vibes throughout.\u00a0 The lead of Violet is interpreted by a gutsy Eloise Lushina for whom this is a first film.\u00a0 She shows maturity beyond her years and handles the difficult material beautifully.\u00a0 She should be able to take this and turn it into a career should she wish to.\u00a0 Also needing to be brought up is Loretta Higgins as the creeptastic Mrs. Cleveland.\u00a0 She starts off sweet and switches so easily to evil that her performance small screen time is one of the bests in a film filled with strong performances.\u00a0 Break My Bones is a creepy film about a sad subject with great performances.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s batch of shorts I was able to see from HollyShorts was well worth the time and I highly recommend Bear Story, Break My Bones, Quenottes, and Disco Inferno.\u00a0 Shorts may not get all the attention they deserve so if you run across some or can attend a festival playing a selection, do yourself a favor and check them out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The short film festival HollyShorts took place in Hollywood August 11th to 20th, 2016.\u00a0 It showcased a ton–yes a ton–of short films from the US and around the world.\u00a0 Here are more short reviews of some of these bite-sized films. This is Part two of the HollyShorts Film Festival Round Up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,9],"tags":[99,349,359,367,501,938],"class_list":["post-22145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","category-list-junkies","tag-animation","tag-fantasy","tag-filmmaking","tag-foreign","tag-indie-film","tag-short-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22161,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22145\/revisions\/22161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}