SHORT FILMS (NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS)

        The short films that accompany the features at "New Directors/
New Films" often herald emerging talent, and some like Peter Sollet's
Five Feet High and Rising (2000) and Ryan Fleck's Gowanus,
Brooklyn (2004) have served as the basis for feature films.
(Raising Victor Vargas (2002) and Half Nelson (2006), respectively.)

The 2006 entries were as follows:

        Pia (2005) by Javier Andrade shared more in common with
Quinceañera than with Look Both Ways, with which it was shown. It
tells the story of a fourteen year old girl getting ready to celebrate
turning fifteen who faces another rite of passage. It is an atmospheric
tale that felt truncated.

        Terra Incognita (2005) by Peter Volkart was a terrific mock
documentary about a phycisist and the amazing journey he undertook.
There was real wit to the film and the visuals were stunning. While
thematically it linked up with Iceberg, I couldn't help but feel it shared
more a kinship with The First on the Moon.


        Detail (2005) by Kanwal Sethi depicted a checkpoint in the West
Bank town of Bet Omar which requires drivers to move a large paving
stone each and every time someone wants to pass.

        The Last Farm (2005) by Runar Runarsson tells the heartbreaking
tale of the final day on a rural homestead in Iceland. In my view it was far
superior to Sangre with which it was paired.

        Still World/Wereld van Stilstand (2005) by Elbert van Strien
proved to be one of the most inventive shorts. Told exclusively via
still photographs and voiceover narration, it is a rich depiction of a man
suffering from an identity crisis (if not wholesale mental illness). The images
are haunting and the film has stayed with me long afer seeing it.

        The Wraith of Cobble Hill (2005) by Adam Parrish King is a
complex and elegiac tale of regret, loneliness and responsibility.
This terrific animated short, more than six years in the making, marks
King as one to watch.

        Phantom Canyon (2005) by Stacey Steers was another animated
entry, this time utilizing images from Eadweard Muybridge's human
motion studies to depict a womans surreal journey into memory.
The film includes over 4000 handmade collages and was intriguing if
not wholly engrossing.

Short Films