International Shorts 1: Sensitive Souls'

Title: Punch
Runtime: 10 mins
Directed by: Sotiris Dounoukos
Synopsis: In a city of beauty and noise, a broken man tries to escape his pain and loneliness by playing the clown he feels like...
I didn't see it as hugely original, yet it engaged me emotionally. It reminded me of a scene from Mera Naam Joker (My Name is Joker) which covered 3 acts, as 3 different time periods in the life of a clown, but what differed was that this clown was only a clown to us as a viewer, to the surrounding people on-screen he was being treated as just another person seeking some attention, which I'd say was its hook.

Title: Hello, Goodbye
Runtime: 16 mins
Directed by: Antoine Bourges
Synopsis: A short drama that depicts the first and last day of a foreign student in Vancouver, from his initial observations to his last farewells.
Discussing with one of the other film-makers, there was more to read in here than I initially anticipated. It follows an interns beginning & end at a school for architecture, which was engaging enough in itself. However there was something larger her in his actual project. I'd be interested in seeing it again to see if my thoughts change on how I interpreted this part.

Title: Puppies & Pickup Trucks
Runtime: 18 mins
Directed by: Vincent Biron
Synopsis: The chronicle of a dying childhood.
Absolutely hated it. Something terrible happens & I empathised with the boy, however this was simply it. Very little followed events-wise, lamentation which didn't suffice for me as a resolution to what we'd been put through as a viewer.

Title: Dreamers
Runtime: 14 mins
Directed by: Vlamyr Vizcaya
Synopsis: A tender coming of age story in a crude world!
Another dud for me I'm afraid. The fact t hat only the next day I can't even remember this short shows how much of an impact it left on me.

Title: Man
Runtime: 15 mins
Directed by: Myna Joseph
Synopsis: Maggie and her sister form an unusual bond during an encounter with a young man.
This one was interesting. I'm not sure how often this sort of thing happens in real life, where an online relationship comes to life when a boy & girl finally meet & decide to fornicate on that first meeting, but having the sister there in this instance made it odd & interesting. On the one hand the one sister was the cause & on the other she was trying to protect her sister. There was also a sense of envy here. The mix of emotions is what made this believable & engaging.

Title: Legacy
Runtime: 15 mins
Directed by: Grant Sputore
Synopsis: A coming of age story - an account of innocence lost and a life saved in Australia during World War ll.
I befriended the maker of this a few days earlier, so I'm a little conflicted about reviewing it, but I will anyway. The World War setting put me off a little, just as its a genre I don't tend to get on too well with. This said, the message of the story (even relayed in its title) was clear & well portrayed. It leaves us with he question of whether our duty to our own outweighs the progression of oneself.

In this instance, it is a story of a War Veteran drunk father, a young soldier son who is seeing himself becoming his father, while trying to convince the younger son, his brother, to 'not' follow in his own or his fathers' footsteps. The resolution being left quite open though hinting towards a specific angle.

Thoughts Overall: Bar the two films that I found pretty dull, this was a good batch. I did have concerns about them because they were largely over 10 minutes, which means they need to be good to not bore me, but they panned out quite well. Rather impressed.