And we are back with another installment in our Fantastic Short Film Friday series, as we continue to showcase films released in the "lesser" known form of cinema- the short film.
The Academy Awards have just passed, coming and going with a lot of middling fanfare. However I always love the fact that there are 3 short film categories that the Academy brings light to even though 98% of the population has never heard of the shorts let alone have had access to have seen them. But me, I love the stuff so I love that the Academy brings recognition to the short form of cinema. Congratulations to the animated short winner, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore which we featured here a few weeks ago. It's an amazingly beautiful and touching short, so do yourself a favor if you haven't and check it out. It's one of the few that are readily available, free on Itunes.
With the awards season of 2011 officially done, it's time to look at the other shorts that aren't getting the attention they deserve. I love me some zombies, maybe a little too much. They are my favorite horror icons next to vampires and Frankenstein, and it's both exciting and a little disturbing that they are somehow en vogue in popular culture thanks to shows like The Walking Dead. So it's zombie time here in the world of short film, but not the action gore fest you may be expecting, but rather a lyrical indie zombie tale or love, loss, and oddly enough perseverance. Here is a 12-minute short called Rest from filmmaker Cole Schreiber. Again, this one's a zombie lyrical film with no dialogue and lots and lots of beautiful cinematography.
The setup is this: a fallen WWI soldier claws his way to the surface 90 years after his death and begins the long journey home that takes him across the continents in order to find something that our pop songs say can never truly die.
I freely admit that this one may not be for everyone. There's almost no plot and only at the very end does the viewer discover what they're truly watching. It's really almost like a 12-minute musical score, a modern opera with no words, an art-house creature feature. I've seen a lot of zombie films and read a lot of zombie stories and this one's unique enough to really capture my attention and the cinematography, again, it's just incredibly moody and haunting.
Check this out if you like you short films like your wine, slowly peeling away the layers of hidden tastes until you are ultimately rewarded in the end. Check this out if you like beautiful shots of the urban and country landscapes, but wished there were more zombies in them. Enjoy this weeks dose of short form goodness in, Rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment