SXSW 2021 | Narrative Shorts Program Roundup
The Narrative Shorts Competition at SXSW Online 2021 surprised, inspired, delighted, and disquieted me in equal parts. While I did not get a chance to catch every offering at this year’s festival, the short films I did catch have given me more than enough to ponder with their diverse approaches to diverse subjects that colour our world.
Read on to see which films made the boldest impressions and which ones just didn’t click in the end. Award winners are noted.
Are You Still There dir. Rayka Zehtabchi, Sam Davis
One of the most personally affecting films I had the pleasure of catching at SXSW Online 2021. Are You Still There is an achingly human film about the effects of loss and how they can re-manifest themselves in the most unexpected and mundane of instances. For the teenaged Safa, stress contorts into a surge of grief when her car’s battery dies in a strip mall parking lot. Directors Zehtabchi and Davis do a fantastic job at keeping this scenario grounded, without pandering to the audience’s craving for a big emotional epiphany. This is exquisite filmmaking.
Bruiser dir. Miles Warren
Bruiser is a short film that packs a massive wallop with its electrified fight scene and an impactful message about the persistence of violence in hyper-masculine forums. Sharply written, well acted, and stylistically daring in its camerawork and sound design, the film gets right to the guts of its story and grips you.
The Criminals dir. Serhat Karaaslan
A young Turkish couple scours hotel options to find a room where they can be intimate, but the hotel clerks demand that the two produce a marriage certificate before they continue. While I feel that some of the tension building here is a bit slow for a short film, the premise is interesting enough and the committed, wide-eyed performances from the two leads bring you into the discomfort and anxiety.
Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma dir. Topaz Jones, rubberband.
Topaz Jones reworks and updates the “Black ABC’s” flashcards that were once used by Black educators in 1970s Chicago to thrilling effect. This is a highly idiosyncratic work that features talking head interviews, musical bumpers, vignettes, and skits, all while remaining consistently playful and experimental throughout. Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama took home the Best Non-Fiction Film award at Sundance and is sure to continue sending ripples by rejuvenating film enthusiasts and provoking vital discussions about social issues. This short film received the SXSW Special Jury Recognition for Visionary Storytelling.
Femme dir. Ng Choon Ping, Sam H. Freeman
Femme is begging to be made into a feature film, but we’ll take these eighteen riveting and heart-pounding minutes in the meantime. I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu stars as a femme queer man in London who goes down a menacing rabbit hole when he tries to score some drugs to fuel his night out. I love films about the dark and sorted corners of a big city’s nightlife. Femme is an exhilarating, almost real-time-feeling example of how the tone of a night out can turn on a dime and force you to confront terrifying new realities of once alluring scenarios. Brilliant shallow-focus camerawork and a neon colour palette give the film a unique sheen.
Like The Ones I Used To Know dir. Anne St-Pierre
Canadians once again prove extremely adept at unwrapping the melancholy and uneasiness stirring below the forced jubilation of the holidays. Like The Ones I Used To Know is a remarkably complete-feeling short film from Quebec director Anne St-Pierre about a father’s effort to extract his children from his ex’s house on Christmas Eve, told with an astounding amount of depth, a touch of awkwardness, and brushes of light humour. The sum of these parts is a warm and bittersweet hug that just may leave you feeling teary-eyed. I, for one, would love to see this developed into a full-length Christmas classic. St-Pierre recently received SXSW’s Special Jury Recognition for Direction.
Marvin’s Never Had Coffee Before dir. Andrew Carter
A COVID-time comedy that thankfully isn’t about COVID; instead, this short film uses the Zoom meeting format to facilitate a light, safe-for-work skit about one man’s attempts to fight disconnection and bond with his coworkers. Though it depicts an all-too recognizable scenario, Marvin’s Never Had Coffee Before is forgettable in its execution – maybe more suited for YouTube than a festival circuit.
The Nipple Whisperer dir. Jan Van Dyck
The great Denis Lavant lends his singular essence to a short film of bizarre whimsy about... well... I’ll refer you to the title. At its best, this film is a suggestion of the eponymous act being a conduit for something more than titillation (pun intended), and while there is a vague suggestion of what that something more might be, it feels insubstantial in the end. Still, the cinematography is gorgeous and the score is transfixing.
The Other Morgan dir. Alison Rich
From SNL writer Alison Rich, The Other Morgan is another short film that feels more like a YouTube comedy short than anything inherently cinematic. It is cute enough and nice to look at, but chalk full of smarmy characters that don’t feel like real people because they act smarmy and goofy and attempt to chew scenery at every turn. That said, the core message about not comparing yourself to others and finding a way to be happy—rather than look happy—is wholly gratifying.
Play It Safe dir. Mitch Kalisa
The camera is the star in Mitch Kalisa’s Play It Safe. It scans and probes like some ineffable, gliding creature unafraid (or maybe unaware?) of the discomfort its tight lens might instill. Its focus is a black drama student who is being typecast in the role of a “hoodlum” that makes him feel uncomfortable, but this focus is cleverly inverted when the student uses a classroom exercise to challenge and confront his classmates in an ingenious way. Kalisa was recently awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Short at SXSW, and rightly so!
Sales Per Hour dir. Michelle Uranowitz, Daniel Jaffe
Sales Per Hour fully captures how sweat inducing and panic inspiring a high-pressure retail environment can be, even when a camaraderie exists between cohorts on the sales floor. The camaraderie is just the problem, in fact, when one sales rep catches wind of a sexual encounter in her store’s dressing room and faces the moral dilemma of whether to put it to an end or let it runs its course in the interest of a sale. Uranowitz and Jaffe have created a Safdie-like stress ball of a short film that will get under your skin in its short amount of staying time.
Squeegee dir. Morgan Krantz
An in-charge but lovelorn CEO has an unusual tryst with the window washer that happens upon her office in Morgan Krantz’s Squeegee. Unabashedly silly and, sure, mildly erotic, this short film features some wonderful physical acting from its two leads and is playful enough in its tone to win you over. That said, the film does run a little long once you realize it won’t be building upon its initial premise.
Wiggle Room dir. Sam Guest, Julia Baylis
Deanna Gibson won a special jury award at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year for her acting debut as a paraplegic teenager fighting to keep her wheelchair ramp from repossession. Searchlight Pictures recently acquired this film as well, so seek out this well-shot and incredibly endearing film out however you can, even if the scripting feels a little forced.