This short festival that showed both short films, as well as some feature films, was shown this past weekend on SuperChannel, the festival will return to Toronto in The Royal Cinema November 18-23, 2021.
Below are my reviews of some of the shorts I watched and one feature film, Motherly.
Dirs. Neil Christopher, Daniel Gies (5:01 mins)
This is one of the best animated short films I have seen! In the film, we have a hunter who is waiting patiently over a hole in the ice for something to move below, he waits along with his faithful dog-until he sees a giant bear beneath the ice and the battle begins!
Fantastic artwork throughout the short-definitely worth checking out if you have a chance too!
(Dirs. Amanda Parris, Lucius Dechausay) (17:52 mins)
In a time when we are full of apps for all of our devices -there is an app that can predict when you will die and the death doula will help you with the final stages of your life.
Here he finds that his first love is soon dying so he goes to be with her for her final hours.
Very good acting, directing and the subject matter is dealt with very well.
(Dir. Daniel Stark) (7:14 mins)
There are some of those short films that you wish were a bit longer, just because they say so much with such little dialogue. We have a young woman who keeps getting up through different times of the night and has various members of her family who get her back to bed --but she is really just wanting some ice cream. I thought that she was just wanting some because she loves ice cream, but she has other ideas about what to do with it!
THE REVENGE OF THE SNOW FLAKES (Dir. Carlos Soriano) (15:00 mins)
A young woman who is an influencer on social media platforms finds herself being a victim of a bullying campaign by baby boomers. She then, with her boyfriend in tow plans to seek some revenge on them, the platform seems to have listed their addresses, and she goes to confront them in her own way. Campy little "revenge film" that has some really fun moments in it as well.
(Dir. David J. Fernandes) (2:59 mins)
Well, hopefully, chapter 2 will be out soon, because again this was a little short.
A new mother is watching TV and has a baby monitor beside her and she keeps hearing and seeing something is in there but upon checking the room it all seems to be fine.
A nice-paced little film with a good ending.
DISQUIETUDE (Dir. Michael Marino) (10:00 mins)
A creepy little short here, because I am claustrophobic it really brought on the fear well of being locked in a room.
A singer goes into a room where she is going to sing a song with her guitar- after the communication seems to fail with the control room, she goes into a frenzy of fear.
She cannot seem to open the door, it's locked from the other side? With the room being 100% soundproof, there is no chance anyone will hear her.
With that fear comes anxiety, seeing things that are not really happening, and some more things that are hard to explain. She finally gets out of the room to find some amazing and yet odd results.
MOTHERLY (Dir. Craig David Wallace) (81 mins)
The one feature film I was able to watch over the weekend was Motherly.
Story synopsis:
Single mom Kate will do anything to protect her daughter Beth from a dark and disturbing past that haunts them both. They have started a new life in an isolated farmhouse in the middle of the woods, far from the prying eyes of other people. Over the course of one day, Kate begins to suspect that something sinister is happening around them. As the danger becomes clear, Kate’s motherly instincts are put to the test. How far will she go to protect her daughter?
Kate(Lora Burke) and her daughter Beth(Tessa Kozma)live in an isolated farm house, Kate is estranged from her husband when is he jailed for the killing of a minor. The film starts with Beth blindfolded because it's her birthday and her mom wants to make it a special day for her.
Beth goes outside and as her mother continues to finish the work on her new book she takes a look outside to watch her daughter play for a while. Then after a few seconds of hearing no noise, she gets up to look to see her jacket hanging on the tree but she is nowhere in sight. Panicked, Kate goes outside to find her.
Soon, their peaceful day is interrupted by intruders who take Beth away, to which we find out are the parents of the child that Kates's husband killed.
At one point in the movie, Beth breaks free and finds a way to lose the intruders.
Kate is brought to the barn where she is given a chance to tell what really happened the day their daughter died, because they feel that it was Kate who did it, after the fact that her ex-husband is in jail for the killing. She refuses to tell them what they want to hear, so she is tortured.
There are some really good, tense moments in the film and a good payoff that I did NOT see coming.