The annual collection of short films at the London Short Film Festival, which took place earlier this month, is regularly one of the highlights of the year when it comes to observing new filmmaking talent. This year’s festival was particularly intriguing thanks to an event showcasing new queer cinema.
In partnership with the LSFF was UK distributor Peccadillo Pictures, and as a distributor of art-house and LGBT films, the charmingly titled ’9 Bob Note’ event was aimed at presenting a mixture of queer characters in a number of situations, whether it be dramatic, comedic or visually unique.
Ranging from a touching story of a teenager struggling to care for his ailing mother, while balancing a relationship with his boyfriend, to a deadpan comedy of a young girl yearning to reveal the ‘real’ her in the form of James Dean, ’9 Bob Note’ had everything you’d want from an event such as this.
This unique event proved how cinema can represent a wide range of communities and that short film, in particular, is a valuable forum for upstart filmmakers to express themselves. If we’re going to strengthen the UK film industry, investing in short films and ignoring David Cameron’s recent comments on film funding could prove key.
Though these shorts were part of a showcase of new queer cinema, more than anything else there was a translation of film language regarding themes of companionship and identity. The appeal of this showcase was a universal one and raised the question about how important short films are to filmmakers and the industry. Do films have to be 150 minutes long to have an emotional impact? Do they have to cost $150 million in order to be successful? And do we invest enough in micro-budget film projects as a part of the British Film Industry?
Shorts have always been a platform for either well-established filmmakers or filmmaking novices to express themselves. Directors working on some of the biggest pictures around have tested the waters in shorts. Christopher Nolan cut his teeth with a series of short films, most notably Larceny and Doodlebug, that contained stylistic traits that he would later transpose into his first feature-length film, 1998′s Following. Others such as Terry Gilliam have returned to shorts long after finding success as a feature director. And in a world that’s tightening the money belt, short films might just be an avenue that filmmakers will explore with greater interest.
Shorts of course have less financial risk attached to them as they cost only a fraction of a full-length film and Gilliam’s new short, The Wholly Family, has even found sponsorship from an Italian pasta company who funded the entire project. Not all shorts will find such willing financiers, if any at all, most come from bursaries and arts funds, but if micro budget projects can become a more frequent part of some perceived future for a ‘commercially viable’ film industry, then all the more for it.
Take for example another of Peccadillo’s recent hits, Andrew Haigh’s romantic drama Weekend, a film shot entirely on location for a reported £120,000. Haigh’s background is short filmmaking and he has clearly taken to making films within certain budget constraints. But he has also made an intimate, close-up drama that has all the hallmarks of why short films work. They are about the personal, as opposed to the spectacle.
There’s a two-way pay off for a film such as Weekend; there is the presence of gay characters on screen, something that in mainstream cinema is bafflingly still neglected, and the film has been, relative to its budget, a big financial success – the film has so far taken of $400,000 at the box office. Normally a film with such content would not be expected to garner much funding, as financiers tend to be cautious on whether there is enough mass appeal to recoup the cost of the film.
What these short films and Weekend have proven is that content regarding sexuality, race or identity does not determine a film’s popularity or ‘success’. Filmmakers who know their craft are able to construct something that has universal appeal and speaks to audiences on a variety of levels. If you choose to give a talented filmmaker a chance to nurture his/her skills you might just see more of the likes of Andrew Haigh making their way from short films and producing something that upsets the so-called formulas of what makes a ‘successful’ film.
For more info on this year’s LSFF visit shortfilms.org.uk
London Short Film Festival 2012 – 9 Bob Note (text) by Jack Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
