Albuquerque is slowly becoming a big deal.
From the prolific theater to the booming film industry, there is interest flooding our little desert town. But there is something missing from the film industry, something human, personal and identifiable.
That’s where the Manhattan Short Film Festival comes in.
It has existed for 12 years, but this is Albuquerque’s first time seeing a piece of the action. Of the 440 entries from 43 countries, only 10 finalists will be viewed globally. One winner will be voted on by the worldwide attendees of the Festival.
“One World, One Week, One Festival” the poster boasts.
It is thanks to Michele Gianelli that Albuquerque is privileged enough to be one of 195 cities on six continents (the stats go on and on) in which viewings of the festival take place.
A recent Albuquerque transplant, Gianelli has worked for years on movies, television series and independent films in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Seattle.
“I think it’s important because it offers something on a global scale,” she said. “There are a lot of filmmakers in Albuquerque, and this lets them see the best films in the world.”
Manhattan Short had humble beginnings, when its founding director, Nicolas Mason, showed films on the side of truck in its first year. Now it even sets precedence for the Oscars, and exposes many independent filmmakers to a global audience.
Alexander Payne, director of the Southwest Film Center, said the value of the festival lies in the variety of countries whose work is showcased.
“It’s a uniting thing,” he said.
The fantastic growth of the festival is only beginning.
Beginning next year, Manhattan Short is adding a “Journalism and Mass Media Competition,” where 16-24-year-olds will be allowed access to an individual blog on the official website of the festival (Manhattanshort.com). Contestants will be allowed 250 words to review the event at whatever hosting cinema they choose to attend. Other requirements include minimum of one three-minute video, incorporating on-site interviews and photos. It is free to enter.
Each of the 10 short films come from different countries, representing U.K., Mexico, Croatia, France, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Poland, Germany and Italy. The majority of the films are quite dark, and even the more lighthearted pieces dashed around the edges with a biting, morose humor.
The shorts that stood out the most originated from France, Australia, Canada and Germany. French and German shorts are animated, with the French short having no subtitles at all.
Luckily, it does not negatively affect the short since it is extremely visual. Its imagery fluctuates every few moments, like some bizarre mutating rotoscope, sort of like “Waking Life” on crack.
Like a living travelogue, you run through this museum only pausing to notice each cell-shaded painting for brief seconds at a time.
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By contrast, the German short (about a third of the length of any of the others) was about two anthropomorphic dogs sitting in restaurant who danced far too closely to the uncanny Valley. It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s mostly unsettling, topped up with a freaky little cherry at the end.
The Australian short is strange in its own right, acting as one part midlife crisis memoir, one part female liberation anthem and one part teenage-boy sex fantasy. Who would have thought the weird sex one would come from Australia? The French missed out, really dropping the incest ball on this one, and the Germans are too busy with the high-octane nightmare fuel to do anything too kinky, so it’s up to the Australians to pick up the pieces.
The Canadian short will likely win the grand prize, and at the very least an Oscar nomination, showing genuine heart and humor, with its little mark of darkness placed with the lightest touch.
*Manhattan Short Film Festival
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
Southwest Film Center
General $5, staff $4, students $3*
