The end of another a year, BUT ALSO (and more importantly) December 31st saw the end of another season for Future Shorts Festival. Autumn Season 2012 has been the largest and most popular season yet, and with names like Tom Waits and John Baldessari, it is also the most star-studded.
Beginning in 2003, Future Shorts has grown into the world’s biggest global pop-up film festival. Yet despite its phenomenal growth, it’s still remarkably unknown. There are few complicated arrangements to the movement’s set-up. Future Cinema collects award winning shorts from festivals like Venice, Cannes and Sundance. The collection is then open to be hired by local screening groups, cinemas and societies all over the world – with a few conditions. Photos must be posted back to Future Shorts HQ and each viewer must vote on their favourite short. When the 40,000 votes are counted from over 90 countries the winner is presented with funding for their next project. It’s a simple system, and the system works well.
BLACK BALLOON follows the daily exploits of a balloon as he floats through New York…
Autumn 2012 featured five shorts from all across the globe. From Egypt, CAFÉ REGULAR is a intelligent and charming romance in an everyday café, put forward with understated grace by director Ritesh Batra. A BRIEF HISTORY OF JOHN BALDESSARI, as the title might suggest, is a stylish documentary chronicling the work of revolutionary American artist, John Baldessari. Narrated by Tom Waits and snappily directed by the duo that created CATFISH, the film is the shortest and one of the most innovative out of the collection.
Directed by Michael Pearce, THE RITE presents the often challenging story of a wayward and aggressive father trying to reconnect with his more sensitive son across vast cultural differences. In complete contrast, BLACK BALLOON follows the daily exploits of a balloon as he floats through New York. His semi-magical powers helps and often comforts those around him, as the black blob drifts in and out of towering skylines. Finally, German production ON THE LINE presents the consuming guilt of a mall security guard, as he maintains a relationship with a shop assistant, whose brother he witnessed being assaulted and killed. The film delves increasingly in murky waters of voyeurism and poor choices.
The new season begins in mid-January and with screenings all over the UK almost everyone has a chance to witness an art-form – short collections – that is almost never available outside festivals. The programme is yet to be announced, but with the gathering momentum of Future Shorts, Spring 2013 is certainly going to be worth seeing.