Shorts of the Unexpected 1

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The Carriageworks: Film Forum
14 November • 6pm

The best short films are often the hardest to categorise, even the 'experimental' short prompts expectations for a particular style of cinema, exploring well established approaches to technique and realization. Shorts of the Unexpected is the festival's new home for the truly innovative, including a dynamic expression of movement using only still photographs, snapshots of strange subcultures, tall tales of alien abduction and modern fables using industrial and educational found footage. Together they represent a survey of the diverse potential of the short film as a distinct art form.

Dies Irae
Dir. Jean-Gabriel Periot, France 2005, 10 mins, Beta SP
Contact: Envie de Tempete
enviedetempete@wanadoo.fr
Deservedly a huge hit on the international festival circuit, Dies Irae exclusively utilises still photographs to replicate a dynamic sense of movement, using images of roads, buildings, streets and rivers.

John Lautner, The Desert Hot Springs Motel
Dir. Sasha Pirker, USA, 2007, 10 mins, Beta SP, UK Premiere
Contact: Sixpack Film
office@sixpackfilm.com
'Ten days after I stopped writing pornography, I met William Burroughs' begins Steve Lowe in an intriguing tale that leads to the unique Desert Hot Springs Motel designed by architect John Lautner, once a retreat for Hollywood stars.

Whirr
Dir. Timo Katz, Germany, 2006, 2 mins, Digi Beta
Thousands of different houses flicker on the screen, giving the wonderful illusion that we are seeing the same house, an organic creation that grows and changes with every frame, and gives the feeling that all things, although different, are one and the same. "With mechanical precision this 'landscape animation' captures the tension between differences and repetitions of form sampled in a suburban housing estate" – Timo Katz.

Invoice
Dir. Adriane Little, 2007, USA, 2 mins, DVD
A great concept and a fantastic testament to what can be achieved with a strong idea and one, single camera shot. Simplicity in itself, and an honest and refreshingly original short! "The thrown pennies represent ritualised violence, a body count, helplessness, absurdity and consequence" – Adriane Little.

Dance Lesson (La Leçon De Dance)
Dir. Philippe Prouff, France, 2006, 5 mins, Beta SP, UK Premiere, Subtitled
Contact: Philippe Prouff
philippe.prouff@free.fr
This film is dedicated to all those who want to impress with a simple and revolutionary apprenticeship of various dance movements. You'll never have any excuse not to shake your body to the sound of digital rhythms.

We Can't Keep Still
Dirs. Luigi Archetti, Bo Wiget, Germany/Switzerland, 2007, 4 mins, DVD, World Premiere
Contact: Bo Wiget
cello@bowiget.com
Part of a series of playfully inventive shorts, the filmmakers perform different minimalist actions to accompany their own experimental music. In We Can't Keep Still, we see, but don't hear them sing their hearts out.

For(r)est in the Des(s)ert
Dir. Luiso Berdejo, Spain, 2006, 12 mins, Beta SP
Contact: Txema Muñoz, Kimuak
kimuak@filmotecavasca.com
A young boy searches for his alien-abducted brother Forrest. Cereal boxes and frog intestines hold the clues to Forrest's disappearance in this clever trip into the fantasy world of two siblings.

Sadhus
Dir. Eric Michel, France, 2006, 7 mins, Beta SP, UK Premiere
Contact: Ron Dyers, Sacrebleu Productions
contact@sacrebleuprod.com
As the sun sets on a Mumbai beach, the sound of drums draws us to a strange ceremony. Women and men offer their bodies to bizarre and painful rituals. The camera follows them into some kind of trance.

Jean Paul
Dir. Francesco Boldi, Italy, 2006, 8 mins, Beta SP, UK Premiere, Subtitled
Contact: Francesco Uboldi
info@francescouboldi.com
Baloum is a very remote and pristine village up in the mountains of Western Cameroon. Jean Paul was born and raised there. A victim of superstition, he is accused of witchcraft and chained to a tree.

Capitalism: Slavery
Dir. Ken Jacobs, 2006, USA, 3 mins, Digi Beta
Veteran avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs' pulsing short is truly breath-taking and engaging, and bears the unmistakable stamp of his unique artistry. Watch as he creates a mesmerising and flickering reality from stereoscopic images of cotton-picking slaves.

Always Decent
Dir. Katja Pallijeff, Finland, 2007, 20 mins, Digi-beta, World Premiere, Subtitled
Contact: Saara Toivanen, University of Art and Design, Helsinki
foffice@uiah.fi
1970s Finland: Elvis dies, Katja's parents divorce and a new concept is introduced in maths at school: set theory. An experimental, autobiographical documentary using fascinating archive materials and warm humour to explore a child's fear of difference, shame and longing.

Flight Of The Dresses
Dir. Charles Rice Goff III, USA, 2006, 2 mins, DVD, European Premiere
Contact: Charles Rice Goff III
padukem@sbcglobal.com
Sprightly dancers from the turn of the 20th Century are reincarnated through thoughtfully applied lo-tech digital effects. Dresses and tresses spin through a dadaesque wonderland of vague silhouettes and primary colors. Original music by C. Goff III

MOTODROM
Dir. Jörg Wagner, 2006, Germany, 9 mins, 35mm
An absolutely stunning and adrenaline-fuelled black and white film which is so naturally stylish it hurts. Witness the world of the hellriders: guys on motorbikes who seem to defy gravity by racing around circular walls of a wooden arena as we peer down from above, in awe. With amazing camerawork and a glorious pulsating sound, this is very, very special.

Tokyo Rock 'n' Roll
Dir. John Canciani, 2007, Switzerland, 4 mins, Mini DV
Japan will never cease to surprise! A group of trendy Japanese wannabe rockabillies show off their slick rock 'n' roll moves in a park on a nice, normal day in Tokyo...Brilliant! It'll put a big smile on your face.

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