Shorts 4: New Visions

Description

The experimental shorts in this program radically trace the outer edges of filmmaking form and style, asking for adventurous viewers. From the hilarious fantasy-sports based Numbers & Friends by relative newcomer Alexander Carson to the ineffably beautiful All Vows by master Bill Morrison, this program bears unexpected and delicious fruits. All 2013 films in this program are competing for a Golden Gate Award.

Total running time: 68 min

All Vows
“All Vows” is an English translation of “Kol Nidre,” the incantation that begins the Yom Kippur service and which pre-emptively ifies any future vows made unintentionally. The film uses ancient archival films to depict an unknowable future, reflected through a dissolving historic document. (Bill Morrison, USA 2013, 10 min)

The Claustrum
Based on actual psychoanalytic case studies, The Claustrum focuses on three women who are in enclosed psychological zones that function as both refuge and jail. (Jay Rosenblatt, USA 2014, 16 min) This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Close the Lid, Gently
Close the Lid, Gently is an animated video made entirely from two home desktop scanners—one a photo scanner, the other a refurbished low-end document scanner. Each has its own texture and sees the domestic environment in its own particular way, one scan at a time. (Ariana Gerstein, USA 2012, 6 min)

Entropic Apogee
A paraplegic senior attempts to relive his past through delusional fantasy and imagination when he encounters a mysterious stranger at the site of his most painful memory. (Bill Manolios, USA 2013, 10 min) This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Fat Chance
Hailing from the department of Truth Stranger Than Fiction, this essay on terrible serendipity provides the unlikely and haunting visual evidence to back its tale up. (Jeanne C. Finley, USA 2013, 13 min) This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Numbers & Friends
In his search of happiness in North America, a European man discovers the pleasures of fantasy baseball, and perhaps the key to reimagining and enjoying his life. (Alexander Carson, Canada/USA 2013, 8 min)

Spacetime
If Ryan Wicks’ investigation of spatiotemporal distillation in video games doesn’t confuse you, you’re doing it wrong. (Ryan Wicks, USA 2013, 3 min) This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Walking Grainy
Based on Henri Michaux’s poem of the same title, this film depicts grainy walking on the stairs of Montmartre in Paris. (François Vogel, France 2013, 3 min)

–Sean Uyehara