Last night I watched a touring performance of the St Kilda Film Festival.
The touring show screens “the best of the fest”, a selection of 12 short films from 100 offered at the main festival, which itself is a showcase of the best entries from more than 500 submissions.
Festival director Paul Harris says short films continue to offer a unique viewing experience for audiences who enjoy innovative and exciting new work, but occasionally feel jaded by the “cookie cutter” blandness of much mass market and arthouse fare where diversity and innovation are in such short supply.
Harris says the festival gives exposure to emerging new talent.
“Many have gone on to achieve careers in the mainstream, but most look back with a nostalgic realisation that the short film medium offers a creative freedom that can evaporate in proportion to the inevitable pressures that go hand in hand with higher budgets and attendant artistic compromises.”
The Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre was about half full for the Mount Gambier screening, which apparently was a much bigger attendance than last year.
I’m not a film goer, but I was interested to see the promised creativity and hopefully be entertained.
The films ranged in length from 90 seconds to 20 minutes.
A couple were very confronting (Cicada and The Ground Beneath), one didn’t make any sense at all (Schadenfreude) and one was racist, ironically against whites (Dogs Run Loose Around Here).
Being Carl Williams (pictured) was amusing, also Pink Noise and First Love.
Personal taste is very subjective with films like these and some people will have totally different views.
The fact I only thought there were a couple of duds out of 12 films in a two-hour performance suggests the touring show is good value and worth seeing.
It’s good to know there is so much emerging talent in the Australian film industry.
