British Shorts 2011

British Shorts 2011: While the title might jokingly refer to what rugby players typically wear on their legs, the Britain portrayed in this packed and adventurous film festival was anything but middle class. With over 100 short films the diversity was astounding, the subjects were often challenging and the ideas endless.

Sure, there were lots of gritty scenes with bad food, bad weather, alcohol abuse, dysfunctional relationships and violence but there were also resonant love stories, talking cats, cosmonaut dogs, werewolves, multiple Elvis’ and plenty of cups of tea. Although one audience member told me “you get a good perspective” I somehow doubt the Scottish tourist board will be putting the grim Paris/Sexy or Boxer on their website. No, the films won’t make you want to go to the UK – unless that is, you want to become a film maker – and this is where the British directors, script writers and DOPs really shone.

The documentaries revealed extraordinary portraits: illuminating and sensitive. The animation shorts varied hugely from full Technicolor, to cut paper animations, clay and adhesive tape. They were comical, innovative and poignant, sometimes all three at the same time: the young Lottie Kingslake’s Forget me not was, as she told the audience, inspired by her very real fear of memory loss.

As you might expect, the British comedies were strong, dry and darkly ironic: the short film format being almost the perfect medium. One of those days had the budget, the script and the sublime execution to maintain the reputation. However, the best timed laugh was won by an exploding milk carton in Mark Boggis and Pete Goldsack’s all too literal Best Before. “It was a long day filming” Mark told me, “but the 8 o’clock prime time showing really made it for me”.

The experimental category was also well represented with performance artist Ruaidhri Ryan’s tongue in cheek Exercises in how to be cool. Our host (and filmmaker) Alex Ross warned that the psychedelic Loop might induce an epileptic fit (it didn’t) and Mission Impossible 2, lasted just 23 seconds…and didn’t have Tom Cruise in. Where do they get the ideas? Is it in the water? Is it in the tea?

The film used by Lichtspielklub, the festival organisers, for their promotion was Henry Darke’s resonating drama Big Mouth, a rejected Berlinale applicant; their loss was British Shorts’ gain. It deserved the attention and left the audience full of hope, not only for the characters but also Darke’s career.

Not all of the films were masterpieces, but given a non existent budget, no prizes and a low ticket price, Lichtspielclub’s labour of love received great interest from the independent film community. Most of the showings were in the quirky/cool Sputnik Kino with selected shorts repeated in the progressive Schaubuehne Theatre, in west-Berlin, and as a measure of its success, most of the showings, even the midnight Horror/trash, were sold out.  It wasn’t just film on offer either; there was a bar with great live performances including the easy/electro/trash duo Sound and Orchestra, and interviews with many of the up-coming film makers. Short films are often a launching pad for rising talents, well, judging by the hugely positive reaction to this year’s festival next year British Shorts will be hosted on the Moon.

Espin Bowder, guest review for TAXIDRIVERS