Shorts

• Short of the Week: Stones in Hand by Mo’min Swaitat
  7 June, by Alexandra Olley
  This week, we thought we’d highlight this wonderfully engaging zero-budget short by Palestinian director Mo’min Swaitat free to watch on Youtube. Stones In Hand is an experimental docu-fiction based on the director’s experiences and memories of growing up in Jenin City in the West Bank. It’s an interesting and rough collage of archive footage, uprisings, scenes in London, music, and lengthier recollections based on the cast’s own memories of the homes they left behind, all combined to (...)
• I Am An Island, dir. by Damian Draven
  7 May, by Abla Kandalaft
  Johnny drives home late one evening to spend time with his wife. He runs her a bath and goes to the kitchen to pour them both a glass of wine. We hear the disembodied voice of the wife shouting from the bathroom about a call from a producer whilst Johnny’s mobile is being constantly called by a woman driving and begging to speak to him. Thus begins the film’s opening sequence before things start to get confusing... Damian Draven is a production designer and director, beginning his career on (...)
• Interview with Denis Dobrovoda, director of Savage
  19 April, by Abena Clarke, Mydylarama team
  Denis is the director of short film Savage, a dramatised account of the abhorrent but sadly little-known concept of human zoos, a practice that was part and parcel of Britain’s colonial empire. With great attention to detail and historical accuracy, Savage is an original, moving take on a phenomenon that plays an integral part in the development of modern institutionalised racism. Lead Florence Nzenwefi gives a touching and dignified performance as man cruelly uprooted from his home and (...)
• Short of the Week: Reclaiming Work - Countering the gig economy
  15 June 2020, by Abla Kandalaft
  Cycle courier cooperatives are turning technology on the gig economy giants. "As a customer, I love the ease of Deliveroo, but I worry about the worker rights, I wish there was a worker-owned alternative," says a commentator on YouTube. Reclaiming Work addresses just that and should be shared far and wide. Made by Cassie Quarless and Usayd Younis of Black and Brown Film, it tells the story of cycle courier cooperatives who offer a fairer alternative to the likes of Deliveroo and Uber and (...)
• Q&A with Tatevik Vardanyan, director of District 16, 16 Floors, 16 People
  21 May 2020, by Abla Kandalaft
  “16 District, 16 Floors, 16 People”, is a short film featuring a district in Yerevan, Armenia, where the legacy of the Soviet Union still occupies the minds and daily lives of the residents living in these huge unfinished monolithic structures built to write the letters CCCP. The film highlights the communities everyday issues and concerns, linking the past and present with all its changes and difficulties of the people once living in a superpower that’s become a decaying empire. WATCH (...)
• Q&A with Rob Summons - director of Skewwhiff
  25 April 2020, by Abla Kandalaft, Elise Loiseau
  An elderly man insists on granting his wife’s wish of taking their car through a drive-thru car wash. Could you explain the title? The title Skewwhiff meant a couple of things to me. On one level, Bill’s shirt collar becomes “skewwhiff” or askew at one point and Rae adjusts it for him. This felt like a worthy moment to use as a title as we get the sense Rae has spent her life caring for Bill, which is bittersweet as the roles are beginning to reverse. More broadly, the couple’s world of (...)
• Q&A with Johanna Pyykkö - director of The Manila Lover
  25 April 2020, by Abla Kandalaft
  During a trip to the Philippines, middle-aged, Norwegian Lars has met Abigail - the Filipina he wants to share his life with, but does she share his plans? I’m so pleased to finally be able to share this interview that we carried out at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2020. The Manila Lover, which premiered at Semaine de la Critique, was one of my favourite shorts, a nuanced and sweet film with some excellent character development. The character of Abigail is sadly still (...)
• Short Of The Week: Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor
  24 March 2020, by Abla Kandalaft
  What better time to unearth this early short by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve? In the midst of the supermarket hording that is quickly characterising these end times, Netflix is showing Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform, whose obscene and opulent gorging sequences are starkly reminiscent of Villeneuve’s Next Floor, which sees privileged diners nauseatingly stuffing their faces with exquisitely prepared meats. Much like The Platform, it is a dark and satirical, purposely over the (...)
• Q&A with Gabrielle Stemmer, dir. Clean With Me (After Dark)
  7 February 2020, by Abla Kandalaft
  Through a very clever and revealing video montage, Gabrielle Stemmer not only sheds light on somewhat depressing phenomenon of cleaning videos on YouTube but silently and subtly unearths the loneliness and neuroses that often underpin it, in a society in which women are homemakers and the home is their gilded cage. How did you discover the “world” of YouTube? I’ve been a heavy YouTube user for seven or eight years now – it’s TV for me. I’d say that from the beginning I’ve been watching stuff (...)
• Short of the Week: Ahmed’s Song, dir. Foued Mansour
  24 January 2020, by Elise Loiseau
  One day Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, in a place on the point of disappearing, a strange relationship will develop between these two fractured souls. A lovely, heart-warming short subtly exploring a growing relationship between the central characters and finding the beauty in the mundane. Available thanks to Univers Cine until 28 January! Here’s our interview with director Fouad Mansour from (...)

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