Shorts
Reviews, previews and highlights of features and shorts from the myDylarama team and guest writers.
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Interview with Emma Gilbertson, director of Crashing Waves
3 July 2020, by Abla KandalaftEmma won the Critics’ Award at the June Emerging Filmmakers Night live-streamed event. Crashing Waves manages to convey a complex relationship between its protagonists without any dialogue and in such a short amount of time. Emma doesn’t simply rely on the impressive skills of the dancers and the beautiful choreography, she uses a multitude of crafty, cinematic choices, shots and camera angles to weave together a moving, three-dimensional story built on themes of love, masculinity, (...) -
BOTTLED-UP! The 7 finalists of the next EFN event - 29 June 2020
22 June 2020, by Mydylarama teamEmerging Filmmakers Night is back with another live-streamed film event on 29 June via the official Facebook page’s a very erudite, film-based musing on the concept by EFN team member Ben Plumb. Very much worth a read! GET YOUR FREE TICKETS HERE! THE SHORTLIST 1. Turning Ten, dir. Jaylan Auf Laima, Magdi and Nour their (nearly) ten year-old daughter anxiously await a doctors appointment that is destined to change their lives forever. Auf manages to ratchet up the tension and (...) -
Short of the Week: Reclaiming Work - Countering the gig economy
15 June 2020, by Abla KandalaftCycle 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 (...) -
Emerging Filmmakers Night - Q&A with Paul Frankl
4 June 2020, by Erifili MissiouPaul is a London based writer and director. His short films have screened at festivals around the world, including Tribeca, Palm Springs, Rhode Island, the Iris Prize and Aesthetica and collectively have over 900,000 views online. EFN have screened his work twice: the multi-award winning ROXANNE was part of our LGBTQ+ event in July and GOLD STAR was part of our livestream event in April! His film The Life Tree is now available to watch on BFI Player, Curzon Home Cinema, iTunes, Google (...) -
Emerging Filmmakers Night - Q&A with Ben Mallaby
22 May 2020, by Erifili MissiouDespite our collective laptop confinement, the EFN team has managed to create a fun and interactive film experience in their 2nd LIVESTREAM event. The multi-award winning directors Francesco Gabrielle, Francesca Fowler and Ben Mallaby livestreamed their films and engaged in an informative and fun Q&A. In real time, the directors answered questions submitted to them by our cinephile audience. We especially enjoyed the two shorts films by BAFTA-nominated comedy director Ben Mallaby (...) -
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 LoiseauAn 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 (...) -
Q&A with Johanna Pyykkö - director of The Manila Lover
25 April 2020, by Abla KandalaftDuring 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 (...) -
Emerging Filmmakers Night introduces live-streamed film parties
22 April 2020, by Erifili Missiou, Mydylarama teamMydylarama is looking forward to teaming up with the EFN team. Keep your eyes open... With the world’s film festival and screening events on an indefinite hiatus, the Emerging Filmmakers Night programming team, filmmaker Erifili Missiou, comic Mike Sheer and filmmaker Ben Plumb, launched their own live-stream curated screening event on the 6th of April, the first of its kind, and attracted an audience of over 1,000 people. Undaunted by the challenge of Covid-19, they decided to (...) -
Short Of The Week: Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor
24 March 2020, by Abla KandalaftWhat 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 (...)