The DC Shorts Film Festival has a special holiday gift for cinephiles everywhere – ten years worth of short films from the festival are now online and free to view. Watch more than 330 films from the comfort of your laptop. It’s an incredibly diverse range of short films, from every genre, and from all over the world, with one thing in common: they’re all just a few minutes long.
I’ve seen a lot of them. Here are my favs:
- The Bullfighter and the Bull – Just four minutes long, this Spanish comedy is a great introduction to DC Shorts.
- Everything is Incredible – One of the best short documentaries I’ve ever seen, it’s like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel come to life.
- First Date – Not for the squeamish, this story of romance and gastric distress won the festival’s First-Time Director Award.
- Friend Request Pending – Judi Dench demonstrates that you’re never too old to get anxious about Facebook.
- Harry Grows Up – Imagine a Woody Allen film, but with toddlers.
- Man with a Bolex Movie Camera – I’m biased, because this is done by AU grads, but it’s a funny and sexy short.
- Mile High Pie – This food doc is a country-fried slice of charm.
- Schrodinger’s Box – No cats were harmed in making this sci-fi short. I think.
- The Leeward Tide – This is just a gorgeous film. After watching this at E Street during the festival, I had a chance to talk to filmmakers Brett Eichenberger andJill Remensnyder in front of the theater. It was one of those moments that can only occur at a film festival. This Portland couple went on to make the feature Light of Mine, another dreamily beautiful film.
- The Man in 813 – Think you need a big crew and expensive gear to make a movie? This creepy short was made over a weekend on a DSLR.
These are just a sample of the delights waiting for you in the DC Shorts film archive. Comedy, drama, documentary, experimental, thriller, animation – you’ll find them all online and for free. They’re short slices of some of the best cinema from around the world.
