The Journal of Short Film. Volume 23

Preludio (2010)

The Journal of Short Film publica un nuevo número de su serie cuatrimestral de dvds dedicada a ofrecer un amplio panorama del cortometraje internacional más independiente y desconocido – ellos utilizan el término "underrepresented work"–. Esta iniciativa de la Ohio Sate University promueve la exhibición de trabajos de cineastas independientes mediante unas ediciones de entre 90 y 120 minutos, que recopilan piezas recientes de corta duración, junto a análisis escritos de las mismas. La publicación número 23, perteneciente al verano de 2011, incluye las siguientes piezas: 

1. Preludio – Albert Alcoz (2010; 3:00)
Preludio is a document about the surroundings of a building located in a public park. It is an homage of the modern architecture confronted with organic elements. It is a film dialogue between natural elements and artificial structures. The film was created in few minutes, with time lapses, in just one afternoon.

2. Against Cinema – Alberto Cabrera Bernal (2010; 9:00)
Through the use of found footage from an assortment of sources, namely fiction films and documentaries, Against Cinema shows those moments in which actors turn their backs to the camera, making the film a clear aggression to narrative cinema.

3. Fruit Flies – Christine Lucy Latimer (2008; 3:14)
This film seals under perforated 16mmsplicing tape all of the fruit flies that drowned in the vinegar trap on my kitchen counter last summer.

4. A New Psalm – Greg King (2010; 7:30)
A New Psalm is part of "Rotating Mirror"; a film cycle of several "chapters" that were created from a process of shooting Super 8 film every day for one year. It's a personal filmic journey exploring time, coincidence, interpretation, and the poetic-spiritual reckoning of place and circumstance.

5. Puhelinkoppi – Hope Tucker (2010; 3:37)
A mobile phone writes the obituary for the last public phone booths of Finland.

6. A Joy – Jodie Mack (2005; 3:00)
Stained-glass contact paper, colored acetate, and ink meticulously cut-out and glued onto 16mm film provide the skeleton of this cameraless animation. The vicious speed of the motion intertwines with the dense electronic music of Kieran Hebden, creating a colorful celebration of sound and image.

7. 465 Years in Montreal – Kevin Kelly (2009; 3:37)
This dynamic sculpture is constructed entirely from digitally manipulated images of the cross that is located on Mount Royal in Montreal.

8. Confessors – Michael Morris (2010; 19.24)
Confessors is a short, lyrical essay in which the artist attempts to retrace lost or inaccessible family histories. The artist's grandparents gave him a can of film marked 'x-rated' without explanation, as well as an old 8mm camera. This film is a consideration of the ephemeral nature of home movies and the lives they can't help but fail to preserve.

9. Washes – Norbert Shieh (2010; 8:30)
A familiar experience coalesces into semi-abstract compositions of painterly movement as soap suds, water, wax, etc. cascade from top to bottom of the frame with shifting colors, textures and light shot through the windshield of a vehicle passing through a car wash.

10. Pieces of Nature – Mario Pfeifer (2008; 13:00)
Pieces of Nature describes both performance and studio film productions, situated in a loose self-reflexive narrative poised between the traditions of structural film, dance, and theater., The carefully-choreographed film follows actors in what appears to be a casting process. Breathing, moving, and literally constructing the film before our eyes, crew members and the director himself are also revealed as actors, literally mirroring Jeff Wall's famed photograph "Picture for a Woman" [1979]. –Amy Patton

11. Parasol – Webster Crowell (2008; 8:21)
An animated story of speed, bikes, and dancing drawn across the surface of a few thousand paper parasols.