Miami Stars In Short Films At South By Southwest
Narrative Shorts 2 was a panel here in Austin for South By Southwest at the Alamo Draft House. These shorts are one of a three-part series, a collection of short movies that strives for an artistic aesthetic – however there are more misses than hits. Some films take themselves too seriously. In this case, it seems that these shorts are jockeying into position as to who can win that race. Unfortunately, this race has no winners.
Narrative Shorts 2 consisted of the following films: “The Black Balloon” by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie, “A Chjána (The Plain)” by Jonas Carpigano, “Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke” by Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, “My Friend Kills Time” by Jakob Rørvik, “Reinaldo Arenas” by Lucas Leyva, “REMAINS” by Jeremiah Zagar and Nathan Caswell, “Sea Meadow” by Lily Baldwin, and “Shoot the Freak” by Bradford Willingham.
The Good: Lucas Leyva is a very talented person. I am sure that we will be hearing that name more often with time. Both of his films were the cream of the crop using Miami, Florida as an important, yet unspoken, character. It is said to be based on a true story about a homeless man who caught a five-foot shark and was unsuccessful at selling it, so he just left it in the middle of the street. “Reinaldo Arenas” is beautifully shot as the movie through the eyes of a dying shark.
“The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke” is an artistic comedy – picture the starting credits to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” on LSD. It stars Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew as the titular Uncle Luke. The movie is a loose translation of “La Jetee.” In this case, it is almost a retelling of the influence 2 Live Crew had during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However I do not remember time travel when they released “Banned in the U.S.A.”
“A Chjána (The Plain)” by Jonas Carpigano is a gritty picture about African immigrants struggling in Italy. It definitely keeps you at the edge of your seat. Jonas Carpigano’s pacing is great and he has a knack for storytelling.
The Bad: Outside of the three films, everything was an existential mess. “My Friend Kills Time,” “REMAINS,” and “Sea Meadow” are too similar in the sense they feature a main character looking into the camera far too long while dancing to express faith, death and fatalism. These movies carry on too long. The “REMAINS” was probably the worst of the lot using answering machine messages dressed over life’s precious images. It is basically a bad shortcut to Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” I was waiting for some dinosaurs to show up and wrestle against the fetus.
I do not know if you have figured it out but I did not like Narrative Shorts 2. These films just gave me an odd feeling where I can only be smart if I “got” these films. They were simply too “artistic” for the sake of art. Narrative Shorts 1 surely proves that between these triplets, they are more fraternal than identical.
[]