JDIFF: IFB Shorts
IFI, Templebar, Saturday 19th February 6:30pm
Like a tasty box of Leonidas chocolates, I had the pleasure of consuming the IFB Shorts, which screened at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in the IFI, Saturday 19th February. A variety of styles and flavors, the first from the selection was a lovely atmospheric animation, The Monk and The Fly. Directed by Matthew Darragh, this 3 minute Short Short saw a monk’s meditation interrupted by a host of mischievous tormentors.
A change of pace ensued with Brian O’Malley’s Crossing Salween. Brian had spoken to JDIFF’s Screenwriting Panel earlier about the film, which told the tale of a young girl from Eastern Burma named, Ko Reh, who finds herself orphaned after the massacre of her village by the army. An epic film, I was really blown away by Crossing Salween’s scale, beauty and style.
The touching and brilliantly-named documentary, Needle Exchange, featured two recovering drug addicts and best friends who have taken up tattooing. Honest, heart-breaking and very, very funny; this wonderful Reality Bites piece was masterfully put together by director Colm Quinn.
A change in genre saw the physiological thriller, The Night Nurse. Directed by Terence White, this four-minute Short Short followed a nurse who’s working late one night on a psychiatric ward.
Lifting the eerie mood, documentary Collaboration Horizontale took the cinema to Chartres during the World War two era. Through interviewing the modern-day townspeople, director Ciaran Cassidy explored the sad fate of a baby who featured in an iconic in Robert Capa photo; the daughter of a German soldier.
Tom Merilion’s high energy short Flatbed followed, as an interesting depiction of the end of a relationship, while Brian Williams’ Dummy, the ultimate rycycling film, followed the varied uses found for an old mannequin.
The carmel-nut favorite of the yummy IFB chocs was definitely Pentecost – the brilliant short by Peter McDonald and winner of Best Irish Short at the Corona Cork Film Festival in 2010. This sweet, clever and hugely humorous Signatures, told the story of a defiant youngster who’s forced to serve as an alter boy at a very important mass. The IFI echoed with the audience’s loud laughter at the pre-mass locker-room pep talk.
Ken Wardrop’s ambiguous drama, Return To Roscoff, told the sad story of a lonely woman’s attempt to contact her son’s father and Shoe was a black comedy about a vagabond who rudely interrupted a suicide. Hilary Fennell’s Hearing Silence documented professional musician Elizabeth Petcu’s decent into deafness, while dark animation Headspace by Patrick Semple left a host of nightmarish images in the wake of its depiction of a young boy’s troubles.
The final tasty treat of the evening was Matt Leigh’s documentary about the elderly clientele at a Dublin Hair salon, Blue Rinse. These amazing older women shared their beauty tips, experiences and humour in this thoughtful short.
Gemma Creagh
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[...] ‘Like a tasty box of Leonidas chocolates, I had the pleasure of consuming the varying flavors of the IFB Shorts.’ Gemma Creagh on The IFB Shorts selection [...]