Tuesday, October 7, 1997
Short Stories
FILM: The first L.A. International Short Film Festival spreads
the word about the industry’s quicker flicks
By Lonnie Harris and Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
Film shorts don’t get much attention in Hollywood – mostly
because their big brothers, the feature films, are the ones
receiving all the commercial glory and success.
Some people are trying to change that, beginning with the first
L.A. International Short Film Festival. Held last weekend at the
Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood, the festival was dedicated
completely to film shorts, showcasing 65 selected shorts from
around the world.
Robert Arentz, festival director and founder, came up with the
idea after his organization, Filmmakers United, had been screening
film shorts in L.A. theaters once a month. He organized the
festival so that film-short directors could showcase their films to
a bigger audience.
Arentz spent two years gathering sponsors and organizing the
festival.
"The first year was tough because we were taking on a lot,"
Arentz says. "We were understaffed and overworked but this was
worth it. It should have been done a long time ago."
Sean Main, president of SHORTenz Hollywood and a sponsor of the
event, says he supports the showcase of shorts because it helps a
lot of aspiring filmmakers get their talents recognized.
SHORTenz is a new company that sells inexpensive raw stock to
mostly independent filmmakers. He understands the struggle most of
these newcomers experience trying to break into the film
industry.
"I can relate to the struggle alone of trying to get something
off the ground," Main said. "Ninety-five percent of our business is
for independent and student (films). We’re for the
budget-conscious."
The three-day event seemed more like a family picnic than the
formal atmosphere of traditional film festivals. The outdoor film
festival provided a relaxing and informal mingling of actors,
directors and screenwriters. In between attending film programs,
festivalgoers could enjoy eating barbecue or Thai food and
listening to a band playing just outside the theater. Most
attendees dressed in sandals and shorts, enjoying the warm weather.
The affair was so easygoing that some attendees even brought their
dogs.
The fun-filled, laid-back event began Friday night. Among the
highlights of opening night was a booth centered around event
sponsor Short Cinema Journal. The journal is a visual magazine,
produced with Digital Video Disc technology, that showcases 15 to
20 short films each month, and will soon be available in wide
circulation through Polygram films. Its purpose is to provide
short-film makers with a venue outside of elite Hollywood
circles.
"There are thousands of students each year who graduate film
school, and often all they need is exposure to be successful,"
Cinema Journal chief executive officer Ninan Kurien says.
Featured items in the journal’s first issue include the Academy
Award-winning "Big Story" and "Mr. Resistor," a piece of
stop-motion animation centering on a humanlike bundle of living
wires.
Friday’s main program centered around the screening of 1993’s
short film "Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade." The short,
originally produced to obtain funds for the Academy Award-winning
feature film "Sling Blade," was released last year to overwhelming
praise from the film community.
After the screening, an anxious audience was afforded the
opportunity to ask director George Hickenlooper a number of
questions. Hickenlooper spoke mainly about the need to recognize
short films as a valid form of artistic expression.
"Oftentimes, the aesthetic of filmmaking lends itself to
short-film making," Hickenlooper said during the Q&A session.
"You can get away with more interesting things in short films for
the simple reason that it is short."
The film festival also featured panels which gave aspiring
filmmakers the opportunity to hear working directors and
screenwriters reveal their own secrets of success. They offered
tips on how to make successful pitches and handle inevitable and
plentiful rejections.
The panels were refreshingly casual, held outside under a tent
with fold-out chairs where the panelists and audience members could
intermingle and exchange ideas.
Michael Kalesniko, a screenwriter and moderator of the panel
"Improving Your Pitch and Bettering Your Batting Average," was
enthusiastic about participating in the festival’s very first
panel.
"I feel like short films are treated like second-class
citizens," Kalesniko says. "It has always struck me odd that
Hollywood is looking to commercial films to find new directors.
This is where they should be looking. Directors of shorts are the
ones who know how to do good storytelling."
Moses Theimer, assistant coordinator of the festival, further
believes that film-short directors have a more difficult job than
feature-film directors because of their limited time frames.
"Shorts are special in that you have 10 minutes to hook the
audience to the story," Theimer says. "Features have all the time
to develop their characters. Shorts have to have a strong character
to begin with."
Screenwriter and panelist Brian Straussman agrees that a lot of
undiscovered talent is hidden in the film shorts.
"There are so many beautiful films here that are just unseen,"
Straussman said. "You just hear voices that are so hard to find in
ordinary filmmaking. They’re wonderful pieces of art with
individual artists expressing themselves."
Founder Arentz is optimistic about the continuing success of the
festival based on the first year’s turnout.
"I think that film shorts are an unappreciated format," Arentz
says. "But the response we had here was wonderful. It’s going to
open a lot of doors for filmmakers."