AFI Fest Best Films- Page 6 of 7

Best Shorts AFI Fest 2021 – Four of the Most Memorable Short Films

Just like the 2020 edition of AFI Fest, AFI Fest 2021 had some great shorts available to view on the online platform throughout the duration of the festival. This year’s mix ranged from multi-media animation featured in Love, Dad and H.A.G.S. to documentaries about death (The Death Cleaner), and travelled from Singapore (Strawberry Cheesecake) to Sudan (Al-Sit). Here are four of the Best Shorts from AFI Fest 2021. Look out for them on streaming platforms and other film festivals in the near future.

Best Shorts AFI Fest 2021

Love, Dad (Czech Republic)

In Love, Dad, the director Diana Cam Van Nguyen finds some letters of love her estranged dad wrote years ago. She uses a mix of styles to help process her emotions. The quickly narrated diary style gives the film a constantly moving stream-of-consciousness to keep her emotions flowing whilst the mixed-in animation allows her to speak about her relationship with some emotional distance. Much like last year’s winner Tiger and Ox in which a daughter identifies with her strict mother through animation, Van Nguyen manages to forgive her absent dad with the help of the comfort of animation.

Zonder Meer (Belgium)

Zonder Meer perfectly captures youthful summer holiday vibes at a Belgian camp-site. The camerawork brings us down to 5 year old Lucie’s innocent kid curiosity and the grainy colors give off a nostalgic warmth. However, the patient editing and 360 audio gradually expose us to the tragedy unfolding on the edge of Lucie’s consciousness: a boy has disappeared and may have drowned. Whilst Lucie quietly continues her explorations with other kids her age, the adults, unprotected from reality worry for the missing kid and their family.

Her Dance (Israel)

Bar Cohen’s Her Dance follows Aya, a Trans Woman, as she surprises her sister and Orthodox Jewish family at their house on Shabbat night. Because of her appearance, she’s met with scorn by her mother and sidelined by her family. However, the more she’s pushed away, the more determined she feels to stay. This lends an uneasy tension to the short which culminates in a memorable dancing scene (pictured above) and duel with her mother amongst a cheering circle of guests.

BabyBangz (U.S.)

Anastasia Ebel’s BabyBangz captures a hairdressing salon in New Orleans specializing in natural hair. While this might sound pretty mundane, this is no ordinary hairdressing salon. These hairdressers offer a complete experience, offering you world advice of a therapist and educational lessons with book recommendations in addition to a unique haircut. The tone of the movie matches the inspiring content. It features ethereal piano scales layered into the soundtrack (much like in Garrett Bradley’s Time) and an artistic mix of close ups and people living in and around the salon mimicking the style of Khalil Joseph. Both the salon and the film will inspire you to start something.

Head to our AFI Fest 2021 Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2021.

Holy Emy – AFI Fest 2021

Emy and her older sister Teresa live alone in Pireaus, the port City within greater Athens, after their mother is forced to return to the Philippines. They survive by avoiding the locals, attending church, and working at the local fish market. However, as their jobs fall through and Teresa grows more heavily pregnant, Emy seeks out Mrs. Christina to put her magical abilities to work. However, in coming out of hiding, Emy risks exposing her talents to the wrong people.

In Holy Emy, Emy and Teresa barely look old enough to care for themselves. They both look like teenagers but neither are in school – Teresa works at the local fish market, whilst Emy avoids most human contact now that her Mum has returned to the Philippines. It’s not clear why Emy didn’t return with her Mum. Perhaps her Mum thought she had enough support in Piraeus to stay whilst she returned home. She has her older sister, a neighbor that looks out for her (often condescendingly), and the support of the Filipino community at the local church.

The Filipino community is ‘othered’ in Holy Emy. All the Filipino characters are either overly devoted to Catholicism or have ancient powers which mimic Catholic Saints (hence the title). They’re also fetishized by the white characters in the movie. Teresa’s boyfriend keeps pointing out her Asian features when they’re making out, making it seem like he’s only into her because she looks exotic, whilst Mrs. Christina uses Emy, her mother, and other Filipinos for their magical abilities to heal people. There isn’t a reason why just the Filipinos have these old-world powers, which makes them appear even more exotic to the white characters. These defining characteristics fetishize the Filipinos in Holy Emy build up their ‘otherness’ vs. the white Greeks and Greek society.

Emy’s character in particular feels problematic. Her character, even more so than the rest of the Filipino community in this film, is made to seem unusual. She hardly speaks throughout the movie and is often pictured giving people creepy horror-film stares. Without a voice, she’s defined by her magical abilities: her ability to cry blood, heal, and control people through her touch and thoughts. Her silence and unusual abilities turn her into an old-world exotic fetish. Her character is just used as a tool to shock the audience and demonstrate her otherness. She, like the Filipino community in Holy Emy, are made to appear from another world – their magical powers and religious fervor don’t fit within modern Greek society. They’re fetishized for the sake of the quirkiness of this art-house body-horror.

Head to our AFI Fest 2021 Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2021.

Le Pupille – AFI Fest 2022

Le Pupille brings you into a Catholic Orphanage during Christmas in the height of the Second World War. Despite the frugal times and strict Mother Superior, the girls find joy in a few magical scenes reminiscent of the wonder of early cinema.

In the Catholic Orphanage, objects are a scarcity. Unlike the often stuffy materialism of today’s modern world, the girls in Le Pupille live in large rooms with very few things around them. This partly emphasizes the frugality of the war period, and in turn, distinguishing any warm nostalgia for Italian fascism, but it also sets a blank slate for the rare objects included in the movie to star. The radio and the giant red cake are enhanced by the absence around them, making them seem much more luxurious than they should be.

The frugality in front of the camera is also seen in the film’s production. The director, Alice Rohrwacher, shot Le Pupille completely on film, and therefore all of the special effects are completely VFX free. This gives the film a playful magic that feels like the wonder of the Melies’ silent films. In one scene a baby appears out of thin air (from one shot to the next), whilst a freeze-framed shouting Mother Superior conveys shock from what feels like the kids perspective in another. Unlike the seriousness of modern VFX, that often strives for digital realism, the old school special effects used here add wonder and magic to film. It encourages wonder rather than inhibiting it.

It’s this simplicity both in front of the camera (with the limited objects and distractions) and behind the camera (in the production process) that makes this short Christmas film feel so playful and joyful.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

Rewind and Play – AFI Fest 2022

Rewind and Play is an incredibly uncomfortable example of how the Black experience has been written out of history. Alain Gomis digs up the outtakes from an interview Thelonious Monk did with French state television in 1969. It reveals that behind what perhaps appeared to be a simple profile of a Jazz musician, is a heavily edited, whitewashed version of one of the genres largest names. His talent and experience is deliberately reduced to a few stereotypical nuggets to fit a white European audience.

Initially, you might think that Thelonious Monk is just shy, from the short answers he gives to the interviewers questions. For example, he barely responds to the interviewer when asked about his first experience in Paris. However, as the film progresses, it becomes clear why Monk isn’t responding. He’s actually already answered the question multiple times – telling the interviewer that he faced discrimination despite being the top billing at the Paris Jazz Festival in 1954, but the French interviewer doesn’t want to hear it. He dismisses his experience of racism as ‘not nice,’ ‘derogatory’ words and keeps asking the same question to get Monk to lie.

He gives short answers as he’s not allowed to say anything else. His life and music are defined by his race, but he’s prohibited from mentioning it. In order to enforce the ‘color-blindness’ of France, the interviewer and state TV have written Monk’s life instead of allowing him to tell it. As they edit out everything he says, the interviewer ends up telling the French TV audience Monk’s life instead. Monk’s experiences have been turned into cookie cutter pieces of his life to be digested by a middle-class white audience.

The short answers, just like the shots of Monk leaving the stage after his piano pieces, also convey his justified frustration. Unfittingly for the celebrity he is, Monk is captured like an animal at the zoo, turning him into a token of fluke Black genius rather than celebrating his genius completely. He’s lit up with a ton of lights, causing him to sweat profusely, and then the camera zooms in for extreme close ups as if analyzing his anatomy to try and find something to prove his inferiority. He’s the celebrity, but he’s never offered a drink or anything to make him more comfortable. Instead, it’s the white interviewer in the position of power, leering at him whilst leaning over the piano and mandating how to respond to his questions and what to play. French TV want to take his music and separate it from his life. There’s no respect for him as a person.

Alain Gomis manages to brilliantly bring out the awful experience Monk faced in Europe through the outtakes of this French interview. He reveals that there is often much more value in the outtakes than the actual chosen footage. By highlighting this injustice, Gomis forces viewers to question all portrayals of Black celebrities and experiences by the media.

Head to our AFI Fest 2022 Hub for more reviews from AFI Fest 2022.

A Recap of AFI Fest 2020 – Film Festival Guide

Los Angeles has a lot of film festivals. Most have a focus: PAFF focuses on Pan African films, Outfest focuses on LGBTQ+ films, and LA Shorts Fest focuses on short films. AFI Fest stands out as the city’s biggest general film festival. Like a TIFF, Berlinale, or London Film Festival, AFI Fest screens exemplary movies from around the world in addition to showcase galas and premieres. AFI Fest 2020 was no exception.

However, 2020 has not been a normal year and because of it, AFI Fest’s 2020 edition was not a normal festival. Instead of taking place in Hollywood, AFI Fest 2020, like many other 2020 film festivals, took place virtually online with the TV and computer screens replacing the big screen. So whilst we can’t give you an overview of the audiences and location like we’ve previously done for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Pan African Film Festival, we can give you an overview of the experience and the films from AFI Fest 2020.

The Experience

One immediate plus of the virtual film festival format was that there was no waiting. Instead of queuing up before each screening and running between theaters to cram in as much as possible, all you had to do was click a few buttons from your couch. You could have watched 5 films a day and still have had enough time to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner, before an early night. The only gripe I had was that the staggered release of the movies over the course of the festival, which meant you still had to create a film schedule to make sure you didn’t miss anything. AFI Fest 2020 could have fully embraced the virtual format by making everything available throughout the festival to fully cater to the audience. That being said, although it was shame these films couldn’t be seen on the big screen, the overall transition to virtual worked perfectly.

The Films

AFI Fest 2020 championed its diversity from the first press release. Of the 124 films included in the festval, 53% were directed by women, 39% by BIPOC, and 17% by LGBTQ+. There was a decent representation of most of the world too. The Americas and Europe were strongly represented, and there was also a good representation from Asia. However, like SBIFF 2020, AFI Fest 2020 contained little from Africa and Australasia, with just 2 feature films and 1 short from Sub-Saharan Africa, and none from Australasia outside of Australia and New Zealand. It’s not that these parts of the world aren’t making films, as the Pan African Film Festival demonstrated. It’s that they’re often overlooked.

The quality of the films at AFI Fest 2020 was high. There weren’t too many premieres, but there were a lot of great films picked from the year’s biggest festivals. I can happily say that all of the 17 films I saw were worth a watch. Here’s how they stacked up.

AFI Fest 2020’s Best: 1

After seeing Mohammad Rasoulof’s A Man of Integrity for the first time earlier this year and seeing him win the Golden Bear, I had high expectations for There is No Evil. Safe to say my expectations weren’t disappointed.

The Runner Up: 2

In a very close second is the immaculate Nasir. It’s a humble day in the life story that is beautifully written, shot, and acted.

The Multiple Perspectives: 3-8

All of these films are very good. 5 out of the 6 follow multiple protagonists to give the movies a more rounded perspective. The only one that doesn’t is The Intruder and it’s much more intriguing and uncertain as a result. I Carry You With Me, Farewell Amor, and Eyimofe are all relationship dramas that center on visa and immigration issues. My Little Sister and Downstream to Kinshasa both focus on grief and trauma – the former a family drama, the latter a protest documentary.

The Originals: 9-10

Both these films are framed around unique concepts which provide a lot of room for analysis. Tragic Jungle uses a Mayan myth whilst Apples uses an epidemic of memory loss.

The Foreigner’s Transformation: 11-12

Should the Wind Drop and Luxor are two warm films that I really liked. Whilst the foreigner’s transformation isn’t my favorite topic, they both worked very well. They both create location well too with one representing Nagorno-Karabakh and the other the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor.

The Artistic: 13-14

Notturno and Piedra Sola are amazingly shot. Between them they probably contain the best images of all the films I saw. The only problem was that these incredible images didn’t necessarily translate into a complete story.

The Rest: 15-17

Rival and She Paradise were both good movies. Rival was just a bit too bleak for me, and She Paradise didn’t hit the expectations I had from the short. New Order also opened well before descending into nihilistic chaos. I’m sure it will have it’s fans just like Todd Phillip’s Joker.

Conclusion

As Los Angeles’ premiere film festival, AFI Fest is unmissable if you’re a film fan living in the city. Whilst other festivals in the city choose a focus, AFI fest screens everything. This means you’ll get to see the best films from around the world, hand selected from the festival circuit. Every film offers something that makes it worth taking the time to watch.