Film Festival Coverage Hub - Reviews & Recaps

101

HollyShorts 2023 – A Brief Recap of the Festival

HollyShorts 2023, the 19th edition of the HollyShorts Film Festival, was the first one I’ve ‘attended’ thanks to its continued dual format – screening both in-person in Hollywood and virtually. The festival offers a huge range of short films from all corners of the globe of all lengths (from a couple minutes to just under the 40 minute Oscar qualifying mark).

The Experience

HollyShorts offers films for every short film fan. However, navigating the huge range of short films on offer is difficult. Unlike other online film festivals, Hollyshorts’ catalogue was separate from the online viewing platform. So, while you could use the catalogue to find films you wanted to watch, there was no way to correlate this with the search function on the Bitpix virtual platform. This was partly because all the shorts were packaged into groups of 5-8 films on the Bitpix platform with no tags as to which films the package contained. So instead of being able to search for and locate a film on the Bitpix site, it forced you to click into each film package to see what films it contained. With over 400 films in the HollyShorts 2023 edition, it took a lot of time to find what you wanted to see. The best solve for this would be to experience HollyShorts ‘blind’ by going into the festival without having anything noted as a must watch.

The Films

Going into the HollyShorts festival without knowing what you’re watching isn’t a bad thing as the quality of the films is strong. Unlike festivals that focus on feature-length films and have a few short films thrown in, HollyShorts focuses on short films, which helps drive the quality of their short film slate. It’s not surprising that this festival is a short-film qualifier for the Academy Award Short prizes (no matter how much credibility you give to the ultimate nominations). Here’s our top 10 from the festival:

Please Hold the Line (Malaysia)
Random Check (Kuwait)
You’re Happy, It’s OK (Malaysia)
Europe by Bidon (France)
Broken (Denmark/Iran)
Ciela (Mexico)
Yellow (Afghanistan)
Every Day After (Philippines)
Iwayo Mi (Nigeria)
The Sons of God (Mexico)

It was great to see two very good shorts from Malaysia, a country that doesn’t always get the film-making recognition it should. Please Hold the Line mixes gangster themes with abortion whilst You’re Happy it’s OK depicts a really heart-warming inter-generational relationship. Random Check, Europe by Bidon, and Broken all depict different immigrant experiences, with the latter two employing some unique animated styles worth checking out. The rest of the top 10 feature a magic octopus (Ciela), delusional colonists (The Sons of God), and waiting for war (Yellow). I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these on the Oscar shortlists for the 2024 nominations.

Conclusion

HollyShorts is a film festival worth your time for two reasons. Firstly, the quality; even our least favorite films were well produced, setting the festival aside from its feature-film focused competitors. Secondly, you don’t have to be in Los Angeles to enjoy it; HollyShorts is available wherever in the World you are. Look out for it’s 20th edition in August 2024.

102

Tales of the Accidental City (Kenya) – Pan African Film Festival 2022

Four people from different sides of Nairobi join a court-ordered anger management class with Counsellor Rose in Tales of the Accidental City. They each bring their own stories and banter to the Zoom call to create a quick one-location comedic overview of Nairobi society.

As called out in the opening titles, Tales of the Accidental City was originally created for the stage. It was adapted for film following the start of COVID-19 as the pandemic forced theaters to shut. It still resembles a play, as the focus is on the conversation and takes place completely in the single ‘location’ of a Zoom call. However, one benefit of converting Tales of the Accidental City for film is that all viewers are close enough to see the actors facial expressions. These are crucial for communicating the humor of the film which relies on the quick banter between characters. Without the close-ups we wouldn’t be able to see clearly how each of the character’s react to each other.

The humor seems to be built around local stereotypes with each of the 5 characters (including Counsellor Rose) representing a different part of Nairobi society. Louis represents the political elite, and fulfills the snobby, self-important stereotype. Counsellor Rose represents the Kenyan version of the cultural appropriating white hippie with Buddha poster on her wall and doing yoga to meditative music and candles. Jacinda’s character seems to be mocking the devout Christians of the middle class whilst Diana and Sarah represent the mothers and youth of the working class. Each character is exaggerated through their manner and their zoom backgrounds to create the associations with the stereotypes. Their equally flowing banter then makes fun of each of them, and the segments of Nairobi society they belong to.

If you’re looking for a simple Kenyan comedy, Tales of the Accidental City is worth a watch. Whilst the film is confined to the Zoom meeting room, it playfully makes fun of a few stereotypes of the city, giving the audience a few laughs and a small understanding of Nairobi society.

Check back to our Pan African Film Festival 2022 page for more reviews coming out of the 30th edition of the festival.

103

The Endless Cycle (China) – Pan African Film Festival 2021

Last year at the start of the pandemic, discrimination against African immigrants in the Chinese city of Guangzhou hit the international news circuit. A McDonalds branch refused to serve Black people in the city, there were reports of Black students being evicted from their accommodations, and there were reports of a Nigerian man attacking a Chinese nurse. It’s within this context that The Endless Cycle is set, featuring a Ghanaian immigrant in Guangzhou. The opening scene addresses the tension straight away with the protagonist watching the Chinese news report on the Nigerian man that attacked a Chinese nurse.

The Endless Cycle feels like a documentary in the way that we follow the main character’s everyday life. It features the monotonous tasks in his routine, such as cycling from place to place, Face-Timing friends and relatives, and working at the office. There’s not much dialogue either to make it feel more like a drama. In his routine, we get a glimpse into life in COVID era China where temperature checks and QR code tracking are just part of the new paradigm. It looks more normal than quarantine life elsewhere in the world, making it interesting to see for the American viewer.

However, the documentary style is a bit misleading as there are some scenes which are obviously dramatized, such as the scenes between the main character and his boss’ kid at work. The dialogue in these scenes feels more forced and unnatural. The most obvious example of this is the Taxi Driver scene which ends in him fighting a taxi driver in the road. What is probably meant to highlight the prejudice against Black people in China (with the taxi driver’s avoiding him) ends up supporting ignorant stereotypes of Black male aggression and thereby ruining the otherwise interesting portrayal of the Black experience in China. It also damages the credibility of other scenes that we may have otherwise trusted. Because of the obvious dramatization in certain scenes, it feels like this is probably more of a Chinese perspective of the Black experience in China.

Therefore if you’re looking for a film which shows a Chinese perspective of the Black experience in China, The Endless Cycle is worth a watch. However, if you’re looking for a movie about the Black experience in China told by a Black person, The African Who Wanted to Fly might be the closest you can get.

Check our Pan African Film Festival 2021 page for more reviews coming out of the 29th edition of the festival.

104

Joyland – AFI Fest 2022

Immerse yourself in the patriarchy embedded in a traditional family in Lahore, Pakistan with Joyland. Don’t let the upbeat title mislead you. Whilst there are some warm moments in Haider’s queer coming of age story, his awakening is framed as a privilege of his gender. The women are all victims of the patriarchy whether they’re within the family house or outside it.

Despite being confined to a wheelchair, the grandfather is still the head of the household consisting of his two sons and their wives, as well as his eldest son’s many children. Haider, the youngest son, holds the focus of the first half of the film as he transitions from a house husband supporting his wife, to a husband seeing other women and turning his wife into a house-wife. The focus on Haider is representative of the patriarchal society he exists within. The audience initially sympathizes with him because he’s looked down on by the men of his family for his assumption of traditionally female role. Because of this set up, his queer coming of age is celebrated as it feels like he’s finally able to come out of his shell. The focus on his budding romance with his boss are some of the happiest moments of the film. However, in the second half of the film, his queer coming of age is framed as his male privilege.

Whilst Haider is out finding himself, his wife, Mumtaz, has been forced by Haider’s family to resign from her dream job and assume the domestic responsibilities expected of a wife. Simultaneously her narrative is overshadowed by Haider’s. Her screen time slowly diminishes as Haider’s grows. Even her star entrepreneurial scene from the start of the movie – in which she uses phone flash-lights to complete her job during a blackout – is hijacked by her husband when he pulls the same trick for his crush later in the film. Mumtaz’s repression by the patriarchy is represented in the empathy and upbeat scenes that are given to her husband, at the expense of hers.

Joyland is a technically faultless film – something you’d expect from a Cannes winner – and captures the dynamics of the patriarchy in Pakistan perfectly. However, whilst its Queer Palm win promises a progressive or unique portrayal of Queerness, Joyland doesn’t really stretch any boundaries here. Haider’s relationship with Biba, the only queer relationship in the film, is sacrificed for a melodramatic finale. Her role, whilst played brilliantly, mostly exists to be the exotic temptress for Haider’s macho-turn.

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

105

Papi – Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2021

Sonia is a precocious 8-year-old girl with a vibrant imagination. Her flashbacks and surreal flights of fancy help her navigate life as the daughter of Papi, a drug dealer who returns from New York to become the biggest crime lord in the city.

For a first time feature, Noelia Quintero Herencia captures the slightly zany tone of Rita Indiana’s novel very well. She creates 8 year-old Sonia’s world by depicting her imagined fantasies alongside her reality. Doing this makes it harder for the viewer to figure out which scenes are real, making Sonia a pretty unreliable narrator. However, it also paints an interesting picture of her relationship with her dad.

Her two main fantasies consist of her leading a TV game show and spending time with her dad in the U.S. Both feel upbeat and happy, deliberately contrasting with her lonely reality at home. However, they both contain her dad’s vices – vices that at her age she’s just becoming aware of, such as her father’s infidelity and life as a criminal.

Her fantasies capture her changing perception of her dad as she grows up. She still imagines him as her hero, and herself as his princess, in a way that feels like she’s trying to hold onto her happy childhood memories. However, coming to terms with his criminal character, represents the end of her childhood alongside her idyllic childhood fantasies.

For an imaginative coming of age story that leans heavily on visualizing a kid’s imagination, Papi is well worth a watch.

Head to our LALIFF 2021 Hub for more reviews from the 20th edition of LALIFF.