Short Flicks 2010: good stories shine through anyway

I guess it’s natural to be dismissive of home movies. We generally like our entertainment to be shiny and smooth-looking, qualities generally absent from the grainy outputs of our wannabe auteur friends.

For the technical purist, La Trobe Student Film and Theatre’s Short Flicks, would have been an unmitigated disaster. In the time it took to watch the 9 shorts, you would have learned a lot about how not to shoot a film.



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Not being a friend’s home screening, slipping out for a drink midway wasn’t an option. Sitting through it was the only polite thing to do, besides being the only option. Slinking out unnoticed from the middle row of a cinema is actually very hard to do.

By now, I would’ve made a fair number of new enemies with the above review, but wait seething friends, there’s more!

Films are more than just dollies and good lighting and good, levelled sound, it’s also about the story.

Technique has to come paired Tale. We end up with Avatar otherwise.

The short films screened at Short Flicks offered many different stories to the viewers. The coordinators selected very well, and judging by the audience’s reaction, their efforts were much appreciated.

The beauty of the short film format is the flexibility to experiment and really be out there, without having to really worry about trivial matters like continuity, plausibility and the like.

The shorts on show demonstrated this. The final selection covered a wide range of genres, from bro-coms to surrealist love stories. There were few dull moments in the program.


WHAT WE LIKED:

Blended

Built around the simple premise of being slusheed by a masked stalker, George Lingard’s  beautifully shot tale of suspense plays on the paralysing dread we feel when facing predictably bad days.

In the dark

Is there a term for human-furniture romance? This short film follows the budding romance between a girl and a desk lamp. A surreal love story set in the suburbs, we see how everything just wants to be loved.


Eulogy

Almost like a stoner movie of two bros writing each other’s eulogies. Almost.

Marriage, the invitation to bridal misery

By Jiayueh Choong

credit:

LadyVampiress

So I’ve found the reason why Disney insists on playing on the sappy story line where the ditzy princess’ aim in life is no higher than settling for marriage with Mr. Love-at-first-sight.

Ever noticed that treasure-seeking adventure stories mostly involve an exploding temple/shrine/cove? I believe that therein lies a subconscious moral, to warn us that money should not come that easily to those who don’t work hard for it. Robbing/taking treasure that you did not collect comes with great life-threatening risks.

Trans-mute

Throughout the show, my eyes kept sliding down to the knees and elbows of the actors looking for marks and bruises. The play's physical intensity operated at a level higher that i was accustomed to that at times I could not tune out the thought that someone might get hurt.

Trans-mute combines elements of butoh and cabaret to create a show that was at times odd, puzzling and violent. 'There is no story here,' I've been told, leaving me, and the audience, to our devices to interpret the chaos onstage.

Backstage at Muzika

I'd say my first real involvement with Muzika Musim Luruh began two weeks before the event in the basic radio studios of 3ZZZ in Fitzroy. I was butting in on the Malay program that night, and the committtee members turned up to promote the event.

They brought along with them free tickets to give away, and once announced, the studio phones were never hotter.

An auspicious start, it seemed, for the final stage of a project four months in the making.

An ancient confession

It’s a book that chased me around. Recommended, referenced, and mentioned, so I read it. I bought myself the abridged Penguin version with the pretty cover that said ‘God grant me chastity and continence but not yet.’

An awfully familiar line around here. Something you'd say to yourself to silence your conscience when you habitually do something wrong.

This saint had a mistress and a son born out of wedlock. He had a mother too, and she never stopped praying for him. He knew this of course but was determined to do things by enquiry and reason, more so than faith. He harboured Manichean views before he turned Catholic.

At this point of reading the book, I am reminded of the saying that it is better to be stupid in truth rather than rationalising error. Sometimes being too intelligent just doesn’t pay. There are catalogues of views, opinions and thoughts right in front of us, each offering their different takes on things. The PC thing to say here is that every opinion is equally valid. History would tell us otherwise.

Maybe it’s not about validity, but about the right of every opinion to exist and be expressed so that they its claims may be taken apart and put back together for validation.

Humbleness must be what we need to always keep us grounded. St Augustine was fortunate to have received an epiphany that made him leave his world of sin. Miracles and epiphanies however aren’t much of an option for us earthier individuals, so that only leaves us with humbleness. The humbleness to listen to other people’s views and recognise their merits, but more importantly, the humbleness to listen to other people’s thoughts and recognise our faults.

The title of the book is 'Confessions of a sinner'. Don't bother reading if you aren't one.

Farish Noor's book of lectures reimagines Nusantaran history

A lot of people will find a lot of things wrong with this book. Malay ultras will not appreciate their much-loved Hang Tuah reframed as the universal man, Islamic types would have much to say about the celebration of hindu-buddhist pasts, and the people of the region would not like the thought that they continually feed the neo-feudal foundations that form the governments of the day.

Alice in Wonderland.

Before I begin, we need to be clear that the reason why Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is so famed, and I dare say, immortal in the literary world is that he is a logician that speaks nonsense. And obviously I mean it in the most impressed manner. He has a way with words that skates beyond that is understandable but still capable of forming images in our heads. And that was the entire point of Alice in Wonderland. Knowing that itself, I do not think that it translates very well into a movie.

LINDT CHOCOLAT CAFE

 (Artikel ini diulangcetak ehsan Kelab Makan Melbourne. Kunjungi blog KEMAM untuk maklumat aktiviti terkini mereka)

Jika pada entri yang lepas krew KEMAM mencadangkan sebuah restoran, kali ini kami mencadangkan sebuah tempat untuk bersantai dan menenangkan fikiran. “Kedai kopi” pilihan kami kali ini ialah Lindt Chocolat Cafe (memang ejaannya macam ni).

A SINGLE MAN by Christopher Isherwood

Finally my academic term has ended and I get to return to my reading list. One that is of particular worth of mention, firstly because of the subject matter; and secondly for the style of writing employed, is "A Single Man" by Christopher Isherwood. Oh and did I mention that there's film adaptation which stars Colin Firth? mmmmmmm...

Summer Romance

Sunday.Cruising around the beach, the park and everyone's favourite street with full of culture in Melbourne.
Accompanied by my good friend Holga 120CFN, with a little bit of investment to feed her 120film with only 16 exposure that cost a bomb.No drama in this because she will always do her best and makes me smile looking ay the photos once they've developed.

Isteri si pengembara masa: dari kaca mata seorang lelaki...

Gua baru lepas pegi tgk cerita tu, sekarang masa untuk review atas paksaan dua orang manusia (Bro MLH dan juga Dol Petik Bawang). First gua nak kasi tau, kesalahan pertama yang diorg buat adalah menayangkan filem ini ketika mana filem-filem yang besar seperti Gerhana Baru (New Moon) dan 2012 klua. Memang salah besar.

Secara kesimpulan nya movie ini, mencerita kan tentang seorang manusia yang mempunyai keupayaan untuk mengembara ke masa silam dan masa hadapan tanpa mampu menguasai kuasanya itu., dengan kata lain, beliau akan pergi ke masa hadapan atau pada masa lampau nya dengan tiba-tiba (automatic)

Rosin dari kacamata orang biasa

Era 90an, Malaysia digegarkan dengan sentuhan kumpulan-kumpulan vokal yang meruntun jiwa-jiwa yang tenang seperti Innuendo, 4u2c, indigo dan lain-lain (seingat aku la). Aku memang suka kumpulan-kumpulan vokal ni, bukan nak kata suara aku sedap, tapi sebab aku suka keharmonian paduan suara diaorang. Kalau aku yang menyanyi mahu pecah amp, hancur microphone.

Siapa tak suka lagu Ratu Hati nyanyian Innuendo dan the all time favourite, Belaian Jiwa yang sampai sekarang tidak hilang lagi sengatnya (at least for me)

Tapi aku bukan nak fokus pada band-band 90an ni. Aku cuma nak review band Radiostar yang sekarang ni dikenali dengan nama Rosin. Apa rasionalnya aku bagi mukaddimah band-band vokal 90an tu? Sebab lead singer band Rosin ni adalah teraju utama Innuendo iaitu Pot Amir.

Crash of the Conchords

I love the Conchords, I really do. Ok maybe I don't keep a cut out of Jermaine's lips in my wallet, or spend much time recreating Bret's helmet hair, but I did watch every episode of  their TV series, twice, and I have obsessively listened to  their entire pre-HBO fame catalogue , to the chagrin of close family and friends.

So it really does not give me any pleasure to rip through 'I told you I was freaky'.