An exhibition of Super 8 erotic films from the 1950s is currently on tour through France until the end of September. Organizer of the Le Cinérotic programme is Compagnie Jamais 203. Named after an old Peugeot model, the street theatre group has been playing small-time venues across Europe for several years now. Their specialty is putting on Super 8 film screenings in bizarre mobile "cinemas" – such as old cars for example.

Jamais 203 has once again come up with something unique for Cinérotic. In a specially constructed stall made of a stationary bicycle and peep box, the viewer has to power his private screening on his own steam. German filmmaker Thomas Bartels collaborated on the development of the idea. Model drawings and excerpts from the film line-up are available on the Cinérotic website.

Source

According to a press release from late July 2007, the Swedish Video-on-Demand operator Glimz.net has signed a contract with satellite television provider Viasat Broadcasting to broadcast short films.

The contract enables Viasat to select films from the Glimz.net repertoire to televise on the channel TV1000. Glimz.net offers the films on behalf of their rights holders, taking care of both the administrative and technical details. For Viasat, the agreement will help to reduce the effort and expense involved in acquiring high-quality content.

Glimz.net, headquartered in Stockholm, was founded in 2003 by Johan Larsson and Palle Torsson (we reported in June 2004). The online film provider’s repertoire meanwhile boasts more than 300 short films from 37 countries. Glimz.net receives over 20,000 visits a month.

Viasat is one of the publicly traded media companies in the Modern Times Group with headquarters in Stockholm and London. MTG is the largest private free-to-air and pay-TV provider in Scandinavia and the Baltic States, with programming offers in 26 Northern and Eastern European countries. TV1000, where the short films from Glimz.net will be shown, is a pay-TV channel and the enterprise’s flagship.

In the coming weeks, Viasat will be previewing Glimz’s collection of films and making its selections for broadcasting in 2008. Filmmakers who are interested in distribution through Glimz.net should contact Johan A. Larsson.

Source/Contact: Glimz AB

The Danish Film Institute (Det Danske Filminstitut, Copenhagen) is now hosting an Internet forum for young filmmakers called "dvoted". The website is designed for youth between 15 and 20 years of age in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The aim of the project is to promote up-and-coming filmmakers by providing them access to professional assistance. The website is divided into three sections, each with a specific function: Mentor, Academy and Arena. There is also an open chat forum with various thematic threads.

The "Mentor" category is an advice forum where young filmmakers can address their questions to film insiders. Almost 20 prominent professionals from all participating countries and various fields have agreed to provide answers and advice here.

Under the "Arena" heading, filmmakers can upload their films and view and discuss each other’s work. As of the beginning of August, 250 short films were already online. The most-discussed film attracted over 50 comments.

The "Academy" section publishes production reports and tips on further training. There is also information here on festivals and film promotion offers, or subjects such as music and copyright.

Registration is required to actively participate in "dvoted". The lingua franca is English, but questions are also answered in the respective national language. Due to the variety of tongues spoken in the five countries, however, English is specified as the language for the discussion forum.

URL: www.dvoted.net

For four years Italian filmmakers Pietro Jona and Paolo Ronchi presided over their first collaborative short film project, titled MOVE! Participating in the international online film project were filmmakers from Australia, Brazil, Italy, Spain, South Africa and Thailand, who never actually met outside cyberspace. Ten episodes resulted, hosted and published on the Spanish short film portal NoToDoFilmfest.

MOVE! was completed in May 2007. Now the initiators are inviting filmmakers from all over the world to take part in a new project called CONCRETE.

Source

You would think there could be nothing new on the short film festival horizon. And then, voil?, along comes France with OFF/SHORT, a truly original film festival. For OFF/SHORT, you don’t just submit a film, you bring your own cinema along with you. Anything goes – a tent, a camper, bus, truck, yurt, log cabin or boat, for 0 to xx viewers. Whether video, Super8, 9.5mm, 16mm or 35mm, the filmmakers themselves are in charge of their cinema’s technology and décor as well as the projection quality!

OFF/SHORT takes place from 21 to 23 September in Quend-Plage-les-Pins. Set between Baie d’Authie and Baie de Somme, the town’s special attraction lies in its direct proximity to an English Channel beach with 15 km of the finest sand. The festival views itself as an alternative platform for filmmakers, producers, organizations and film groups. Two forms must be filled out to apply: one for the films and one for the mobile cinemas. In the latter, instead of the usual information on format and running time, the applicant is asked to indicate length, width and height. Based on this information the festival then sets aside an appropriate site (with ocean view!) and electrical connections.

OFF/SHORT is not only a film festival for the public, but is also conceived as a meeting place where filmmakers can present projects and make the professional contacts they need to realize them.

Contact: contact@offshort.com

URL: www.offshort.com

Since the beginning of this year, Filmaka (Los Angeles) has been holding monthly short-film competitions designed to uncover new talents and in turn offer them an opportunity to make contacts in the film industry. The contests, which take place completely online, are enjoying increasing popularity. Unlike the many online competitions whose operators have what are often murky business models, the founders of Filmaka come from the film industry and can demonstrate some impressive credentials – primarily from the independent sector.

The jury is also exceptional with its line-up of prominent personalities such as Werner Herzog, Paul Schrader, John Madden and Wim Wenders – joined by film-industry professionals associated more with the Old Economy.

The competition is set up hierarchically on three levels. In the monthly Entry Level contest, about 20 films on a prescribed subject are chosen by peer-to-peer voting, each of which receives a $500 prize. The winners then move on to Jury Level, where they are given $1,000 to make a second short film on the same subject. A winner and runner-up are chosen from these contestants, with awards of $3,000 and $2,000 respectively, as well as a special Jury prize with no cash but the chance to compete further. Only these three winners go on to the Final Level, in which the winners from all competition periods vie at the end of the year for a feature film contract and $5,000 cash.

To participate in the contest, filmmakers must first pay a $15 premium membership fee, with students exempted. The rights to the winning films go to Filmaka, but the filmmakers receive a share of any profits made on these rights. Reading the fine print, it can be assumed that Filmaka will try to make money off the films by releasing them on DVD or Video on Demand.

86 international short films took part in the last competition, the sixth, which ended on 11 June, out of which 9 were chosen (see streaming on the Filmaka website). Entry deadline for the next contest, on the subject of “The Prophecy”, is 30 June. Films from 1 to 3 minutes in length can be submitted, in any language but if possible with English subtitles. Registration and submission take place online via upload.

URL: http://www.filmaka.com

At the end of May, Ewa Sowinska, Polish ombudswoman for children, made headlines in that country when she enlisted psychological consultants to conduct a study of the Teletubbies television show. Sowinska, who has publicly advocated job restrictions for homosexuals, suspected the BBC TV series of spreading “homosexual propaganda”!

Her main target amongst the genderless Teletubbies, who have besides arms, legs and ears only an (erect) antenna, is the character Tinky Winky. In an interview Sowinska commented, »I’ve noticed that Tinky Winky carries a handbag, but I was not aware of the fact that he’s a boy.« Presumably, she had the psychologists explain to her the symbolism behind Tinky Winky’s triangular antenna and purple bodysuit, because she then continued: »Later, I discovered that homosexual associations can be subliminal«.

This ‘discovery’ is not really new, however. The ‘honour’ of being the first to sniff this scandal must be credited instead to Reverend Jerry Falwell of Lynchburg, Virginia. The representative of America’s ‘moral majority’ already denounced the TV show back in 1999, claiming that “the ‘subtle depictions’ of gay sexuality are intentional ... I feel that role modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children.”

As a result of the newly instigated Polish discussion, the Minister of Education and Deputy Prime Minister Roman Giertych announced that he would make “homosexual propaganda” in schools punishable by law. Just a few days later, however, Sowinska, having become the target of scorn and derision far beyond Poland’s borders, began back-pedalling. In early June she was forced to admit that: »A prominent sexual researcher has ruled out the possibility that the television series could have harmful effects on children’s souls«. Eh-oh!

Sowinska on the Teletubbies:

http://www.tvn24.pl/12690,1508112,wiadomosc.html

Deputy Prime Minister Giertych and Tinky Winky: http://www.tvn24.pl/26086,1508328,wiadomosc.html

Teletubbies homepage: http://www.teletubbies.co.uk/en/default.asp

Since the beginning of this year, the largest collection of international animated films ever has been circulating through peer-to-peer platforms, available for free download. Packed into compact short film bundles, the film files go by the name of Beltesassar’s Short Animation Festival.

At the end of May, this “festival” had already grown to comprise nine parts or programmes – with a total of 200 animated films! The person behind the compilation calls himself Prof. Beltesassar and supposedly comes from the Netherlands. The professor title gives the campaign a serious patina and is fitting as branding since the films selected are by all means of a calibre suitable for use in film education. This professor doesn’t offer just any clips or trailers, like the ones that have been plying the Internet in the thousands for some time now, but rather animations of high quality that are even relevant to cinematic history. Moreover, Prof. Beltesassar provides short, knowledgeable blurbs for each film programme.

On Part 7, for example, he comments, »For Part 7, I decided to select some old unknown animations, and some new unknown animations. I included one of the oldest animations ever by Winston McCay from 1911, a silly symphonies from 1934 and the excellent ‘Three Blind Mice’ by Dunning (who would later direct ‘Yellow Submarine’). Besides these, there are some animations I personally like from students or small production companies...« The same compilation features some as yet unknown animated shorts by Alkabetz, Bozzetto, Driessen and Brakhage.

German films chosen by Prof. Beltesassar include “Balance”, “Quest” and “Das Rad (Rocks)”. From Poland there’s “Tango”, from Great Britain films by Phil Mulloy, from Switzerland by Schwizgebel, from Japan “Jumping” by Osamu Tezuka, from the USA films by Bill Plympton and from Canada naturally shorts by Norman McLaren. The selections range up to recent productions. Beltesassar's Animation Festival features for example the successful “Rabbit” (Run Wrake) from 2006.

The digitized films have been packed in Azureus format. Azureus is a new, Java-based file-sharing client offered for free by a company called Vuze. The films are available in the relevant P2P networks.

Links to (more or less) randomly discovered videos on the Internet:

– Caution: Québécois! “Le Willi Waller”

A fake commercial for the potato peeler “Willi Waller 2006”, from the workshop of Michel Beaudet, Hugo Caron and Simon Parizeau, who last year launched their website T?tes ? claques and have since enjoyed great popularity – and not only in Québec.

http://www.tetesaclaques.tv/video.php?vid=30

– Classic: “Blinkity Blank”

Norman McLaren’s “Blinkity Blank” from 1955 is classic animation that is still well worth watching.  The National Film Board of Canada has now officially placed this and many more films from its own production archives online:

http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/films/film.php?sort=director&director=McLaren%2C+Norman&id=10917

– Experimental: “tues.three”

“I really didn’t even want to make an experimental video today but with all this rain and a wandering mind I really couldn’t avoid it.” (Brian Gibson, 2007)

http://www.dvblog.org/movies/06_2007/Baiowulf.mov

– Documentary: Rehearsal for “Brand Upon the Brain (Foley)”

An orchestral rehearsal for Guy Maddin’s new film (2007)

– “Martin Scorsese Photo Shoot”

Documentation of a photo session with Martin Scorsese

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/martin-scorsese-photo-shoot-p1.php

Films mentioned in reports and news elsewhere on this site:

- Filmaka - Competitions for up and coming short-film makers

A selection from competition # 6

http://www.filmaka.com/currentclips1.asp?

- Simonsson & Nilsson shoot feature-length film with Six Drummers

“Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers” (Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson)

http://www.dailymotion.com/related/100637/video/xj8ez_music-for-one-apartment-and-six-dru/1

- Are the Teletubbies making Polish children gay?

Tinky Winky example: www.youtube.com/watch

- Private/public domain 2.0

“Remix Rebels”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7BFvAqfk5E

“in the beginning...” The History of Mashup: http://s2.video.blip.tv/0310000182477/Opensourcecinema-MashupHistory968.mov

As part of the SOS (Save Ourselves) campaign founded by Kevin Wall, whose high point to date consisted of Live Earth concerts on seven continents on 7 July, 60 short films have been commissioned on the topic of climatic catastrophe.

The SOS short film programme includes fiction, music videos, commercials and animated films, which each have a maximum of 10 minutes to shake people up worldwide and sensitize them to the need to protect our climate.

Commissions were awarded primarily to award-winning fiction film directors such as Abel Ferrera and Kevin MacDonald, but also to short film Oscar winners like Ari Sandel and Aardman Animation.

The first seven short films were presented to the public in late April at the opening of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York by former Vice President Al Gore. “The SOS Short Films Program harnesses some of the world's most creative minds to educate, inform and inspire people across the globe to solve the climate crisis”, former Vice President Gore commented.

Live Earth: http://www.liveearth.org

On 20 May, the blog that MySpace set up especially for the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival started to receive visits from some very unwelcome guests. A column of screens showing the pornographic teaser for an online video could be seen intermittently on the blog. The link behind them led to the website “Control Profiles”, on which methods are discussed that enable outside control of blogs on MySpace and other ‘social networks’.

The unknown author of  “Control Profiles” promises to offer “How-to guides” teaching the user how to manipulate profiles, layouts and embedded media on MySpace and later on the blogs of other providers such as YouTube. His advertising makes it all sound so tempting: “Do you have a myspace friend you don’t like? What about an ex boyfriend or girlfriend you want to get some revenge on?” If this is not a prank and the method really works as promised, this could be – given sufficient proliferation – the beginning of the end of blogging!

The layout of the Short Film Corner blog is so chaotic, though, that it is hard to tell what belongs there ‘officially’ and what might be the work of hackers. As film-industry partner to collaborate on the project, MySpace chose the British organization Future Shorts, which also offered a daily live programme during the festival at a beach club on the Croisette, with a focus more on partying than on short film, however.

URL: www.myspace.com/cannes2007

Interesting short films can sometimes be found as a bonus on feature-film DVDs, often undeclared or at least hard to find. Here are a few examples:

- “Entr’acte” (René Clair, 1924) on: A Nous la liberté & Les Grandes Manoeuvres

- “Housing Problems” (Elton & Anstey, 1935) on: Cathy Come Home (Ken Loach)

- “Two Men and a Wardrobe” and 7 other short films by Roman Polanski in the Roman Polanski Boxed Set

- “The Tram” (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1966) on: A Short Film about Love

- “Charlotte et son Jules” (J-L Godard, 1958) on: A bout de souffle

- “Paparazzi” & “Bardot et Godard” (J-L Godard, 1964) on: Le Mepris

- “October” (Abderrahmane Sissako, 1993) on Waiting for Happiness

- “Afghan Alphabet” (Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 2001) on: Kandahar

- “A.K.” (Chris Marker, 1985) on: Ran (A. Kurasawa)

The Spanish short film agency ACE is putting on the Spanish version of Second Life - MundoSecondLife – a week of short films. Four Spanish short films will be shown around the clock on Ibiza and can be rated by the virtual viewers. The highest-rated film will then receive a virtual award: the "Malatu de Oro".

The short films will be presented in an exhibition room located on the virtual island of Ibiza that is being set up by Secondmind.es based on the real island. The films will be streamed by the multimedia company Stream ES, a subsidiary of StreamUK.

Since only avatars can watch and participate, anyone who would like to join in has to log onto Second Life, design an avatar, and then register at the Malatu Ibiza Club!

URL: www.mundosecondlife.com/content/view/82/62/

The British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection has expanded its online database (formerly known as "Known Works") to include source information and where to find copies of the artistic video and films in public collections. The database was developed in association with LUX and the Moving Image: Legacy and Learning initiative at the Arts Council England. It is updated regularly – and any information on omissions or errors is always welcome.

The British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection is a project of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is under the management of David Curtis and Malcolm Le Grice.

URL: www.studycollection.org.uk

_Microcinema brings out DVD of films by Su Friedrich

Microcinema International, San Francisco, in conjunction with the new label Outcast Films, has an exclusive contract to release the works of avant-garde filmmaker Su Friedrich. The five titles on the new DVD – "The Ties That Bind", "Damned if You Don’t", "Sink or Swim", "Hide and Seek" and "The Odds of Recovery" are personal, experimental films that deal mainly with themes such as feminism, gender and lesbian sexuality.

Ever since the beginning of her career in the late 1970s, Su Friedrich has played a key role in the establishment of Queer Cinema. She radicalized the form and content of avant-garde film by adopting a feminist perspective and incorporating lesbian identity as theme in an innovative synthesis of experimental film, narrative film and documentary.

Source and contact: www.microcinemadvd.com

_Jonas Mekas Limited Edition

The Maya Stendhal Gallery (New York) is bringing out a limited edition of 4 DVDs featuring the following works by Jonas Mekas: "iPod - loaded with collection of 40 films", "Collection of 40 Short Films", "He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life" (1969-1985) und "As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)".

The signed DVDs cost from $1000 to $5000. The gallery is also offering institutional purchasers a 10-monitor installation for a price of $500,000!

Contact: info@jonasmekas.com

URL: www.mayastendhalgallery.com

_Animated films by Mariola Brillowska at Raum für Projektion (D)

The Cologne label "Raum für Projektion" has released a DVD of films by Mariola Brillowska. Included are 15 short films, 4 music videos with Felix Kubin and the feature-length film "Katharina & Witt". Among the short films in the collection are "Grabowski, Haus des Lebens" (1990), "Eryk im Sexil" (1993), "Die Contr-Contras (1996)", "Porno Karaoke International" (2005) and "Schwarze Hand" (2006).

Format: 2 DVD-Rs; German with English subtitles; PAL or NTSC; all regions.

"Raum für Projektion", c/o Graw Böckler

URL: www.raumfuerprojektion.de/dvd/brillowska/brillowska_dvd_001.html

_Lowave brings out 6 films by Johanna Vaude and mid-length short films

The French Lowave label (Paris) is releasing a DVD of works by Johanna Vaude called "Hybride" in early March. Each film treats a different theme using its own set of hybrid techniques (painting on film / 3D / photos / Super 8 film / digital video). In addition to the six films, the DVD also includes two bonus films and interviews.

Format: PAL/NTSC 4:3; all regions, 82 minutes

In association with l’Agence du court métrage, Lowave is also planning to mark the occasion of the second "Hors pistes" festival by releasing a DVD of three mid-length short films (‘moyen métrages’): "Loisada, Avenue C" by Maeva Aubert, "Connaissance du monde" by Philippe Fernandez and "Pick up" by Lucia Sanchez.

URL: www.lowave.com

The Liverpool-based Foundation for Art & Creative Technology, FACT for short, is organizing a tour of the first retrospective of the works of the Black Audio Film Collective. Titled “The Ghosts of Songs”, the retrospective is conceived as an exhibition encompassing not only films by the collective but also documentary material and an installation.

The Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC) was founded in 1982 and dissolved in 1998. In its day, the BAFC was one of the most influential artists’ groups in Britain, dedicated to the participation of Blacks in British politics and culture. Members included John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathison, David Lawson and Edward George. Their films, videos, photos and installations were shown several times at the documenta and other events. The collective rose to international fame with its film “Handsworth Songs” (1986) about demonstrations against discrimination and unemployment in Handsworth near Birmingham during the Thatcher era.

The retrospective was produced and curated by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Saga (The Otolith Group). Following stints in Liverpool, Arnolfini and London, the show is scheduled to tour Europe and the USA in 2008.

FACT is a cultural organization for the promotion and presentation of film, video and contemporary media art. Since its 1988 founding, FACT has supported and presented more than 100 digital media artworks by artists such as Mark Wallinger, Barbara Kruger, Tony Oursler and Isaac Julien.

www.fact.co.uk/news/

On until 25 March, the Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe (ZKM) is featuring a show of 90 short videos from Switzerland, Austria and Germany under the title “art_clips”. The organizers coined this term to refer to art’s subjective, individual answers to the end of the industrially produced television music video.

The videos, which all date from 2000 or later, include works by Peter Aerschmann, Ariane Andereggen, John Armelder, Olaf Breuning, Erik Dettwiler Collectif_Fact, Annja Krautgasser, Lori Hersberger, Bj?rn Melhus, Chantal Michel, Muntean & Rosenblum, Shahryar Nashat, RELAX, reMI, Corinna Schnitt, Elke Krystufek and Erwin Wurm. The show’s curator was Gerhard Johann Lischka.

This selection is heralded as the first comprehensive compilation of this new art form. The art_clips screened at the show have been released on DVD as part of the zkm digital arts edition (in the form of a booklet with 3 DVDs).

on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader$5522

For the last five years, British curator Mark Webber (“Shoot, shoot, shoot”, Tate Modern 2006) has been sending out an email newsletter with announcements and information on unusual film and video screenings in London that he considers worth seeing.

Now, in addition to the mailing list, he is also publishing an annotated event calendar called “Secret Cinema” as an Internet blog – with photos and the opportunity for users to post reviews and commentaries on the listed events. Secret Cinema claims to aspire not to blind promotion but rather to selective recommendation of high-level programs.

As the events announced rarely take place at hidden locations, but more commonly at prestigious institutions such as the Tate, White Chapel, the National Film Theatre, ICA, Lux or the Goethe Institute, “secret” is probably to be understood more in the sense of “insider tip”. Whoever is going to London would be well advised to first take a look at this blog!

www.secretcinema.co.uk