Kia Ora and welcome to the May edition of the Show Me Shorts Screening Room. My name is Gina Dellabarca, and I am the Festival Director for the Show Me Shorts Film Festival. This month I have chosen some interesting short films to share with you by two of my favourite filmmakers who have a unique way of looking at the world.
I was thinking recently about how some of my favourite filmmakers have an eye for the little details.
I have a friend with an unnatural fear of buttons. To the point where if there is a loose one sitting in the corner of the room he would cover it with a piece of paper rather than touch it. Dressing must be a nightmare! I myself love buttons. There’s something about the simple beauty of them, the variety of colours and styles as well as their usefulness that appeals to me.
Jane Campion is a filmmaker renowned for her striking visual palette, and subtle attention to seemingly small details. The scene in Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano where Harvey Keitel’s character fixates on a tear in Holly Hunter’s stocking, and the illicit intimacy of touching her there, is one of my favourite examples of the way a small mundane thing can be invested with meaning through the lens of perspective. Campion is a master of using the camera to show us a different way of looking at the world.
An Exercise in Discipline – Peel
This was Jane Campion’s first film, and already her particular style was taking shape. The film is about a family on a road trip together – always an emotionally fraught time! Campion uses close camera angles to convey a sense of uncomfortable confinement. When a piece of orange peel is tossed carelessly out of the window it ignites a father’s anger. His frustrations aren’t really about the peel at all, but this brightly coloured object is the centre of a thoughtful and observant story about family and what binds them together.
http://youtu.be/Z9lVexu0GOg
Campion went on from this small beginning to create an oeuvre of unique films, which form a cultural touch point for people around the world. All of them capture her voice in a way that marks Campion as an auteur with a new perspective to offer audiences.
Night of the Hell Hamsters
So what other auteur filmmakers do we have in New Zealand? Through programming Show Me Shorts I have had the privilege of keeping up with new work from our established short filmmakers like Grant Lahood and James Cunningham. Show Me Shorts is constantly digging up fresh talent and showcasing it during the festival each November. In 2006 we played Sunday, the first short film by Leo Woodhead, who went on to make the award winning Cargo in 2007 and Zero in 2010, which we also played. In 2007 we played Paul Campion’s first short film Night of the Hell Hamsters. This low budget ‘splat-stick’ short is full of playful comedy and warm affection for the horror genre, and was a promising sign of films to come.
http://youtu.be/wdcQ7lBro0s
http://youtu.be/JcZIY9d6TNk
Paul followed Night of the Hell Hamsters up with the much slicker sci-fi creature-feature Eel Girl (which you can watch here) and just last year his first feature film: The Devil’s Rock. Paul Campion is no relation to Jane and his films are very different, though no less inventive. His aesthetic is dark and populated by things that go bump in the night and gnash their bloody teeth. This is his slimy yet alluring half-eel half-human hybrid!
Paul Campion is bound to come up with an even more creepy and wonderful creature in his next filmmaking venture. Both Paul and Jane Campion are now making films with much higher production values than when they first started with short films, and I think it’s interesting to look back at where they began.
It’s exciting to be able to watch filmmakers’ work evolve and anticipate what they might create next! Who knows who the next big celebrated filmmaker might be? We might already have seen their first short film in our programme.
(Call for entries for this year’s Show Me Shorts Festival is now open)
