Review by John P. Harvey.
The Canberra Short Film Festival (CSFF) is on again, and its dedicated team in the capital has managed to whittle more than eight hundred entries from around the world down to a still overwhelming number close to three hundred for screening. Fortunately you needn’t pay per individual film, as the festival team has curated the films into one-off screenings of themed collections. The “experimental film” category screened at Photoaccess, and half a dozen screenings have been at Smith’s Alternative. The bulk of screenings, though, are held at Dendy cinemas as usual. And some films screen more than once, included in more than one category.
One of these screenings, Short Fast Laugh — Comedy Night, on the evening of Friday 15 November, featured 16 films classified as comedy; and, whilst some were definitely funnier than others, all earned audience laughter. A couple of the funniest, including The Lure, directed by Tony Hipwell (of the U.K.), delivered the additional punch of surprising brevity. But two live-action films — Armstrong, directed by Dylan Hare (of N.S.W.), something of a shaggy-dog story, and Stiff’s, directed by Ryan Neil Butler (of Canberra), which earned sustained laughter, were possibly the longest of the lot.
Speaking of Canberra: several of the Canberra entrants in this category — including Armstrong; Laura Harris’s B-Roll; and Declan Shrubb’s Out of the Loop — featured shot after shot of highly recognisable Canberra locations.
The comedy theme of this screening seemed to restrict technique not at all. Whilst a few of the comedies were live action, a couple essentially animated cartoon drawings, at least one used sophisticated 3D animation, and a couple featured impressive stop-motion animation.
Over its 29-year history, the Canberra Short Film Festival has become an event attracting international interest, in no small part thanks to a team of hardworking volunteers and to its loyal sponsors. Its remaining screenings cover a lot of ground, so take a look at the festival programme, at csff.com.au.
Screening at Dendy cinemas and Smith’s Alternative.