Shorts at San Sebastian Film Festival a disappointment

In between going to follow the Italian Retrospective I added two sessions of the shorts being shown at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The first was led by Southern Brides – the information we had in the guide said it would be about:

“Mature women discuss marriage, their first time, their intimate relationship with sexuality. By repeating these ancient rites, the director questions her lack of wedlock, children and, with it, a chain of disappearing mother-daughter relations.”

Good films, whether long or short have a good ark to describe the story they want to tell. Southern Brides did not have that. It would have benefitted from an overview by the filmmaker explaining the intent and what the film was perhaps an ending where she brought together the message, she wanted people to take away.

The film was disjointed, and the interviewer clearly had her thoughts which she would at times try and impose on the people she was interviewing. It didn’t clearly keep to the structure of what she was trying to show in the film, so the interviews just seemed mixed together. It didn’t highlight as it clearly intended the issue of “disappearing mother-daughter relations.”  It could with much better editing and framing have been an interesting story, but it was not and at 40 minutes so long.

Across the Waters by contrast a 15-minute short you wanted to have more from. Its story was that a :

“Sandstorm blows, water becomes scarce. In a remote mining town without any radio signals, a quirky teenage girl gets curious about a passing truck driver.”

Good acting from all the actors particularly the girl played by Yuxin Yang. It was a desolate film backdrop and a visitor truck driver who had the first Walkman she had ever seen and then the music she had the chance to listen to. It laid the foundation for her wanting to leave and go to a big city. He wouldn’t take her, but you left the film feeling there was so much more story that could be told.

The second set of shorts I went to see was a set of propaganda films by the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) there were five films I walked out after four. The ones I saw were:

·       Treasure Island – “A look at the Isle of Pines since its discovery, construction of the Modelo Prison for offenders and revolutionaries and how a new society was built there in the 60s with the participation of young people.”

·       L.B.J. – “Political satire-cum-historical and educational rundown of violence in the USA under the mandate of Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1963 to 1969. Reusing a variety of archive footage and interviews, the film analyses US policy, by looking back at the murders of Martin Luther King Jr., John and Bob Kennedy.”

·       79 Springs – “Through the life of Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh, poet, guerrilla fighter, statesman, we see the age-old struggle of his people against all empires who tried to conquer it, and the pain unleashed by his death.”

·      

Prayer for Marilyn Monroe – “A reading of the poem Oración por Marilyn Monroe, by the Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, serves to connect the fatal demise of the mythical actress with the misery and exploitation of American childhood. An icon of popular culture, images of Marilyn Monroe are reappropriated and given a new meaning based on editing as a symbol of imperialist oppression and humiliation. The prayer is not only for the goddess of cinema but for all humanity.”

The subject matter looked fascinating the films were some of the worst shorts I have ever seen. No arcs, just images and depressing music. None of the films was it clear what the director was trying to do. Treasure Island offered a look at Cuba and how it developed over time. This seemed to be the easiest film to make. The film-makers managed to create an unwatchable film. 

Perhaps Marilyn Monroe had a structure in the poem but the film's decisions on what was shown were terrible. 

I am fascinated by the story of Ho Chi Minh and how he tried to get a meeting with President Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers stopped it have happening. Definitely worth reading the excellent Dulles Brothers book. There is a very good film that needs to be made about Ho Chi Minh this 79 Springs, wasn’t it. The L.B.J. film was again full of images and depressing music and didn’t even get close to an explanation of who he was. It focused on the war and that is a legitimate focus but underneath the images is a story that could have been told around not just the position he took on the war but also the opposition. The use of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy's assassinations without putting into context their opposition to the war just made the inclusion shallow. Showing with JFK that America is a violent place but without explaining the backdrop so the person watching might understand better the narrative that the film-maker is trying to make means it was again a hugely disappointing film.

On the positive side the café at the Tabakalera Cultural Center is very good