by Mary W

A record twelve films in one day! Well, they happened to be short films, which were shown as part of the 19th International Short Film Festival (www.shortfilm.com) held in Hamburg from June 4th through 9th. Films lasted anywhere from just a few seconds to almost an hour and subject matter varied from abstract to absurd to pedantic to bizarre to raw porno to just plain dumb. All films were open to the public and shown at Zeise Kinos, and the Metropolis, Lichtmeß, and B-Movie theaters. All films were shown in their original language (although many were without dialogue) and most had English subtitles.

The festival was incredibly well organized, especially considering the number of films shown in several different theaters. The program provided something for everyone and was presented in the following categories: International Competition (8 sets of films), No Budget (6 sets of films), Three Minute Quickie (29 films), Made in Germany (3 sets of films), Made in Hamburg (2 sets of films), Shorts by Franz Winzentsen (8 films), Virtual Light (2 sets of films), Japan (4 sets of films), Shorts by Mika Taanila (3 films), Indonesia (2 sets of films), Europe in Shorts (8 films), Dance (2 sets of films), Children's Film Festival (5 sets of films) and some additional special showings. An excellent catalogue was provided which listed the details for each short, including a synopsis in German and English.

The best film that I saw was 16:45 minutes short with a long title: Meeting Che Guevara and the Man from Maybury Hill. In the International Competition, from Ireland and directed by Anthony Byrne, the film centers around a true fact, that Che Guevara had a stopover in Ireland, but the tale is pure fantasy involving a woman who is fascinated with H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Her imagination merges with reality when she believes she must meet Guevara so he can save the day. There are so many references to films past, such as The Invisible Man, that you really need to see the film several times to appreciate its brilliance. For sets of films as a whole, I enjoyed Made in Hamburg, second set. A three minute film, Mona Lisa's Smile, flashed children's drawings of women, ending with one that resembled Mona Lisa, set to music. It just made me smile.

After seeing so many shorts I came away with the impression that anyone, anywhere can make a film - not a guarantee that anyone will want to watch it! My only complaint about the festival, which had so many films that it was possible only to sample a few categories, is that it was too short!