Beautiful animated short film based on a Scots Gaelic folktale. A hunter sets out to kill a monstrous loch creature, but is transformed into a black dog. With the aid of a selkie, they set out on a journey to break the curse. Gorgeous visual style, with really textured paper animation, and an absolutely beautiful…
A mother is haunted by her dead daughter in short film Bahar. This is a ghost story about grief and guilt. Narges is an Iranian-Glaswegian woman who lives in alone now her only surviving child has left for uni. She was widowed young, and had to raise her kids alone, and when her daughter Bahar…
An experimental short film combining dance, music and on-screen text to make a visual poem. A dancer in trackies and a fleece dances by the seaside, while a figure in ancient folk costume looks on, and the words appear on the screen, a poem describing a dialogue debating notions of place, personhood and perspective. Sparingly…
A dialogueless, experimental and humorous short film about a Glaswegian woman coming home in buttoned-down business attire and transforming into a sexily clad ‘fox’, complete with ears and snout, before going out for the evening. The riotous violin music and lo-fi film style are reminiscent of early silent films, where farce and fantasy were an…
Red Room is a short horror film about two friends recounting an instant of possession of a third, something which has had a lasting effect on everyone involved. So there are things about this that are great successes and things that are less so. And weirdly it was the opposite of the stuff I expected.…
The story of a ruby is narrated, going from the empty fitting on the hand of an anonymous cadaver, back through generations of the owner’s family to its formation in the earth. It has a melancholy air, seeming to ask if people can be haunted by what they own, can what they own be haunted…
In The Bayview, Susie runs an unofficial hostel for the local migrant fishermen in Macduff. I say hostel, but it is a home, Susie makes sure of that. That is her goal, to give these sailors a home away from home. You see her cooking Ghanaian dishes, trying to get the recipe just right, so…
Field Notes On Love is a short film essay on a filmmaker finding a language in which to describe their love for an ecologist. Although told in the third person, it seems to be autobiographical, a documentary quoting diary entries that interrogate the ambivalence of overpowering love. The setting of the film is a walk…
Life of Riley is a short, black-and-white film about a homeless guy who is jumped and his dog is injured defending him. The dog is his only companion, and the vet’s prognosis for the injury isn’t good. The film follows his emotional turmoil as he comes to terms with what has happened. Grim.
Absolutely excellent short film. Too Rough is about Nick, a young guy whose boyfriend Charlie accidentally oversleeps at his house, and is witness to the chaos of Nick’s dysfunctional and abusive family. The film opens with Nick and Charlie at a house party. Nick feels out of place at this party full of openly queer…