SXSW 2011: Narrative Shorts Recap

The 2011 SXSW Short Film Jury Award went to David Lowery's "Pioneer," which screened with the Narrative Shorts program. "Pioneer" is now eligible for a 2012 Oscar nomination for Best Narrative Short. Lowery's film shared a common thread with 2 other SXSW Narrative Shorts: child actors.

"Pioneer" is a simple, yet fantastical film about a surrogate father's bedtime story to his young son. Will Oldham plays the weird, but loving father and Myles Brooks plays his adorably charismatic son. The short is a portrait of the stories we tell ourselves; the personal mythologies passed on to children. The film might also be metaphorical early American history, or even still, a fantasy about the power of lose and unconditional love.

This is what makes "Pioneer" such a captivating short, as its wonderful performances illuminate multiple interpretations. So what does it take to conjure up such magic from child actors? According to filmmakers at the SXSW screening: "Transformers," which Myles Brooke was perfectly happy giving his all in exchange for.

Soham Mehta's short "Fatakra" also explored the relationship of a father and son. Child actor, Ritik Goyal exuded a naturalistic performance as a son who defiantly locks himself in a car to avoid a father he hasn't seen for 3 years. "Fatakra" is inspired by the story of Arjuna in the Hindu Epic "Mahabharata." It is a touching story and ingeniously condenses the Epic's themes into a modern fable. At the SXSW screening, when presenting filmmakers were asked of their challenges shooting, Goyal didn't hesitate to note, "The endurance of sitting in a locked car, in July, with no A/C."

The third Narrative Short to utilize a gifted child actor was "The Strange Ones" from filmmakers Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein. Its formulaic tactics keep you guessing about these characters with great effectiveness. The mysterious undertones and somewhat eerie textures take a momentous twist when the young boy, played by Tobias Campbell, messes with a motel clerk's perception, and hence our own.

These diverse films embrace what's so engaging about seeing short film programs at Festivals like SXSW. We careen from mystical to heartwarming and then from hauntingly strange to absurdly hilarious. The latter came with Joshua Funk's short, "The Announcement" from Chicago's Second City Network. The premise is simple: a young woman tells her friends some exciting news, but their ensuing reaction erupts in snot-ball inducing tears, hysterical cries to the cosmos and spontaneous violence.

From this hilarity, SXSW Narrative Shorts also dove into darker tones of how people's lives can change in a moment. Eric Martin's short "Fran's Daughter," explores how the clinical loss of memory experienced in Alzheimer's can awaken hidden truths. Also dealing with the human drama of health was Felix Thompson's short, "The Third One This Week." Like "Pioneer," Thompson shows how profound filmmaking can be with just 2 actors, 1 location and a single idea that rocks your soul. This short may say more about Doctors and death in 4 minutes, than an entire season of "Grey's Anatomy" does.

Another dramatic piece was Leanne Welham's "Nocturn," a short about emotional voids, swaying from wistful melancholia to tense sexual disturbance. The film is beautifully shot and acted, but it is emotionally dense and not effective in what is unsaid or unseen. Where "The Strange Ones" uses cinematic lacuna (omissions) in stylistic way, "Nocturn" feels incomplete.

Sometimes a narrative short gives filmmakers space to exercise feature potential, which may be the case for "Nocturn." Yet, one SXSW Narrative Short that will hopefully be explored to feature lengths is Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims's "Howling at the Moon." Imagine a more sentimental Kevin Smith directing a version of "High Fidelity" meets "Grandma's Boy;" scrumptiously funny, clever and awkward.

This was a recap of the 2011 SXSW "Narrative Shorts 1" program, but 2 additional Narrative Shorts Programs screened with different films as well.