Short Story
An Underrated Art Form Steps Into the Spotlight
Regardless of the fact that they were the first films ever made, short films have long been the redheaded stepchildren of cinema – always invited to the film festivals, never receiving the sort of love showered upon their feature-length siblings. As filmmaker Peter Gilbert puts it: “They are a sketch to a painting.”
What has become the short film’s saving grace is its computer-compatibility: With Final Cut Pro, anyone can make an 8-minute flick. With YouTube, it can be shown to the world. To honor the venerable and reinvigorated art form, Hermes and Turner Classic Movies enlisted six acclaimed filmmakers – Peter Gilbert, Floria Sigismondi, Mario Van Peebles, E. Elias Merhige, Griffin Dunne, and Mary Sweeney -- to each make a short that pays tribute to classic cinema. They would then be shown on Hermes.com and aired on TCM.
However simple the concept sounded, the execution was anything but: “I was given an exceedingly minimal amount of money to work with,” divulged Dunne, with characteristic dry wit, at least week’s premiere, held at New York’s newly-renovated Morgan Library. But his film, a hilarious documentary on the increasingly-absurd politics of product placement, in particular those behind the use of Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces over Mars’ M&Ms in E.T. (“Mars is the Opus Dei of the confectionary world – secret and terrifying,” Dunne noted), was none the worse for it.
As for Sigismondi, who paid homage to Rebel Without A Cause using a monologue written by her husband, Living Things’ frontman Lillian Berlin, she had just one month to make hers. “I also experienced the nightmare for all filmmakers of having my main actor back out the day before we started shooting.” A replacement actor was quickly found, and Sigismondi’s film, a hyper-surreal exploration into the minds of the over-medicated youth, is the festival’s most powerful.
Hermes and TCM couldn’t have asked for a more varied batch of films. There’s something for everyone: Merhige, best known for directing Shadow of a Vampire, employed a painter, astrophysicist, and multi-media performance artist to assist in his conceptual, sci-fi portrayal of man’s creation. Much the way Melvin Van Peebles enlisted his son Mario to act in the legendary 1971 blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Mario enlisted his small army of children for a homemade mock-movie trailer entitled Badasssss Grandkids! Peter Gilbert paid bittersweet tribute to his mother and her love for Turner Classic Movies. “I’m not just giving it a plug; the woman has it on everyday, 24 hours a day,” he explained. And, Mary Sweeney, who for years has been David Lynch’s collaborator, high-tailed it to Buenos Aires to shoot a silent black-and-white love story. All of them will air this coming Friday on TCM during a 24-hour festival of shorts including those of Charlie Chaplin, Francois Truffaut, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Roman Polanski.
Click above to watch QuickTime (21.6 MB)
Watch It:
For more info on the festival, tcm.com
The six shorts will be shown on Hermes.com, starting September 16th.
For more from Floria Sigismondi, floriasigismondi.com
For more from Peter Gilbert, petergilbert.net
For more from Griffin Dunne, griffindunne.net
For more from E. Elias Merhige, imdb.com
For more from Mary Sweeney, imdb.com
Go There:
The Morgan Library, themorgan.org
