When it comes to getting a movie fix these days, more people opt for their computer screens than venturing outside to a theater. Hollywood has countered this trend with a slew of 3-D blockbusters and cinematic largesse, but how does the short film fare?
Some people are satisfied to watch short films online. On YouTube, for example, almost everything is a short. But if you watched YouTube, Vimeo — or any other online video platform — every day for the rest of your life, you still wouldn't be able to see everything on them. How do you know what you're watching is "the best"? That's where the importance of curation comes in.
You won't meet more discerning curators than Seigo Tono and the organizers of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia. This team wades through thousands of films and puts the best ones on screen — and take it from me, the short is best viewed on a huge screen, in deep seats with artisanal popcorn. That's probably because shorts have a better metabolism than feature-length films. There's no fuss and no protracted prelude. Often it's the director's first project, so you get the kind of tender loving care born of ambitious idealism. Other times, a lot of seasoned filmmakers dip into the shorts format as a way of taking a break or resetting their creative clock. Either way, the rewards for a viewer are plentiful.