WATCH THE ENTIRE SCI-FI LONDON SHORTS SELECTION HERE UNTIL 4TH JUNE 2022
Rob Deb gives us his hand-picked guide to the best shorts from the 2022 Sci-Fi London Festival, which you can watch here until 4th June 2022.
I have worked in a variety of ways with Sci-Fi London over the years, but before we get to my reviews I want to stress that I have never been part of the curation or selection of the film programmes. This year all the shorts are available for a week via an e-ticket and I am giving brief highlights from a high standard of films I urge you to seek out here or online.
In the first selection of shorts, the theme is ‘Strain in the Brain’. The films in this section set a high bar and these two I feel are well-worth mentioning as they push boundaries - as good stories should.
Rob
Part 1: Strain on The Brain
The Number 12
Written and Directed by Jed Bell, this is a great kitchen sink meets twilight zone moment. It’s great to see a film giving a distinctive perspective on transitioning and as a typical cis man, it’s one that really conveys the issues without belabouring them through exposition. Tom and Peter are two Transgender females to males who are close friends with one key distinction. Peter is Post-Transition and Tom is Pre-Transition. Tom has concerns over the process and what it would say about his identity, whereas Peter seems to be more comfortable and committed to his choices. We soon find ourselves in a world where a Transition agenda is pushed to the fore like some ‘reds under the beds’ propaganda one rarely sees outside of fringe telly and Reddit threads. In the choices and tastes Tom displays we get to see that while ostensibly a progressive pursuit, the right to question and ultimately have one’s autonomy with one's own body and its definition means the issue of transitioning is far from binary.
Speak for Herself
Written and Directed by Nick Willis, who has an astute sense of situation, this totally spoke to me. Our lead is a social media recluse with work that’s unrewarding and care duties to her family. The hoops and barrels she jumps through by simply not giving permission to every app on her phone is something I find frustratingly relatable and her need to find a way to help her ailing father gives great motivation. It’s a logical progression where one person’s privacy and need to avoid social media is what makes her a perfect target for that same social media. The film is executed briskly, stylishly and with great conviction. To cover so much in such little time is a mark of great film-making.
Part 2: Robotic Overlords
Saint Android
(Watch the trailer here)
Written and Directed by Lukas Von Berg. An old man comes to terms with his terminally Ill wife’s situation with the accompaniment of a robot priest sounds like something from Pixar studios. If so this is the Darkest timeline where Wall-E eats humans and Dug the talking Dog has rabies.
It has a bleak sense of humour that is brutal in its depiction of the absurdities we try to understand about end of life care. Norman, the soon to be widower, wrestles with the realities of losing his wife imminently while a robotic religious droid tries to emulate ceremony to jarring and sharp effect. The interplay is witty and barbed and Norman is at heart a sympathetic character in a situation that will come to us all in some form in life. Within such a small location the animation works deftly on our characters and really gives a sense of the Disneyfication of mortality while never leaving its own bleak heart. It will upset and shock viewers I’m sure. But to me, you can find the harshness of reality in those shocks. Lukas Von Berg is a name I will be looking out for in the future.
Red Gaia
Directed by Udesh Chetty. More of a meditative piece than a narrative. We see a dead earth and an android protecting the last signs of life. The structure is simple. Shades of Blade runner and Wall-e abound. The level of detail in the production both visually and aurally makes it a captivating work. Lighting and debris are some of the hardest details in animation and we watch our protagonist go through so many seasons it can’t help but captivate. It's a quality and assured showcase of production and one that is rewarding and enriching, and will require second viewings from its viewers. Check it out!
Part 3: All You Can Eat Alien Buffet
Stones
Directed By Joseph Brett and written by Bec Boey. A bleak tale that sits well within the milieu of Tales of the unexpected and shows how well we can convey so much character with so little.
We follow a brother and sister on a picnic to a stone circle in their home town. The brother John is also Jilted John and it becomes apparent the family loves him being back, his resolve to never leave again takes the most intense interpretation. The style is reminiscent of many 80’s animations that came out of Cosgrove hall and fans of their Pied Piper and Sandman shorts will be in for an utter treat. It’s a perfect fit for the form and length and a great ghost story in itself.
Green Food
(Watch the trailer here)
Directed by Xiaoli Liu. With a taut premise and decent production values, Green Food explores the roles of principles in space like star trek. It also puts them through the wringer, like Red Dwarf and details the breakdown with three strong personalities who have two bleak choices: Die of starvation in space or destroy potentially earth's greatest find and the only evidence of extraterrestrial life. The interplay between two junior crew members and captain Vegan makes for a great change of pace and dynamics as the filter of hunger pangs grow and affect their judgement. A strong sense of tension, frustration, humour and pathos all pervade the short. The film ends with a great finale that allows all the threads that unravel in the first half to be sewn back together with grace. If you miss it, you'll be green with envy.
Part 4 : Artifical insolence
Bebe A.I.
Directed by Rebekah Fortune. Johnny and Michaela are a cute couple. They're in their mid-20s. John is a barista. They have a flat and live near Michaela’s parents. Typical 20-somethings wanting to build a family in the future. However, this future is very much like the present and their attempt to get an A.I. baby to raise hits a brick wall when their case advisor deems them unsuitable because they have Down’s Syndrome.
As the short unravels there are a lot of questions about what we see, and a real tension is set up as both our protagonists are helped and hindered by various characters. You can't help but shake the nagging feeling about who is the ‘good guy’ in all this is. All the while we see the increasingly difficult lengths Johnny and Michaela will go to become parents and the love it represents to them. With slick split screens and engaging performances from all involved, this is a short that has a sharp focus on its point and every scene furthers its agenda judiciously and thrillingly. Making you want to see how things will resolve. It takes the future to look at our past and prejudice with great intensity and entertains without letting the message derail the narrative at any point. A great short perfectly executed.
Captain
Directed by Jared Weber. A short and simple premise with humour and drama will always win me over. That and a fondness for play school spaceships that look both loving and shoddy at the same time. Captain Leah is a strong female lead for about the first two minutes of the film, where a weird game of cyber chicken with the onboard computer CHARLIE leads to damage to the ship and fears to overcome. Her grief over losing her brother has to be overcome to save herself and the ship. But will the magnet boots be safe? Well, I held onboard for the film and I think you should too.
Part 5: The Future's Bright... The Future's ‘Orrid
The Bunker: The Last Fleet
(Visit the website here)
Written by Rowan Pullen and Stephen Potter. Directed by Stephen Potter. Tajarra is our on-point heroine with Reo as the guy in the chair. This starts with shades of Hardware and Mad Max as they bicker and team-bond against a landscape of desert and desertion and electrical remnants of a world before the sky faded. Before the invasion of the Aliens occurred. We soon escalate rapidly through alien attacks, invasion and war zombies, maintaining an ethos out of a futureshock while following our leads through their goal of survival. It reveals more at each point with no reliance on exposition creating a taut sense of tension and suspense. It mounts a streamlined mythology but ends with a great message. When you believe there is no future, look back to your heritage and you can always create one. Legacy as destiny is compelling in survival.
The Last Mechanic
(Visit the website here)
In many ways, it could have been a talking head, a monologue for theatres and bbc2 but The Last Mechanic is a masterclass in how to take the most mundane cinematic. Staying largely in his garage, our working man regales with wit, charm, and capable mechanical skill as he explains how society had the darkest turn with social infrastructure interceding with technology for the worst outcome for humanity. All delivered with a certain bonhomie and a setting that can't be replicated on a stage. Eddie Osei is a star as the mechanic, and the camera and backdrop give him the right space to shine.
