Short films are strange

Word of the day, "abstrait:" abstract

This past week Clermont-Ferrand celebrated its most famous event, "Le Court Metrage," the short film festival. There were hundreds of short films shown at cinemas throughout the city, French and International. Outside every cinema or auditorium there were long lines of people awaiting an 1-2 hours of a session of short stories. Each session had about 6-8 short films. I ended up attending three different sessions, and really, I had no idea what to expect with each film. The length of the films ranged from about 7-30 minutes, some long enough to tell a story, others maybe just a message.

The first session I attended had films from Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Iran, UK, and Germany. Fortunately, each film was played with both English and French subtitles, although for the Scottish one I had to read the French subtitles because I could barely understand their accents! More often than not the films were depressing, but I suppose those types of movies spur more contemplation then others.

The second session had films from Denmark, Germany, Spain, China, and Argentina. My favorite was made in Spain about Ernest Hemingway called, "Notes on the Other," which described some of his experience when he would visit Spain as well as his final moments before killing himself.

Finally, a little something different for the third session, as it was a Zombie-themed session! Ha. Most of these films were fantastically full of cliche zombie situations, without which you could not have a zombie flick. (young blonde girls running up the stairs clad only in underwear, lots of screaming, rigid zombie movements, and the like). My favorite was one called, "The Zombie Family," a parody of a family sitcom show including fake laughter and applause. All together the zombie films were totally bizarre but definitely entertaining.