If the purpose of art is to disorient, this short film succeeds at it most brilliantly. With its disparate images which still somehow find a common link weaving them together, all thanks to its skilful narrative, Under Covers involves the viewer right from its very first opening visual. The film offers a heady cocktail of childish images and mature content that would leave the viewer baffled about what to make of the film, but in the most wonderful ways. From controversial to violent to simply disturbing - the images roll one after the other, invoking sexuality, religion, violence and the fear of the supernatural. On a night of a lunar eclipse, all that it simply does is delve into the lives and secrets of the inhabitants of a small town. As the surreal, dreamy transitions follow in quick successions, would you have the stomach for what it has in store for you?

Under Covers | Short Film of the Day

Amidst steely, man-made contraptions of a concrete jungle, complete with abandoned objects and an environmental malady that continues to grow exponentially every day, Waste Away locates its explorations. The first handful of images, all exhibiting investment of meticulous thought, are sufficient to set a horizon of expectation in place for the viewer. The stop motion, though marked by its inherent surrealism of story and plot, draws the viewer's attention to a grotesque reality of urban progress and development. The narrative follows the experiences and struggles of a solitary figure, a woman who perhaps becomes an embodiment of the isolation that marks city life. Stumbling upon a rejected fish from a household, one that successfully portrays for the viewer an image of apathy and destructive indifference towards a dying planet, she eats its whole. This, in turn, ensures another series of the most unexpected events. Through her desire to not give in even in the face of extreme pain and physical discomfort, the protagonist further comes to offer a metaphor about the forever waging battle of the planet to still fight for the health of its choking oceans. While people may have managed to lose their sense of humanity and kindness towards each other, allowing existence to adopt a doleful tone and pace of its own, there is one final attempt by her to not relinquish just yet. This echoes perhaps a similar imagined message of the planet which still fights fiercely to sustain and harbour life within its seams, thereby allowing the film to communicate an impactful message especially relevant in contemporary times. On the whole, the story engages with several themes - those of motherhood, urban decay, environmental destruction, and succeeds at communicating its interactions with each of them in a notable manner.

Waste Away | Short Film of the Day

The film, marked by its sombre palette, is essentially a quiet, unrushed conversation that the protagonist is having with the viewer. As it comes into its own, the tone continues to grow in intimacy, imbuing the film with honesty and candour, thereby making its subject matter universal. The protagonist takes you along the circuitous route of his introspection as well as his interactions with the world without - invoking ideas of existentialism, nihilism, isolation, loneliness, and the manner in which he is located amidst this ongoing tussle between the several forces of consciousness. The film is a solo-project, and thus very evidently exhibits a consistency of vision and progression with regards to the narrative. Finally, it closes with the image of a fragment of a broken bridge, the entire structure destroyed. And yet, the protagonist continues with his work on a computer, as if his immediate reality is not a sight of immense destruction and upheaval, as if nothing has happened, for despite everything else, it is something to do, it is one more stab at making loneliness or simply existence, less overwhelming a proposition. He is flanked by two of his loyal companions (his past selves? emotional baggages?) who never leave his side, who now continue to work at the concrete and stone structure with their equipment, leaving you with the resounding question - are they rebuilding it or taking it down further?

Sometimes I Think About Things, and Sometimes I Get Sad | Short Film of the Day

The surrealist music video reimagines the myth of Sisyphus where he was cursed to repeat the same task of pushing a boulder up a mountain every day for eternity. Using the myth as inspiration, Sisyphos introduces us to a woman who presents a basket of bread to a singularly unique group of people in a church. She watches it get devoured within a few minutes, only to return to the task of baking more bread soon after. 

The images that are thus used to delineate the process are taken a step further and suffused with symbolism and metaphors of their own. While the idea of cyclicality of life is conjured, it is coupled with a sense of openness of the vast outdoors where eventually the protagonist surrenders herself. The carnality of the visuals unfolding before you employ tight close-ups to invoke a sensuality that is loud and clear in the message it delivers to the viewer.

 The well-thought visual development is coupled with Acid Pauli‘s remix of Johanna Burnheart‘s ‘Sisyphos’ to present the music video as a cohesive whole. It does a notable job of drawing you in its world of strange beings and their stranger acts, and ties it all together with a track that ensures that, as you try to comprehend the drama unfolding before you, your immersion in its otherworldliness and surrealism remains constant throughout.

Sisyphos | Short Film of the Day

Hopes and dreams can easily fall in the category of cliches when it comes to their exploration in cinema and art. The film, an interplay of the same ideas, steers clears of the dangerous territory to instead put forth a potentially fresh take on the same. A man finds himself at an unusual bar, one which is home to a portal to the past, and thus begins his own interaction with the idea of dreams. The events that follow come to acquire a surreal tone, further attempting to enhance the narrative that is now constituted by several artists with their own respective dreams. Through an engagement with the concept of time, past and the present, dreams and fears, there is also a sense of a differentiation between being good at your craft, and achieving a genius stature in the same, as well as your own self-inflicted doubts and inhibitions that keep you away from it. The film is notable in the manner in which it conjures all of these concerns, and yet manages to maintain a uniqueness of the tone throughout. Additionally, the dream-like atmosphere is created to perhaps even spur a desire to fight for their dreams even within the viewer themselves.

Looking Glass | Short Film Nominee

A realm of monochromatic animation takes us into the world of this short narrative, attempting to bring to life a reality that mingles fact and fiction. A shadowed figure chases another. The horrified eyes of the latter suggests there is little by way of escape available for him.

 While one pursues the other, the entirety of the narrative comes into being, finally concluding in a floating bedroom amidst an endless galaxy. The bare walls are adorned with a single poster that reads 'surrealism', as the protagonist sleeps by himself, clearly plagued by nightmares. 

 As the title suggests, the visual narrative wants to be an engagement with the numerous complexities of the human mind, and the staggeringly powerful form they can take during sleep. It would, however, be desirable to see the micro-short in the form of a longer project, allowing sufficient time for the thematic concerns to establish a beginning, middle and end.

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