The short film is the most beautiful and brilliantly executed engagement with the notions of memory, time, nostalgia and the familial space. As the protagonist shares his technique of packing, one passed on to him by his father, he takes the viewer deeper into a moving, poignant narrative, marked by the same minimalism as that of its parent text by Ron Koertge. Before you even realise where you have located yourself, the story has already managed to engage and involve you beyond the point of no return. The visuals use stop-motion animation in a skilled and sophisticated way, marking transitions in the narration of the protagonist's past experiences by vividly surreal images. The film ends with a beautiful metaphor allowing the negative space to be a comment on the gaps in communication that may have potentially been part of the protagonist's relationship with his father, as well as being a potent marker of what truly came to define their equation - the art and technique of packing.

Negative Space | Short Film of the Day

As the name suggests, the entirety of the narrative is about a single day in the protagonist's life, rather only a couple of minutes. The tight, handheld opening visuals do not immediately give away what the story is going to be about. It takes its time gradually drawing you in, and revealing itself in a beautifully careful and calculated manner. The film deals with deep emotions, but adopts the most quiet and nuanced tone for their expression. The sense it invokes is of a soothing experience, despite the moving nature of the subject at hand. The story is going to be about a young woman who has come to a place with her girlfriend for an important event, the viewer soon realises. She walks into a music store where the only other person present is the owner. The narrative then unfolds to reveal the poignant thought that forms its premise, essentially a story of the many complexities of love, yearning, loss and perhaps a reunion? Despite its brevity, the story encompasses several emotions in a wholesome, complete manner and takes its audience along, allowing them to participate in the experience of its characters. It maintains its pace most effortlessly, further supplemented by the performances, chemistry of its characters and sophisticated camerawork.

This Perfect Day | Short Film of the Day

‘All Through the Night’ is a heartfelt exploration of a father-son relationship prima facie. However one requires only a slightly closer look to realize the myriad undercurrents that constitute it. The narrative invokes memory, a fraught relationship with the past, familial dynamics, and their potentially volatile nature. 

Neil has arrived at his childhood home for a farewell, one that is as inevitable as it is essential. His father Alexander, a former choir conductor, battles Alzheimer’s and is about to move to a health facility permanently. While trying to comprehend this rapidly disappearing relationship with his father, Neil finds himself looking back at his own memories of him, perhaps in a manner he had not done before. As precarious as the balance might be, a balance that holds the last vestiges of their equation, it is still tightly controlled and molded by a shared past, no matter how turbulent. Music, at last, becomes the common thread to tie it all together. Finally now, during a moment of goodbye, the two reach and inhabit the same plane, even if ever so briefly, suggests the narrative. 

Along with portraying a poignant story, the film also does a notable job of raising awareness about the illness itself, and the many ways Alzheimer’s affects families and carers. The writing, performances, visual progression, and background score, all aid this endeavor notably, allowing the film to come together with smoothness and ease.

All Through the Night  | Short Film of the Month

‘Solo’ is a film that unfolds more within the silence it presents, than any dialogue or verbal exchange. A man has arrived at a school for his daughter’s interview that would determine whether or not she would be able to secure a spot at this mighty institution. It involves a musical performance as the father waits outside the room. The image of a father taking a step back, as uneasy as it might have left him, to allow his daughter to take her first steps in the world without him, the image of this wait, marked by trepidation and uncertainty, becomes not only crucial to the story but also pronounces the film's primary preoccupation. 
The vastness of the building’s architecture is set against the diminutive presence of the quiet father-daughter duo, hesitant and a little unsure of their surroundings, but determined in their resolve. One of the only words we hear a character articulate is the young daughter’s understandable nervousness at the prospect of giving a performance that would determine her future at the school. The audience is never made privy to the assurance she gets in return. However, the screenplay, performance, and narratorial construction ensure that its effect is conveyed and realized with full effect. 
The short film, in the process, explores a moment suspended in time, and pivots on an equation defined by unselfish affection and love, portrayed most notably by the protagonist’s own discomfort and unease in a surrounding he is not at all familiar with, alongside the brave face of conviction he puts on for his daughter.

Solo | Short Film of the Day

While trying to come to terms with his relationship with his father, the protagonist gives the viewer an intense, unabashed look at everything the relationship has meant for him. The narrative explores the co-existence of an all-consuming, overwhelmingly powerful love, positioned right beside the complete absence of it, or worse, its transformation into anger, bitterness, and resentment. While there may be hope and desire for a bond between two people, if the foundation is already festering, there is little room for any kind of redemption or salvaging, the film suggests. 

At the film’s start, we are presented with the image of the protagonist writing something, but if it’s a literal reality of him writing something based on his relationship with his father, or is it only a metaphor for him re-writing the relationship itself in his head to eventually find closure and thereby move on, becomes a relevant thought to engage with. 

As the plot develops, talks of dreams and writing find their way into it, coupled with Shakespearean lyricism. However, each element only leads to the same discussion, the portrayal of a highly damaging equation, and the power it still has over the protagonist. He may feel suffocated, and uncomfortable, presented alongside the Oedipal image of a son inflicting violence on his father. There may be harking back to the childhood games, and yet, all of it always remains punctuated by something graver, heavier. Pain, hurt, and disappointment never leave the narrative, finding an echo within the screenplay and performances, while being portrayed in an engaging, experimental manner all along for the audience to interact with.

How We Play | Short Film of the Day

The short film is an exploration of dysfunctional familial relationships and the relentless struggle to not let them spirit away into apathy and indifference. The opening visual makes the viewer sit up in their seat and truly pay attention, and that is when the film seems to be doing its job well. The narrative is honest and sincere. However, despite it, it runs the danger of being predictable, and losing the tautness and uniqueness it had promised at the start. On the whole, the film is an endearing watch about a senile father, a broke brother and a high-strung sister trying to keep it all together. Would their's be a road trip that stays with you after you're done watching it?

Daytime Noon | Short Film of the Day

The familial space, which can often be a source of comfort and warmth, can sometimes also be the cause of immense pain, and the grief that gets left behind in its wake. The short film conjures the same idea, but also takes it a few steps further. It speaks about building on that pain, to allow it to mature and evolve into something beautiful, perhaps even become a tribute of love to the loss. Within opens with the visual of a man talking to someone behind the camera. The narrative employs blurred lines between fact and fiction to share its story with the viewer - the story of a father's love for his daughter, and how a single moment of negligence altered the course of their relationship forever. Along with invoking all that the protagonist now battles within him, there is also the reminder of the idea that those we love, never truly leave us. They find ways to live even after they are gone. The story and plot are conjured to eventually foreground this idea for the viewer, along with an important social message, allowing the film to essentially be about a sense of unwavering hope that will find a way even in the darkest of times.

Within | Short Film of the Day

'Starship' is a heartfelt story of dreams, adventure, and relentless perseverance. However, the core of the narrative is constituted by something far more simple, and thereby, endowed with the potential of acquiring an unmissable universality in its appeal. It's the affection and tenderness of a father-daughter bond. The brief duration of the film packs a complete story, defined with neat boundaries of a beginning, middle, and end. A daughter is pushing the frontiers of the universe in pursuit of a goal that is only realized at the film's conclusion. When it arrives, by then not only has the protagonist completed a journey, but so has the plot, as well as the viewer who has come along on this ride. The metaphor of the eternal presence of a parent's love is entwined with competent animation and a fitting background score, tying it all together with a coherent and comprehensive communication of all of these intentions.

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