From online workouts with chirpy fitness instructors to music that would have once uplifted your spirits, from the overwhelming deluge of news, content, celebrities' two-pence on the health crisis that has followed in the wake of a pandemic, to political figures accepting or denying it - the conversation around the coronavirus is endless. The film is a portrayal of how the protagonist gets sucked into this vortex, it's pull strengthened by the emotional as well as the physical isolation she is already grappling with in an empty house with only voices on screens as a companion. The grainy, dimly-lit visuals further serve to communicate a sense of remoteness and aloofness as we find ourselves emotionally, more than physically, distanced from one another. At first glance, the film is about no more than a woman's emotional health spiralling into chaos. However, the narrative is perhaps also about the quest for some semblance of control, as false as it might be, coming from washing your hands obsessively or dancing around in your bathroom, dressed up in bling and shimmer, perhaps allowing yourself to forget, even if just for a fleeting moment, that a pandemic has not brought the world down to its knees. This when coupled with beautiful shots and a seamless edit, translates the protagonist's thoughts and internal state of being to the screen with an honesty and truth that will ring loud and clear with several viewers. And yet, look closer, and there is another important concern the film engages with - one about the 
ubiquitous nature of technology when it comes to human existence. It's infestation in our day-to-day lives is a deeply internalised and normalised reality. However it's presence acquires a herculean proportion when we are removed from human contact. As the voices continue on our several gadgets, soon devolving into a cacophony, the noise breaks the silence with an overwhelming, immensely disorienting force, suggests the narrative. Will this pull the protagonist deeper, to a place of no return, along with the viewer, or would it finally allow her a respite, a moment of complete abandon away from it all?

Noise | Short Film Nominee

The coronavirus pandemic has introduced us to an isolation quite unprecedented in human history. While the adherence to the lockdown has brought with it financial tribulations and all sorts of practical difficulties, another huge hurdle to accompany it is that of the emotional well-being of a people who now find themselves devoid of the safety of a community they might have even taken for granted earlier. Distance bases itself on the same premise, endeavouring to be an exploration of not only the physical distance, an absolute must to combat the novel Covid-19 virus, but also the emotional distance we may find ourselves face to face with. In essence, our quarantine is not simply confined to physical boundaries, but has stretched its limbs to the mental and psychological aspects of our day-to-day lives as well. The film employs a straight narrative to suggest fighting the obstacles with kindness and by the simple act of reaching out to one another. It ties together the experiences of three different households, each dealing with their own set of problems as they grapple with an uncertainty with no end in sight, and finds a way to communicate its point of making their presence felt irrespective of their limited physical freedom. The visuals are sophisticated and smooth, exhibiting skilled camerawork. The film also manages to make efficient use of its limited resources and opportunities as a result of its adherence to the official health guidelines.

Distance | Short Film of the Day

Boundaries is a mingling of dance and music in order to allow an emotional expression that transcends the many limitations that can sometimes plague verbal communication. As the film introduces you to Cristina Teresa Hall, a world renowned flamenco dancer, it invokes a conversation on the myriad elements that inhabit the emotional, mental, and sometimes, even the creative space, only to find articulation in the fluidity of physical movement. 

Locating itself within the symmetry of the Saint Joseph's Art Society, in San Francisco, USA, the video offers the portrayal of a mood that is marked by a notable resonance in a world where a pandemic redefined for us what it meant to hurt, drown in despair, and yet, overcome it to find hope all over again. 

 It is precisely when you may have been convinced that now the body is exhausted and lies at rest, it rises again, to the beat of the music, following the same rhythm it had learnt to follow all along. 

In the process, the video shares its intentions equipped with a judicious employment of metaphors and symbolism that, in turn, enable it to offer a cohesive, comprehensive narrative to the viewer.

Boundaries | Short Film of the Day

The Covid-19 pandemic ushered with it a reality that deprived us completely of any semblance of the world as we knew it. Amidst every corner of the virtual space spewing words like "the new normal" and "unprecedented times", and the tedium of video calls and incessant work meetings, we were left drowning in this abruptly changed, completely alien way of life. 

The short film conjures the same reality as it takes us into the experiences of the protagonist, a woman who is quarantined by herself. While disturbing news headlines continue to break the silence of her empty house, the consequent emotional and physical isolation threatens to overpower her existence further. If the lockdown had begun with a routine of exercise, fulfilling work duties and finding a general order to things in life during lockdown, it has now devolved into despair, lethargy and lack of interest in the same activities which had once kept her afloat. 

 While we may be all too familiar with the bleakness and despondency that came to predominate our lives during this time, the plot wants to take it a step further and remind you of the hope that still shines through it. Though the pandemic might have brought the world to a halt, we are all indeed together in it, and the film wants to simply employ the thought as a reminder that this too will be over soon, enabling us to emerge out of it stronger.

On Repeat | Short Film Nominee

The film draws a parallel as well as finds the overlapping moment between a global crisis and one that unfolds in the private, intimate space of domesticity. The story is of a family which finds itself grappling with not only the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent physical distance between its members, but also emotional distance and the pain it leaves in its wake. The predominant part of the visuals are constituted by video calls and screens where the characters present their conflicts for the viewer to witness. A man finds himself stranded on the opposite coast from his family. This distance between him and his son echoes one which had existed even before the lockdown. As innocently questioned by his son, who wonders why did he not see his father enough before the coronavirus locked them inside, the plot presents the audience with its core concern - tackling emotional complexities that come to constitute relationships. The film is a zealous attempt to tell a personal, but relatable story located in a world that is ravaged by all kinds of obstacles, especially those that stand in the path of reducing the distance between our loved ones. There is also the suggestion of perhaps attaining a realisation that could have only been achieved during a time as unprecedented as a pandemic, and it is in that, in a time of intense tribulations, that love and hope truly shine through, the narrative seems to suggest.

Essential | Short Film Nominee

The short film is a dedicated attempt to portray a woman's isolation following the coronavirus lockdown that has rendered everyone confined to their houses. As she moves from one corner of the city to another, now nothing more than an alien territory, she is unable to find the comfort and peace that is associated with human company, perhaps taken for granted earlier. The title of the film also provides the metaphor, windows of empty buildings that would have once given a glimpse into different worlds, that serves as the premise of the narrative. The film is a sincere endeavour to explore a woman's inability to come to terms with her reality, along with the eventual hope she finds within as well as in the world around her. However, it would have benefited from a closer attention on the edit table.

Windows | Short Film Nominee

You are advised to not go into The Last Lockdown Sketch on a full stomach or with any sort of squeamishness you might associate with the human body. Consider yourself warned for what is to come is not for the weak-hearted. As an online consultation progresses between Dr. Lecter and his patient, John, the viewer is roped into an online appendectomy that the doctor leads his patient to perform on himself. Before the bizarre event comes to be, the gathering of the objects that would be required to execute the task - needle and thread, alcohol and a sharp blade - are smartly chosen images to invoke dread within the viewer without explicitly showing the act itself. The rest of the narrative follows the same premise, one that conjures horror more by concealing than revealing. At the same time, the entirety of the film remains peppered with unexpected bits of humor to enhance and supplement the grimness of the act, while entertaining the audience throughout. As the procedure progresses, the viewer's attention is ensnared by the developments before them. This is precisely why they are completely caught off guard with a far more disturbing revelation that awaits them at the end of it all.

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