*Note* Tickets for screenings is handled directly by the venues
The intensely exciting Short Film Competition will feature in Apollo this year, where our film makers will compete against one another to show that it is they who have made the best short film this year.
This year the following short films are being shown as part of the competition:
Poshak (facade) (11mins 29secs) Iram Parveen Bilal
Troubled writer, Dua Tariq, tries to seek inspiration through a meeting with her spiritual dance teacher in Karachi. She must let go of the façade(poshak) she is being forced to create to satisfy existence around her in order to access her true self again.
The Stitches Speak (12mins) Nina Sabnani
An animated documentary which celebrates the art and passion of the Kutchartisans associated with Kala Raksha. The film traces multiple journeys made by the participants towards defining their identities and towards forming the Kala Raksha Trust and the School for Design. The film uses their narrative art of appliqué and embroideries through which they articulate their responses to life, and events as traumatic as the earthquake and as joyful as flying a kite. Through conversations and memories four voices share their involvement in the evolution of a craft tradition.
Shirin (12mins) Stephen Fingleton
Shirin has dinner alone with her father in their small north London home. With her mother absent, little is said between them – until Shirin reveals she is going out for the evening.
Boy in the Tree (14mins) Aneel Ahmad
Boy in the Tree is a film about people’s hopes, goals, dreams and desires and how people strive to achieve those desires under adverse circumstances.
‘Raise yourself to such heights of greatness, that before He decides your fate, God, Himself will ask you, ‘What is your wish?’ from Khudi (The Self) by Allama Muhammad Iqbal (Poet)
Words (14mins) Anup Bhandari
Words is a story about Juliet and Owen, a deaf man, who meet at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. Their conversation begins awkwardly but over the next few days, she comes up with interesting ways to communicate with him. The friendship slowly appears to blossom into romance but the difference between silence and words may be more than it seems.
The film uses American Sign Language and makes references to the works of popular deaf icons – Beethoven’s musical masterpiece “Moonlight Sonata” and Chuck Baird’s painting “Music for the eyes”. The characters names are a reference to Beethoven and his real life love Giulietta Guicciardi, to whom Beethoven dedicated the Moonlight Sonata.
Second Best (18mins) Jason Z. Wong
Every summer, sisters Taila and Deepa ship off to Hindi Camp with their family for a weekend of yoga, matchmaking, and East Indian culture. But this year, the girls are without their mother, and their widowed father Raajesh is left picking up the slack. Overwhelmed by his newfound responsibilities, Raajesh applies extra pressure on the girls to win the camp’s annual Hindi Speaking Competition. But when the girls’ sibling rivalry erupts onstage, the family must reconsider what it means to be a “winner’’.
Commitment (10mins) Raahul Singh
Rahul, a passionate dancer, decides to give up on his dance career to get married to Asha, the woman he loves. He then becomes a lawyer accepting a position in Asha’s father’s law firm. Years later he wakes up from a dream, realizing he is unhappy.
My Lad (13min 12secs) Sami Khan
Abdul has been hiding out in his launderette for days, unable to deal with the world outside. Despite pleas from his brother, Abdul is determined to run from the one thing he has to accept, fate.
Home (7mins) Krish Shrikumar
An unnamed man finds his memories of home becoming increasingly vivid as time passes. This abstract film of insinuation – a short meditation on what we call ‘home’ and what others mean by the word – tells the story of his journey back there.
Islam ain’t that scary (10mins) Oliver Zimmerman
In this urban documentary a group of young muslims explore Islamophobia inBristol, ten years after the attack on the twin towers. What causes it and what could be done to dispel the misconceptions and misunderstanding surrounding the religion. They show that Islam is about peace and tolerance and that terrorists cannot describe themselves as Muslims.