Kinematoscope

If I didn't have to work last Friday night, I was semi-considering driving out to Madison to catch the short films program that's playing in random spots throughout the country.

Seeing four of the animated shorts on the internet made it less appealing, though, as did the weather in these parts. So instead lets play depressing subject/catchy title roulette and see if we get lucky!

1. The Door

A mysterious tale that ends up focusing on the Chernobyl disaster. You can watch two brief clips on the official website of the film, and they both feature adorable little sick children. Uh-oh.

2. Instead of Abracadabra

A floundering young magician aims to impress his pretty nieghbor at his father's birthday party. It is by all accounts hilarious and well-crafted, but we all know the Academy just likes to kick comedy in the shins, year after year. Unless you're a comedy that also tackles An Issue, like the musical West Bank Story that won in 2006, set in Palestine. Watch a short trailer here.

3. Kavi

The titular young Indian boy works with his parents in a kiln, for a man who his father can't repay. The trailer looks okay, and the website is clearly full of activism about exposing modern-day slavery, but Indian poverty is soooo last year. I doubt it will get enough steam for a win here.

4. Miracle Fish

You can watch the whole 17 min film on some random website at the moment, but I honestly wouldn't reccommend it. Australian boy gets picked on at school, falls asleep hiding out in the nurses office, and awakes to find the school deserted. The reason turns out to be not profound or interesting at all.

5. The New Tenants

The trailer for this last one is full of recognizable faces and cryptic snippets of dialogue- so much that I'm guessing the 22 minute run-time isn't enough to elevate it above annoying film-school postulating and pretension. It certainly didn't make me want to look anywhere else to discern precisely what the plot it, anyway.

So in the end, The Door in a walk. Did you see that little girl with the big eyes and the radiation burn on her arm? That kinda thing gets to people.