An online European Short Film Festival by EUNIC London
Enforced measures of lockdown and social distancing, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, have brought about new modes of cultural activity, new ways of creating and consuming culture. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances have reframed notions of togetherness, alienation, distance and embodiment. We have suddenly found ourselves before an abundance of virtual events, exhibitions, festivals, and performances, which reframe the social and physical foundations of culture, while all the same highlighting their significance.
In Short Europe, an initiative of EUNIC London, was first organised on Brexit day as a celebration of European cinema and our shared values and culture with the UK. Its second edition follows prolonged periods of uncertainty, fatigue and despair of the lives lost and the time spent in isolation and distanced from the people we love and the things we love to do, such as attending a music concert or a theatre performance, or simply going to the cinema on a Sunday evening. The way out is still obscure and saturated by layers of medical, scientific, political and economic discourse.
And, yet, cinema is still alive on the small screens of our quotidian devices; a refuge of hope, reminiscing the time before, visualising the time after. Escapism has invariably constituted the essence of cinema, as the medium par excellence that provides audiences with images and sounds of a utopian feel, of hope.
The second edition of In Short Europe embraces the theme of ESCAPE, offering our audience an online collection of short films that negotiate the concept through their form, themes and style. Through a variety of genres and styles, fifteen shorts from all over Europe feature characters and images that appear and disappear, following physical or mental journeys, reaching points of arrival or points of departure, always on the move, seeking an escape that may or may not come.
Text by Marios Psaras, Cultural Counsellor, Cyprus High Commission
PROGRAMME:
Austria: Excuse Me, I’m Looking for the Ping-pong Room and My Girlfriend, directed by Bernhard Wenger, 2017| 23’| German with English subtitles| fiction
Cyprus: Wax and Feathers, directed by Marios Lizides, 2018| 15’| Greek with English subtitles | documentary
Czech Republic: Home Sleep Home, directed by Adam Koloman Rybansky,, 2018 | 23’ | Czech with English subtitles |fiction
Estonia: A poem about Love, directed by Nora Särak and Dominik Krutský, 2018| 20’| Estonian with English subtitles| documentary
Finland: The Irresistible Smile, directed by Ami Lindholm, 2016 | 06’21| no dialogue |animation
Germany: Ties, directed by Dina Velikovskaya, 2019| 07’35 | no dialogue| Germany, Russia | animation
Greece: The distance between us and the sky, directed by Vasilis Kekatos, 2019| 9’| Greek with English subtitles | fiction
Hungary: Last Call, directed by Hajni Kis, 2018| 28’| Hungarian with English subtitles| fiction
Ireland: Departure, directed by Aoife Doyle, 2018 | 9’21| no dialogue | animation
Lithuania: The Juggler, directed by Skirmanta Jakaitė, 2018| 11’ | no dialogue| animation
Poland: Acid Rain, directed by Tomasz Popakul, 2019 | 28’ | Polish with English subtitles| animation
Portugal: Friends After Dark, directed by Rita Barbosa, 2016| 24’| Portuguese with English subtitles | fiction
Romania: Outdoors in Isolation, directed by Matei Branea, 2020 | 3’| no dialogue | animation
Slovenia: The Paradise, directed by Sonja Posenc, co-director Mitja Ličen, 2019 | 26’| Slovenian with English subtitles| fiction
Spain: Selfie, directed by Nayra Sanz Fuentes, 2019| 9’| English | documentary
REGISTER TO ATTEND THE EVENT ON EVENTBRITE. Once you have registered, you will receive a link with a password via e-mail on the start date of the festival.
For further details and updates about the festival please visit our website here.
All films will be available to watch for one week only within the UK.
All films with dialogue have English subtitles and are suitable for 16+ audience.
EVENTS:
Thursday 29 October 2020, 7- 8:30pm BST
Live panel discussion on documentary and experimental video art films with the directors:
Marios Lizides (Cyprus), Nayra Sanz Fuentes (Spain), Nora Särak and Dominik Krutský
(Estonia). Moderated by Helen de Witt (Lecturer, curator, writer; Associate lecturer Birkbeck University of London and University of the Arts London, Programme advisor BFI London Film Festival).
Monday 2 November 2020, 7- 8:30pm BST
Live panel discussion on animation and moving image films with the directors: Ami Lindholm (Finland), DinaVelikovskaya (Russia, Germany), Matei Branea (Romania), Aoife Doyle (Ireland) Tomasz Popakul (Poland- tbc) and Skirmanta Jakaitė (Lithuania -tbc). Moderated by Abigail Addison (Producer & Director of Animate Projects).
Wednesday 4 November 2020, 7- 8:30 pm BST
Live panel discussion on fiction films with the directors: Bernhard Wenger (Austria), Hajni Kis (Hungary-tbc), Vasilis Kekatos (Greece- tbc), Sonja Posenc and Mitja Ličen (Slovenia) and Rita Barbosa (Portugal). Moderated by Philip Ilson (Artistic Director London Short Film Festival, London Film Festival Senior Short Advisor).
More info on the events and registration links to be published soon here.