We went to a DC Film Fest showing of several shorts yesterday and I wanted to pass along thoughts on what we saw. If you like film and film making this is a great event to attend.

The set that we saw was Short Cuts 1. All were entertaining and thought provoking in different ways including the story, the animation technique, capturing your attention and continuing to reflect on it afterwards.

Beach Flags

Animated story on helping being just as good as winning. Also fascinating story on how some cultures treat women.
The Bigger Picture

Unusual stop motion (combined with animation?) technique that I had never seen before. It looked like painted backgrounds with attached things being moved around.
Aubade

A story that you interpret the meaning of yourself. In my case it was how the sun is what is responsible for our world and we should be glad that it is there.
The Bravest, the Boldest

Very moving view of a US Army death notification attempt. It conveys some of the real result of military actions. I did not think that the actors portraying the soldiers looked or acted the parts correctly but they were not the focus anyway. Whenever I hear “bombing will only take 3 or 4 days” or “they’ll be home by Christmas” I will think of this.
En Route

Several vignettes of people traveling in cars on a train. Their stories and situations are all different and none communicate as you might expect.
Valentina

Sometimes dogs are more intuitive than people.
Parveneh

Moving story of a low paid girl from Afghanistan in Switzerland. Finding a friend will hopefully improve her life. While it is easy to criticize or look down on illegal immigrants how would you feel if you actually knew them and saw their lives? Obviously you can’t have an informed opinion on all of them based on the experiences of a few but you should consider their lives.