Cleveland International Film Festival premieres a diverse selection of short films
On Wednesday, April 3, my Spanish class along with a couple of other Spanish classes took a trip to Tower City in Cleveland to attend the 43rd Annual Cleveland International Film Festival. As a movie and television show critic, I viewed the following eight films with the eyes of a film critic.
The showing kicked off with a short film called Marshmallows, which was directed by Salvador Plancarte Hernandez in Mexico. While short and sweet, the short film does not stand out enough with the given plot. The premise of the short film is that the main character, Giyi, has a undying love for pink marshmallows. There is no further development into the character nor plot, leaving the viewers with a styrofoam-like taste in their mouths.
The second film presented was a film called Compatible, which was directed by Pau Bacardit in Spain. This surreal short film beats the previous bitter tasting short film by leaps and bounds. The main character wakes up one day, realizing his human invasive technology is unable to work with the touch of his fingerprint. The matter leads him to the conclusion that his human existence is not “up to date” with the technology. Compatible stuck out to me, because it not only nails the concept of the physical need for technology, the concept leads viewers to think about our current state with technology. By the time the film ended, I wished I had been watching a feature length film.
Next on the list is The Cleaning Service, which was directed by Julieta Alcaide in Spain, making it the only film on the list directed by a woman. Regarding the topic of women, this short definitely contains undertones of feminism and inequality in the workplace. Maria, a single mom, is not being paid enough money at her job, which leads her to think her boss is hiding the rest of the money somewhere. Given the situation, Maria and her mischievous daughter sneak into the workplace at night with the help of another coworker. As short films go, this one was incredibly fun to watch. The camera angles and given tension make a huge impact on the enjoyment factor. In addition, the soundtrack slightly reminds me of The Incredibles soundtrack.
Unfortunately, we can not always have nice things, hence the existence of the cringeworthy short film, #Superinlove, which was directed by Curro Bernabeu in Spain. If this short film is satirical, then I give it a slight pass, and I mean that in the not-so-generous sense. The short starts off with two lovers celebrating their “monthiversary” with a romantic dinner. However, the man in the relationship is uneasy over the fact that his girlfriend doesn’t press “like” on his social media posts. The two begin to throw shady insults at each other about their social media patterns. The only thing missing from this short film was the avocado toast and a Kim Kardashian reference. My distaste for this short film goes far to the point where I feel as if I owe an apology to all the non-millenials and gen z people out in the world who look down upon us.
Thankfully, the following film happens to be my favorite on the entire list; The Robbery, which was directed by Alfonso Díaz in Spain. Firstly, a feature that makes this short film stand out from the others is the use of black and white cinematography. The film begins with a robber casually threatening a barista after ordering a cup of coffee. Coincidentally, another robber makes a sudden entrance, whose methods are more noticeable by the rest of the people inside. The two robbers begin to insult each other as if there wasn’t a robbery going on in the first place, adding a layer of satire and hundreds of layers of laugh out loud humor.
Next up we have a short film that feels more like a trip to the Discovery Channel, but otherwise is a great short film; Stardust, which was directed by Aldo Setelo in Mexico. A boy and his father have a simple and sequential job to do every day; collecting garbage. One day, Adan, the boy, walks in on a classroom that is being taught about the big bang theory (no… not the show). Heavily inspired, the boy begins to read from discarded books and magazines. However, his father disapproves of his new interest in science and forces him to collect more trash with him. Regardless of the predictable plot, it is easy to admit that the premise of the short film is admirable.
Mariposas, directed by Adrian Carey in the US, is terrifyingly clever. A dad waits for his daughter to be dismissed from school. However, a butterfly is presented to him instead. Not knowing who the butterfly is, he accidentally snaps one of the wings, crippling the insect instantly. To put it out of its misery, he throws the butterfly to the ground and stomps on it to death. To the dad and the viewers’ surprise, the butterfly turns out to be the unexpected. While this short film isn’t one of my favorites, it did in fact offer three minutes including a traumatic plot twist. The twist left people putting their conspiracy theorist gear on and scrape the bottom of the barrel for any sort of metaphorical message. I wish the message was more clear to audiences, but in the same time, that is the magic of Mariposas.
Speaking of plot twists, Fears, directed by Germán Sancho in Spain, gives the entire aesthetic of a horror film. At first, I was slightly disappointed, because it began as the typical story of a child being afraid to sleep in the dark. She begins to see an old lady. As a warning to those sensitive to jumpscares… there’s a few of them spread out in this short film. The father is in denial that the old lady exists and that she is just imagining things, which creates a factor of alienation for the girl. The short film may have strong suits in the eerie department, but the ending gave flavors of pure sadness and revealed an unfortunate reality.
In conclusion, the Cleveland International Film Festival contained a diverse and fascinating set of eight short films. The strong emotions I left during the viewing is a great sign that all eight directors are doing something fascinating and interesting with their direction. Even if one of the films left me cringing, the rest of the audience appeared to enjoy that short film the most. Appealing to mass audiences doesn’t not guarantee a positive reaction from all viewers. The Robbery currently stands out as my favorite short film, due to its style of humor and cinematography and deserves to be viewed by all audiences. If I ever get a chance to attend this film festival again in the near future, I definitely will save the date.
