Allshorts Film Festival
The selectors of the final 23 movies viewed last Saturday night, from left, theatre manager Sarah Kay, festival co-ordinator John Salmon and Fresh FM programme co-ordinator Paddy Brennan. Photo: Ina Holst.
With an excellent array of selected short films from all over New Zealand, Golden Bay’s popular allshorts short-film gala evening has again enthralled a glamorous, red-carpet, full-to-the-brim Village Theatre audience.
For the fifth time, filmmakers of diverse ages, backgrounds and skills donated their work for this sell-out, annual event. This year, 60 entries were received from across multiple genres, 23 of which made the final selection by theatre manager Sarah Kay, Fresh FM programme co-ordinator Paddy Brennan and festival coordinator John Salmon for being provocative, thoughtful, innovative, psychedelic or quirky to extremely funny.
Paddy said they were “very excited” about the response before and after the festival, especially from young people.
“We had double the number from last year and we were square-eyed at the end from watching them all. But squishing them all in, and saying no to some, is always the hardest part,” said Paddy.
“We had a lot of entries from teenage Golden Bay filmmakers. Unfortunately, we did not have enough space to put them all in the programme. But we invited the teenagers to come along to be part of it, and some did the ushering. There is also an educational part to it—to see how films are made, what it is like to see your film on the big screen, what it feels like to show it to an audience and to think about how we fit into the New Zealand film scene. I feel that if you can inspire a teenager, that’s so exciting; I really love that.”
Two audience favourites, judging by the clapping, were Playing Possum, a “car-toon” story comedy about a red and a blue avatar zooming along New Zealand roads to steal each other’s flattened fauna, made by Auckland filmmaker Peter Salmon (not related to John), and Day Trip, by Wellington drama student Zoe McIntosh. The latter is a thoughtful 11-minute drama about a gang member’s trip “overseas” to Picton, which causes him to reflect on his life.
Funky stories from Golden Bay included the comic tale of a well-known Takaka librarian defending the library from evil forces by issuing the appropriate reference book; the trials and tribulations of three young flatmates trying to sort each other and themselves out, and a professionally filmed music clip by Rob Dawson for the band Faster Pussycat Kill Kill.
After the show, the foyer was buzzing with a number of professional, student and amateur filmmakers and actors from Nelson, Wellington and Auckland who turned up for the screening. Waimea College drama teacher Doug Brooks was inspired to think about organising a similar event in Nelson.
The allshorts festival is a non-profit event and is the result of many hours of hard voluntary labour by organisers and filmmakers. All proceeds from the festival, some $520, will go to the Village Theatre.
For those who missed it, the festival will be shown at The White Room, Lollokiki Gallery, 32 Commercial Street, from 1 to 6 November during business hours.
Ina Holst
