With the lockdown in effect, it’s given everyone a chance to catch up on various films and TV shows that may have otherwise been missed. Here, we have a look at a few shorts that we’ve seen over the past few months.

Safe Space
Before this I had only seen Ben S. Hyland’s comedy work at several film festivals. Check out his excellent ‘Quiet Carriage’ for instance (which I saw at Tweetfest). Here though, the director tackles a more serious subject, examining the relationship between key workers involved in supporting victims of Human Trafficking, and their clients. This is a beautifully shot piece, which packs an emotional punch. There is clever use of a static shot, and manipulation of the aspect ratio, which gives weight to the events as they unfold. At the centre of this, Rebecca Grant gives a fantastic performance as the key worker Sarah, who feels the burden of the bureaucracy she has to navigate, and the personal cost of empathy.
Watch it HERE!

The Van
This was an interesting and hard hitting piece, dealing with the difficulties that many face in the search for a new life. Phénix Brossard, is a son desperate for a better future for both himself and his father. To try to make this happen, he earns money by taking part in bare knuckle fights in the back of a van. The question is what the true cost will ultimately be, and this doesn’t shy away from looking at the realities of his situation. There’s a lot of interesting detail in here and this story, with its inherently complicated themes could be expanded into a feature.
Watch the trailer HERE

Learning to Swim
Quite often at festivals you get a lot of dark dramas and challenging material, so it’s refreshing to get a heartwarming documentary. Down in Dorking in Surrey, a group is determined to help refugees get on their feet and begin to make a new life. To this end, several of them have individuals stay will them until they can finish learning the skills they need, and support themselves. Here the story focuses on Ahmed and MMM, as they both discuss how it has worked for them.
Watch it HERE!

Nefta Football Club
A comedic piece from Tunisia, which surprised and amused in equal measure. I have to admit that it definitely had a nice twist that I didn’t see coming, and was not what I expected at all. With an intriguing setup, where two men are searching for their donkey, which is currently wandering around with two full baskets on its back and some headphones on, this wrong foots you right from the start. When two young boys find the donkey, things take an odd turn. This was a great short, with a well worked story, that moved against all expectations, and was both funny and suspenseful. A gem.
IMDB…

The Beach House
To a certain extent this based itself in the tradition of the simple farcical comedy of errors, but did it with some style. This is mainly due to some great performances and a sharp script. When two couples go on holiday together, the men plan a double proposal, but things go horribly awry, as the women also have a secret announcement of their own. This plays out as you’d expect, and you watch the disaster unfold through your involuntary facepalm, as is the case with all good farces. An award winner in several film festivals, and rightly so.
Check out their twitter for more info.

Uninspired Moments
Especially in light of recent events, issues surrounding human connection and loneliness are never far from people’s minds. In this short, two men form an unlikely friendship following an innocuous and common meeting. There are several layers of social disconnection discussed here between the two characters, including loss, embarrassment, self-worth, as well as loneliness, with the words on the titular ‘uninspired moments’ being one of moments of wisdom . It’s an interesting idea and one that could have been explored more in depth, but it does still work here in this short form.
Watch it HERE!