On Saturday September 4, 2004 Carl & Kimberly present

The Mystical Pick-Yer-Own Festival of Shorts!

Short films are like short stories, a medium and genre unto itself. Amazing film ideas can be expressed in short form that wouldn't work in feature length, for various reasons including complexity, budget, and impact. Here is a menu of some of the best mystical short films I’ve found. Circle 0 to 3 for how much you want to see them; I'll total the scores and show the winners in that order tonite. This is almost 4 hours of shorts, so we won't see them all! Plus there's a list at the end of even more shorts, so anything not seen could be requested as a short subject for an upcoming movie night.

* PRINT YOUR NAME (1 vote sheet per person) : __________________________________________________

Circle 0-3	19 Short films described alphabetically
0 1 2 3	Abductees (1995, UK, 11mins) STYLE: animated illustrations from live interviews MOOD: supernatural, startling Within animation is the amazing sub-genre of documentary animation, in which the subjective memories of witnesses to events can be portrayed with greater impact by drawings. Abductees is one of the most powerful doc animations ever made, as the actual drawings by people abducted by aliens come to life, and we hear of how abductions can be both scary and wonderful.
0 1 2 3	At Land (1944, USA, 15mins) STYLE: live actors, camera tricks MOOD: surreal, dreamy Though she only made a few films, Maya Deren was both a shaman and one of America's greatest surrealist directors. "At Land" is smoother than her earlier more famous piece "Meshes of the Afternoon", and features an entertaining and strange sequence of images of her crawling on a beach, across a dinner table, and into a mysterious cabin. Deren went on to make a definitive documentary on the voodoo of Haiti called "Divine Horsemen".
0 1 2 3	Elevator World (1999, USA, 4mins) STYLE: computer animation, collage MOOD: humorous philosophy This is a funny new-agey sociological look at elevators as a place where strangers meet in meditative silence. Short, sweet, and highly recommended.
0 1 2 3	The Flight of the Stone (1999, German, 15mins) aka "Steinflug" STYLE: speeded up scenes from literally around the world MOOD: playful, eye-opening A man throws a stone in anger at a protest in Germany. The stone doesn't stop though, it flies and bounces all the way around the globe, past foreign cultures, through crowds, around cities and temples. A simple but interesting metaphor for what goes around comes around, this film took years of walking around the world to make, giving the fastest tour of planet Earth you've ever seen.
0 1 2 3	Gabrielle (2001, USA, 15mins) STYLE: live actors MOOD: spiritual, thoughtful, relationships A spirit between lifetimes views her next incarnation with the help of a higher guide. When she sees hardships ahead she has second thoughts, but remembering her commitments to growth she chooses the life.
0 1 2 3	The Heart of the World (2000, Canada, 6mins) STYLE: silent era style with cue cards MOOD: humorous, surreal, apolcalyptic Two brothers compete for the attention of a woman scientist, who has a giant telescope pointed down to study the heart at the center of the planet. Earth's heart is threatened by civilization even as the woman's heart is torn between the brothers. Maverick Canadian director Guy Maddin makes dream-like movies of distressed footage that satirize the history of cinema; The Heart of the World was shot to be a feature film, but was cut down to only 6 minutes when funds ran out, resulting in this mad bizarre romp.
0 1 2 3	Idle Mist (1998, Columbia, 28mins) aka "Vana Espuma" STYLE: live actors MOOD: mystery, twilight zone A young man obsessed with comics is experiencing characters in his dreams crossing over into reality. His girlfriend discovers that their world is not as solid as they thought. Considering that young Columbian director Andrés Useche adapted this film from his original comics for just $100, it is suprisingly well-made and went on to legendary status after winning many South American awards. (I finally got a copy from the director)
0 1 2 3	In God We Trust (2000, USA, 17mins) STYLE: live actors MOOD: funny, satire, adventure When a man is hit by a truck, his adventure is only beginning. In a purgatory way station he is told that he didn't get enough points to go to heaven, so he'll be taking the elevator down. But he manages to escape back to earth long enough to do some more good deeds and reverse his fortunes. This film is witty and entertaining, with plenty of pop culture references for what might be good and bad deeds (good=dancing and smoothies, bad=swearing and soft rock)

0 1 2 3	Longbranch (2001,USA, 13mins) STYLE: live actors MOOD: funny, lively, curious A man orchestrates synchronicities while watching TV. How does he know just what to do to save the lives of two strangers in his yard? Outrageously clever and well-made.
0 1 2 3	Luz (2000, Spain, 8mins) STYLE: computer animation MOOD: meditative, mysterious, wonder A stick figure girl wanders into a theatre of self-awareness and re-enters an expanded reality. Not your usual computer animation, this film is incredibly beautiful with a sweeping classical soundtrack by Debussy.
0 1 2 3	Next (1989, UK, 5mins) STYLE: animated puppetry MOOD: enchantment, lively, literary For his life review in heaven, Shakespeare presents a condensed version of all of his plays, a fantastic mind-stretching pagentry of familiar characters and icons. Even if you don't remember your literature, the archetypal nature of this animated masterpiece can entertain you deeply. From the UK studios that produced the zoo animals in "Creature Comforts" and the Wallace and Grommit cartoons.
0 1 2 3	Northern Ice, Golden Sun (2002, USA, 9mins) STYLE: hand-drawn animation MOOD: playful, mythic, magical The last work of famous animator Faith Hubley, who teamed with her daughter Emily (who did the animated sequences in Hedwig and the Angry Inch) to portray Eskimo shamans and their spirit animal guides as they face the modern world.
0 1 2 3	Once Upon a Time (1974, USA, 12mins) STYLE: collage of colored 19th century engravings MOOD: hypnotic, occultish, spiritual Demons, skeletons, and mysterious lights are conquered by a goddess who recites Tibetan inspired poetry about the bardo and beckons the listener to trust her as spirit guide. Director Larry Jordan is one of America's greatest living surrealist filmmakers. Born 1934 and deeply inspired by Max Ernst's collage novels, he has made dozens of amazing short films and continues to work at the SF Art Institute.
0 1 2 3	A Phantasy (1952, Canada, 8mins) STYLE: painted animation MOOD: magical, hypnotic, otherworldly Fantastic organic shapes grow on an alien planet, sending golden spheres into the skies to form dancing patterns reminiscent of sacred geometry, kaballah, and planetary orbits. This must-see masterpiece is from Norman McLaren, one of Canada's greatest animators who was capable of both unbelievable precision and wise gentle humor.
0 1 2 3	Rocks (2003, Germany, 8mins) aka "Das Rad" STYLE: claymation MOOD: time-altering, funny, history of the planet When time is speeded up, it can be seen that two piles of rocks are really sentient beings who observe with baffled amusement the split-second changes (from their point of view) that occur when humans evolve and build cities around them. When the cities crumble though, the rocks will remain.
0 1 2 3	Side Effects (2002, USA, 18mins) STYLE: live actors MOOD: psychological, twilight zone A young man in need of cash signs up for a weekend at a drug company study. There he falls in love with a young woman, but the soulmates are threatened when side effects from the study change the nature of reality itself. This is a great little psychological story with a thoughtful twist ending; I got a copy from the director.
0 1 2 3	Stiltwalkers (2002, Canada, 13mins) STYLE: claymation MOOD: mythic, mysterious A stick-figure man dreams of building a ship, and does so with the help of ancestor spirits. Imagination and reality seem to change places, as the man enters the spirit world and the ancestors walk upon the ocean. The interpretations of this spooky and spare film are open-ended and haunting.
0 1 2 3	The Wiseman (1990, USA, 5mins) STYLE: animated hand-drawings MOOD: playful, magical, bizarre A guru reveals his secrets of enlightenment, which turn out to be absurd double-talk as his face morphs wildly into creatures, appliances, and other strange effects. Animator Bill Plympton is famous for his edgy mad transformations of human faces, and this is one of his best (the segment was used in the highly recommended feature film "The Tune")
0 1 2 3	The Wizard's Apprentice (1930, USA, 10mins) STYLE: live actors, camera tricks MOOD: fairy tale, adventure Remember Mickey Mouse as the Sorceror's Apprentice being chased by multiplying brooms to the classical music of Dumas in Disney's Fantasia? Well, this was the earlier short film that clearly inspired that work, and it's a clever and entertaining piece of movie history.

MORE COOL SHORTS THAT DIDN'T FIT ON THE MENU:

17 Down (dir. Justin Ott) man meets selves on afterlife train

Brightness (2000) two kind hearted thieves experience the afterlife

Cafe Bar (1974) animated fantasies on a blind date

The Cathedral (2002) an alien temple incorporates visitors

The Last Dream (2000) projectionist experiences death as film running out

Divine Fate (1993) animated ecological creation story

The Dream of a Rare Bit Fiend (1906) camera tricks represent a dream

Flying (2002) dir. Bruce Terris, man meets spirit guide in afterlife airport

Horses on Mars (2001) bacteria evolve on earth and mars

Loon Dreaming (2002) psychadelic worldview of a bird

Magic Canvas (1948) body and spirit animation by Halas & Batchelor

The Mascot (1934) fantastical animated toys story

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962) ambrose bierce tale of man's afterlife dream

The Return (2002) ghost man makes peace with his descendents

That Strange Person (1998) feminist archetype animation

Type O (2000) experimental time-lapse

Vasarma's Lovers (2000) reincarnated hindu painter finds his soulmate again

Village of Idiots (1999) animation of yiddish fable from isaac bashevis singer