On Screen Manitoba

Rhonda’s Party was crowned the grand prize winner of CBC’s Short Film Faceoff competition on Saturday night.

Congratulations to Ashley MacKenzie and all the good folks on the Short Film Faceoff team for giving life to this entertaining short film series and bringing shorts to a national mainstream TV audience during PRIME TIME!

As mentioned in my earlier post, these are happy days for short films and short film makers.

Inspired by the quality of the short films screened as part of the jury process for Short Film Faceoff, area executive producer for CBC Manitoba, Carl Karp, licensed a regional one-hour shorts compilation show featuring the following nine made-in-Manitoba short films:

Courtship (dir: Alison Davis) – Disintegrating relationships leave only images behind.

Roof Jumpers (dir: Reiner Bello- Sanchez) – After Johnny jumps off the school roof, his younger brother Peter has to decide if he is going to jump after his older brother.

Barber Gull Rub (dir: Matthew Rankin) – A “docu-fantasia” about an historical incident in the life of Winnipeg Cinémathèque programmer, Dave Barber.

Souvenirs: Waiting for the Parade (dir: Paula Kelly) – The 75th anniversary celebration of Winnipeg in 1948 is transformed into a discourse on the city’s shifting identities through decades of progress and regress, cynicism and hope.

Canoe (dir: Shelagh Carter) – The anguish of a middle-aged woman endures as she contemplates a decision on a summer day that might end her own life and that of her husband who suffers a long term and incurable illness.

Cattle Call (dir: Mike Maryniuk and Matthew Rankin ) – A high-speed, dazzlingly absurd, animated documentary about the art of livestock auctioneering which uses a variety of classic and avant-garde animation techniques.

Empty (dir: Jackie Traverse) – Set to music by Little Hawk, this animated and starkly honest story is a daughter’s tribute to her estranged mother.

yaya/ayat (dir: Shimby Zegeye-Gebrehiwot ) – An exploration of identities being lost in translation and distance through the eyes of a young woman. This experimental documentary looks at how being a part of any diaspora shapes a person’s identity.

Devil on Commission (dir: David S. Evans) – Hugh really wants to get to heaven. Unfortunately the wait might simply be too long.

Hosted by actor Michael Bell and produced by Brendon Sawatzky (Inferno Pictures) and yours truly, Short Shots will air at 7 p.m. Saturday, August 27 on CBC Manitoba.