Hola Dannie aqui,
Today a second report came in from our Costa Rican buddy Hugo Boss about the shnit Worldwide short film festival.
The shnit Worldwide shortfilmfestival is officially underway! From Oct 17 to Oct 21 (PLAYGROUND San Jose) more than 100 short films from 33 different countries will be projected.
On a successful 16 year run worldwide (and eight straight years in San Jose), shnit is slowly but steadily becoming one of the most important short film festivals around. What started as a local event in Bern, Switzerland is now a full-fledged international film festival.
Workshops are held during the day, evening and nights are for short films, and most nights, if not all are after-parties for the folk who enjoy that kind of thing. It is a well-rounded celebration of film, art, music, and food.
A packed reception was met with clowns at the entrance, a welcoming beer, some hors-d'oeuvres and of course, popcorn. The main state-owned media outlet was there – canal Trece – as well as other freelance photographers.
I happened to run into (Alvaro) Marenco. He will be the subject of an eponymous short biographical documentary on Friday. He mentioned he likes the short-film platform and that he actually gets more offers in this type of format than he does others. I will have an exclusive with him soon… stay tuned for that!
As the projection began, the audience was welcomed by Elisa and her stylish intro, as well as some words from the organizer himself – Josue Fischel. A selection of short films was then shown giving us an idea of what to expect in the coming days. The range is truly broad and it’s surprising to me how well they all fit together. “What is the best format to enjoy short films?”, I thought. The people at shnit have a winning recipe in my eyes.
There was everything from animated, dramatic, black comedy, high-profile French flicks, a Russian comedy, to a Spanish documentary. I laughed, I watched observantly, I got bored, I laughed again… It’s a totally different experience from your standard 2h feature-film standard format. It’s film digestion for the new, short-attention-span generation; and then some.
Beer ran out early again! Too many people or was it a small stock in the fridge? Maybe a bit of both – but most likely the latter. Oh, Bavaria… for such a tasty beer, you really should give out more of it! Then again, there was the after party…
Adios!
Hugo Boss
