Growing up I was always a huge fan of short stories. I was a voracious reader and they helped make me feel like I was getting more bang for my buck (or my parent’s buck as it were) when I read compilations. But even besides the fact that I could read more stories, and thus go on more adventures, I loved how they provided small snap shots into the character’s lives. They allowed me more freedom to come up with a continuation on the narrative, allowing me to fill in the gaps and construct worlds that only I would experience.
But while short stories have allowed authors to flourish, short films seem to be a slightly different animal. Too often festivals focus only on the ultra short films that have to rely on ironic or O’Henry style endings to drive the film, resulting in an all to often seemingly manufactured and formulaic genre.
Thankfully, the Flyway Film Festival cares not about running times, preferring instead unique tales and wondrous characters regardless of if the film is three or thirty minutes. Because of this, it is the audiences who benefit if they decide to attend this festival.
I’m a big fan of both the Film Junk website and their outstanding podcast, and I am quite happy to announce that one of their contributors, Jay Cheel, has finally posted his short film Colore Non Vedenti online for all to watch. Jay is heavily influenced by John Carpenter and Italian giallo’s, so if you like either you should find plenty to like from this outstanding short horror film. That Jay can turn a simple Jell-O mold into something truly menacing is one heck of a feat.
Be sure to check out the film’s website as well, as it has multiple commentary tracks with some of the various contributors to the film and there are several video diaries as well. This first video diary is particularly great, as Jay and Roman unwittingly stumble upon the Blair Witch while trying to do a lighting test at a remote location. If only I was kidding.
Be sure to check out the film, as you won’t be disappointed.
Hopefully next weekend, James and I shall record Where the Long Tails Ends first podcast. Titled High and Low (Brow), it will focus on reviewing two films during each episode that either come from the same source material or uses similar themes, preferably on opposite ends of the artistic spectrum. Think Seven Samurai and Battle Beyond the Stars, or if you are lucky, A Bug’s Life and Three Amigos.
Though for our first episode we will go with something a bit simpler, with the double bill of the 1945 Agatha Christie iconic murder mystery And Then There Were None (based upon Christie’s novel Ten Little Indians) and Mario Bava’s giallo styled adaptation of the same source material, 5 Dolls for an August Moon. Hopefully it should make for some interesting conversation.
We aren’t sure how frequently we will be able to record, but hopefully we can do a few episodes each year. Feel free to leave any comments on the basic premise, tips, or even potential films you’d like us to consider watching. Thanks!
It’s not often that I find fault with Netflix. I’ve been a subscriber and unabashed fan of the service for over three years now and I am typically hard pressed to find something to quibble over when it comes to them. Oh sure there was that stretch of receiving cracked discs that was beyond frustrating, but due to the sheer ridiculous amount of them that occurred (at least six in a matter of just a few months) that I chalked the issue up to an overzealous mail carrier. Plus Netflix was so quick at sending out replacements that it was hard not to be impressed.
But there is one minor quirk that shows up from time to time that still can aggravate me. Since I live in Minneapolis I happen to be near a hub which results in some surprisingly quick turnaround times. Sometimes, too quick.
I’m not very diligent with my queue, and as a result I am often times moving a film into the number one (Ed note: Make it so!) position the day, or the day after, that I return a movie. But with turnaround times that are often less then a day, my number one (Ed note: Make it so!) selection is sometimes skipped because I have added it too late.
Such an incident occurred last week when my number one (Ed note: Make it so!) selection was skipped in favor of my number two selection, which just so happened to be Dario Argento’sCat o’ Nine Tails.
I committed a bit of a faux pas recently, I bragged on an Internet message board at how punctual I have been with my reviews. While I’ve had a few complications in finding the movies I want to review, I’ve been pretty good at getting the film watched before the weekend ends, thus giving me a day or so to write my flowery prose. Then Netflix went and shipped me a copy of Alfred Hitchcock’sStage Fright, rather then Michele Soavi’sStageFright.
This, as you probably assume, this caused a bit of a dilemma. First off, what the hell do I do for a movie review? Do I pick something different? Or should I just review the film they sent me? But more importantly, how do I write an intro for this?
You see I wanted to write about how I dragged a small group of people to a beer tasting out in St. Louis Park that was taking place at a new specialty beer store that was opening called The Four Firkins. The store was devoted entirely to imported beers and domestic specialty brews. They were having their Grand Opening on Saturday, and to celebrate several local breweries were giving out free samples for people to try. And while Summit is probably the best known of the breweries that were present, I was going because Surly was giving out samples.
I committed a bit of a faux pas recently, I bragged on an Internet message board at how punctual I have been with my reviews. While I’ve had a few complications in finding the movies I want to review, I’ve been pretty good at getting the film watched before the weekend ends, thus giving me a day or so to write my flowery prose. Then Netflix went and shipped me a copy of 
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