Encounters Film Festival: Watching Curated Playlists

When the festival is held in real life, the set up is a selection of films screening in different theatres. The creation of playlists is not new for Encounters so having playlists for the online version only helps to give that feel of what it used to be. The festival runners have playlists in mind from the beginning, when they first get all their entries. Once they dwindle down the films to the last couple hundred, the playlists come more into play. Rich Warren, CEO of Encounters, talked about how each year different themes pop up over film entries, giving them a natural flow for their curated playlists, and each year different themes show up, making it interesting as to what the trends in filmmakers are that year. Unfortunately, that does mean that some good films get rejected because they don’t match other themes that have emerged.

Since the festival is online, the interface is set up similar to a streaming service, however the creators of the festival have chosen and selected films into playlists of about 1 to 2 hours. This is as close to the original experience we can get, watching a set amount of films with no choice of what is played. Of course with it being in the comfort of my own home, I could skip, pause and change the films, but to get as much as I can out of the playlists I’ll be watching without skipping or pausing.

Each playlist has a theme to its films as well as style, whether this be shorts, animation or live action. I first watched the Depict playlist with my class. This was a curation of short films no longer than 90 seconds. Whether this is a comment on how our attention span shortens more and more over the years with new technology and social media, or to show that a story can be shown and have meaning even within such a short timeframe, it was an enjoyable watch. With a mixture of both animation and live action, these short bitesize films were well thought through and with emotion. I was fascinated that such meaningful messages were conveyed so well with little to no dialogue. A couple films that stood out to me were Misha and Super Blood.

“Misha - A housebound amputee and former sailor laments his lot, learns English and longs for more in-laws.”

While the short was simplistic in both story and visuals, it felt like a raw and honest look into this family. With the short timeframe we understood a lot that was going on. The granddaughter was talking about the possibility of marriage and what her granddad would do since we would have to travel to England and encounter a language barrier. This film probably spoke to me more than others in my class, as I also have family who live aboard and who speak a different language. It’s an interesting topic to think about how future family members will interact.

“Super Blood - A woman is followed by a predatory man on the night of a Super Blue Blood Moon.”

This short was a fictional story first framed as a horror. My interest in the story started very low due to my distaste for the horror genre, but as the film went on a twist happened, making the film a comedy. The concept of a woman worried for her safety while walking home at night had already appeared in the playlist before in the film, A Walk Home, that I was first confused as to why two very similar films made it into the same playlist but the ending was a pleasant surprise and made it an enjoyable watch. It did make me question where the line was in similarity for Encounters to include both films instead of just picking one from the two, but due to the difference in genre and ending they two could stand alone.

My second playlist I watch by myself; “Great Outdoors - An ode to nature and the riveting storytelling inspired by its wide-open spaces.” This playlist had a theme of nature and freedom. There were four short films in this playlist. As I watched this playlist, it made me think about how the curators decided the order of the films, as we started with a slow indie film, which flowed very naturally into a poetic film documentary of a family in a small village in Poland, but then there’s a sudden dark turn into a horror film and finally it ended with a eerie but also calm film shown through a child’s perspective. The two films that stood out to me were A Little Bit of Paradise and Zonder Meer. This playlist also had an attached Q&A with the filmmakers.

“A Little Bit of Paradise - In the woodlands in Silesia, Poland, a family reveals their world to the filmmaker.”

This was a fly-on-the-wall documentary film of a family in Poland. What first intrigued me was the beautiful shots of the landscape and the in look of this family's home. The structure started off slow with the children sleeping, and as they woke up and went about their day the pace picked up too. While not a lot happened in this film, it was a pleasing, if not a slightly romanticised, look into this family’s life. With its calm action, it gave a lot of space for the viewer to think about their day to day life and imagine yourself in their place.

“Zonder Meer - The presumed drowning of a boy leads Lucie (5) to question the boundaries between life and death.”

This short was focused on a young girl. We see her and her brother hanging around a campsite, while we hear snippets of adults discussing the drowning of a child and plans to travel elsewhere. While the visuals were very nice, the ending of the film confused me, leading me to research a little into the film. The film’s aim was to show a child's perspective of her first encounter with death and how it affects her. While she doesn’t see anything, the atmosphere and conversations around her make an impact and her mood changes. The film has won awards at 3 festivals, including Encounters for Brief Encounters Grand Prix.

Another playlist I watched was an animation curated playlist. This was very different from the previous playlist as a lot of these films told their stories without dialogue, they also could be a lot more adventurous with the story as they weren’t limited to real life places the filmmaker could find. The playlist I chose was “Far From Home - Tales of migration, disruption and heartache.” Compared to the last two playlists, this one was more emotional and had some real life stories to tell, but there were also some films that I really didn’t like and couldn’t wait to be over. My favourites were Migrants and Footsteps On The Wind.

“Footsteps On The Wind - Follow the plight of Noor and her little brother, Josef, as they travel far from home.”

This film was animated to and inspired by the song “Inshallah” by STING. The story was off to a quick start and the pacing was good. I think the song accompanying the visuals really helped the film and it was nice to have a no dialogue film with a full soundtrack compared to others that used only foley sounds. Researching into the film I found their website: https://www.footstepsonthewind.com/ The film has already won many awards at other festivals and they partnered with the United Nations.

“Migrants - Two polar bears are driven into exile due to global warming.”

This animated film unexpectedly had two political messages, one about global warming but also about refugees and their treatment when escaping their home country. I think the metaphor with the polar bears and the brown bears was perfect symbolism and didn’t feel forced. The pacing of the film was great, and while the ending was sad, I enjoyed the film a lot. Migrants was released last year and won Best Short Award at another festival. The film also entered and won a BAFTA for Animation. Migrants: Winner, BAFTA Student Film Award for Animation | GSA BAFTA Student Awards 2021

Ratings:

Film Rating (5 Stars)

Depict Playlist 3.5 Stars

In The Woods 3 Stars

A Little Bit Of Paradise 4.5 Stars

The Things That Ate The Birds 2 Stars

Zonder Meer 3.5 Stars

Annah la Javanise 3.5 Stars

Missing Migrants 2 Stars

Have a Nice Dog 2 Stars

The One Who Crossed The Sea 2.5 Stars

Footsteps On The Wind 4.5 Stars

Migrants 5 Stars

We Hope You Don’t Need To Come Back 1 Star

*subject to my preference

My experience with the playlists were mixed. Some of them I enjoyed a lot, but when one or two of the films didn’t appeal to me, it changed my view on the whole playlist, especially when a playlist ended on a film I didn’t like. In the end, with the festival being online, the playlists still fall subject to a conscience or subconscious decision to watch. We still have a thumbnail and description to “sell” the selected films that I avoided specific playlists that didn’t appeal to me, and without knowing I could have missed out on a film I really loved.

It was also a little sad to hear that the playlists take such a strong priority over which films are chosen. I appreciate the organisation and the nice flow to each playlist, but it makes me wonder, what great films were rejected just because no one made something similar. The missed opportunities that filmmakers could have because that year there wasn’t a big enough selection based on “childhood” or “food” for your film to fit into a playlist seems disappointing and maybe there should be some playlists that aren’t so theme based.