Encounters Film Festival: Watching Films I Pick

Normally at a film festival, films are shown one after the other in a chosen order. You don’t get to pick and choose what films to watch, nor do you really get to read a synopsis of the upcoming films. With how the film festival is set up this year, this experience changed. The interface very much resembles a streaming service. Each film is given a single thumbnail to “sell” itself to the viewers in the hopes that someone will click on it.

The downside of the festival being online is that depending on your chosen thumbnail, your film may receive fewer views compared to other films, and since filmmakers can’t see the screening room full of people watching, they will never know. I do wonder how filmmakers thought about this, while I think it’s good that there is no viewer count for each film as that can lead to an unhealthy obsession with numbers, it does make me question if an anxiety was created about whether people watched their film in the first place.

Each film has to make it through two steps before a viewer decides to watch it. First the thumbnail, if that’s appealing and interesting enough then comes the synopsis. This was where most of my initial interests in films dissipated. A lot of thumbnails enticed me to click, but the synopsis didn’t close the deal. This is of course unfortunate, but with the growing popularity of streaming services and having hundreds of different types of content to pick from, it is impossible to avoid. Even when I watched a curated playlist, it wasn’t fully without my input. I still chose a playlist based on it’s thumbnail and synopsis, possibly meaning I’ve missed out on some great films because one small frame didn’t entice me enough to click. I tried to pick a variety of films, both live action and animation, while also having a wide range of foreign films too.

“A Tiny Tale - A dog gets abandoned on the side of the road. Attached to a street light, he stays alone until the day he meets a young astronaut wannabe and a professional cyclist who keeps on trying to beat her highest score.”

This short film had an interesting editing style which I really think helped to add something special to the film. While the story was simple, it was enjoyable and fun to watch. This film won the Children’s Jury Award at the festival. This film was also submitted to many other festivals over the past year. This is the director’s first film and it has already made a big impact on festivals. Seeing a success story like this is encouraging to other filmmakers.

“Crafty Witch - After years of prosecuting and torturing innocent women, Hopkins (the self-proclaimed Witch Hunter General) is about to get his just desserts at the hands or rather the magical finger of Winny.”

This was a simple short film, stylised as an old black and white film with its title cards before shots. With the genre of a silent black and white film, it made it stick out from previous films I watched and made it memorable. Even though the film was under two minutes, it managed to have a funny twist. This is the film's debut, with it only being submitted to Encounters. The director had the idea in their head for seven years and finally made it for her final work in her PhD study.

“Don vs Lightning - When Don, an elderly Scottish grump, finds himself the victim of multiple lightning strikes he can't decide what's worse: sadistic persecution by a capricious universe or all the unwanted attention from his neighbours.”

Don vs Lightning was a short drama comedy based on a real person. The film was well thought out, and while it was not a full laugh out loud comedy, the moments that were funny shined. While I felt like it became a bit slow in the middle, the ending was pleasant and overall a very enjoyable watch. This film also has a website https://www.donvslightning.film/ with information about which festivals it was submitted to.

“Grey to Green - A music video for singer Lydia Lee. Faded home movies and old cartoons are overlaid with colourful 2D animation reminiscent of classic movies, offering a dreamy and nostalgic take on themes like growing up and loss of innocence.”

Grey to Green, although made as a music video, was a nice short film to watch. Rather than following a story, the film felt like an emotion and impression. It gave me the feeling of nostalgia and longing for something I necessarily haven’t experienced. The overlapped animation made it playful and cohesive between each cut. It was a clever use of animation.

“Silver and Gold - A living statue waits for someone to notice her. When a potential rival teaches her to move she finds a real connection.”

Silver and Gold was a short live action that focused around a statue act in London who seemed scared to come out of her box, that is until another statue act appears in front of her to bring her out of her shell. With no dialogue, the film does an amazing job of showing the subtlety of actions and their relationship growing over the film.

“In The Space You Left - From the confines of her home in England, a filmmaker embarks on a digital quest to track down an old friend who disappeared years ago in Japan. A film about missed connections in the digital age.”

In The Space You Left was a student participatory documentary following the filmmaker trying to find a friend who disappeared seven years ago. The film had a poetic style, yet it felt raw and real. Following Christine as she goes through breakthroughs and step backs was a roller coaster of feelings. This was the only film to make me feel emotional and with it’s beautiful visuals and score it succeeded. This was a student project, making me think about how I could make something to this standard too. The film was also submitted to another festival and had help from a lot of big studios. I was very happy to see that Encounters had a Q&A with her. I also found another Q&A with her from her other festival - https://sheffdocfest.com/film/space-you-left

Ratings

Film Rating (5 Stars)

Grey to Green 5 Stars

Silver and Gold 4 Stars

In the Space You Left 5 Stars

Some Manifestation of the South 3 Stars

Man or Tree 4 Stars

A Tiny Tale 5 Stars

Crafty Witch 5 Stars

Don vs Lightning 4.5 Stars

Survivers 4 Stars

Brunch 3 Stars

Bend 3.5 Stars

Wet & Soppy 4 Stars

A Simple F*cking Gesture 4 Stars

Granny’s Sexual Life 4 Stars

Mexed 3 Stars

*subject to my preference

By the end of my experience watching films I picked, I found that I enjoyed my time a lot more than I did watching playlists. This is probably because I could look into the film before watching it and decide whether it was for me or not. We all have our preferences and when you watch good film after good film you can’t help but prefer this method over someone else’s curated playlist. Of course this type of experience is only possible for an online festival as an in person festival cannot allow itself to only screen one film at a time instead of their current system.