Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Glasgow >> 2009 >> Glasgow Shorts Film Festival

A selection of treats specially assembled by the Magic Lantern team.

Each selection is put into a themed programme, and they are listed below.

• True Things: The Short Films of Miranda July - the award winning director of Me And You And Everyone We Know, started off making fresh and highly original short films.
• Scottish Short Film Showcase
• Oberhausen on Tour 2009:Best of Artist Film & Video
• Demons in the Dark - Films in which the troubled central protagonists are plagued by demons that take both physical and psychological forms.
• Unstuck - animated, experimental and offbeat short films.
• New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae
• LUX: The Unbelievable Truth - recent video art from LUX
• Best Of Little British - the most inspired British short films of the past year
• Between Us - economical storytelling with a personal edge

In addition, there are additional meet and greets which could help you get your film off the ground.

• Screen Academy Scotland - a discussion panel from Scottish directors who have moved on from short films to features.
• Meet The Talent: Shooting People and Screen Academy Scotland - an informal meet and greet where you could meet up with the very talent you need. Brains for the picking!

View other Glasgow Film Festival Films by strand: European Cinema, Frightfest, Galas, Great Scots, Happy Birthday Errol Flynn!, It's a Wonderful World, Music and Film, Retrospective, Stranger Than Fiction, The State Of Independents, Viva Mexico!, Youth Film Festival

September and First Place

2 Birds (Smáfuglar, Two Birds) (Country: Iceland; Year: 2008; Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson; Writer: Rúnar Rúnarsson; Stars: Atli Óskar Fjalarsson , Hera Hilmarsdóttir , Sigurður Jakob Helgason , Þórunn Jakobsdóttir), Official Site

A group of teenagers experiment with ketamine and find themselves out of their depth.

Full Review

Between Us

The Amateurist (Country: USA; Year: 1998; Director: Miranda July; Writer: Miranda July; Stars: Miranda July)

A film about surveillance, identity, watching, and being watched.

True Things: The Short Films of Miranda July

Atlanta (Country: USA; Year: 1996; Director: Miranda July; Stars: Miranda July)

A 12-year-old Olympic swimmer and her mother (both played by July) speak to the public about going for the gold.

True Things: The Short Films of Miranda July

Between C, D And F (Country: Germany; Year: 2006; Director: Julia Oschatz)

A creature replaces Caspar David Friedrich’s solitary figures who contemplate landscapes. It hangs from a tree’s branch and jumps into an abyss trying to escape from the stage, that is from Friedrich’s paintings as well as from the film image.

Oberhausen on Tour

Bill’s Visitors (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Simon Deshorn)

Showing as part of McLaren Animation 2 at EIFF 2008.

Best of Little British

Rat and 2 Birds

California Dreams (Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: David Wnendt)

On Jonas' 14th birthday, his only friend Tüte gives him a coupon for a hairdresser. The two boys decide to skip school and go to the town.

Between Us

Christmas With Dad (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Conor McCormack)

A family prepare for Christmas.

Full Review

Best of Little British

Communion (Armulaud) (Country: Estonia; Year: 2007; Director: Jaan Toomik)

A story about a middle-aged man and woman, about their relationship and the woman's desperate attempt to become pregnant while the man is afraid of any form of commitment…?

Oberhausen on Tour

The Control Master (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Run Wrake), Official Site

What happens when a powerful device falls into the hands of scientist-turned-villain Doctor Moire?

Full Review

Unstuck

Ctrl Z (Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Robert Kirbyson; Writer: Robert Kirbyson; Stars: Emy Coligado, Tony Hale, Zachary Levi, Javier Ronceros), Official Site

The story of an office loner who has a lifetime of regrets - until one day a malfunctioning keyboard offers him the opportunity to undo his mistakes. What can he do with this new found power?

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Household Gods and Christmas With Dad

Dead Dog (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Edward Jeffries; Writer: Edward Jeffreys; Stars: Chloe Bale, Iain Louden)

When a man's dog goes missing he calls on his girlfriend to help confront his worst fears.

Demons in the Dark

Dennis (Country: Denmark; Year: 2007; Director: Mads Matthiesen; Writer: Mads Matthiesen, Martin Zandvliet; Stars: Kim Kold, Elsebeth Steentoft, Lykke Sand Michelsen)

When Dennis, an introverted bodybuilder, invites a local girl out on a date his mother is hurt and disappointed. Despite the pressure she puts on him to cancel the date, Dennis ventures into a night that he will never forget.

Demons in the Dark

Der Spiegel (Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Keren Cytter; Stars: Susanne Sachße)

In one shot the film describes the story of a woman waiting for a young man to save her from loneliness.

Oberhausen on Tour

Fawn (Country: Austria; Year: 2007; Director: Christoph Rainer; Writer: Christoph Rainer)

From contours and shadows, the indistinct impression of a girl emerges from faint images that bode ill.

Full Review

Unstuck

Fire (Udens) (Country: Latvia; Year: 2007; Director: Laila Pakalnina)

The original oblivious firestarter.

Full Review

Unstuck

Fawn and Time Is Running Out

First Place (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Joji Koyama), Official Site

A champion relentlessly insisting on 'being a champion' whilst the universe couldn't care less.

Full Review

Unstuck

Getting Stronger Every Day (Country: USA; Year: 2001; Director: Miranda July; Writer: Miranda July; Stars: Carrie Brownstein, Mia Cianciulli, Richard Greiling)

An experimental short that "captures the experience of becoming lost and found, from moment to moment, and over the course of a lifetime."

True Things: The Short Films of Miranda July

Le Grand Content (Country: Austria; Year: 2007; Director: Clemens Kogler, Karo Szmit)

Showing as part of International Animation 1 at EIFF 2008.

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Haze (Country: Singapore; Year: 2008; Director: Anthony Chen)

It's a hot humid day in Singapore and two teenagers decide to skip school and stay in, playing out an innocent love affair amongst the heat haze of the city.

Between Us

Household Gods (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Vaughan Pilikian; Stars: Susan Momoko Hingley, Thomas Hoggarn, Christiana Joseph, Denis Khoroshko, Roberto Kouyoumdjian, Humza Vohra)

Alone at home, but haunted by other voices: six people in six rooms somewhere in London.

Full Review

Unstuck

Toggle and Jeffrey And The Dinosaurs

Jeffrey And The Dinosaurs (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Christoph Steger)

A short documentary about a man whose struggle to overcome daily obstacles has produced an astonishing universe of outsider science fiction.

Full Review

Unstuck

Jerrycan (Country: Australia; Year: 2008; Director: Julius Avery; Writer: Julius Avery)

A young boy is bullied into making a life or death decision, but can Nathan prove himself to his mates?

Between Us

K (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Piers Thompson; Writer: Piers Thompson; Stars: Charlotte Bevan, Lin Clifton, Robert Evanson, Phil Zimmerman)

Drama about a teenager living with her neglectful dad on a caravan park.

Best of Little British

Kudan (Country: Japan; Year: 2008; Director: Taku Kimura; Writer: Taku Kimura), Trailer

A man receives a package containing a helmet, when worn it turns him into a mythical Japanese creature. Transported to another world where human spirits take the shape of giant trees, he realizes that his son’s roots are in grave danger, and only he can save him.

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Life Of A Pigeon (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: William Campbell)

Abandoned by life Eric strives to make friends with the documentary crew that will ultimately let him down like everything that has come before.

Demons in the Dark

The Control Master and Ma Bar

L'Ondée (Country: France, Canada; Year: 2008; Director: David Coquard-Dassault)

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Love You More (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Sam Taylor-Wood; Writer: Patrick Marber; Stars: Harry Treadaway, Andrea Riseborough, Samuel Roukin, Paul Ritter, Pete Shelley, Harriet Ashcroft, Alex Kelly)

Two schoolkids get amorous while listening to the new Buzzcocks single.

Full Review

Best of Little British

Ma Bar (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Adrian McDowall, Finlay Pretsell; Stars: Bill McFadyen)

What drives a 73-year-old powerlifting champion?

Full Review

Best of Little British

Megatron (Country: Romania; Year: 2008; Director: Marian Crisan; Writer: Marian Crisan; Stars: Maxim Adrian Strinu, Gabriela Crisu, Damian Oancea, Erwin Simsensohn)

Maxim lives with his mother in a village near Bucharest. On his 8th birthday, his mother takes him into the city for a special treat. Winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes 2008.

Between Us

Nest of Tens (Country: USA; Year: 1999; Director: Miranda July; Stars: Lindsay Beamish)

Three perverse, unnerving scenarios involving children and adults.

True Things: The Short Films of Miranda July

The Queen And The Princess and Fire

New Love (Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Laurence Coriat; Writer: Laurence Coriat; Stars: Xavier Lafitte, Johan Libéreau, Elina Löwensohn, Alexandra Stewart)

This visually arresting work takes us to a future world built on rationality. However when Alma is compelled to frequent a nightclub with a difference, she is plunged into the irrational logics of love and desire.?

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Nightmares (Mary Koszmary) (Country: Israel, Netherlands, Poland ; Year: 2007; Director: Yael Bartana)

The film is set in an abandoned stadium in Warsaw, using propaganda films style, calling for three million Jews to return to Poland. The protagonist is a young radical Polish leftist who claims for a radical change in his country.

Oberhausen on Tour

Outwardly From Earth's Centre (Country: Germany, Sweden; Year: 2006; Director: Rosa Barba)

A narrative about a fictitious society on an unstable piece of land in danger of disappearing. This situation requires the population’s collective initiative in order to secure the individuals’ and society’s survival.

Oberhausen on Tour

Parks On Fire (Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Scott Pagano), Official Site, Trailer

Parks on Fire is a stunning exploration of the complex relationships of structure, form and motion that bind and conflict the natural and manmade worlds.

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Partir (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Melodie Lamotte D’Incamps; Writer: Melodie Lamotte D’Incamps; Stars: Betty Krestinsky, Clementine Mazzoni, Lucette Martini)

Anna is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and is about to enter a nursing home. Lucette, the housekeeper, is packing up the home where Anna has always lived and Clementine, Anna's grandaughter, comes to help and spend the last days in the house with her grandmother.

Between Us

Love You More and Jerrycan

The Queen And The Princess (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Gregor Johnstone; Writer: Gregor Johnstone)

A black comedy focusing on the dysfunctional relationship between a mother and daughter.

Full Review

Unstuck

Rat (Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Lila de Magalhaes)

A rat in a bathtub sips on a glass of wine and by candle light attempts to tell stories.

Full Review

Unstuck

Reflections (Country: Singapore; Year: 2007; Director: Tzu-Nyen Ho)

This film is a parable about man being a creature that can never see beyond his own reflection.

Oberhausen on Tour

Shock Of Time (Country: China; Year: 2006; Director: Sun Xun)

An animation about the history of China.

Oberhausen on Tour

September (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Esther May Campbell)

Marvin is not going anywhere. Into this forgotten corner of English countryside and motorway services arrives an extraordinary young girl, changing his world forever.

Full Review See: Encounters Film Festival Diary: Episode Two

Unstuck

Kudan and Dead Dog

Stand Up (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Joseph Pierce)

Told through a single stand up comedy routine, John J Jones performs to an unforgiving audience. As he loses their interest, his body rebels against him.

See: Encounters Film Festival Diary: Episode Three

Demons in the Dark

Tandem (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: John Turrell, Tom Turrell ; Writer: John Turrell, Tom Turrell)

Paul is selling up the family house. His sister Joan pays him a visit, the discovery of something from their childhood rekindles memories long forgotten.

Best of Little British

Terminus (Country: Canada; Year: 2007; Director: Trevor Cawood; Writer: Jason Cawood; Stars: Rob Carpenter, Trent Opaloch, Cassidy Wheatcroft)

After inadvertently offending a strange entity that accosts him on his way to work, a 1970s businessman quickly finds himself in the midst of a bizarre predicament.

Demons in the Dark

This Is J03 (Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Rory Lowe, Tom Shrapnel; Writer: Once Were Farmers; Stars: D.C. Barclay, Neil Charnaud)

This CG/ live action 3d animation sees our hero attempting a stint at hitchhiking and encountering a local tramp.

New Media Scotland: Sunday Sundae

Time Is Running Out (Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Marc Reisbig)

A little world is in trouble. One man tries to stop the inevitable.

Full Review

Unstuck

Le Grand Content and Ctrl Z

Toggle (Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Joanna Susskind), Official Site

A young girl explores an animated cityscape.

Full Review

Unstuck

Trip (Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Harry Wootliff; Writer: Harry Wootliff; Stars: Sam Hazeldine, Karis Igoe, Chloe Garner, Sara Fellows), Official Site

An emotional tale of what happens when a father tries to do the right thing by his two daughters but chooses the worst way to go about it.

Best of Little British