From the Sep 2 – Sep 8, 1999 issue

Film

Short Films Keep Growing

An Emerging Seattle Art Form

by Charles Mudede

BUMBERSHOOT IS the perfect venue for a short film festival, not only because it offers an alternative cinematic experience to a large audience, but also because the variety of films screened during the festival perfectly complements the wide variety of entertainment roaring all over the Seattle Center during those four late-summer days.

This year, the ever-expanding One Reel Film Festival offers animation from nearly a dozen countries, and 60 live-action films from American filmmakers. I've seen only a handful of these films, but all that I've seen have been worth my time.

First is Todd Korgan's Johnny Bagpipes, the only mockumentary to ever make me laugh. (So many mockumentaries think they're funny when they're not.) If you missed the screening of Johnny Bagpipes at Blackchair in April, or at this year's SIFF, I highly recommend you catch it during Bumbershoot, as it is the perfect film for beer-garden drunkards who want to take a break for a minute or two. Then there is Phantom George, about a grotesque college student who can "astral project," and does so to get closer to a beautiful woman. Though it is uneven, it has very funny moments, and would have made a great feature-length film starring the late Chris Farley.

There is also a rare and interesting short called Warm Tide, about a black man from the 'hood who is struggling with his homosexuality. Finally, there's a local film called Flow, by Serge Gregory, about the best subject in the world -- Seattle.

What this year's festival has made evident, to me at least, is the growing and confident circle of small non-profit and private organizations that are promoting short films in Seattle. A definite film community is at last coming into shape here, offering a platform for short and experimental films that wasn't here even five years ago. This year's One Reel Film Festival has WigglyWorld Studios, FlavaFest, Blackchair Production, and Atom Films participating in a variety of significant ways. As the alliance between these groups strengthens, the short film form will certainly flourish in our city by the sea.