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'End of the Line' Illustrates Power of Short Films
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Saturday, March 17, 2018
 

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Jessica Sanders has been nominated for an Academy Award and she’s won awards at Cannes and Sundance.

She’s directed a documentary called “After Innocence” about a black man who forgave his white accuser after a DNA test exonerated him following 11 years in prison for alleged rape. And she’s about to direct “Picking Cotton” based on the New York Times bestseller by the same name.

But she’s showing a 14-minute short titled “End of the Line,” about a lonely man who goes to a pet store and buys a tiny man in a cage, at this year’s Sun Valley Film Festival.

“A lot of people make short films to launch their career. Jessica’s been making short films for awhile,” said Film Festival Founder Teddy Grennan.

It may come naturally for Sanders because she’s made a good career out of shorts. She was handpicked by Steve Jobs to direct Apple’s IPad launch campaign. And she has filmed commercials for Apple, Amazon, Samsung, Toyota, Proctor & Gamble and others.

It was a short—“Sing!”—about 8-year-olds singing with the Los Angeles opera—that garnered her an Academy Award nomination.

“I was obsessed with this little story about this little man in a cage,” she said on Thursday during the Sun Valley Film Festival, which runs through Sunday. “The big man with a little life befriends a little man who has a big life. It’s a story about power—hence, the line, ‘The end of the line.’”

Sanders isn’t the only one finding something to like about shorts. Between 600 and 800 shorts were submitted to this year’s Sun Valley Film Festival. Sundance Film Festival received more than 8,100 shorts, and the number grows each year.

The Sun Valley Film Festival will show a block of Idaho film shorts at 1 p.m. Sun;day in the Ford Cineetransformer that's free for the public. The Future Filmmakerss Forum, at 11 a.m. today in the Ford cinetransformer, will feature studentj shorts. It also is free to the public.

“People ask me: Should we go to see them? Absolutely yes,” said Bennett Krishock, who curates the shorts for the Sun Valley Film Festival, which is showing 16 shorts this year. “We select a large variety and the quality gets better every year. It’s a perfect venue for young filmmakers—we had a couple filmmakers from Taiwan this year who made a short called ‘Dinner with Strangers,’ which is a beautiful love film.”

Time was when short films—that is, 40 minutes or less—ruled the roost. But feature-length films gained in popularity as audiences began viewing them as similar to going to a play or opera. And, eventually, even the shorts that preceded feature films went by the wayside.

But they have become increasingly commercially viable again, thanks to the Internet and digital distributors like YouTube, iTunes, Hulu and Netflix where viewers can binge watch 20-minute episodes.

Vimeo offers great shorts. Palm Springs has a short film festival. And the Tribecca Film Festival shows 55 shorts. Shorts can also be seen on www.shortoftheweek.com and www.filmsshort.com.

Seventy percent of the audience views them on mobile. Even Turkish Airlines is shows a short before every feature.

“The content is getting smaller and the screens are getting smaller. Anything anywhere all the time,” said Grennan.

Shorts offer audiences voices not available on big budget blockbusters. And they offer filmmakers aesthetic independence and a chance to experiment and take risks without worrying about the potential for commercial success. Generally, they cost way less—under a million dollars—to make than feature-length films, where $60 million is considered low budget.

Platforms like Shatterbox also offer opportunities for female directors so they don’t have to wait for studios to hire them.

Austin Von Johnson, a young Boise actor, is in a 14-minute short called “Hero” about two quarreling brothers who discover what it means to be a hero. The film will be among four short films screened at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Ford Cinetransformer.

“I’m more excited about this than any other film I’ve done,” said Johnson. “It’s been winning all the festivals we’ve entered, including Boulder City, Nev., which shows 220 films. We even had a live orchestral score. It’s a very well put together film with incredible creative energy.”

The Sun Valley Film Festival’s One Potato film winner, “The Big Burn,” is a 20-minute film filmed by Idaho filmmaker Samantha Silva at Redfish Lake.

“It is a really, really good film. It’s amazing what you can do in 15 minutes,” said George Prentice, a film reviewer from Boise. “This is the golden age for short films. There are more film fests than ever. And larger cities are bundling them together and showing them in theaters.”

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

Jay Duplass, who stars in the new movie “Outside In,” will offer a free Coffee Talk at 10 a.m. in the Sun Valley Opera House.

"NONA," Michael Polish and Kate Bosworth's new film putting a face to human trafficking, is back for an unscheduled ENCORE performance at 11:30 a.m. at the Magic Lantern Cinema. If you care about social injustice issues this is not to be missed.

Nat Geo WILD Kids will show the world premiere of “Party Animals!” at 1 p.m. in the Sun Valley Opera house. It’s a SVFF Freebie.

“Outside In,” starring Jay Duplass, about a young man who falls in love with his former high school teacher after being released from prison, will be shown at 5:15 p.m. at the Sun Valley Opera House. “Great Story. Great Performers,” said Boise movie reviewer George Prentice.

Current Conversations will feature four women discussing what’s next for Hollywood (and other industries) in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the advent of films like “Black Panther” and “Wonder Woman.” Free at the Warfield Distillery.

The film “Leave No Trace” about a father and daughter trying to return to their off-the-grid home in the wilds near Portland, Ore., will be shown at 8 p.m. in the Sun Valley Opera house.

“Madeline’s Madeline,” about a young girl in an experimental theatre troupe, will be shown at 9 p.m. at the Ford Cinetransformer. The film is recommended by Boise film reviewer George Prentice, who saw it at Sundance Film Festival.

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