Five of the best from this year’s shorts program.
The 2018 edition of the SXSW Conference and Festivals is over, and the Cinapse team was on the ground, covering all things film.
For complete coverage, please visit cinapse.co/sxsw.
The shorts program at SXSW is extensive, spanning several programs with short works of all kinds. Here are five films that represent the best of the narrative section.
Are We Good Parents?
Parenting is fraught, and parenting in 2018 is no exception. When two well-meaning, progressive adults starting doubting themselves as to their childrearing liberal bonafides, hilarity ensues. They just want to raise their daughter right, without judgment or negativity, but that turns out to be harder than they imagined.
Maude
Anna Margaret Hollyman steps behind the camera for this exploration of wealthy parents and those that find themselves in their orbit. After appearing in approximately 8000 shorts and features at SXSW through the years, Hollyman’s stint behind the camera proves this won’t be her last time there.
The Things You Think I’m Thinking
This is an uncomfortable film to watch, mainly because we have such a hard time dealing with disabilities. Having an superb actor who is himself a burn victim and amputee quickly morphs the viewing of this short from being an experiment in advocacy to a profound story of potential love amidst enormous obstacles.
Men Don’t Whisper
From the team that brought us Fort Tilden and Search Party, we get a short film that asks the question: Is making love to a woman the manliest thing a gay dude can do? The answer as uncomfortable as one might expect. The whole thing is played for laughs and groans to pitch-perfect effect.
Emergency
The daily politics of race are explored here in sometimes funny but always menacing ways. Young men of color are caught between bad options when they must decided whether or not to involve law enforcement in an incident they might be accidentally blamed for. It’s definitely funny but ultimately unsettling in a way we’re far too accustomed to.