Short films tend to get short shrift outside the festival circuit, squeezed between feature-length attractions or scattered across the internet. The Summer Shorts Film Fest gives the form an entire weekend—and a room built for watching.
Returning to the Denizen Theatre in New Paltz for its fourth year, August 7–9, the festival gathers 40 animated, documentary, narrative, and experimental films into six thematic programs. Lead programmer Warren Etheredge reviewed more than 2,500 submissions from the US and abroad to assemble the nine-hour lineup.
The festival opens Friday afternoon with “For Father’s Sake,” a program of seven films about fathers and sons, estrangement, reconciliation, and the long shadows cast by family history. That evening’s “For Locals’ Sake” turns the screen over to New York filmmakers from outside the five boroughs. Among its selections are Cahill’s Lanes, Marco Jo Clate’s drama about a young woman trying to connect with her estranged father in a rural bowling alley; Allegra Venturi’s Sick Enough, inspired by the experiences of people seeking treatment for eating disorders; and Fiona Otway’s Into the Dark, which follows Saugerties photographer Pete Mauney’s nocturnal pursuit of fireflies.
Saturday begins with “For Grief’s Sake,” pairing films from the United States, Iran, and France that consider how people absorb and survive loss. The evening’s “For Teachers’ Sake” includes Teaching America, Anurima Bhargava’s documentary about education, democracy, and the teaching of American history; The Boy with the Dinosaur Head; and Stalin Boys, along with films about subjects ranging from big-bass fishing to adolescence.
For filmmakers willing to submit to public surgery, Saturday afternoon brings “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” Etheredge, a veteran curator who has watched more than 40,000 shorts, will screen the opening minutes of rejected films and diagnose where they go awry. The exercise promises blunt criticism delivered with enough wit and goodwill to make the medicine go down.
Sunday expands the conversation with “A River Runs Through Them,” a panel on the pleasures and complications of making movies outside New York City. The final two programs turn to love and labor: “For Love’s Sake” ranges from romantic comedy and documentary to Cuban narrative and British animation, while “For Work’s Sake” considers jobs, money, vocation, and the emotional price of earning a living.
Awards for directing, performance, narrative, documentary, animation, and local filmmaking will be presented Sunday evening. Individual programs are $10, and a $50 festival pass includes priority admission to all screenings, discussions, and special events.
The Summer Shorts Film Fest runs August 7–9 at the Denizen Theatre in New Paltz.
