Santa Barbara Shorts Program (Various directors, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Charlotte Brange. Viewed at Victoria Hall at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Santa Barbara shorts program is the program where the director is from Santa Barbara and/or the movie is set in Santa Barbara. Before the show started we got to see an old black & white comedy short from Santa Barbara, and it was great to see that they did great shorts even back then!

Aquarius of hearts is a story about a boy with a necklace, walking on the beach when he discovers a girl that he tries to give the necklace to. Every time he tries she disappears. This is a great short film without any dialogue, just music. Visually very beautiful, many shots blend together into art. This is how a love poem would look like if ever made into a short movie. I saw the necklace as a metaphor for love, which he tries to give someone a piece of his heart.

A beachwork orange that followed differs a lot from Aquarius of hearts. This is a comedy about a girl that is tired of her boyfriend always checking in other girls. So she invents a “choker”, with a remote control so she can tase him. This was a funny story that the audience laughed along with, especially at the little twist at the end. You could see a lot of repetition used throughout the short film which helped us understanding the point.

If you like action movies with in an interesting new way, you’ll like Hector Quince: Author. This was a short film that could’ve been more than just a short film. About Hector Quince, a man that is kidnapped and his way out of the truck he’s locked inside. Very strong colors made the movie visually great but overall the plot not really seemed in order.

A movie that I thought was very much older than it actually was; The patent clerk. A man walks around, talking German in a seemingly weird world where actually everything is relative. The patent clerk is shot in black & white, and with a diffuse layer, to create an ‘old’ feeling, which they’re successful with. Not really my cup of tea but an interesting ending.

On the other hand, Black & White was more of my cup of tea. This is the story where a little girl wakes up in 1941 in the middle of the night and finds her mother, who explains that her daddy has been taken by the FBI. It’s a strong performance by the little girl and although a short movie, surprisingly touching. It’s divided into two parts where the first part is about the girl and the other part explains the war. Very nice lighting and looks like a beginning of a Hollywood feature film about war.

Volver a subir or Rise up as it’s called in the US, is about a everyday life in Spain. Great interaction between the main characters, a father and his son, who’d like to explorer the world. The longest one and the most ‘regular’ one, focusing on the story instead of the framing.

The documentary Leather Jude followed. Hans Biglajzer was a survivor of the Holocaust and this is the story about his life as saddle maker. An interesting story that with the right hands could might turn into a feature film. Great shots of horses and close-ups to feel Hans’ pain from the Holocaust.

A neighbor becomes obsessed with his girl neighbor and decides to free her from her ‘bad boyfriend’, this is the plot in My hero. Visual, strong colors and the photography are crucial to the movie. The movie starts out silent and calm, than develops into an action movie which is a bit ridiculous.

The last film was Santa’s Little Helper. Santa Claus is walking around in Santa Barbara when a little boy finds him and they share stories. They’ve used the daylight very well but what happened to the story? We’ve seen stories with moral and about ‘the golden rule’ before.