Board of Directors including: Jason Clark, Darryl Callcott, Marc Raffa, Katrina Clark, and Anna Chen.

Museum London

November 7, 8

****/4 Stars

Upon entering the theatre, ready to view the London Short Film Showcase, I was already aware that I was not particularly educated in the genre of short films. Knowing this, I entered wide-eyed and ready to see what my local creative community could teach me. What I found was much more than I originally expected.

Sitting in the showroom with approximately fifty other “film lovers,” as the initial brochure referred to us as, I was immediately impressed to be introduced to a surprisingly welcoming environment. Kicking off with a commercial regarding one London charity, OFTEN, the screen read, “For filmmakers, for fans.” For one reason or another, this was one of the lines that caught my attention during the evening. Next, as I was caught off guard by a compelling, captivating, and completely hilarious take on a “please turn off your cell phone” preview, I knew I was in for something fresh and new.

The film Easy Pickins managed to attain a perfect balance of comedy and professionalism in its well thought out yet not overly serious plot. It was made evident that the writers had fun with this film, which made me, as a viewer, far more prone to laugh along and enjoy it. Who would have thought a bank robbery to be so seriously comical? It was the three stooges modernized. This particular film contained brilliantly written dialogue, as well as a Scotties Kleenex commercial as the credits rolled which was a wonderfully executed addition to the piece, which kept the audience laughing until the last second.

Beautiful, charming, inspiring, and positively enticing to view was A Short Love Story. The music in this film fit the tone of the piece to a tee. I felt inspired and hopeful throughout the entity of this particular composition as the director somehow created an amazing full circle effect paired with enchanting character development in so little a time. I felt the passion was clear and had been portrayed in such a unique, almost innocent manner which overall made me rethink my views on love. A Short Love Story was utterly profound, and a wonderful perspective to experience.

My Charlotte was my personal favourite film of the night, as I realized I never felt manipulated as an audience member. It was as if I was looking onto the director’s ideas without having them forced upon me. I felt able to let the plot affect me, without feeling as though anyone else could possibly be planning the emotional attachment I experienced. The overall flow of this piece built up so wholly, and was accompanied by such terrific acting, that the film’s scheme just made sense to me. The second line I scribbled down as soon as I heard it this evening went something like, “I can’t play her last note, or else I’ll forget her… Like all the rest.” Let me tell you, if this film were shown to a group of teenage girls, you’d get squeals. Fortunately, I am not a squealer. I am however, the type to rave about eloquent lines such as this one, and take the time to scribble it all over notebooks until I feel someone has connected with it as I did. In this case, I believe the director simply found a more effective means in which to share their idea. To this director I would just like to say, “I get it.”

The concluding film entitled, Buried Over The Roofs, gave me mixed emotions at first. Primarily, I was plain old confused. All I know is that there were speedy subtitles, a few different fast-paced stories emerging at once, and something about renting rooms and snorting cocaine. Looking back at my notes, the very first thing I scrawled down was, “Unless I spoke Spanish, I couldn’t have deciphered this one.” That pretty much summed it up, or so I thought.

My next tactic was to basically give up the idea of even attempting to understand the lingo reinforcing this plot, and try focusing on the imagery. I stopped reading, and once I really watched I came to the realization that the cinematography in this film was stunning. It was captivatingly shot, and the acting looked believable and sincere, but perhaps that was because I was unable to comprehend the words coming from the respective actors. Either way, I certainly did not care. I began to understand this was a sort of spoof regarding the cost and quality of apartments in our modern economy. Soon enough I was giggling along to the humour that is realtors and renting crappy, yet insanely expensive, apartments. Perchance the full concept slid over my head however, Buried Over The Roofs made up for the perplexity with its ending. In the final scene, in order to avoid dealing with apartment troubles altogether, a tent is pitched triumphantly on a rooftop, along with another, and then another, and then another. I found my jaw dropping with the simplicity of the plot that by some means appeared within me. Suddenly, I somehow understood that through all the confusion and lies and hardships and questions, there could be simple answers.

Emma Flemington is a grade 10 student at Lucas whose passions include sports and writing. At Lucas’s awards this past week, she won awards for grade nine gifted English, drama, the Margaret Wilson Award (English) and the AB Lucas silver anniversary award (scholarship, school participation and community service).