12
votes
~s shorts recommendations
So I'm on a movie kick after realising I haven't paid attention to movies for a number of years now. I may have seen less than 10 movies last year.
One thing I miss from when I was growing up is when a trip to the cinema always started with a short followed by the main film.
So here's my pr(e/o)mise:
Recommend me your favourite short movies (from any director / year / genre) and I will do my best to track down and watch it (by fair means or foul!)
Also let me know the best way to follow up - add a comment in this thread, make a new post or just shut up (I won't be offended).
I thought it might be interesting to compare notes and ideas.
It's probably a fairly popular opinion, but I generally enjoy the Pixar shorts. Bao is probably my favourite, but there are lots of good ones that you see on the pixar site and I think that they are generally easy to find online.
Pixar are certainly welcome since we've currently got a Disney+ subscription although haven't checked yet whether it's their whole catalogue.
I actually watched a ton of short films in 2021, so here are some of my favorites (I’ll edit and come back to this later to add more).
Note: you can also find more high quality shorts here and here
Six Shooter from Martin McDonagh
The Gun Fighter
Election Night
Toyland
The Eleven O’Clock
Timecode
The Long Goodbye
The Neighbors’ Window
Edit: I’ll also link to this criterion thread which has a lot of recommendations for pre-feature shorts.
The Silent Child
Dekalb Elementary
The Old Man and The Sea
Two Distant Stranger (Netflix)
If Anything Happens I Love You (Netflix)
The Windshield Wiper
The Phone Call
I'm amazed these are all on youtube and grateful for the links too! Thanks!
I'm not hugely into watching short films, but the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) is one of my favorite institutions, and has produced a tremendous amount of really good Animated Shorts over the years that I can wholeheartedly recommend. E.g.
One I submitted to Tildes a few years ago, Old Dog is adorable. Big Drive is also quite amusing. Madame Tutli-Putli and Higglety Pigglety Pop! (Vimeo link since it's not free to watch on NFB site) are both Chris Lavis + Maciek Szczerbowski shorts that are beautifully animated and wonderfully fantastical. Caterpillarplasty is NSFW and fucking weird as hell. And Uncle Thomas: Accounting for Days was lovely, but unfortunately costs $3 to watch now, and I can't find any place that has the whole thing for free.
And if you don't mind older stuff I can recommend a bunch more now considered Canadian classics:
Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz
Blackfly
The Cat Came Back
The Big Snit
The Sweater
And Cordell Barker, who made The Cat Came Back, also has a few more recent ones that are great too:
Strange Invaders, If I Was God...
And while I don't know if this really fits your criteria, there are a bunch of CBC's Short Docs that are quite good and worth checking out too, IMO. E.g.
Patty vs. Patty, another I submitted to Tildes last year, was quite entertaining and is almost more short-film than doc due to all the amusing dramatic reenactments.
And Generation Homeless (Ep 1, 2, 3, 4) was a series from last year which were all eye-opening, touching, and heartbreaking.
Cheers for these. I can never fathom why some things are region locked but others are free to stream. Anyhow, I'll start off with the one's I can watch on their site and see if I can find other means for the rest.
Oh shit, sorry, I didn't realize the NFB site was region locked! You should hopefully be able to watch them all on YouTube, since they also have a channel there: https://www.youtube.com/user/nfb
Old Dog = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icB8K36V9Ic
Big Drive = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNdxNCQRMyE
Madame Tutli-Putli = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcdzdHoDvkg
Higglety Pigglety Pop! = https://vimeo.com/217689111
Caterpillarplasty = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlseTkThRfY
Log Driver's Waltz = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8
Blackfly = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f389hIxZAOc
The Cat Came Back = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJl_4IsQJ2g
The Big Snit = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1S5pAF1YYA
The Sweater = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZyDsF-Gp3o
Strange Invaders = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZyDsF-Gp3o
If I Was God = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORZf5JL1hU (New Yorker's channel actually had it!)
Oooh so years ago, I was on a short movie kick and found several YouTube channels dedicated to some sort of awards for short story videos. The channels are RIPE with some amazing stories, so I'll drop them here and you can watch to your hearts content!
I'll come back and drop links to specific shorts that I've watched and like from my computer later, so you don't have to discover it all yourself
Wow I'm blown away by the massive amount of recommendation in this thread. Way more than I expected and the fact that so many of them are available to stream without payment.
Did you watch any of the short film recommendations, @bhrgunatha? If so, what did you think of them?
I'm working my way through them, albeit slowly as I'm also following recommendations of full length features from another site. I'm actually a bit overwhelmed by the number of recommendations. This is going to be more of a marathon.
I started with Pixar - Bao, Lou, Burrow and Piper (my favourite from Pixar so far).
I did enjoy Caterpillarplasty because I'm drawn to bizarre or uncomfortable movies (I genuinely love Eraserhead which I re-watched recently too). It reminded me of something I read ages ago from the point of view of a caterpillar describing the physical pain and torment of the actual transformation process and another distorted memory of a novel (I think) where the narrator philosophises about whether the caterpillar and butterfly are the same identity or not and how it relates to our own changing sense of identity. An interesting framing I thought.
I've watched 4 or 5 at random from the Short of the Week youtube channel suggested by @scrambo (and subscribed too so I'll be watching them as they are published in future.)
Others I watched.
Two Distant Strangers which explores police racial abuse in the unexpected form of sci-fi time loop! It's hard not to feel angry but I'm also aware I can't really comment too much as a white guy whose only racial abuse is being treated over-kindly in every country I've ever visited.
The Neighbours' Window. I liked the idea that witnessing a sad and poignant story unfold in an apartment across the street not being such a one-sided experience.
Hah. Sorry about contributing to that. I just can't help but go a bit overboard when people ask for recommendations, and clearly I am not alone in doing that. :P
Both of those actually sound vaguely familiar to me too, but I am blanking out on from where exactly... other than them being vaguely reminiscent of the Ship of Theseus.
Thanks for sharing your opinions, and I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on more shorts, if/when you actually manage to watch them. :)
shoutout ot @cfabbro .Focussing on live action.
The Eleven O’Clock: I'll just link to this sketch from Fry and Laurie... great minds think alike?
Dekalb Elementary: No idea how I would react to a shooter, but I strongly suspect my fear would vastly overwhelm any tendency for compassion or understanding. Of course I hope never to find out. Strong performance by Shinelle Azoroh.
The Phone Call: Speaking of compassion I appreciated the unflinching trajectory and unexpected (to me) outcome of this one-sided conversation. Interesting choice of how to respond after the fact and how a small off-the cuff interaction can have a meaningful impact. Talking of unexpected, Sally Hawkins!
The Silent Child: What a self-centred, heartless person the mother is.
The Windshield Wiper: Everyone's going to have their own take on the question posed. I have to say I didn't find much to connect with, except for the other question which
I thought might have made a better subject -
What colour do you see when you think about yourself?One of my favorite short films that was not yet mentioned was the Paper Please short based on the game of the same title. It's pretty well self contained and gets the point across of what work would be like in that sort of environment.
There is also the DUST short films channel that has some very good sci fi shorts for an internet production. I really like FTL, but sort by popular and you'll probably find something fun.
https://vimeo.com/438210156