Our pilot stopped short, my hotel has crazy circus performers resting on the walls above my head, and then there was this awesome french driving film that makes Bullit look like a training wheel exercise. All this at the Vienna International Shorts Festival!
Get this. Remember that Seinfeld episode when Kramer "stopped short" on George's mom?
Well, yeah, our plane from Frankfurt to Vienna stopped short upon landing. Was it a favour for a passenger long smitten with his seatmate? Did the pilot finally generate the courage to express his/er feelings towards the co-pilot?
Why wasn't it me?
So, Vienna. I'm here to do some jury work, curating and moderating at the Vienna Independent Shorts festival (VIS). Never been VIS before. Old pal Thomas Renolder invited me. He meets me at the airport. We talk about the competition I'm judging: animation and avante-garde. Apparently, Austrians LOVE the phrase Avant-garde. There is only fiction shorts, documentary shorts and avante-garde. This word animation is not spoken in cultural funding sectors. I think it's a nice problem because the state funders put an emphasis on independent, art works. They want originality not Pixar applications.
After I get settled at the hipster hotel, 25hours
Opening night is interesting. Instead of showing a single competition screening, we're presented with highlights from the different competition and out of competition programmes. So, we get a taste of documentaries, fiction shorts, animation and some David OReilly's nifty work.
The highlight for me is not an animation film, although I guess I could like and just say it is and that would fuck with your mind while you stare at the circus people and think about stopping short.
Is this jet lag writing?
Then... a short film made in 1976. I'd never heard of it, but it's a classic. C'etait un Rendez-vous by Claude Lelouch. 9 minutes that will blow your senses through each other. It's a Sunday drive you aint never seen. One that makes the car chase in Bullitt look like it was done on training wheels by toddlers. The film isnt online and that's good. You need to see it on a BIG SCREEN.
I did find a Making Of on You Tube.
.
Then we partied. A great first day.
Next up I'm moderating David OReilly's masterclass. How does a 20 something already have a retrospective and masterclass?
I'll tell you in the next installment.
A well-known figure in the world of independent animation, writer, author & curator Chris Robinson is the Artistic Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
