The Aesthetica Short Film Festival is in York for the second year running. The festival involves the screening of hundreds of short films in fifteen different venues around the city. It has enjoyed considerable success since last year and has gained in prestige a great deal, with less than 20% of films entered getting to be shown.
On the 8th of November, York City Screen hosted the opening night. I was wearing a suit for the first time in my life and surrounded by some successful film producers, directors and actors as well as the people in charge of putting on this impressive spectacle. After being complimented for my zebra tie by Grace Henderson, the media relation’s coordinator, it was time to watch some of the most prominent films of the festival in one of the cinemas upstairs.
In a packed out cinema, we watched five short films. The first was ‘Perfect’ by Anya Camilleri, which was a beautifully filmed dark comedy about an estate agent, who dedicates his life to his job only to be fired, which makes him snap completely into a killing spree. The film started off with an interesting voiceover and a great montage sequence although once the killing started, it became a bit unhinged with an inconsistent mood and rushed pacing. This film was made in 2004, and Camilleri went on to make ‘Incubus,’ a horror film starring Tara Reid in 2006.
Next was ‘Dylan’s Room’, which was a far more arresting and unusual concept of a mother coping with the loss of her son by smoking his secret weed stash. It was beautifully acted by Joanna Scanlon, who is better known as Terri Coverley in The Thick Of It.
It’s all set in one room and shows how a short film can be made interesting and exciting despite the lack of many locations. Layke Anderson, the director, manages to create a heavy feeling of loss through simple shots of the son’s possessions as Scanlon lies on the bed imagining her son next to her between drags of his joint. It is a remarkable film that has achieved success at many festivals so far including winning the Best Short Film category at the Cambridge Film Festival.
The other film which caught my eye was ‘Photoshopping’ starring Joan Kempson, who plays someone obsessed with collecting photos of herself with celebrities and is one away from breaking the world record. However, after having her camera stolen whilst trying to photograph herself with Fern Britton, a journalist finds out a darker side to her story. With a funny concept and impeccable acting from Kempson, it was an audience favourite and I loved the reference to Hitchcock’s 1948 classic, ‘Rope’ at the end.
After the films had been screened, we went back downstairs for some more free wine and a DJ. I got chatting to Andy, an aspiring filmmaker from Glasgow, who has a film on at the festival. He said when it came to financing his films, he did it all himself. No studios; no production companies. He was a true guerilla filmmaker, which is something I admire immensely. Though the films we had seen upstairs had decent budgets and some famous actors in them, the festival should be admired for encouraging this sort of filmmaker to have his films screened too.
I went over to the table of canapés and glanced at what looked like a meringue yet contained mushrooms. “Don’t go near them” a voice said behind me, “They taste awful even though they look amazing.” It turned out this voice was Matt Nesbeth, who was here with his film ‘New With Tags’, which is about a man running away from his troubles. Nesbeth is a UWE Bristol film graduate and, along with his two friends and colleagues, seemed to be reveling in the experience of the festival. Once again, his budget was next to nothing and he had to save up money to even get to York. His film will be shown in the City Screen basement on Saturday at 2pm or in the Guildhall at 8pm on Friday and Saturday and I hope it gets a good crowd.
The Aesthetica festival should be given immense credit for giving lo-to-no budget filmmakers that vital opportunity at getting their work shown to people who could potentially be impressed enough to offer them something else. I wish there were more festivals like this because Filmmaking is such a difficult occupation to succeed in. Just getting work shown can be a dream for these young directors and York should be proud to have this festival here for the next few days.