Pride not Prejudice

Curated Pride Collections, New Short Film Picks, and 10 Things to Check Out

Author

Jason Sondhi
June 07, 2024

Hooray for June! It’s Pride Month and S/W and Shortverse are honoring the occasion. We dipped into the archives to highlight queer films at the top of our YouTube channel and via the featured collection at the top of Shortverse.

It’s also Tribeca time in NYC and Chelsea and I will be out and about at the festival, reconnecting with alums and scouting new films. Both Pride and Tribeca are well represented in the following sections so, without further ado, let’s begin our weekly dive into short film.

📅 This Week on Short of the Week

The Shore by Eron Sheean

Inexplicably abandoned by his parents on a windswept, empty beach, a young boy embarks on a surreal journey through time – and a contemplation of his mortality.

The Subject by Patrick Bouchard

An animator dissects his own body, extracting memories, emotions, and fears that will nurture his work.

A Holiday from Mourning by Zara Dwinger

A teenage girl attempts to flee the grief she has felt since her mother’s death by going on a post-exam trip to a Portuguese party town.

RINOCERANTE by Tamás Lakatos

A family dynamic that begins to unravel when a son stands up to his domineering father.

🔗 10 Things We’re Paying Attention To

Tribeca to Screen AI-Generated Short Films Created by OpenAI’s Sora.

  1. Tribeca is embracing AI filmmaking with open arms. Last month I reported from Runway’s AI Film Festival that they would have a special screening at the festival. Now OpenAI has announced that 5 new shorts made using their unleashed Sora service will also screen, headlined by a new short from Suicide by Sunlight and Nanny filmmaker, Nikyatu Jusu.

  2. Another alum who’ll be at Tribeca is Jim Cummings with a new short, Is Now a Good Time? He just recently dropped a 20min documentary on the making of his feature The Beta Test, calling it a “free film school” for his style of making indie movies.

  3. Speaking of indie features, our weekly S/W alum theatrical release streak continues—Artemis Shaw’s feature, New Strains, opens in New York and LA today courtesy of the distributor MEMORY. Watch the trailer.

  4. RIP Free the Work! The brainchild of Alma Har’el, the non-profit grew from the viral activist campaign “Free the Bid” into an important online filmmaking network and database that accomplished real work in helping increase female and minority participation in commercial filmmaking. A recent announcement on Instagram details the platform’s closure.

  5. The M&M’S Short Film Festival has a winner! Short of the Week was proud to help this UK film initiative at various steps and now the winning short film has been unveiled. Congrats to Christine Ubochi, you can watch her short Funke, Fatima and Madame Bunmi at M&M’S website.

  6. Have you shot professional work on your phone? More and more filmmakers are. If you’re on the fence, there is a new app for iPhone that might tip the scale. “Kino” is from the developer of the popular camera app “Halide” and promises a similar blend of granular control + easy presets. Check it out.

  7. First Showing alerts us that a series of 8 Chinese animated shorts that originally debuted on Bilibili have made their way to YouTube with English subtitles. Based on popular folktales, the films are a great snapshot of contemporary Chinese animation.

  8. Record label Concord is teaming up with NYC’s queer film festival NewFest on a short film grant initiative that provides filmmakers $$$ as well as license rights to iconic songs. Deadline has the details.

  9. Nick St. Pierre is one of the best AI image generators online. He is embarking on a series of threads explaining how he conceptualizes using MidJourney. Even if you dislike AI, it makes for an interesting read.

  10. Another world I can scarcely conceptualize and which is already decades into dominating filmmaking is professional VFX. But, I still like to read about it! Alum Wes Ball talks to VFX Voice about the evolving approach he and his team undertook on the new Planet of the Apes film.

🪐 Into the Shortverse

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.”

We celebrate the S/W alums and Shortverse members screening in the Tribeca short film program and gather their profiles into a collection for easy following.

Thanks for reading this week’s Shorts Weekly. Do you have a tip for us or would you like to advertise in this newsletter? Just reply to this email to get in touch.