MANHATTAN SHORT 2023 - Thoughts and Opinions

We've made it through another year of MANHATTAN SHORT. If you're unfamiliar, it's a global film festival that presents 10 short films each year. The films are chosen from hundreds of films submitted from all over the world. The 10 that Nick Mason and the MANHATTAN SHORT team choose are put together into the festival that is shown in venues across 6 continents. This includes cinemas, universities, libraries, museums, and even breweries. At the end of each showing, every viewer gets to vote on their favorite film and actor. It's a great way to showcase short films that might otherwise be overlooked or unheard of, especially small towns like Port Clinton, Ohio. It's also a great glimpse into the lives and cultures of other countries around the world. The festival has expanded even since we started showing it in 2018 and now includes an online festival that viewers can purchase into. The next online festival will be in 2024 and can be found here.

This year, Marketing Coordinator Laura and Adult Programming Coordinator Alana will give you their opinions of the festival. If you want to give your opinions or share your thoughts on any of the films, feel free to let us know on social media or stop into the library and let us know!

Laura

This year’s MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival was similar to ones in years past: it was incredibly difficult to pick a favorite! As always, the festival featured a wide range of topics, styles, genres, and countries of origin. There were more dramatic ones, serious, and some in between. I had a few that weren’t to my taste, but plenty I loved in different ways.

The first one I loved was “Voice Activated” a comedy about a florist with a stutter trying to make his way to a delivery in a voice-activated car. Of course, there is difficulty in navigating as the car struggles to understand the florist through his stutter. It’s incredibly funny but also has a great message that makes you think about the struggles of others when it comes to technology. The story is an own-voice story, the director himself has a stutter. For me, own-voice stories are incredibly important (especially when venturing into comedy) because everything is done with care and first-hand experience. Specifically in this film, the comedy is never done at the expense of those with stutters, but to show the ridiculousness in trying to navigate a world that isn’t built with them in mind. The actor, Aleks Mikic, is incredible as well. His comedic timing is spot on and you find yourself relating to his frustrations even if you don’t have a stutter yourself.

Tuulikki was one that kept me guessing. I’m not going to go too deep into this one because it would spoil the ending, which wasn’t something I saw coming. The ending is incredibly impactful and deserves that element of surprise if you get the chance to see it. The basic premise is a young woman dealing with her over-protective mother and plotting her escape. As the movie progresses, you are switching back and forth in thought as to who is “in the right” in the situation, having as much suspicion for each woman as they have for each other. Actress Saana Koivisto is incredible throughout.

As someone that grew up on 90s boybands, I adored Career Day. About a former 90s boyband member, he brings together his former bandmates to reunite for his daughter’s career day. It was really funny and nostalgic of that time period. The lead actor, Paul Bartholomew, did an amazing job singing the cheesy lyrics and dancing the a-bit-too-on-the-nose dance moves.

This year’s festival featured a fun and unique animated film. The animation style stands out and is on the surface simple, relying on just black and white. The story is one of an antique musical instrument dealer who is given a magical vinyl record that plays your memories, even those that are forgotten. As he sits and obsessively listens, you’re given glances into these memories through patterns that play out on screen, flashing between the memories and present day.

Finally, as always, there’s the one that made me cry. It seems each year there’s at least one. This year, it’s the film The Stupid Boy. It follows a teenage boy who is neurodivergent. He sees the best in people, often to his detriment, not understanding the harm people can cause him. At home, though, he has a loving family that wants the best for him. Meanwhile, a lonely man who is part of a Christian white supremacist group, is further driven into the extremist views. This leads to the climax of him being groomed for a suicide bombing. The ending is tense and emotional. It feels as though the tension lasts forever, but in a great and profound way. The film is an empathetic view into both neurodivergence and the extreme isolation loneliness can create and the destruction that can come from that.

Over all, I was impressed with this year’s films. I’m glad that this festival is something we can offer to our community. There isn’t a lot of opportunity to see short films or culturally diverse films in our area, so to be able to bring that to our community makes me proud.

Alana

I cannot claim to be a movie buff by any means, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the artistry that goes into making a film. Dialogue and acting, lighting and framing, sound mixing and post-production editing – they’re all critical to the finished product. That being said, I feel that Manhattan Short’s selections for 2023 were all incredibly well-made, with a little something for everyone throughout.

There was comedy, suspense, social commentary, and plot twists abound. It surprised me just how much a filmmaker can fit into less than 20 minutes. I could feel the tension in Sunless and The Family Circus, the frustration in Voice Activated, the power of love in The Stupid Boy and Snail, and the uncertainty of the future in Yellow. It’s difficult to describe how much fun it was watching Career Day, or the shock I felt at the end of Tuulikki. In The Record, this year’s lone animated contender, the symbolism and art style were uniquely bold and entrancing. The message and theme of Soleil De Nuit leaves the audience with lots to think about in regards to the ideas of progress and authority. In short (pun intended), I was more than pleased with the variety of films chosen as the finalists for this year.

For those who at any of the showings this year, it will probably come as no surprise that Paul Bartholomew from Career Day got my vote as Best Actor. He was stellar in the role of Johnny Hazel, the former frontman for a 90s boy-band called Five4Luv now raising a family in suburbia. When his daughter tells him that a classmate’s dad will be coming to talk to their class on his job as a firefighter, Johnny decides that he will make an appearance as well – along with the other members of Five4Luv. It’s genuine and funny, and I appreciated the little details like minor choreography mistakes being left in the final cut; these guys are out of practice, after all.

For Best Film, I had a much harder time making my decision. I have to reiterate again that there were no weak contenders or bad films in the lineup whatsoever. Ultimately, I decided that my vote would go to the short film that I had the biggest reaction to: The Stupid Boy, a film out of the United Kingdom. To say that this film made my jaw drop is no exaggeration. The actors portray their characters incredibly well, and they seem fully developed even though the runtime doesn’t exceed 15 minutes. The climax of the film is a domestic terrorist attack thwarted by genuine, pure-hearted love for one’s fellow man. The message is clear: those who seem least deserving of love often need it the most, and I know many of us can agree that this message is more pertinent than ever.

These are solely my feelings on Manhattan Short 2023. However, I still fully believe that every film in this year’s lineup deserved to be there, and any of them could have easily claimed the title of Best Film. Whichever you voted for, I hope everyone who came to any or all of the showings enjoyed the festival as much as I did. I can hardly wait for next year!