Short Film Export Report - BFI

Playing Palm Springs' opening night was Aardman Animation's "The Pearce Sisters," a 10-minute
sibling story from director Luis Cook. The stop-motion tale previously won a Special Jury Prize at
Annecy International Animation Festival.
Other UK shorts showcased at Palm Springs include "Specky," a 22-minute personal doc about
eyewear by nearsighted Scottish director Anne-Claire Pilley; Duncan Wellaway's 12-minute "Always
Crashing In The Same Car," starring Richard E. Grant; "The Cleaner," Noel Kearns' 13-minute crime
drama set in a London Hospital; and "RedBlack," a five-minute taxi cab confessional shocker by Mal
Woolford.
Several UK shorts that previously played the 2007 Sundance Film Festival won over the Canadian
audiences at CFC's Worldwide Fest, including the Scottish 10-minute trailer-park comedy "Trout" by
Johnny Barrington, Tom Harper's 10-minute teenage gang lord drama "Cubs," and Daniel Mulloy's
eight-minute dysfunctional adult family drama, "Dad."
World-premiering at Worldwide was the wonderfully-titled "The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays
Wallis Island," James Griffith's 24-minute rock and roll fable written by and starring Tom Basden and
Tim Key. "Herb McGwyer" also won Best British Short Film at the 2007 Edinburgh International Film
Festival.
"Soft" director Simon Ellis also had another short at the Canadian festival, "A Storm and Some Snow,"
a two-minute experimental piece about the weather. "A Storm and Some Snow" previously played
Tampere. A very personal film selected by the Worldwide programmers is "My Life at 40," Royal
College of Art animator Laurie Hill's eight-minute rumination on how his childhood-self pictured his
adult-self as "a suave Lamborghini-driving conservationist, and world authority on Anglerfish, of
course." Hill also has another childhood-remembrance short, the 10-minute "My First Taste Of Death,"
which played LA Shortsfest.
And perhaps the silliest of all the British shorts played both Palm Springs and Los Angeles: Kengo
Kurimoto's six-minute "Yoga Noga Reyoga; The Enlightenment Competition," which is (in the words
of the filmmaker) "a computer-generated animated short about two young monks' somewhat shambolic
attempt to find peace and unity."
Immature monks, Bob Geldof tribute artists, and hooligans beaten back with a cricket bat, this is what
you miss if you don't keep up with the newest voices of British cinema. Can't wait to see what next
year's crop will bring.
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