Curated by Sunanda Kottayil, Alison Colcord, Adam Louie,
Nick Gomez and Mason Bosworth
“Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
One of the biggest challenges a student filmmaker will have to face is casting the perfect actor. This one choice may be what separates their film from critically acclaimed to critically reviewed. We have selected a handful of student shorts that stand out for their commitment to memorable performances featuring standout personalities. These standout personalities succeed at getting the audience to empathize with them, whether they be from an ousted President or an aluminum can. This program celebrates these dynamic performances and hopes that the inspire the next generation of student actors and filmmakers.
Norma (1987)
Norma (1987) is a film that encapsulates the spirit of filmmaking and performing for the screen. Filmmaker M. Mather George pays homage to Gloria Swanson’s performance as the bombastic Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard. Various performers come down a staircase interpreting Swanson’s famous line of “Mr. Demille, I’m ready for my close up,” in varying styles and languages. Through Norma, M. Mather George honors cinema as well as silent and sound actors alike in her experimental pastiche of Sunset Boulevard‘s iconic staircase scene. (Alison Colcord)
Country: USA
Language: English, German, Chinese, French
Year: 1987
Runtime: 2:30
Director: M. Mather George
Marcos in Exile (1987)
This experimental, animated, short imagines the life of ousted Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos as he spends his days exiled in Hawaii with his wife Imelda, plotting his return to power. (Sunanda Kottayil)
Country: USA
Language(s): English/ Tagalog
Year: 1987
Running time: 1 minute 24 seconds
Director: D.P Olmsted
Producer: D.P Olmsted
7 Figure Man (1990)
“Pick up the phone, make a million dollars…” Shot mockumentary style, a young, foulmouthed film executive offers advice on show business, though he isn’t quite who he appears to be… (Mason Bosworth)
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 1990
Running Time: 6 minutes 6 seconds
Directors: Eric Schwartzman & John Anklow
Writers: Eric Schwartzman & John Anklow
Producers: Eric Schwartzman & John Anklow
Starring: Eric Schwartzman & Lee Housekeeper
Candide (1988)
In this experimental claymation musical, obscure clay figures re-enact a scene from Act I of Leonard Bernstein’s satirical operetta Candide and perform “You Were Dead, You Know.” To give an inanimate object character and charm is no easy feat, let alone trying to create boisterous and flamboyant performances out of clay material. Filmmaker Peter Boris Tode’s ability to quite literally mold personality into his clay actors, Kunigunde and Benedikt, is a testament to how hand-crafted performances can be just as effective as a performance done by a human actor. (Nick Gomez)
Country: USA
Year: 1988
Running time: 3 minutes 19 seconds
Director: Peter Boris Tode
The Cat Dream (1997)
This film is a semi-surreal, fun short with characters made out of colored paper that move via stop-motion and sets made out of woodchips. The film deals with the efforts of having and dealing with a pet cat. (Adam Louie)
Country: USA
Year: 1997
Running Time: 2 minutes 26 seconds
Director: George Dondero
Producer: Kara Dondero
Writer: George Dondero
Editor: George Dondero