Refractional Distillations

Physics doctoral student by day, short film nerd by night. Bristol, UK.

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El Menu (7.5/10)

Una película muy interesante. Una exploración de la división de clases y dinero. Es muy bien, pero las motivaciones del antagonista no es discuten.

Tengo hambre ahora 😂

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Denis Villeneuve doesn't disappoint with this moody and atmospheric dark comedy about class division and social mobility. The film's beautifully crafted (and often disgusting) soundtrack lends vivid colour to an otherwise drab and grey plaster-covered world, and the furtive glances shared by the doting waiters say more than dialogue ever could.

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FAUVE

187 festivals, 90+ awards. Academy Award® Nomination for Best Live Action Short Film FAUVE by Jeremy Comte Synopsis : Set in a surface mine, two boys sink…

“Set in an abandoned surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer.”

Dark, atmospheric, gets you right in the feels. Argh.

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BHOY // Short Film

BHOY is a teenager forced to mature in a savage world ruled by a God Whale. Watch it in 4K. https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2019/10/03/bhoy/ -- Written, Directed…

This also gets me

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Omelette in Vimeo Staff Picks

Finally my 2nd Calarts film is completed! It feels really great to make a more personal film this year, now that I know the ropes of filmmaking a bit better. I wanted…

This gets me

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Cultures collide in GREY BULL - a touching story about the struggles with tradition, culture and identity that many immigrants face while adapting to life in their new communities.

Martin (MAYIK DENG) from South Sudan provides for his family by working on the production line at a local slaughterhouse, in their new home in rural Australia. But trouble begins to brew when he meets his spirit animal at work - an old grey bull. Martin feels that it’s his holy mission to spare the grey bull from slaughter, so he abducts it - throwing himself into conflict with his employers, and pushing his relationship with his family to it’s limits.

“In my country when a man loves a bull, he gives it’s owner everything he has” “It doesn’t work like that round here mate”

Fantastic production values, compelling storytelling and a brilliant performance from MAYIK DENG makes GREY BULL a captivating piece of social commentary on a complex and divisive issue. It’s rare and refreshing to hear about immigration from a new perspective - the immigrant’s. 

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From renowned DISTRICT 9 director NEILL BLOMKAMP and his new brain child OAT STUDIOS comes ZYGOTE - a genuinely terrifying, hair-raising sci-fi horror.

Barklay is a grizzly security agent, and Quinn is a low-level functionary synthetic. They are the sole survivors of a devastating accident on an isolated arctic mining colony, and they’re being relentlessly hunted down by a Frankensteinesque abomination who’s murdered the rest of the colony’s crew.

Sound a bit familiar? It should. ZYGOTE echos with the harrowing footsteps of RIDLEY SCOTT’S 1979 sci-fi suspense horror epic ALIEN.

Many films have attempted to captive audiences in the same way as Alien did but ZYGOTE is a little bit special. The creature’s haunting appearance and bone-chilling shrieks are genuinely fear-inducing and the spartan, minimalist corridors of the trashed mining colony give the setting a cold and inhospitable feel. Coupled with a soundscape of irritating sirens and alarms, it all comes together beautifully to instil in the audience a chilling, unnerving sense of impending doom.

But, as good and enjoyable as ZYGOTE is, it’s falls a little short of it’s potential. I feel like the film should have teased the audience more - we should have been given a single, distant, blood-curdling howl. A furtive glimpse of a horrifying silhouette. A bloody, disfigured limb sliding across a window.... And then BOOM, JUMP-SCARE, as the abomination is revealed in all it’s petrifying glory for a final show-down with it’s prey.

Instead, the abomination is a whiny, shouty, marauder. It doesn’t come across as particularly cunning intelligent or stealthy. Perhaps that’s the point - it’s strong and bold enough, that it doesn’t need to hide.

But for me, it’s more terrifying to be stalked from the shadows by a mysterious, silent, unseen killer, than it is to be chased by a marauding beast.

Fear comes from the unknown.

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“Suspected witches must face trial. They are to be thrown into a river. […] Guilty ones float - probably from all the swimming across our borders.” With ridiculous dialogue that wouldn’t seem out-of-place on the cover of the Daily Heil, THE FOOLS GUIDE TO WITCHSPOTTING by London-based cinematographer, film-maker and student GEORGE ROBINSON-HILL is a witty satire of the wave of xenophobia and racism that has swept across post-Brexit referendum Britain.

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If you enjoyed the 2011 non-narrative documentary film SAMSARA this experimental short from hobbyist producer ANDREW FOX SMITH will be right up your street. WOES OF A LOTUS is a hypnotic exploration of the ephemeral and transient nature of life.  Beautiful shots of the natural world, weird and wonderful animation, CGI and found footage, are presented against a backdrop of gentle music and audio clips from counselling sessions, telephone calls and TV shows. Each clip effortlessly flows from one to the next, but the film’s central message seems disjointed and chaotic in places. 

Thankfully, it adds to, not detracts from, the film’s charm. Unlike many surrealist films WOES OF A LOTUS is inherently pleasing to watch. 

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Ahhh this was good indie cinema. A minimalist suspense horror short from Australian TIM EGAN. My personal take on this, is it’s a message about the importance of remaining defiant and strong in the face of life’s struggles. No matter how bad it gets, you’ve just gotta cling to the ugly, concrete face of life like you’re a fuckin’ limpet. I liked this short. I liked this a lot.

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Netflix Original has been releasing some really interesting stuff recently!

BLAME! is an animated cyberpunk action thriller, based on TSUTOMU NIHEI’s 1998 manga of the same name.

In a dark and gloomy post-apocalyptic universe, a marauding horde of malfunctioning robotic exterminators have nearly wiped out human civilisation. The last remnants of humanity live in isolated pockets eking out a desperate existence scavenging a sprawling industrio-urban wasteland for food.

KILLY, a powerful and mysterious wanderer, is on a quest to find humans with the Net Terminal gene - a genetic marker which can interface with the machines. He hopes to regain control of the robotic meanies in order to halt the slaughter before it’s too late.

The ELECTROFISHERS are a small (both in number and height!) warrior tribe on the brink of starvation. On a desperate, last-resort scavenging mission they run into Killy and in exchange for food they agree to accompany him on his quest. Throughout the film their adorable humanity and compassion provide a nice contrast to Killy’s stoicism and coldness.

The film that follows is a nail-biting action packed dystopian epic, full of peril, creepy looking robots being exploded, people getting their limbs shot off (but not minding too much) and generally wonderful cyberpunk/scifi goodness.

The aesthetics of this film are absolutely gorgeous. Director HIROYUKI SEISHITA has crafted a rich and imaginative re-telling of the 1998 manga. It’s an immersive and visually stunning universe I got totally lost in for a while.

The Verge’s review called the plot “minimal” which is a fair accusation I suppose, but I’m fine with that. Guilty pleasure ;)

Runtime: 1h45m - Released on Netflix: 20/05/17

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Initially released as an Instagram-based comic, Jonathan Djob Nkondo’s 7-minute short FUTUR SAUVAGE is a dark and intriguing story about social conflict and crime. Visually stunning and dystopian.

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Nick Black’s Time Chicken - a lighthearted, funny claymation short about the conflict between religion and science, featuring a ‘CERN-like chicken-egg accelerator’ and a giant marauding chicken monster. 

What more could you want?

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A short film about a night cleaner in a 1930s fabric-weaving factory who discovers unexpected dance powers after finding a magical garment.

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Two space faring scientists crash-land on a bizarre alien planet in this visually stunning science-fiction short from Adult Swim.

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