Ones to watch at Glasgow Short Film Festival
The dust may have settled on 2023’s edition of the Glasgow Film Festival, but the Glasgow Short Film Festival (GSFF) is just around the corner. Taking place from Wednesday 22–Sunday 26 March, this annual short film showcase will screen at GFT, CCA and Civic House, and features a diverse programme of cinema from across the world. Strands for the festival include a spotlight on Lebanese short films, a retrospective of artist duo Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, and a prescient strand foregrounding films made about, by and in collaboration with algorithms, machine learning and AI.
We’ve pored over GSFF’s programme in anticipation of the fest to find a few films we can’t wait to see. From stop motion chillers to startling interrogations of memory, take a look at our top picks.
Nazabazi
Love and desire in Iran is explored in Nazabazi, which centres on the prohibition of touching between men and women in Iranian cinema enforced after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Director Maryam Tafakory finds subversion in simple acts of connection by compiling archive footage of brief touches and subtle glances.
Hand In Hand
Hailing from New Zealand, Hand In Hand tells the story of two young Deaf girls in the 1970s who attend a hearing school where sign language is banned. Director Shelley Waddams uses the premise to discuss connection, the importance of friendship and a historical era which will seem alien to many, but was all too real for the Deaf community who lived through it.
Corrupted
A visual experiment from Chilean director Juan Cifuentes Mera, Corrupted follows a woman’s journey as she copes with severe memory loss brought on by electroshock therapy. Recording her daily routine with her father Pedro, she wrestles with the effects of the therapy on her life and her own inability to remember her past. Pairing the degradation of the mind with the degradation of film itself, this could prove to be an emotionally resonant work.
Flores Del Otro Patio
Flores Del Otro Patio follows the work of queer activists in Colombia as they protest against the development of coal mining in their local area. It’s a thought provoking exploration of how the social and political intertwine, and will be celebrating its Scottish premiere at the festival.
3 Dialogues About The Future
As part of the GSFF’s strand on algorithms, 3 Dialogues About The Future continues cinema's recent trajectory of visualising technology which would only recently have been in the realms of science fiction. Three robots documents their learning processes, observing human beings and witnessing both their virtues and their sins. What exactly does it mean to be human now that machines can identify, and in some cases improve upon, our essential selves?
Absolution, Parsin
This sinister stop motion work by Jack Nop recounts a real life horror in which the skeleton of a woman was found in the hollow of a tree. Only one clue was found near the crime scene, a graffiti daubing which read ‘Who put Bella down the Wych Elm’. Here, the killer is confronted with his past and made to account for his actions.
View the full programme for Glasgow Short Film Festival at glasgowshort.org