Article about Seattle SciFi and Short Film Festival

[Michael]

If I knew about the festival in advance, I forgot about it while I was worrying about moving above the local flood plain and taking care of personal priorities.

Still, I just found this review and thought I'd share it, even though the festival is now over.

(by Tim Hall)
I spent Saturday evening at the Seattle's Science Fiction + Fantasy Short Film Festival. Until a few weeks ago I didn't know this festival exists. I got an e-mail encouraging me to attend. Why not go? I like a good movie.

I went thinking it would be "nerd central" and I was partially right. There were people in attendance just like me. My African-American count was at 3.5 when the lights went down. I did next to a guy dressed like Spock – eyebrows and everything – he still seemed fairly normal. I was a few rows behind a lady with hair that could be best described as "Avatar blue". I didn't think people dressed up for this event, but I guess I was wrong.

The film festival consist of two sessions and an award ceremony at the end of the last session.
I was only able to stay for the first screening and I saw 10 very unique and interesting short films.

Alma – This animated short was about a little girl who sees a doll dressed like her in the shop window. Alma enters the store in search of the mysterious doll.

My grade: A- - The 5 minute short has no words, but it just as creepy as it is quiet. It was really well done. It's what I imagine Twilight Zone the Animated Series would be like. Alma was definitely one of my favorites.

Beast of Burden – A down and out boogie monster is having a hard time scaring his kid. He vents to his ghoulish counterparts and looks for advice on how to be scary again.

My grade: B+ - The film was much funnier than I thought. Beast of Burden does a great job of re-telling the age old tale of "the monster in the closet."The dialogue between the boogiemen was great! It was one of the funnier shorts in the first session.

Charlie Thistle – Charlie Thistle gets promoted at The Department of Normality and decides to change a few things. Charlie begins to see the changes he implemented have an effect on his life and the world around him.

My grade: A - This was one of my favorite shorts of the festival. Director Bragi Schut did a great job with the bright colors contrasting the black and white film. Schut was able to make a wonderful short film with the 15 minutes he had.

Read the full article here.

More information from the official site here, including the winners of the festival.