For a delightfully whimsical and slightly melancholy treat, take a look at Cicada Princess, a seven-minute short from Mauchi Baiocchi that blends nature and fantasy to stunning effect. Using remarkably detailed puppetry, Baiocchi presents the life cycle of the cicada as a Cinderella story, narrated beautifully by the always excellent Stephen Fry. It’s a gorgeous little film that will stay with you long after watching. See it here.
If it’s something a little more real you’re after, take a look at We’re Having Sex, Michael Callahan’s film that packs all the pain of a dying relationship into 13 minutes. Callahan eschews melodrama and angst in favor of a slow, quiet story that nevertheless packs quite the emotional punch. With the aid of his actors, Brandon Bales and Hannah Pearl Utt, Callahan shows us something so painfully true that we can’t help but be engrossed. Take a look at the short here.
Equally tragic but perhaps more elegant is Ruben Ventura’s AMA, a slick five-minute short that combines neo-noir romance with a sharp sci-fi edge. Ventura has a keen eye for visual storytelling, abandoning chronology and taking an abstract, disjointed approach to his tale that grips us from the get-go. The film can be found here.
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