Attention short film fans! The NINTH annual Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival is now underway. Founded in 1991 in California by Beth Hall, the festival got its start at San Francisco’s Artists’ Television Access. As always, the show is a non-stop program of two-minute-or-shorter films and videos from around the world including animation, drama, comedy, sci-fi, short documentary and poetry. This year we chose approximately 60 movies from our more than 300 entries worldwide. We promise: you won’t be bored– not even for a second!
This year’s show features Michael Moore’s “Testify” — a political statement on the 2000 elections– in collaboration with the band Rage Against the Machine; Canadian David Weir’s collaboration with Douglas Coupland (author of “Generation X”), “Night Shift;” crazy animation from Tokyo including a flying, spinach-eating, ultra-modern woman in “Lady-GO!,” the mixed up antics of a cartoon character gone sinister in “Butchu-Kan” and weird things that a penguin does for fun in “South Pole;” SASFVF alums, Mike Constable and SF’s own Paul Clipson and Lev Yilmaz, make their ninth-or-so contributions this year, too! Plus– don’t miss South By Southwest Film Festival short film award winner, Ari Gold’s “Culture”– his hilarious take on the dogma school of filmmaking. You’ll also want to see ultra-short documentaries like Laura Levine’s “Peekaboo Sunday,” a story about raising miniature horses or Eva Sollberger’s “Exotic World,” an inside look at the lives of some of America’s first burlesque performers. You’ll some poetic work this year too, including photographer Mark Steinmetz’s take on “Cats” and artist Jay Rosenblatt’s story about a strange kind of rain, in “Worm.”
The show now tours to more than thirty cities across North America with its home base in Athens, GA and on the web at www.shortspan.com– our award-winning web site designed for us by Athens’ own Eo Studios; the Shortspan.com web site won “Best Film Site” at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX! Stay tuned to the site for our upcoming Generic Media Streaming Showcase– some of our favorite shorts will soon be available across platforms and for all players via the new Generic Media Player. This year’s show is more sophisticated and sensitive than past Short Attention Span programs, but we still like to warn our audiences up front: this show may not be suitable for children!
Awards: ^ We will award three prizes this year: Best of Show, Best Animation and Viewers’ Choice
Judges: ^ Chris Gore, Film Threat Magazine ^ Mark Hefflinger, Digital Media Wire ^ Kim Zorn Caputo, Blind Spot Magazine ^ Becky Wible, Savannah College of Art and Design
2001 Tour Dates: ^ (There will be 30 dates total in this year’s tour. The confirmed dates are listed below)
Northwest: ^ August 3rd and 4th Blinding Light Cinema: Vancouver, BC ^ August 9th and 10th 911 Media Arts Center: Seattle, WA (plus added show: our skateboarding art and culture film fest on August 11th at 911 too) ^ August 12th and 13th Northwest Film Center: Portland, OR ^ August 17th The Castro Theatre: San Francisco, CA ^ August 18th The Rafael Theatre: Mill Valley, CA ^ August 19th The Parkway Theatre: Oakland, CA ^ August 20th The Jupiter Outdoor Cinema: Berkeley, CA
Southeast: ^ August 24 th The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center: Atlanta, GA ^ September 5 th The Georgia Museum of Art: Athens, GA ^ September 14 th and 15 th Cinefest Theatre: Atlanta, GA ^ September 17th The Georgia Theater: Athens, GA ^ September 18th The Georgia Theater: Athens, GA ^ September 20 th Trustee’s Theater: Savannah, GA ^ September 21st The Shed: Beaufort, SC ^ September 22nd The University of Florida: Gainesville, FL
Northeast: ^ September 22nd Cornell Cinema: Ithaca, NY ^ October 12th-18th Coolidge Corner Theatre: Brookline, MA (Boston) ^ October 23rd The Lucky Bar: Washington D.C. ^ November 6th The Lucky Bar: Washington D.C.
Southwest: ^ September 22nd Cinema Network: San Antonio, TX ^ October 17th The Egyptian Theater: Los Angeles, CA ^ October 18th The San Diego Museum Of Art: San Diego, CA
For more info, visit the official Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival web site.
