I’ve always heard about Sundance, but I was never really interested in the idea of eclectic films. I don’t know if my mind has changed after viewing a compilation of shorts from Sundance. That’s not to say I don’t have eclectic tastes; mine just don’t seem to match up with what Sundance tends to tout. To be honest, it seemed like a collection of videos you might find on the weird part of the internet. Perhaps my perception of a short film is skewed because I grew up with access to online video sharing, but I don’t understand trying to hold film to a more expensive standard.
The shorts were definitely eclectic. The first one dealt with water and obsessive thoughts, and honestly, I didn’t want to watch it. It made me uncomfortable, which I guess was part of its intent, but I didn’t understand its purpose. This was sort of a running theme throughout the shorts – I guess I’m just not the target audience for these pieces. The shortest short was one on technology, and to be honest, I don’t really know why it was part of this collection. It’s a concept that is overplayed and unoriginal and besides the quality of the equipment used, I don’t think the writing or acting were superior to something you would find in a quick youtube video.
Perhaps my problem in not understanding these shorts is online content. Since there was so little plot happening in the first short with the water and in a short about a bathroom attendant, I just felt like they were a little too long. I get that setting up a character is important, but I felt like I didn’t need to see that much. Since I’m regularly busy with other things to do, I often watch sped-up videos or just stop watching if I feel like there’s a lot of nothing going on.
Another short that seemed very internet to me was the one with the diving board. It seemed very strange to me how this experiment was set up. It’s not like these were completely random people that went to the pool that day and walked up 10 meters to the platform. There was clearly some incentive to them jumping. Also, the participants clearly knew about each other, because one of them even mentioned an older woman taking the leap. This one too felt like it was longer than it needed to be.
The weirdest short was the animated short about a vagina. It’s a piece about a woman exploring her body but suddenly the vulva comes off and turns into its own creature and rubs itself against different things in her apartment, but the woman is still connected to what the pussy experiences. This, to me, was the epitome of weird internet video.
Unless there was a message I just wasn’t getting, these shorts just did no resonate with me. I don’t think I would watch anything else made by the same people if their work tends to be similar. Call me a millennial, but I would rather stay at home and curate my own viewing experience of online videos, or shorts (whatever that terms actually means).