Slamdance Shorts: Feature 2

A still from Marc Horowitz's "Moving"

SLAMDANCE SHORTS: FEATURE 2

by Joshua Handler

"Real Ethereal" - Winner of this year's Slamdance Jury Award for Experimental Short, Evan Mann's "Real Ethereal" is a look into an otherworldly realm full of wonder.  The sound design is killer, as is the cinematography.  Much of the film looks as if it was created using stop-motion animation.  While I couldn't tell you with confidence what the film "means", I can say that it is a bewitching, entrancing, wholly original vision from a director who has ambition and talent.

"Moving" - By far the most bizarre short I saw from Slamdance this year, Marc Horowitz's "Moving" is a snapshot into the lives of two creatures chipping away at a big block of something.  Over the three minutes the short runs, they discuss many things including the potential name for a "risqué massage parlor in a cave", they take a picture, and they keep chipping away at the block.  This is oddly amusing, well-designed both visually and aurally, and in a way, touching.