tiggymalvern | Further SIFF offerings

Last night was another anthology showing, but these were a series of shorts showing together as Gay Discovery rather than permanently hung together into a 'film', so we got to vote for them separately, which was great. The overall standard was much higher than Destricted too.

darthhellokitty and I were two of just 14 women in the audience, according to the announcer - she said they'd been taking bets on how many women would turn up and counted us on the way in XD

First up was 'Night Swimming' - two teenagers just leaving school, one with a crush on his almost-straight friend. It was very cute and sweetly done, but the progression was cliched and predictable. Not a dull 19 minutes at all, but nothing to really excite either (though one of the guys was very nicely built XD).

'Guess Who I Saw Today' was fantastic. The classic fifties wife with the classic fifties husband coming home from work, and they act out their day in musical-style dance to these lyrics. Shot in black and white, every fifties cliche between them, with some funny, sweet and very poignant moments. At just four minutes long, it packed everything in, and the whole thing was so tight. Gorgeous.

'Seeing You in Circles' was another brilliant piece of work. Two ex-lovers trying to remain friends meet up for a birthday dinner, with one bringing his new lover. Told out of sequence in a series of snippets with some fantastic dialogue (not just the three guys, a number of supporting characters too), as it's revealed just how well they know each other, and that all the reasons they split up are still there between them. Witty, sparky, the longest film of the night and never felt it for a second. It didn't really have a resolution, but neither did the guys, so I think that was rather the point.

'Thermopylae'. A fifties schoolboy crushing on a repressed teacher. Well filmed, but another one with just too many cliches and predictable patterns to find any real drive.

'Still'. A dialogue-free piece with some fantastic cinematography and lighting. And... And? It needed more than that to sustain fifteen minutes. It would have made a far better series of photos to hang on my walls than it did a film. The best part of it was the opening poem 'Fishes' by the lead actor, with the first two verses that seem so uplifting and hopeful, and then... oh.

'Red Velvet Girls'. The obligatory lesbian vampires! (They are obligatory, aren't they?) This film was just awful, with every Anne Rice-style vampire cliche embraced to the full, and the vampire aristo who's supposed to continue the lineage, when she'd rather boff the kitchen girl whose job it is to kill the rabbits for the parties XD The most overdramatic dialogue and filming style, actors who can't say their lines quite right with a mouthful of vampire teeth, madly OTT effects shots - it was shooting straight for so bad it's classic, and most of the time it made it. Had the audience laughing madly more and more as it went on, pouring out the travesties with a cement mixer XD

'Summer'. Full circle with the themes, as we returned to gay schoolboy crushing on straight friend. But this was a much better effort than 'Night Swimming', with wonderfully funny, smart dialogue and capturing such a mood and sense of fun. Very, very sweet and I liked it so much it was too short, which is a much better feeling for a short film to leave you with than too long.

It was really fun, a well chosen assortment with a wide mix of themes and styles - so where were all the rest of the slasher women?!