Tag: Short Film

Five Animated Picks to Enjoy Easter With!

Over the Moon (2020) - IMDbBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Easter is forever tied with a certain spiritual tradition and before being adopted in to Christianity, it was about the rebirth of the land. That is, in a pagan world, people were celebrating the return of Spring! Those who are not religious can still spend this long weekend making merry in front of the television, or go out to enjoy the fresh air.

While I encourage spending time outdoors than in front of the television, those who are immune-compromised don’t have a lot of choice. Here are my picks on what to enjoy at home that doesn’t have to be very preachy about this long weekend. Sometimes it’s just about being able to hug a bunny!

Over the Moon (2020)

Available on Netflix

This heartfelt flick introduces a spunky Fei Fei, who is forever lost. Her mom passed and the last thing the two did together was when the girl was gifted with a bunny. At the same time, she’s determined and believes its possible to get her mom back, but she has to meet the Moon Goddess and make that wish. While her family is able to move on, she isn’t, and builds a rocket to ride on in order to meet the deity.

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Will the Chase Ever End in Tom & Jerry, The Movie?

Sadly, this film adds nothing to explain why Tom and Jerry have endured over the years.

Tom & Jerry (Official 2021 Film Poster).png

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at select theatres (where open) & HBO MAX

SPOILER ALERT

Let’s face it, Tom the Cat can’t catch Jerry the Mouse no matter how hard he tries. Over the decades, these miscreants of their animal genus should be ashamed of themselves. Not even their own kin look kindly at them. Well, maybe the rodent might fare better. The two are rivals. The early cartoons are often about one trying to annoy or outsmart the other.

Their antics can’t carry a movie, and the shorts from long ago are far more effective than any feature length attempts. Those pieces are essentially Mack Sennett slapstick comedies, and the reason we love to watch them is that observing others beat up on one another is therapeutic.

Life is not a bed of roses either. The star is Kayla Forester (Chloë Grace Moretz), out of work and needing a new job. She’s certainly a smooth operator and fibs her way into a hotel management position, and pretty soon these cartoon characters get involved.

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To Calm the Pig Inside, Coming to the IDFA Today!

When Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) razed through the Philippines, back in 2013, the devastation left behind was enormous…

IDFA FestivalBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

IDFA Festival

European Premiere
Nov 21, 2020

Shorts: Temporal Fragments program

Joanna Vasquez Arong’s short To Calm the Pig Inside is making waves worldwide. The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam Festival (IDFA) features documentaries that move the viewer. To see her work travel from the Los Angeles Asia Pacific Film Festival to this event’s official selection is not only a big step towards recognition but also in showing to the world how survivors from 2013’s Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) attempt to reconcile with nature when it razed through the Philippines. Life is not easy in this country, which also has several active volcanoes!

The enormous devastation wrought upon Tacloban City left many people homeless and hopeless. The frustration only grew since the corrupt government wasn’t any help. This Filipino filmmaker lived nearby but delivers the content as though she was a local. The many photographs, artwork, news footage and clips used tell a very emotional tale of how difficult life became. The stories she collected showed not everyone is brave enough to stare back at the returning gaze of a tiger.

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Get Animated 2020 with The NFB! and Beyond…

Today is International Animation Day, and The NFB is releasing their 12 best pieces online!

IDFA Festival

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

The National Film Board of Canada has been very busy lately. Not only did they have works featured at the Vancouver Film Festival but also they’re following up with Animez-vous (Get Animated 2020)!

Today is International Animation Day, and this company is releasing their 12 best pieces online! Some old favourites–The Cannonball Woman, The Physics of Sorrow and Blind Vaysha–are in this collection, and afterwards, they will have one work, Old Dog, shown during Spark Animation Festival.

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LAAPFF 2020 The Chef on Tolerance in Ethnic Places

This narrative has a simple premise of showing how a master trains a synthetic apprentice in a Chinese restaurant. The line cooks are not happy, and they fear losing their jobs.

The Chef / Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2019(SSFF & ASIA 2019)By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available to viewers in Southern California (excluding San Diego County) from Oct 1 at 12pm PT to Oct 31, 2020 at 11:59pm PT. Click here to watch the film on Eventive.

Hao Zheng‘s short film, The Chef is eerie in the sense that we are already replacing workers with robots. The documentaries I’ve looked at earlier this year show how they can be helpful in various situations. From therapy to companionship, just where is the line drawn? Writers Ithaca Deng and Leqi Vanessa Kong can easily take a page out of Star Trek: Picard (or vice versa, when considering the original release date) if they wanted to expanded on the idea.

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LAAPFF 2020 Basurero is Cabiling’s answer to Sicario!

The Philippine word Basurero translates to Dump, and Filipina-American filmmaker Eileen Cabiling’s short takes this title and explores the meaning in context of the problems that still occur in her native country.

IDFA Festival

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Available to viewers in Southern California (excluding San Diego County) from Oc 1, 2020 at 12pm PT to Oct 31, 2020 at 11:59pm PT. Click here to watch the film on Eventive.

The Philippine word Basurero translates to ‘Dump,’ and Filipina-American filmmaker Eileen Cabiling‘s short takes this title and explores the meaning in context of the problems that still occur in her native country. Although her work is fiction, the real-world connections are heavy since it’s more than just another short film about feeling trapped. It’s a character study on Bong (Jericho Rosales), a fisherman in Manila struggling to make ends meet. He’s like a cat on a hot tin roof.

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