[box]Josh Slater-Williams[/box]
The fifth incarnation of the Glasgow Short Film Festival runs between the 9th and 12th of February, with four days of competition screenings, live performances, retrospectives and parties. One highlight of the special programmes is the presentation of a selection of music videos directed by Douglas Hart, one of the founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain, who will be returning to his home city to present his videos for the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream and The Horrors. GSFF has also teamed up with the Glasgow Youth Film Festival for the European premiere of Slacker 2011, a remake of the influential 1991 independent film Slacker by Richard Linklater, which is directed by twenty-four filmmakers.
Among the music related events is an opening night celebration featuring Iceland-inspired musician Matthew Collings, alongside Glasgow indie pop group Butcher Boy presenting a special night of music and archive film. There’s also Frames Per Second, a film and live performance medley featuring a selection of Glasgow’s finest writers, artists, theatre-makers and musicians.
The various short film competitions include the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film, named after one of Scotland’s most important directing talents. An international jury of writers, curators and filmmakers will select the film they consider the most innovative and outstanding work from 43 international titles. The Scottish Short Film Award will promote a wider range of local films than ever before, including the excellent comedy The Phone Box by recent University of Glasgow graduate and former president of student filmmaking society “Cut”, Ian Robertson.
Most of the Short Film Festival’s events will be taking place at the CCA and The Shed. For more details, including previews of all the films showing, pick up one of the festival’s brochures from various outlets in the city and visit glasgowfilm.org/festival.
