Highlights from 2013’s Edinburgh Short Film Festival are set to make a triumphant return to the city’s Hidden Door Festival. Hidden Door starts today and takes place over the next nine days in the unused vaults of Market Street.
Each night, a series of events ranging from art installations to music performances and film screenings take place. Using its own independent platform, it gives other refreshing artists a platform for their work. The festival has ran as a not-for-profit event without government funding since it started. The highlights from Edinburgh Short Film Festival will be part of the programme on the evening of 4 April 2014.
Films include the Oscar-qualifying short ‘Butterflies’ by Isabel Peppard and Warwick Burton (Australia), which tells the tale of a young artist who sits on the sidewalk, struggling to make a living by selling drawings to passersby. ‘Quantum Jump’ by Hayk Sahakyants (Armenia) is a heart-warming animation about a clumsy, distracted monk and his unsuccessful quest to reach a state of perfection. Ronny Traufeller’s (Germany) animation captures a world of mechanical creatures that set off on an exploration.
Kate Sullivan’s (England) documentary ‘Walk Tall,’ is a life-affirming gem about a 91-year-old former Olympic gymnast, which picked up the Audience Award at the Berlin Festival of British Film 2013. ‘On Another Note’ by Emma Dove (Scotland) reveals a charmingly quirky portrait of Sarah, a woman who makes her own instruments from acquired junk and the community that surrounds her. The documentary won prizes at the Royal Television Society Scotland Student Awards and Underwire Festival.
Jonathan Beer’s (Northern Ireland) drama ‘Yuki’ is a thoughtful portrayal of a young girl whose world changes upon her mother’s mystery illness. Tommy Draper (Germany) captures a bored businessman on a trip and his fateful call home in ‘Pro Kopf’. Marie Enthoven’s (Beligum) thriller ‘Naïve’ portrays Emma, a young girl who discovers that her life is a lie from witch her mother holds the strings. ‘Chambre Double’ by Mathiew Mortelman (Beligum) is another thriller with a twist.
‘Santa’s Blotto’ by Patrick Myles (England) is a more light-hearted short, portraying seven-year old Jonny’s comic revenge on Santa after he failed to deliver the present he had asked for the year before.‘The Diver’ by filmmaker Damian Mohl (USA), winner of the Student Academy Awards, is a wonderful art house short, capturing the life of a toy, from cradle to grave.
Hidden Door Festival runs from 28 March – 5 April 2014.
Tickets for the event (Friday April 4th) are on sale now, as well as all other events across the festival.
More information and tickets are available over on Hidden Door’s website.
Editor of Frowning.us (SSJA 2014 Student Publication of the Year) & Film Writer for The Edinburgh Reporter