Power to the people

The jury of the Manhattan Short Film Festival is made up of ordinary spectators around the world.

By Natalya Smolentseva

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: October 3, 2012 (Issue # 1729)

FOR SPT Todd Sklar’s ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card’ (U.S.) focuses on two brothers after their father dies.

The world’s largest short film festival begins Wednesday in St. Petersburg — and in another 299 cities around the globe.

Ten films from Norway, the Netherlands, the U.K., Peru, France, Romania, the U.S., Spain and Russia will be shown simultaneously in 300 cities, and everyone who goes to see them will have the chance to be on the jury: The winner of the Manhattan Short Film Festival is chosen not by professional critics, but by audiences.

Comedies, dramas, parables and a parody of the classic American horror film are all on the program of this year’s festival, along with a new short by Julio Ramos (whose film “A Doctor’s Job” was voted second-best film by last year’s Russian audiences) and a history of Arctic exploration inspired by the expeditions of Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen.

FOR SPT ‘The Devil’s Ballroom’ (Norway) depicts a journey to the North Pole.

“This year’s festival program is very strong,” said Sasha Akhmadshchina, one of the festival’s organizers. “I am really fond of American 50s horror, so I enjoyed ‘The Elaborate End of Robert Ebb’ and ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card,’ which is a very funny sketch of the lives of two brothers, and a great example of U.S. independent cinema. The film’s budget was only $500 and basically it was spent on food and beer. Despite a modest budget, the film was selected for the Sundance Film Festival program.”

This year will mark the first time that a Russian film is screened at the festival. The eminent actor Vitaly Saltykov’s directorial debut “Where the Sea Flows” has already appeared at the Cannes Film Festival, the East End Film Festival in London and many others. Actress Oksana Akinshina, star of films such as “Stilyagi” and “Vysotsky — Thank You for Being Alive,” plays the leading role.

“My film is a story about a young mother who struggles with very contradictory things in her soul. It is for the kind of people who don’t eat popcorn at the cinema,” said Saltykov.

FOR SPT The language of Babak Anvari’s film ‘Two & Two’ (U.K.) is Farsi.

“Unfortunately, in Russia the short film is considered an exclusively student format,” said Akhmadshchina.

It is only in the last few years that the situation has begun to change. Last year was an unequivocal success for Russian short films: Taisia Igumentsova, a student of director Alexei Uchitel, won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

“It is certainly chic to express your idea succinctly, loudly and at the same time put it in a small time frame. Everyone would like to pass this test of ‘brevity is the soul of wit’,” Saltykov said. “And now, when you can make films even on a phone, this genre is rapidly developing.”

FOR SPT Oksana Akinshina stars in Vitaly Saltykov’s film, ‘Where the Sea Flows.’

The festival was first held on Sept. 27, 1998, when films were projected onto the side of a truck in New York. The following year, well-known American cinematographers like Roger Corman and Susan Sarandon were among the jury members of the festival. As it became increasingly popular, it started to receive applications from all over the world. This inspired the creator of the festival, Nicholas Mason, to substitute a professional jury with spectators.

The system of voting at the festival is simple. Every viewer will receive a voting ballot, on which they should place a mark beside the film they consider the best. The votes will then be counted (“and this process is totally honest,” claims Akhmadshchina, drawing a comparison with recent State Duma and presidential elections) and sent to New York. The winner will be announced Oct. 8 on the website www.tourdefilm.ru. Russian viewers make up approximately 10 percent of the global audience of Manhattan Shorts, so they wield a significant influence in voting.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival runs at the Avrora movie theater from Oct. 3 through Oct. 7. www.manhattanshort.com