Bristol Film Festival - Winning Women
With many festivals moving online, we’ve been lucky to be able to attend more events than we normally are able to. Last week, our writing team checked out the women made winning films of this years Bristol Film Festival and shared their thoughts.
Provisional Infinity – Directed by Annabelle Rodicq
A whirlwind journey through a relationship in under 10 minutes is the concept of Annabelle Rodicq’s debut short film. She explores the feeling of falling in love, and the heartbreak of when things turn sour through a beautiful and heartfelt monologue, which perfectly complements the refreshingly bright and delicate cinematography.
Perhaps it is because we have all been stuck indoors recently, but there was something so engaging about seeing these two people fall in love and just live their lives alongside the nature of the city around them. I could almost feel the crisp air as the couple ran around the park or walked through the town square. The colour palette ever so slightly changes once the heartbreak begins to seep in, A few more cold colours begin to appear, showing how colour can be drained from the world after we lose someone.
There is a slight ambiguity as to why the film ends the way it does, with the man now having gone, but there is not always a definitive reason in situations like these. Despite not knowing the full circumstances, the audience are hit with the universally known feeling of losing someone. This film will definitely connect with almost everyone who watches it in one way or another and make them reflect on their own experiences of love and loss.
Written by Beth Lindsay
Audrey and the Rocket - Directed by Molly Bradbook
Award winning filmmaker Molly Bradbook secured the Best Student Director Award for her short Audrey and the Rocket. The authentic writing and convincing performances make it easy to connect with the honest and emotional narrative.
The film is focused around an elderly couple in the UK. Audrey (Penelope Beaumont) is tired of attending the frankly boring funerals of her friends and becomes fixated on the idea of having a service that is out of this world, though husband Bernard (Bruce Alexander) has his reservations and fears.
Audrey and Bernard’s story is not necessarily the usual, and did leave me teary eyed at parts. However, the beautiful locations, cinematography, and hints of dry, British humour tackle themes such as relationships, death, existential dread and grief with style and tenderness. The film was made largely by a group of undergraduate students with a small budget and it is produced and directed seamlessly with passion clearly put into it, showing how effective short films can truly be.
The bittersweet ending left me smiling, if a little bit sad, but Audrey and the Rocket at its core is a moving tale that centres around an often forgotten group of people, which leaves the viewer with a sense of wonder.
Written by Larissa Hird
Jacob’s Blessing - Produced by Shelley Ruddock
Jacob’s blessing tells the story of a young homeless man struggling to find stability in his life in an East London background.
In an emotional 24 hours or so tour de force, we see Jacob getting accepted for a job interview and the almost surreal preparation that goes into it; from finding some place to charge his phone to getting a proper outfit basically out of thin air. All of Jacob’s actions aim at the same thing: getting his life back together in order to be reunited with his daughter and family. We don’t know much about his past, apart from the fact that he’s now dealing with old demons and trying to avoid his past addiction with the hope of a new and more stable future.
The short is a sort of love letter to every single homeless person struggling and dealing with problems everywhere in the world. It’s a glimpse into a very different life which we mustn't judge but can only hope to comprehend better and maybe help along the way. A beautiful and sweet story of how the love for a daughter pushed a man to get back on his feet and leave a past life behind.
Written by Desiree Balma
Appetite - Directed by Katrin Larissa Kasper
Appetite, winner of the Best Comedy award, is a short film about a serial first dater. Steph (played by co-director Katrin Larissa Kasper) spends her lunchtimes and evenings meeting a host of men and women at fancy London restaurants. She orders a lot of food, eats it, offers to pay – and then she disappears. As well as being a serial first dater, Steph is also a serial dine-and-dash-er. As she starts to exhaust her options for victims on dating apps, she resorts to more and more outlandish disguises and personas. Her appetite is insatiable. But an appetite for what?
Steph is an enigma – we never get below the surface. On each of her dates, she has different answers to questions about herself. Which answers are lies and which are the truth? We don’t know. Like the people Steph’s dates, we never get fully under her skin. The female antihero is currently having a moment on our screens and certainly isn’t in short supply, but Steph keeps us interested. The motivation for her insatiable appetite remains unclear – she keeps pushing her luck, and we can’t look away.
Written by Emily Garbutt
For all winning films you can visit Bristol Film Festival’s website here.
