Film

Salon Des Refusés

Rebecca Sear | Monday 22 November, 2010 14:06

At Home with the Ants by Jill Kennedy

Sunday 21st November, Shortwave Cinema, SE1

Characterised as thus by their very existence, film festivals are generally presented as a celebration of those cinematic delicacies which are low-budget, verging on the side of the provocative and previously unseen. Salon Des Refusés takes this to another level, adopting those shorts which are disregard by the bigger festivals and giving them space to exhibit. Co-founder Chloë Roddick laments that ‘only five percent of films submitted to festivals actually make it to the final programme’. Creator Kirsty Dootson along with Roddick realised the need for a place for these rejected short films to be shown having both worked in the submissions departments for film festivals, and on Sunday night launched their innovation in cinema.

The programme for Sunday night was eclectic to say the least, showing eight shorts from the UK, US, New Zealand and Israel. ‘At Home with the Ants’, directed by Jill Kennedy, is billed as an ‘experimental animation’ and is nine minutes and forty-five seconds of pure enthralment. It takes the form of a snowstorm collage of creatures and their classifications tied together with a soundtrack which unexpectedly makes one think of The Clangers. It’s kind of like what would happen if the Natural History Museum became suddenly two-dimensional, and then was put in a blender. Slightly less abstract was an offering from director Rachel Tracy called ‘A Grumpy Old Man’. Sid lives alone in North London. He collects clocks, a surprising pursuit for one who time has been so unfair to. World-weary yet likeable, this film is a window into a very ordinary but nonetheless poignant existence. Other films took the audience from uber post-modern and tentative ventures into Russian futurist poetry, to the disturbing portrayal of a mother’s suffocating infatuation with her son.

The organisers state their aim as being to ‘destabilise the notion that there are ‘good’ shorts (which appear at festivals) and ‘bad shorts’ (which don’t)’. Certainly a worthy cause, Salon Des Refusés is a must for the film buff and film student alike. Short films are not readily available in the public domain, but remain an important part of cinema. A short can achieve in minutes what many filmmakers struggle to produce in their whole careers: succinct and valuable insights into the world around us. If anything, this mini-festival highlights the abundance of artistically diverse and genuinely exciting shorts to be enjoyed – whilst redefining the concept of short films without prejudice or limits.

Salon des Refusés will be holding another event in January, with submissions opening in the New Year. See www.salondesrefuses.org.uk for more information.

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