The cancellation of this year’s South by Southwest Festival due to COVID-19 is undoubtedly a disappointment for all the musicians and filmmakers who expected to have their work presented and celebrated at the legendary event. But there is something of a silver lining to this sad turn of events: Collaborating with Amazon, the festival has offered its selected filmmakers the option to take their work online. Available for free to all U.S. audiences with or without an Amazon Prime membership, 39 narrative and documentary features and short films will be streaming on the platform from April 27 to May 6, thus making the festival available to many more spectators. But apparently, not everyone wants to watch four movies a day—so here is a selection of films especially worth checking out, including many short films for small doses of inspiration between your Zoom calls with family and friends.
The Features
Cat in the Wall (by Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova)
Nominated for Best Film at the prestigious and always adventurous Locarno Film Festival, this first narrative feature film from Bulgarian documentarians Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova provides an immigrant’s perspective on life in gentrifying South London. Irina is a Bulgarian woman who’s managed to make the most of her new country of residence, but her Peckham council estate doesn’t reflect the classic promises of an easier life in Western Europe. Her building is falling apart, as is her relationship with her always-belligerent neighbors when they accuse her of stealing a cat that has taken refuge in her wall. Reviewers have praised the directors’ documentary-style approach and their comedic but honest take on our melting pot culture, its recurring problems, and its beauty.
I’m Gonna Make You Love Me (by Karen Bernstein)
This documentary feature from acclaimed filmmaker Karen Bernstein (whose last project was a nonfiction film about director Richard Linklater) uses archival footage and interviews to paint a portrait of Brian Belovitch, who was born male then lived through the ’80s as Tish, a trans woman, before transitioning back into Brian a decade later. Going from being an insecure boy to a beloved cabaret girl and, nowadays, a substance abuse counselor in the LGBTQ community, Belovitch’s story promises to be an interesting exploration of gender identity.
TFW NO GF (by Alex Lee Moyer)
The world of “involuntary celibates,” or “incels,” has recently overflowed from the internet into real life, but refreshingly, this documentary (directed by documentary editor Alex Lee Moyer in her debut) chooses to take these alienated men seriously instead of simply judging them. Exploring how social media and the “dark web” have become toxic, insular shelters for a community of people who, essentially, long only for affection, TFW NO GF looks promisingly empathetic.
The Narrative Shorts
Dirty (by Matthew Puccini)
Not much is known about Dirty yet, but this intimate story of two queer teenagers is intriguing, as director Matthew Puccini has already proved to be very talented. One of his previous works, Lavender, is a poetic yet realistic look at an unconventional love triangle between a young queer man and an older gay couple, and was acquired by Fox Searchlight.
Figurant (by Jan Vejnar)
This short film from young Czech director Jan Vejnar (his first out of film school) has an enticing premise and cast: A man, played by legendary French actor Denis Lavant, finds himself in a factory and following orders to get undressed and wear what looks like an old military uniform. The mystery around what the character is going through is enhanced by Lavant’s very presence. His taste for short films, like 2008’s “Merde” by Leos Carax—part of the anthology film Tokyo! (2008), which also included contributions from Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-ho—in which he played a Joker-like terrorist, veers toward the weird and memorable.
Waffle (by Carlyn Hudson)
When Kerry goes to an old-school sleepover at Katie’s, she’s trying to build a friendship with the mysterious, cagey heiress. But in this comedy of manners, things don’t go as planned. Director Carlyn Hudson has a particular sense of humor, both uplifting and disquietingly absurd, which she previously demonstrated in her short Nice Ass, a Vimeo Staff Pick.
The Documentary Shorts
Dieorama (by Kevin Staake)
First-time director Kevin Staake found an undoubtedly unique subject in Abigail Goldman, an investigator in the state of Washington. But it isn’t so much the murder and violence she sees on the job as what she does with these experiences that interests Staake. Like Mark Hogancamp, whose life was recently fictionalized in Robert Zemeckis’s Welcome to Marwen, Goldman is an avid diorama maker—but it’s not her fantasies that she brings to miniature life. Instead, she re-creates the crime scenes that occupy her day.
Lions in the Corner (by Paul Hairston)
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. But filmmaker Paul Hairston has decided to rebel by following a real-life group of men letting their anger out in a controlled environment. To reduce crime in his Virginia neighborhood, former felon Scarface started Streetbeefs, to admittedly great results. Lions in a Corner could offer a less cynical look at the uses of anger than David Fincher’s film.
Mizuko (by Katelyn Rebelo and Kira Dane)
Using animation and voice-over from a Japanese American woman, this Tribeca-backed short film compares the conceptualizations of abortion and miscarriage in America and in Japan, where a word exists to describe unborn children. “Mizuko” literally means “water child,” whom a mother can take back to the sea in a traditional ritual. The visuals hint at a delicate and fascinating look at another culture’s approach to a topic that is difficult everywhere.
The Episodic
Cursed Films (by Jay Cheel)
The horror film streaming platform Shudder continues to follow in the footsteps of competitors by manufacturing its own content, and Cursed Films is its most ambitious creation thus far. A five-part documentary series featuring interviews with film historians, critics, filmmakers, and actors, it investigates the histories of films that have famously been deemed cursed because of the events that occurred during their productions or after their release. The sets of Poltergeist and its sequels, The Omen, The Exorcist, and other films are remembered, theories to explain mysterious accidents and deaths are explored, and testimonies may or may not bring answers; Cursed Films could entertain the curious film fanatic while providing scares.
Manuela Lazic is a French writer based in London who primarily covers film.