Sahar International Short Film Festival Welcomes emerging and established filmmakers
The 3rd Sahar International Short Film Festival, a festival that encouraged young, creative and innovative filmmakers from all across the world.
Despite all the differences between filmmakers and artists,which causes them to be distinct from each other, what unites us in a common goal is to show our love to create a world that sometimes comes from our dreams, wishes, and sometimes is a mirror of the world around, the bitter and the critical form the digital image frame. Which is a moving digital scene comprising a film shorter than 100 or longer than 1800 seconds. Embracing their creativity and technique separates the audience from their everyday routine life and takes them toward a window of cultures and the life stories of different countries.
More than 30 diverse short films were screened on June 24 this year at the 3rd Sahar International short film festival in North Manchester, United Kingdom.
These are the words of the Sahar International Short Film Festival director, “Mandana Ansari”.
Mandana and Martin Gleeson are the creators of this festival. They explained about categories and the festival programme.
Mandana said: “Categories were based as in previous years on Competition, Contemporary Iranian Cinema and International.
In the Competition category we screened premiere shorts (at the date of submission) and presented awards based on the audiences’ votes.”
For this year, best selected films were:
Love & Zombies, which is a fictional comedy from Russia by Alexander Manilov.
He’s Mine” by French director Daniel Daigle.
A drama about Olivier, who has a typical youth lifestyle, such as hanging around together, having a beer and watching sports with friends, but suddenly receives an unexpected announcement which pulls him into a different level of life, Now he is a single parent and …
“Birds With Human Heads” by Max Wilde from America. The story is about two best friends, basking in the wildlife of a handmade universe, while one receives her first tattoo from the other. This is a very creative art film in surreal style and mixed with animation with cubist elements (colours and shapes).
Martin told us about opening programme:
“The Sahar International Short Film Festival was honoured to receive the Mayor and Mayoress of Oldham Metropolitan Borough at the opening of the third annual festival. The Mayor’s visit was part of a varied programme of short and feature film, poetry, visual art and dance.”
First International film was the animation “Then I found out” produced by Ladan Dorandish and Persian Media Production.
This was narrative 3 minute short about feminist issues in Middle Eastern countries.
“Curry Fish Head” from Singaporian Director Srinivas Bhakta.
The film tells story of a girl in the midst of an ever changing landscape in Singapore from late 60’s to present day.
Oracle” is a 5 minute animation from Iran by Mohsen Pourmohseni, who abstracted the story of the birth of a unborn baby.
“Hoblio” directed by Piero Tonin from Italy.
“Omar” from Iraqi animator Safa Alobaidy. He portrayed the loneliness of an Iraqi child in a refugee camp who was lost in dreams and insecurity.
The Film Festival continued at 2 pm in part II with 8 films from the International category:
“Normal”, a drama by Vadim Lasca; “No End”, an experimental short by Josephine Massarella; “The Cactus”, narrative short by Catherine Phillips;”The Mandrake and The Sword” Drama by Nesrin Bachir.
At 2 pm Competition category started with 10 diverse short films with experimental, animation, drama, documentry, and music video.
All these 10 short films were premieres at the time of submission. Therefore all were nominated for Best Short Film Sahar Award
These short films were:
“Lava Bed” by Filomena Rusciano
“Transitions” by Ana Barroso
“All I know” by Quincy Davis
“When The Drama Ends (Part 2)” by Quincy Davis
“HE’S MINE” by Daniel Daigle
“Birds With Human Heads” by Max Wilde
“Ugly but Good” by Jordan Wong
“Love & Zombies” by Alexander Manilov
“Then I Found Out” Produced by Ladan Dorandish & Persian Media Production
“Bamboo Lawada” by Bidit Roy
When the competition section finished audience had a chance to vote for 3 best short films and then English writer, Christne Whitehead counted the votes. At this time John Crumpton, a Bafta Award Winner in 1996, gave a talk about making a career as a short film maker.
At the Sahar Award presentation, selected films by audience were announced.
Some of the audiences explained the reason for choosing these three films:
“Love & Zombies” It’s a simplistic story line, using its comedic aspect as a satire
“He’s Mine” with realistic story and believable characters
“Birds with human heads” a creative Surreal film and animation
Announcement ceremony ended with celebratory dances by the Claddagh Adult Irish Dance group.
After a short break 6 films from 3 to 30 minutes were screened from The Contemporary Iranian Cinema category in two parts.
Part one included: A short animation “Then I found out”. “The Black”, a surreal short feminine film about abortion; “Hands and Shoulders” by Ali Moghadam; “Strike” by Ardavan Tarakameh
Tribute to great Filmmaker and Artist Abbas Kiarostami.
At 5:30 pm “Poetry Night” was presented by Director Festival, Mandana Ansari and writer Christine Whitehead.
This was followed by a short video talk about Abbas Kiyarostami by courageous film director Jafar Panahi who mentioned one of his memories when working on Abbas’ film: “Through the Olive Tree”, and ended with a screening of Kiarostami’s feature film: “Certified Copy” which was appreciated by cinema lovers at the Festival.
At 8 pm, The Contemporary Iranian Cinema part II started with the Iranian Filmmaker Mehdi Yarmohamadi’s talk about cinema, and carried on with screening of “Oracle” and “Play ground” by SISFF 2015 panel of jury member, Hossein Tabatabayee. This was a 30 minutes documentary about the injured people in the border towns – generally children – victims of the destructive effects of the mines left over from the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq. It seems that the war, according to an unwritten rule, is still sacrificing among the generations who are drawn in by their childish nature and unaware of violence and savagery of war.
International III began with a member of The Third Sahar International Short Film Festival 2017 panel of jury, Aroop Dwivedi. sending greetings from India. He gave a short talk, on the effects of technology on the advancement and acceleration of communication in human societies and cinema marketing.
The International category ended with:
“A SILENT SCREAM”by David Viscota
“I am Sorry” by Teodor Kuhn …
The Festival took place at the Millgate Art Centre. Despite the small audience which failed to generate a profit, organisers of the Sahar Film Festival believe by supporting talented young artists and showcasing their films we have a serious purpose which we feel we want to carry on with.
We are glad to be able to support and attract attention to talented young artists, delighted to give a light of hope for their future.
Mandana Ansari, Director of the Sahar Festival said:
Sahar international Film Festival is purely independent, now and always is open to emerging and established filmmakers.
She commented that:
Despite our limitation we continue and we are sure those who love cinema and culture will not let us down.
