Three Independent Shorts From New York City Independent Film Festival

Every year there are the major film festivals that films go to and receive a large amount of attention from distributors and critics. The Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and Tribeca Film Festival tend to get more attention than some of the smaller ones, even though the smaller gatherings can still have the same level of quality that one would expect from the bigger ones. This past week in Manhattan, the New York City Independent Film Festival was held and showcased a large amount of relatively unknown talent that have the same abilities that one would see in movies shot with massive budgets from major studios. The Narrative Shorts screening that ran on June 18th, 2022 featured three short films from promising up and coming filmmakers. These are the three that ran during that block:

Cloud Cuckoo Country: This short to come out of Thailand tells the story of two women who were formerly in a relationship who reunite and spar over the political climate in Thailand and how it influenced their relationship. Both the lead actresses (Nantanat Thakadkul and Chayatanus Saradatta who play unnamed women) do an excellent job portraying the two sides of the political coin that are impacting Thailand in the modern era. Writer and Director Aim-ei Polpitak does manage to almost turn the cultural landmarks of Thailand into characters that impact the plot as much as either of the two women in the debate. All around it is an incredibly interesting short, especially for western audiences who may not know about the political strife that has impacted Thailand in recent history.

Customer Service: Brendan Cook’s short is the shortest of the three in this batch. In this short, the United States has privatized its military drone program and released it to the public as an arcade game like one would find at Dave and Busters. The effects and visuals of the short are totally unique and unlike anything else in recent history and serves as an excellent proof-of-concept for a feature that could be a science fiction political thriller based on a totally original idea.

Novel Romance: Written by Mahima Saigal and directed by Gabrielle Adkins, “Novel Romance” features Francesca (Mahima Saigal also starring in the movie) speculating with her roommate Arielle (Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen) about the outcome of a relationship after they discover a note in a secondhand book. Featuring Gabrielle Adkins and Julian Abelskamp as the man and the woman in the relationships as imagined by Francesca and Arielle, the movie tells an interesting story about the power of imagination and how a person who is not privy to the information in someone’s life can blow an innocuous event completely out of proportion.

The New York City Independent Film Festival is currently taking submissions for the 2023 festival in all categories and any short that is selected to be in the festival receives a non-exclusive offer from ShortsTV for United States broadcast. Filmmakers from the area who are interested in submitting can do so using the following link on FilmFreeway.