A Film Festival in My Living Room

 

She-Pack (2018), courtesy of FGBFF

So, it has almost been two weeks since I had the pleasure of having the great Final Girls Berlin Film Festival (FGBFF) in my own living room. Although it was a weird feeling to attend an online film festival, it was also much cooler than I had expected it to be. I had no doubts that the selection of the organizers would be flawless, but what about the lack of chit-chatting in foyers, showing up for one movie but then spontaneously deciding to stay for a discussion too, buying yet another FGBFF t-shirt or bag, and the whole atmosphere? Well, unfortunately not this year. Or at least not this year in February, because there will hopefully be a second festival around Halloween at the City Kino Wedding - for the moment being that is nothing but a utopia in which we'll all be vaccinated... So, some of the charm of the festival wasn't there this year, but I found lots of joy in other things. There is, for instance, something extremely cozy in being splayed all over your couch in pajamas, drinking chamomile tea, munching on leftovers while a snow storm rages over Berlin and watching all FGBFF short film showings. You heard me right - ALL of them! Since there was no pressure to make it on time after work or in the morning, and you actually had 24 hours to watch each showing, for the first time ever did I watch the complete lineup and it was... GLORIOUS.

The icing on the FGBFF cake are, of course and as always, the short films. And, of course and as always, I wasn't disappointed by the February'21 selection, which was divided into five thematically sorted blocks: cyber horror, isolation, revenge, young girl protagonists and comedy horror, each followed by an online discussion in which the contributing directors, authors or producers were interviewed by various FGBFF members. The interviews were just as awesome as the movies because they offered the opportunity to clarify and further elaborate the ideas, the background stories and challenges filmmakers faced during the realization of the movies. One thing I learned during one of those interviews and that I found particularly fascinating is that the current pandemic lockdown has already left its mark on the industry and gave birth to a new subgenre of horror appropriately named "Chamber Horror". These are indie movies created by filmmakers in quarantine with a shoestring budget and of which we will very likely hear more in the future.

But let's finally get to the film reviews! All stills and pictures are a courtesy of the FGBFF, here are my highlights of the this year's festival:

Short Block 1 - Cyber Horror

Don't Text Back

Directors: Kaye Adelaide and Mariel Sharp

Canada, 2020

Deals with a woman's visit to an energy healer due to a necklace that chokes and strangles her whenever she does not text back her tinder date. The two of them have to go through awkward, comical and achy moments to finally figure out a way to get rid of this curse.

I interpret this amusing shorty as a smart and modern take on the trope of the girl with the velvet ribbon around her neck, but the oppressive link between man and woman is quite literal an even aggressive here, contrary to the original story. I loved the playful interaction between the two actresses! 

 

Fragile.com

Director: Alison-Eve Hammersley

USA, 2020

Oh, this one was good; sad and sick at the same time. Fragile.com is a website for which very young girls are being "recruited" basically for crying on livestream and their crying sessions are then being rated by men according to their believability. This probably was the most disturbing and unsettling one for me as it touches on the lengths some people will go to exploit the weaknesses of others.

 

 

Kalley's Last Review 

Director: Julia Bailey Johnson

USA, 2020

Kalley who is promoting beauty products on her YouTube channel is very happy when she finds a (never before heard of) sponsor whose products she will be testing on her vlog. But what exactly is this face-peel she will be applying and who exactly are those sponsors?

The first thing I wrote in my notes while watching this shorty is "Love the acting!!!", only to be shattered on hearing during the subsequent interview with director-actress Julia Bailey Johnson that she never ever wants to act again... Such a loss for us, because she was brilliant! I so loved her composed attitude, the marketing monster inside her keeping on going on, in direct contrast to what was happening to her face! Talking about what is happening to her face; I love and miss well-crafted SFX in horror movies and was very impressed by the quality of it in "Kalley's Last Review". Chances are this is my number one movie of this year's lineup.

Short Block 2 - Cabin Fever, Isolation Horror

Lose It

Directors: AJ Taylor and Maximilian Clark

USA, 2020

The stories in this category about women isolated at home and the effects of that isolation really get under your skin and "Lose It" very elegantly, artfully and viscerally touches on that feeling, showing the roots of the fear of loneliness. Impressive!

 

Stucco

Directors: Janina Gavankar & Russo Schelling

USA, 2020

"While hanging a piece of art in her new home, a woman knocks a hole in the wall, revealing what might be another room. Her mind races and unravels as she wonders what could be on the other side."

Is it terrifying to be stuck home on your own? The answer is a resounding yes! In "Stucco" Gavankar and Schelling represent that terror by concrete sounds and shapes, in a meaningful symbolic object and, reassuringly, offer a way out.

 

Short Block 3 - Eye for an Eye, Revenge Horror

 

I unfortunately don't have a favorite in this category. I know, I know, I could have fished out one or two films but when it comes to revenge by women, most movies will inevitably either feature a direct representation or be laden with undertones of violence against women, especially but not necessarily always sexual in nature. Let me be clear though, I totally understand the necessity of addressing this very delicate subject! But I think that for most of us it is such a genuine horror in our lives that I personally don't want to watch it in fiction too and need a strong metaphoric element to conceal the realness of it. I haven't found that element here this time and let's just say that at the end of the day, the short films in this category weren't really up my street.

Short Block 4 - Young Blood, Young Girl Protagonists

 

The Curse

Director: Ellie Stewart

Canada, 2021

The originality of this super short story of an older sister upping her brother's game who had a visit from
the tooth-fairy is due to one unexpected left-turn truly unparalleled! Bravo!

 

She-Pack

Director: Fanny Oveson

Norway, 2018

Girls will be girls, that's right. These impressions from a girls birthday party at an indoor swimming pool is so delightful, cruel but also adorable, that you can't help but like it. "She-Pack" ends on a very silly and upbeat note even though it shows how fine that line between friendship and fiendship is.

Short Block 5 - Busting a Gut, Horror Comedy

Hitte

Director: Thessa Meijer

Netherlands, 2020

Not much is more inherently terrifying than experiencing steaming hot body-horror in an ice cream shop. In "Hitte", director Meijer takes that fear and pushes the envelope so far that it's not even horror what you feel in the end, but a messy, balmy pulp that will leave you in disgust and in stitches.

Le Jet

Director: Eve Dufaud

Canada, 2019

It's a special kind of pleasure to secretly watch people who secretly watch people! In "Le Jet" the fun is twice as much, as we follow a shameless Peeping Tom with a curious fascination, building toward a flabbergasting finale.

 

 

Your Monster

Director: Caroline Lindy

USA, 2020

Laura is going through a rough patch - severely sick, abandoned by her boyfriend and lonely, she returns to her home, where she encounters the terrifying closet-monster from her childhood. This was such a sweet, heartwarming story that I could watch it over and over again! Right now, I need exactly that monster in my life, and I think I'm not the only one... 

Those were my absolute top short films but I have a favorite feature film too: Los Que Vuelven (Argentina, 2019).

In "Los Que Vuelven", a genuinely gorgeous ghost story, director Laura Casabé settles the scores with her country's colonial past all the while paying homage to its beauty. The story of Julia, the wife of a landowner who gives birth to a dead son and of her maid Kerana, who involuntarily helps her bring him back to life through the gods of her people, is not only impressively well made for an indie flick. It also resorts to a very fresh, very interesting way of backwards-puzzle kind of storytelling divided into three parts, where each part explains and develops the plot of the previous story. You end up looking at a work whose beginning, development and dénouement are peculiarly separated from each other, but still form a unity. I hope this is not their last film and wish to see more movies from the same team in the future!

I also hope and cross my heart to see all final girls of Berlin in the fall in City Kino Wedding!