Manhattan Short Film Festival returns to Middletown

Spanning more than 250 venues across six continents and 48 countries, The Manhattan Short Film Festival returns to the Everett Theatre on Saturday, featuring 10 unique films - in which you, the audience – will decide the winning movie. The festival begins Saturday at 7 p.m.

Audiences at each venue will be handed a voting card to vote for one film they feel should win. Votes are tallied by each cinema and sent to Manhattan Short headquarters, where the winner will be announced, via manhattanshort.com, Sunday, Oct. 2 at 10 p.m.

Take a sneak peak at a few of the films from the festival.

1. ‘The Legend of Beaver Dam’
A campfire song awakens an evil monster, and now it’s up to nerdy Danny Zigwitz to save his fellow campers from a bloody massacre in this horror rock musical. Heads will rock’n'roll!

Genesis of the film
We thought that when we would do a film, it would have to absolutely be a true story,” said director Jerome Sable during an interview with Nicholas Mason, founding director of the festival. “In our research we wanted to get every detail correct, including the treble clef, the bass clef and all of the four parts of the harmony.”

Final thoughts
With comedy flicks like “The Hangover” and “Bridesmaids” becoming huge hits with teenage audiences, Mason believes Sable and Eli Batalion, the writer of “The Legend of Beaver Dam,” have delivered a product that could take college-age viewers by storm, thus establishing them as the new kids on the Hollywood block.

“I’m sure these boys are glad I’m getting this film into a lot of colleges and universities across the country, because that’s where their demographic is,” Mason said. “I think [Sable and Batalion] might have a big career; they’re very funny and very talented.”

2. ‘Incident By Bank’
Shot using a single camera, 90 people meticulously recreate a failed bank robbery that took place in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2006.

Genesis of the film
“I had never seen a robbery attempt before, but I thought I would have an idea what one would look like,” said director Ruben Ostlund during an interview with Mason. “Of course, I got those images from Hollywood movies; those movies were a reference for me that I thought I could rely on if I saw a bank robbery in real life. After being a witness to this incident, I realized these Hollywood images were not quite correct in real life. Making Incident by a Bank is a way to correct the false images of robberies we see almost daily in action movies made in Hollywood.”

Final thoughts
There’s no doubt that “Incident By Bank” is a well-made film. However there’s a legitimate question that viewers should take the time to ask themselves when they watch the film: how did Ostlund manage to create a movie based on a botched robbery – something that proves to be an unsettling experience to many people who witness such an act?

Even though Mason handpicked this film for the festival, he found it hard to shake that question during his interview with Ostlund, to the point where he thought to himself: “What a weird guy.”

3. ‘A Doctor’s Job’
Doctor Ramon Moran supplements his income by driving a taxi in order to financially support his mentally ill mother. While driving the taxi, Ramon becomes involved in a crime that tests his pride and work ethic.

Genesis of the film
“My father was a doctor in Lima, Peru,” said director Julio Ramos during an interview with Mason. “He also drove a taxi in order to put my brother and me through school. He would tell me all these crazy things that would happen while driving the cab, nothing as extreme as what happens in this movie, but the idea of a doctor driving a taxi comes from my father. The thriller part of it, the crime part of it, is something I added to spice it up.”

Final thoughts
While Mason feels most South American films “take a day to get to the point,” he likes how “A Doctor’s Job” breaks the mold since “[Ramos] is adapting something that’s got the pace of an LA-thing and he’s taking it to South American,” he said.