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Narrative shorts followup
The narrative shorts award was announced Saturday, and the winner was “Nice Shootin’ Cowboy,” an Australian flick from director Ben Phelps.
The previous post about winners didn’t go into detail about any of the winners, but “Nice Shootin’ Cowboy” was a worthy winner.
Shot in a rural, deserted spot in Australia, the movie unfolds as four people sit in a car, with flies swarming around their faces. They’re waiting on something or somebody, but it’s not clear. The movie doesn’t say. Instead, it slowly shows. Two young men sit in the front, and a young man and woman sit in the back seat. The flies, of course, indicate the unsavoriness of what’s to come.
They’re there to sell a baby, obviously the offspring of the couple in the back of the car. After another car drives up and faces them, one of the young men gets out and carries the baby for inspection. The judgment: It’s too black and is not wanted. To say more would be to give away too much of the short, but let’s just say it’s a powerful examination of prejudice and desperation.
One other short deserves to be mentioned, but didn’t get an award. It’s called “Bar Flies,” and is directed by David Broyles from a script by Alan Barkley. If the short is any indication, Broyles and Barkley have the potential to become a new David Lynch. The music, the costuming, the ambiance all combine to produce an ethereal look at a world unto itself — a bar in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by regulars who seem to be in a perpetual state of disassociation. It’s 10 minutes long and was made in the U.S. And it deserves a hearty endorsement.
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By David Broyles
October 25, 2009 1:25 PM | Link to this
A big thanks to Charles Ealy and the Austin 360 Movie Blog for the great review!
David Broyles “Bar Flies”