Encounters Short Film Festival is one of the UK's leading film festivals, showcasing new talent in filmmaking and providing a platform for emerging filmmakers to screen their work. For the 15th edition, the Festival has increased the competitive screenings hosting five Best of British Programmes, eight International Panoramas, Emerging Talent Screenings, the Best of British South-West Showcase and the popular Late Lounge.
This year Encounters dedicates one of the Festival days to Romanian Shorts, part of the Guest Screenings programme on 20 November at Watershed Cinema 1.
At the same time, award-winning Megatron by Marian Crisan and Life's Hard by Gabriel Sarbu enter the Competition Screenings, part of the International Panorama programme dedicated to outstanding shorts from around the globe.
Director Gabriel Sirbu will be present for discussions throughout the Festival. With support from the Romanian Cultural Institute in London.
Romanian Shorts 20 November, 6.00 pm, Watershed Cinema 1
Immerse, Dir: Weareom, Animation, 2008 A story about inner space
Megatron, Dir: Marian Crisan, 2008 It's Maxim's birthday. He's 8 years old. He lives with his mother in a village quite far from the nearest city. For his birthday, his mother takes him to a McDonald's restaurant.
Cigarettes and Coffee, Dir: Cristi Puiu, 2004 An old man enters a restaurant in Bucharest. He takes a seat at a table where a younger man looking like a successful businessman is already eating dessert. Their conversation revolves around a job opening for the older man, who has been out of work for two years. However, if you want work these days, it's no good coming empty handed. Even if it's your son who is doing the employing.
The Tube with a Hat, Dir: Radu Jude, 2007 Winning Short Film, Encounters 2007 Very early morning, Marian, a 7 year old boy from a small and isolated Romanian village, wakes up his father and persuades him to go to the city, in order to fix their old TV set. A short road-movie about father-and-son relationship and about the importance of the small things in life.
The Palm Lines, Dir: George Chiper, 2009 A terrible accident takes away her family in a blink of an eye. Years later, exposed to the video cameras, she tries to remember the events that would change her life to a senseless routine. The story of a day, like any other, from the life of a lonesome woman, spent within questions with no answers
Waves, Dir: Adrian Sitaru, 2007 At the seaside, on the beach, two people experience extreme situations. A beautiful Western mother asks a gypsy boy to look after her 4 year old boy; a husband and father fight ennui by flirting with the same beautiful foreigner while teaching her how to swim. But the story takes a different course when the beautiful mother disappears in the waves...
International Panorama 6 20 Nov 2.30 pm, Watershed Cinema 3 & 21 Nov 5.30 pm, Watershed Cinema 2
Megatron, Dir: Marian Crisan, 2008 It's Maxim's birthday. He's 8 years old. He lives with his mother in a village quite far from the nearest city. For his birthday, his mother takes him to a McDonald's restaurant.
Life's Hard (La Drumul Mare), Dir: Gabriel Sirbu, 2008 ...a traffic jam, a thief breaks into a young woman's car trying to steal her purse. He stays in the car first because the traffic police arrive, then to improve her driving skills... till when?
When: 17-21 November 2009
Where: Watershed Cinema, 1 Canon's Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX
Tickets: https://www.encounters-festival.org.uk/festival-information.html
