DVD Review: Cinema 16: American Short Films

This collection of short films is part of a trilogy. Focusing on the early works of famous film maker, Cinema 16 is a balance of experimental art and narrative films. As a teaching text, I would recoomend the following films that have immediate application in the teaching context

The Lunch Date (11 min): This fantastic film challenges student audiences pre-conceptions about film. Shot in black and white. The central protagonist as a older women in a railway station. There is often an initial bias against the film but the narrative slowly hooks the audience in with a great finish. This film uses a very simple scenario of the woman who missed her train and is stuck waiting in a cafe, to tackle the greater issues like racism, prejudices and acceptance. The film is useful to study the way the film makers use image and sound to position the audience to understand the woman's predicament and to create atmosphere and mood for the piece.

Freiheit (3 min) . This early George Lucas film is another interest exercise in building tension and putting together an action sequence.

Terminal Bar (22 min): A documentary about a little New York bar uses a lot of archival photography, press releases, along the bartender / own narrating on the regular faces and the history of the bar. The film has a strong sense of visual style and rhythm to build momentum supported an evocative soundtrack. Whilst not a film with direct applications for Drama students, it should be useful to for technical observation or as part of a study of documentary films with senior students. Theme: change, belonging, history. I am not sure whether subject matter would be accessible with junior audiences.

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker (4 min) This comic short plays with a version of the fish out of water scenario to hilarious effect. Suitable for any year but most likely more appreciated by older students year 9 to 12.

The Discipline of D.E. (13min) This Gus Van Sant contains a sly black humour as the narrator attempts to education the audience in the discipline of doing easy. This funny film is a useful demonstration in the power of the medium to play with ideas and explore theories.

George Lucas in Love (8 min) is satire on the Shakespeare in Love as the title suggests. As long the audience have a familiarity with Lucas' films - esp Star Wars - most students should fine the film entertaining. It would be useful to discuss / consider how and where film makers get inspiration from other works, a homage, that students are already know as a method / approach to generate new original ideas.