Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman once said, “ No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.” The power of the cinema is not restricted to the feature-length films that dominate movie theater screens across the country. The often-neglected cousin of the feature film is the short, but this week, Outer Cape audiences have the opportunity to celebrate short form films of nearly every genre at a satellite screening of the New York-based Manhattan Short Film Festival.
“It’s everyone’s party around the world,” according to Festival director Nicholas Mason. Indeed, not only are the ten films to be shown representative of numerous countries (Canada, U.S., Scotland, Hungary, Egypt, Switzerland, Peru, Sweden, and Australia), but one of these films will be named the winner of the Manhattan Short Film Festival competition, based on the votes of audiences in over 200 cities spanning six continents, within the space of this week only.
Mason says it is particularly valuable to have “regular” people vote for the winning film because when filmmakers and others involved in the film world judge film festivals, “they tend to like the films they were involved with.”
The festival, with its unusual premise, began in 1997, but only started branching out to screen outside of New York City in 2004, when Mason took the festival to seven cities within seven states. Now, Mason says 100,000 people around the world are participating as audiences and judges.  This is the first time a Cape Cod town is participating.

“It grew so quickly, so whatever we’re doing, we’re right,” he enthuses.
These ten finalist films were preselected by Mason, with the help of small screening groups consisting of “people who deal with the general public,” such as waiters and bartenders, journalists, and others. I had the opportunity to watch all ten of these extraordinary films - none of them longer than 18 minutes, and all worthy of multiple viewings. It is a rare opportunity to see short films in a theatrical setting these days, and these films represent ten reasons to do so in Wellfleet this weekend.

Incident By a Bank (Sweden)
In this nine-and-a-half-minute film, director Ruben Ostlund tells a true story about something he and a colleague witnessed in real life. Shot in a manner that suggests street surveillance footage, from a high angle, this pseudo-documentary tells us more about the witnesses to the event than it does about the perpetrators. A wonderfully provocative piece.

DIK (Australia)
This hilarious short by Christopher Stollery takes us to a typical young family’s household. When their six-year-old son comes home with a drawing that suggests sexual experimentation, his parents find themselves shedding their liberal parenting style and coming clean on their true feelings. Again, this is a provocative film, although in a vastly different way than Incident By a Bank. It hits home and makes you laugh even after its ten-minute length.

Mak (Switzerland)
Geraldine Zosso’s contribution to the Festival stands in stark contrast to the previous two, with its focus on a young girl giving up her baby for adoption. Although it is obviously an emotionally charged subject and therefore reliant on excellent acting for its power, the camera work and editing are equally responsible for telling this painful story. Although it is rare that I’ve seen a short film work in that 16-30-minute range, Mak is perfect at its 18-minute length: just long enough to paint a picture of powerlessness and grief that will not soon leave you.

I Love Luci (Scotland)
Colin Kennedy’s 11-minute film is a comedic look at down-and-out Scottish ne’er-do-wells looking for the female character’s lost teeth. Set in a gritty, down and out setting where drug addiction is commonplace, and prison is a second home for many, this one is an unexpectedly lighter piece in the collection. (And by the way, the order in which these films are set to screen appears to be very carefully curated by Mason.)

The Legend of Beaver Dam (Canada)
Here we have a film that can only be described as Glee meets Blair Witch Project meets 1980s slasher films. Directors Jerome Sable and Eli Batalion show a bizarre sense of humor in this story of a young boy scout (or the Canadian equivalent) coping with ostracism by not only his peers but the scout leader, too, on a camping trip in the woods.  Part musical, part coming of age story, and part horror movie, this film is nothing if not unique (and it features a great young singer, too!)

Sexting (U.S.A.)
Written and directed by playwright and screenwriter Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Death at a Funeral, reasons to be pretty) and starring the gorgeous Julia Stiles, this is perhaps the most high profile of the group and also the shortest of the lot at 8 minutes. But you wouldn’t want it to be much longer considering it is essentially a monologue between a young woman (Stiles) and the wife of her lover.

The Forest (Hungary)
Like Sexting, The Forest is shot in black and white. Unlike the other films in this collection, this one has a subtler plot involving a group of young people camping together in a forest. The main character begins to have some misgivings about the group based on something he sees while walking about, but director Kárpáti György Mór does not give easy answers and we are asked to think about this one a little longer. In essence, it is a film that gives you a feeling, rather than a strong story.

A Doctor’s Job (Peru)
Julio Ramos’ film features a doctor who needs to moonlight as a taxi driver in order to pay for his mother’s nursing home. One day, he is taken on the adventure of his life when two criminals get in the car. This one is more action oriented than the others and even though it is driven by an emotional connection with the character, the plot is what keeps you fully engaged throughout.

David & Goliath (U.S.A.)
 Though the film is made by American director George Zaverdas, David & Goliath is set in Germany during World War II and the story is told in the German language. Just when you thought you’d seen enough Holocaust themed movies, this little short comes along to give you a fresh response to that period in history. In 12 minutes, Zaverdas retells a true story about a Jewish man who was saved from German soldiers by the kindness of a man, a woman, and most of all,  a German Shepherd dog. This is also a remarkable film.

Martyr Friday (Egypt)
Finally, Abu Bakr Shawky puts a documentary into the mix – and a timely one at that. Martyr Friday is produced in the direct cinema manner, with camera as observer to events as they unfold - in this case, the Egyptian uprising that began the so-called “Arab Spring.” I was so moved by the sight of people rising up and challenging their government. It reminded me of protests I have been a part of over the years, except this one was so much more significant than anything I’ve ever had to fight for. Shawky’s film brought the whole Egyptian Revolution to me in a way no news coverage has been able to do. What a wonderful way to end this magnificent group of films.

The 13th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival screens at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St., Wellfleet on Friday, September 30 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and again on Saturday, October 1 at 5 and 7:30 p.m. The winner of the festival will be announced in New York City and posted on  www. ManhattanShort.com on Sunday, October 2 at 10 p.m. For more information, visit the aforementioned Web site. Tickets ($9) are available from Wellfleet Preservation Hall at www.wellfleetpreservationhall.org.