Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

On Sunday, T he Gryphon and I viewed several shorts programs at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

We began with "Disney Cartoon Rarities" at the Prince Music Theater.

Much to our surprise, this showing was introduced by film critic Leonard Maltin and Disney heir Roy E. Disney. Maltin has been active in film restoration and lately has been working with Disney to restore some of their early shorts.

Maltin pointed out that the versions shown on Sunday weren't complete, still lacking a new soundtrack by composer Robert Israel.

For the Sunday showing, they played 1920s music, which while it didn't match exactly was a good pairing for the silent shorts. I noticed that the films were also still moving at a higher rate of speed, something that can often be fixed during restoration.

Of particular interest among the silent shorts were a couple Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts, a character predating Mickey Mouse, who was discontinued when the character's creator withdrew permission for his use. These shorts were only recently acquired by Disney from the previous owner.

As Disney said in his intro, Oswald bears a family resemblance to Mickey, with a white face, dark body and long dark ears. He was a bit of a prankster, such as when he improvises a plane for a transatlantic race out of a sausage-like dog and some balloons. He pulled a similar stunt in another short, jamming a dog into a pipe to serve as the head for a Frankenstein-like horse constructed from a sawhorse.

The "Alice in Cartoonland" series featured a live action girl in an animated environment, inspired by a series by Max Fleischer called "Out of the Inkwell", where cartoon characters interact with a live action world.

The character of Alice was played in different shorts by various neighborhood children. In "Alice Solves the Puzzle", a dark-haired Alice puzzles over a crossword, then takes a break to swim with a cartoon cat, who resembles — but is not — Felix the Cat. They encounter the evil, peg-legged, bear-like Bootleg Pete, who tries to steal her puzzle.

In another Alice short, Bootleg Pete steps up his evil deeds by kidnapping a dark-haired Alice, who is then rescued by a daring cat who defeats Pete by throwing starch on him and breaking him into bits.

"Alice in Cartoonland" has the heroine, played by a girl with long blonde curls, visiting a cartoon studio and then dreaming of Cartoonland, where she is greeted as a foreign dignitary, complete with a parade and celebration, interrupted by rampaging lions.

The program then segued into a number of musical shorts, including the 1929 short "Hell's Bells", an early experimentation with sound, with grotesque characters cavorting in Hell — yes, Hell— to symphonic music.

Equally unnerving is "Egyptian Melodies" (1931), where a spider creeps into the inner recesses of a pyramid to discover mummies and wall murals dancing and fighting.

The most entertaining of the musical shorts was "Musicland", a Maltin favorite. In a Romeo & Juliet tale, war is sparked by the love between the princess of the Isle of Symphony and the prince of the Isle of Jazz, with love ultimately leading to a reconciliation between the two lands. All characters are based on musical instruments and "talk" with musical sounds in this colorful, inventive piece.

Near the end of the program were several Mickey Mouse shorts, including the black and white 1932 short "The Whoopee Party", where an early Mickey, Minnie and Goofy entertain a rollicking house full of dancing guests, frequently given to calls of "whoopee!"

We also saw the 1937 short "Hawaiian Holiday", where Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald the Duck and Goofy enjoy the Hawaiian surf and sun. This was also very musical, with Mickey and Minnie dancing and playing hula music as Goofy attempts to surf, Pluto battles a crab and Donald engages in hijinks which, predictably, backfire.

Far and away my favorite was "The Band Concert" (1935), Mickey's first Technicolor short, where Mickey conducts a performance of the William Tell Overture in a park, despite interruptions from Donald and a sudden, fierce storm. Here, the music serves as both humor and plot, guiding the action.

Overall, I found the shorts fascinating. As someone who is not terribly familiar with the Disney shorts (being a Warner Brothers fan), I found it enlightening. I learned, for example, about the early love for incorporating music, still a staple in Disney animation. Even characters in the silent films dance.

Also, there's a consistency of character designs across the decades. For example, the early shorts often featured anthropomorphic characters alongside animal-like characters, which helps explain how anthropomorphic Goofy and dog-like Pluto coexist.

During our break before the next film, we did a little shopping and got dinner at the Marathon Grill before heading to the International House at the University of Pennsylvania for a shorts program, "Stone Soup!"

First was an animated short, "Collect All and Hyde" by Thomas R. Keiser, a stop motion animation about the last two people on earth. The eerie piece has a fractured fairy tale feel, narrated in a childlike voice and telling the story in rhyme. Unfortunately, the sound mix was poor, meaning that in the early part of the film, the music frequently interfered with understanding the words.

"Diorama" by Ben Kalina followed an independent musician's daughter, who creates a collage of wildlife as an escape from life with her flighty, alcoholic mother. The daughter, played by the real-life daughter of Madi DiStefano, who plays the musician, did a terrific job, conveying the loneliness, despair and yet hopefulness of her character.

"Ring of Fire" by Temple grad student Rini Yun Keagy represents a first-time foray into animation, using stop motion paper on a drawn background. The short shares memories of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia. The simple animation imbues the piece with a folk tale quality that, combined with lyrical narration, makes for a thoughtful, beautiful whole.

"Three A.M." by Andrew Watson, an experimental piece, loosely connects three different stories of late night life: a recently fired office worker driving aimlessly, an Asian immigrant trapped in a thankless work life, and a loner who obsessively makes calls from a pay phone. The stories cycle back on themselves in a halting loop, leaving the viewer to wonder whether they are all ghosts trapped in melancholy memories.

A black and white short, "Intricate" by Mike Pender, is a send-up of a heist film, as four guys sit around a table planning to snap up the first copy of the new Lord of the Rings DVD. The film makes humorous references to movies like Reservoir Dogs but suffers from some distracting technical problems, chiefly lighting and sound. All the actors are African-American, and the film is shot in a darkened room. While the leader is beautifully lit so that both his dark complexion and his white T-shirt show in vivid contrast, the henchmen blend into muddy, grainy shadow. Sound appears to have been captured on location, and is unintelligible when the actors talk over each other. The end result was that the film savvy audience didn't laugh at some of the references because they couldn't hear them.

"The Ruggiero Brothers South Philly Extravaganza Show" by Shabadelphia features the titular brothers hosting a public access channel style show, giving an ill-informed tour of South Philly murals. The funniest line is when they identify a mural of Frank Rizzo, former Philly mayor, as "The Chairman of the Board", Frank Sinatra. The improv comedy piece had plenty of funny moments but could have benefited from editing. The crew offers a whole series of similar shorts on their site.

"Farewell Silk City" by Temple graduate student Alison Crouse chronicles the final days of the Silk City Diner in Spring Garden, as lean times force the original owners to shut down. The camera crew interviewed waitresses, kitchen staff, the owner and regulars, capturing such moments as customers enjoying their final bites of chocolate bread pudding and a farewell party for friends and employees.

From the Q&A afterwards, this short was an audience favorite, as the director fielded many questions about the making of the film.

In the Q&A, I asked the "Diorama" makers what was involved in directing their child actress, who I said was very good. Much to my surprise, she was seated in the row ahead of me! The filmmakers then invited her to join them up front, where she was greeted by the audience with boisterous applause.

The Silk City piece included a tribute to the diner by a local poet, who was also in attendance, so I complimented her on her work and gave her one of my business cards, urging her to check out Wild Violet and consider submitting some of her work.

The last showing we attended on Sunday was the best of the 48 Hour Film Project from Philly, also in the International House. The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual contest where filmmakers make short films that must be written, shot and edited within the course of 48 hours. They choose a genre from a hat and much each use the same character, line and prop.

This year, the line was "I did that last time." The prop was hand lotion, although we noticed recurring diamond rings, clipboards and knives, which made us wonder if there were secondary props, as well. The recurring character was Kevin O'Mara, building inspector.

First up was "Slippery When Dead" by Sparkle Motion, a SF film. It was a zombie movie, where Kevin O'Mara inspects a home for security from zombie attack. He advises his client to spread hand lotion liberally on his forearms so that if a zombie tries to grab him, it will slip right off. This was an entertaining movie which got a lot of laughs. The stilted acting worked for the cheesy, B-movie film.

Next was "Stay", a horror film by Funky Muffins. It takes place in a house where a building inspector — here for the only time played by a woman as K. O'Mara — encounters the ghostly residue of a previous resident. The ghost tracks hand lotion through the house, which was supposed to be scary but struck viewers as funny instead. They made great use of spooky music, but the lighting was bright sitcom lighting, which didn't contribute to the mood. The only really scary part is the conclusion of the film, where the building inspector gets trapped in a crawl space with a ghostly girl who wants her to stay and play.

"Painkiller" was a femme fatale film by movies in 15 minutes, telling the tale of a social worker who oversees the placement of abused people — including Kevin O'Mara — into a halfway house, where she then puts them out of their misery. The hand lotion comes in briefly as one of the items she gives him to make him more comfortable in his stay. At moments, the film was unintentionally funny, such as when voices talk to her in her head. The filmmakers made copious use of fake blood and said in the Q&A that they used carob syrup, which had to be heated in the microwave before each take.

The SF film "Refuge" by INGSOC (additional location photos here) made creative use of locations, shooting part of it inside the Eastern State Penitentiary. They revealed in the Q&A that they'd managed to do this through the miracle of insurance. "Refuge" takes place in a dystopian future, where the rich live in beautiful high-rises while the poor people are corralled into holding areas for relocation. However, we discover that the lotion used as protection from the damaging rays of the sun is made out of... poor people! This film was very well acted and beautifully shot, and though it sounds like a hokey premise, the filmmakers delivered both drama and excitement.

"COGs" by 133 Clear was supposed to be a buddy film but felt more like a dark drama. Usually, buddy films are lighter fare, either cop films or road movies. This film, by contrast, traces the relationship of a couple through different stages, until the husband kills the wife. They incorporated Kevin O'Mara in an inventive way. Throughout, as the husband narrates his theories of relationships, they show different people exemplifying different concepts. O'Mara illustrates loneliness and loss as a weeping man looking at a photo, wearing a shirt that says "O'Mara Building Inspections" with a patch on the other pocket, "Owner: Kevin". The hand lotion was used in a scene where the wife massages her husband's back.

"Rule #437" by the Tina Yothers Army was a sports movie, but they interpreted this loosely, as it was more of a SF piece, set in a dark future where rich women eat pastries while watching teams of gladiators fighting to the death. One competitor, who keeps succeeding (greasing her hands with hand lotion), is really a regular woman who has paid for a "mind game" and is, in reality, lying on a gurney. The film makes good use of lighting, staging and costumes, though it was turned in late, so I suspect was ineligible for any prizes. The sound also left something to be desired, and I could hear little of the dialogue. Kevin O'Mara was probably mentioned, but I don't know when. One of the filmmakers shares his thoughts about the project in his MySpace blog.

The drama "Closing Costs" by Another Walker Phillips Production felt more like a melodrama. This was about a couple going through marital difficulties because of the husband's OCD, particularly manifested by an obsession with moisturizing his hands. Ready to give up on the relationship, they are finalizing the sale of their home to prospective buyers, who come through with the home inspector. As the buyers overhear the couple discuss their desire to reconcile, they gracefully step out of the sale. Surprisingly, this film won the best acting award for Philadelphia, though I would have awarded it to "Refuge".

"Science the Musical" by Meatball Posse was a lot of fun. In it, a mad scientist plans to better the world by reincarnating Abe Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin. However, he accidentally uses zombie lotion, and the zombie Abe and Ben eat up the lab. It was silly and spirited, with the feel of a B-grade musical like Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song writing was impressive, given their time constraints and the fact that they had to communicate with their song writer over the phone. The cast, though, probably don't normally list singing on their resumes. Here's the MySpace page of one of the filmmakers.

Another fun film was "Teddy McGee", a romance by the Popcorn Trick, not a typical romance by any means. Kevin O'Mara is soured on love because of a cheating ex-wife but finds love and redemption through India, the Nubian blowup doll. Some of the humor was predictable, but most is inventive, naughty fun, flirting with the edges of good taste. India herself appeared at the showing, but wa s so overwhelmed by the excitement she couldn't even walk. (By the way, even their chosen name is a bit rude. Don't believe me? Google "Popcorn Trick".)

"Spaghetti Western" by CineMassacre was, of course, a western but with a difference. The film begins with a little boy and his father, Teddy O'Mara, building inspector, play with Lincoln logs, the boy using hand lotion as cement for the joints. When the father leaves to take care of business, the boy's brother rides in on a hobby horse and destroys the town. This leads to an entertaining and inventive take on the spaghetti western, as they chase each other through the house with pop guns. When their mom interrupts them for lunch, their battle turns into a food fight with spaghetti. Cute, wry, and kind of classy, too.

Justice Productions did the romance "PassionS of the Christ". In this one, Kevin O'Mara is having trouble keeping his love life alive with his wife. A friend tells him to pray, which leads to a somewhat worldly Christ showing up to give him advice. You might expect the hand cream to be used in sexual hijinks, but instead, it's used for humorous effect, as Jesus makes himself a sandwich in O'Mara kitchen, accidentally squirting hand cream on his sandwich instead of mayonnaise. The situation is resolved when Mary Magdalene shows up, advising that the way to a woman's heart is not through ridiculous bondage outfits but by sharing a real, emotional moment with her. Here's the MySpace page of the sound person.

"Pieces of Bob", which I believe was a horror film, was by OSBX, who also had an entry in the 2004 Philadelphia 48 Hour Film Project. This was really well done, telling a simple story of two guys hiding from an axe murderer, one of them covered in blood from their murdered friend Bob. As they hide in a dank basement-like area, they discover and toss aside some hand lotion. They confess their various past wrongs, leading to one of them dropping his pants and announcing he's a girl, just as the police burst in to rescue them. Kevin O'Mara makes a cameo in this film as somebody who calls them on the cell phone but hangs up before they can relay their predicament. There were a few sound problems with this film, which are forgivable because of time constraints. They might not have had time to overdub the trouble spots.

As always, the showing was an entertaining way to see films by local filmmakers and to see how they used their creativity to fulfill the requirements of the project.

More Musings on the 2007 Philadelphia Film Fest:

April 10, 2007 - All Singing, all Dancing

April 16, 2007 - Getting Animated

April 17, 2007 - Laughter and Tears

Musings on the 2006 Philadelphia Film Fest:

April 4, 2006 - Sweet Masterpieces

Musings on the 2005 Philadelphia Film Fest:

April 11, 2005 - Film Style 5+

Musings on the 2004 Philadelphia Film Fest:

April 12, 2004 - Indulging in Film

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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