“One-minute films roll at AGNS

Toronto’s One-Minute Film and Video Festival debuts in Halifax on Tuesday, June 27, at 7 p.m. in the Windsor Foundation Lecture Theatre at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Over 60 films and videos will be screened over the course of the one-night festival, each one no longer than 60 seconds in length. The film and video projects to be screened include documentary, experimental and narrative films from 12 countries, including Argentina, Portugal, India and Iran.

This year’s lineup probes the collisions between men and women, ninjas and robots, long board riders and Bay Street, kissing and cigarettes, and coffee and milk, among other things. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students. Visit www.minutefilmfest.com”

- TheChronicleHerald.ca

I came accros a pretty sweet review of Bender Films and thought I would Share it, it comes from the people at Shortening — Reviews of Online Short Films.

“Jason Lockyer makes minute-long pieces mostly about pigeons. But these are remarkable little films: his feathered friends (or rivals?) are just a common theme in these expressive pieces that vary from comical to introspective. The films use cut-out and drawn animation, which are created with technical proficiency and an artistic eye, in addition to live-action footage. Look At Me Now features a meticulous attention to detail in its animation: the pulsating glow of the TV set (which plays another Bender Film, Now Here), a pan around the messy living room, and birds and roaches which eventually interrupt the TV watching. The soundtracks are as quirky as the animations and scenes, and set the moods effectively. Lockyer’s films do frequently fall into silliness or abstraction, but still hit at a much deeper level than typical internet shorts.

All the Bender Films are utterly lacking in pretension, and the taglines that accompany each of the films on the site poke fun at typical over-serious filmmakers. They are as amusing as the shorts: Look At Me Now, for instance, is “a story of a chubby man with so much love to give, but so much hurt inside.” It’s definitely worth taking a few minutes to view this and the other shorts on the Bender Films site, which is updated monthly with new pieces.”

– Shortening review by dmwf