May 5th, 2003
Short films as an experimental laboratory and a communicative impetus
by Werner Schneider-Quindeau
The history of film starts off with short films. Films running less than a minute were the sensation in Paris and Berlin at the end of the 19th century. And in the first 15 years of film production nothing but short films were presented to an astounded and amazed audience. Film meant short film. With visionary spirit and entrepreneurial energy, pioneers of technology and moving pictures developed a new cultural practice that was to shape the character of the 20th century. But most of all it were short films in which has been tested what later was to make up the richness of film: concise documentaries ("L'Arrivée d'un train/A Train Arrives" by the Lumière brothers), fantasy ("Le Voyage dans la lune/ A Voyage to the Moon" by Georges Meliés), or comedy (slapstick had already its place in the initial short films), but also topics of classical theatre and biblical tradition were concisely and densely treated, as for example Jesus’ Passion that turned Christian iconography into moving pictures. Mostly, it was a series of short films that was shown to the audience.
The short film has never lost this charm of a beginning, this magic of the new, the not yet seen and the surprising in the course of film history. All cinematic masters began with short films and tested their creativity and their imaginary force in these small forms before they were able to make serviceable long films that are worked down to the last detail. Because he who is able to tell a drama in 10 to 15 minutes in a thrilling way, who casts a new light on people and their conditions by means of unfamiliar takes very briefly, will never quite lose this innovative element in bigger productions. Whether the directors are able to renew cinema or not is reflected in their willingness to start at the beginning, meaning to start with short films.
The short film – especially in its experimental forms – permanently reminds of the beginning of film making. Whether video clip, advertisement or animation: new means of expression are searched for with the short form – new means that have always given and still give crucial impulses to cinematic culture. The short film distinguishes itself by being a cinematic experiment in which new styles and unfamiliar attitudes, daring shots and bold image compositions are tried. It is an independent cinematic form that is rather underestimated and undervalued as a supporting film or an “intellectual” film. Therefore, it should have its own place in the cinematic landscape. Short film programmes that present a series of excellent short films are increasingly appreciated by more and more people among the cinema audience. And therefore, it is not regrettable that the short film as a supporting film had to give way to advertising trailers in most cinemas because it deserves a special attention.
The short film especially gains quality as a parable by temporal limits and accordingly by formal challenges. Allusions are more important than broad explanations and expositions. Some sketches, images that in a short moment contain a whole world and quickly lead to the point of a story or a perception: contrary to long films, short films cannot afford lengths and epic broadth is not along its line. Thus, it is related to the literary form of biblical parables where every day events surprisingly open up to show a new, another reality that is called for example the Kingdom of God in Jesus’ parables. A farmer sows, a host invites to a meal, an owner of a vineyard looks for workers, and a shepherd looks for a lost sheep: with few words an every day experience is focussed on in order to link it to a little story that makes an unpredictable point. A meaning is shown that shall give man a new perspective on reality, people, himself and God. The farmer’s sowing as an expression for trust in God; the invitation to those who were initially not invited; the owner of the vineyard who is paying the same wages to everyone despite different working hours and the search for what is lost being more important than the worries concerning those present: the literary short form, the parable, aims at a surprising gain of knowledge and open questions. In the experiment, the familiar every day experience changes and turns naturalness into new questions. Parables are experiments with our watching, hearing and talking habits with the aim to create a space for new watching, hearing and talking. To me, succesful short films are these parables. They can open our eyes and ears to what we would usually not have heard or seen. Usually, God is not to be found in this new hearing or seeing space; but He can only be found where we see and listen differently than usual. And as short films as well as parables look for a new beginning in order to confuse the every day and the natural, and as they cannot repeat the same over and over again, they seem to be so new and unspent.
Even if the German short film is mainly found in film academies and mostly intended as final exams, it has lost nothing of its creative and experimental character. The beginners of cinema arts test their talents in short films where the gifted prove their abilities. But there are many directors who remain true to short films and develop their artistic mastery in them. To name but a few: Matthias Müller, the Czech Jan Švankmajr and Susanne Horizon-Fränzel. Short films are their genuine medium for expressing their art. The magic of a beginning that every of their short films spread is sketched out in a nearly philosophical, meditative imagery that makes us think about the world, existence, globalisation and our own place. As open sketches, short films do not only want to show, but at the same time kick off thinking and discussion. In their brevity, they mediate hints, points, constellations and fragments that are an impulse for further observation and comments. Restrictedly, the future of the short film in an educational context lies still ahead. There are the commendable efforts of church media centers and of sound and picture departments to offer short films for educational work along with corresponding accompanying material, but it seems to me that the communicative chance that short films especially could have in school education as well as in adult education is not yet sufficiently used. As well as biblical parables, short films demand for a discussion. Can what we have heard and seen really be true? What a demand is behind what we have heard and seen? As so much is not shown and not said, the audience is challenged to fill the gaps themselves and to enter into a discussion full of tension – in a different way than with long films. How and where am I in the parable or the short film? Did I get the point? Was I vividly entertained or am I not concerned? A brilliant short film like Pepe Danquardt’s “Fare Dodger” operates with these questions on the topic of xenophobia and should be taken up in the school curriculum like a poem by Goethe. Here we get an elementary idea, a vivid learning, what xenophobia means and how it could be met in an intelligent, humourous and clever way. (The original title of this film is "Schwarzfahrer" which is the literal translation of fare dodger, but it also implies the racist problem; in a way it is a pun: the polysemy of „black“ in this context is played upon.)
The following discussion would always start with us: with our images and prejudices, attributions and refusals, with our way of watching and our fear. Where we start to think about ourselves – initiated by short films and biblical parables – we start to see the world yet differently. The “Oberhausen Short Film Festival” is in many ways a wonderful place for these beginnings. If we do not want to go on the way we do now, we have to ask how and where we want to start anew. Like those who signed the “Oberhausen Manifesto” more than 40 years ago when the young German film started off and a wave of creative production followed. With its protagonists German film gained world wide fame after the Second World War because it left the old paths and discovered a new territory of cinematic style. If the church wants to learn what it means to start at the beginning over and over again, then it could learn from the “Oberhausen Short Film Festival”. It would discover short films that are similar to Jesus’ parables in their visionary force and their orientating meaning without explicitly talking about the Kingdom of God. Only those can learningly change who dare the experiment of a new step or a new expression. To me, short films are evidences of these learning experiences. Therfore we need them and such festivals as the one in Oberhausen.
Translation: Lara Schneider
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