Locarno Shorts Weeks 2022

The Locarno Shorts Weeks celebrate their fourth anniversary and it is exciting to see how, within such a relatively limited period of time, this initiative has quickly become a much-anticipated online rendez-vous for a growing audience of cinephiles all over the world.

It is certainly a good sign: the attention towards the short form is on the rise. But it’s also much more than that. It’s about feeding our curiosity for new voices, singular talents, and unconventional perspectives. And it’s about giving them further chances to circulate, to find new eyes eager to watch. That’s how film communities take shape, too.

So here we go with a selection of shining gems from the 2020 selection of the Pardi di domani and Open Doors sections of the Locarno Film Festival: 22 short films to take us company throughout February 2022, dropping one by one, day by day, and available for free, thanks to Swiss Life.

Highlights include the winners of the Pardino d’oro in the International and National Competitions respectively: I ran from it and was still in it by Darol Olu Kae, a poetical merge of the private and the political sketching a complex portrait of familial loss and separation; and Menschen am Samstag (People on Saturday) by Jonas Ulrich, a formally ingenious re-imagining of the Sisyphos tale set among the everyday situations of a contemporary city. 

22 shorts to discover (or re-discover). 22 chances to open a conversation, or to simply enjoy cinema. 

The selection was purposedly made to showcase a constellation of cinematic possibilities: a variety of styles, a portfolio of life preoccupations, urgencies of the heart, warning signs from the planet.

The fear of the unknown and the burden of choice – History of Civilization by Zhannat Alshanova, Trou Noir (Black Hole) by Tristan Aymon – and how to overcome it –The End of Suffering (A Proposal) by Jacqueline Lentzou, Push This Button if You Begin to Panic by Gabriel Böhmer, O Black Hole! by Renee Zhan.

The arduous path to discover and accept ourselves – Kado (A Gift) by Aditya Ahmad, Spotted Yellow (Zarde khaldar) by Baran Sarmad, Gramercy by Pat Heywood and Jamil McGinnis –, and the unearthing of our roots – Pacífico Oscuro by Camila Beltrán, Nha Mila by Denise Fernandes).

The fragile balance between men and the environment around us – Icemeltland Park by Liliana Colombo, Parcelles S7 (Land Lot S7) by Abtin Sarabi, Manong ng Pa-Aling (Man of Pa-Aling) by E. del Mundo – and the equally fragile human bonds that often fail to connect us – Thiên đường gọi tên (A Trip to Heaven) by Linh Duong, Nour (Noor) by Rim Nakhli, Where to Land by Sawandi Groskind, Giòng sông không nhìn thấy (The Unseen River) by Phạm Ngọc Lân.

The timely revisiting of genres and their internal politics – Aninsri daeng (Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall) by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 1978 by Hamza Bangash, Liar Land by Ananth Subramaniam.