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Tag: Short Films

  • Sundance Film Festival Shorts Now Available on YouTube

    With the Sundance Film Festival underway in Park City, Utah, YouTube is giving us an admittedly small, but welcome glimpse at some of the action.

    Starting today, you can watch 12 Sundance shorts on YouTube.

    The short films were hand-selected out of the pool of 64 shorts showing this year at the festival. A staggering 8,100 short films were submitted for consideration, meaning that less than 1% of submissions were chosen worthy to debut at Sundance.

    The shorts are hosted at Sundance’s The Screening Room channel, which YouTube says will continue to upload short films from Sundance filmmakers.

    “Sundance is known for its diverse range of films, and with everything from trippy cats and zombies to a rooster king and an ambitious rodeo cowboy, The Screening Room shorts are no exception. When the festival ends, Sundance Institute will continue to curate The Screening Room, highlighting cutting edge short films from past Sundance filmmakers and the film festival circuit each week,” says YouTube in a blog post.

    Sundance kicked off on January 17th and will run until Jan 27th. We know that the closing night of the film festival will feature the Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs biopic jOBS.

  • Short Film Explores the Perils of Being “Hooked” on Facebook

    It’s much easier to lie about yourself (or embellish, if you will) on the internet than it is in person. How do you know that a person really “likes” a certain band or brand? How do you know that profile picture isn’t 5 years old? How do you even know if the person is really who they say they are?

    A new short film from Matthew Graham explores these questions. It’s called “Hooked,” and it tackles the worst case scenario when it comes to fake identities on social networks.

    Of course, befriending a random person on Facebook will rarely lead to your kidnapping and eventual torture and murder – but it’s not like Facebook cannot be a dangerous place. It’s a forum that, no matter how hard Facebook admins try, promotes a certain level of anonymity. The film’s creators said that this two-year-old Australian story about a missing girl lured away by a fake Facebook profile was their inspiration. We’ve also reported on almost unbelievable instances of criminals using Facebook to find victims. Facebook is an open-information platform at the center of the internet. Be smart, and be discerning.

    [via reddit]

  • YouTube Now Playing Tribeca Film Festival Shorts

    For those who love film – especially the world of independent film – the Tribeca Film Festival is the place to be.  Although the annual festival is only 10 years old, it has already thrust itself into the running for the top film festival in the U.S. and is internationally respected among filmmakers and fans alike.

    The Tribeca Film Festival was started in 2001, most notably as the baby of Robert De Niro.  The purpose of the festival was not only to help independent filmmakers get their movies to audiences, but also to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of NYC, post 9/11.

    The 2011 festival, which started on April 20th and runs until May 1st, as detailed earlier takes place in New York City and thus prevents many film enthusiasts from attending.

    But have no fear, film geeks!  YouTube has announced today over on their blog that they will be showing the short films from the festival on their Screening Room channel:

    Are you a film festival fanatic? Do you love keeping up with the latest indie hits? Are you at least somewhat interested in hearing David Duchovny voice a polar bear that’s BFF with Leonardo DiCaprio? Of course you are!

    Since not everyone can make it to New York City for the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival, YouTube, Tribeca and American Express have teamed up to bring the festival to you.

    From today through May 17, check out the YouTube Screening Room for short films from both past and present Tribeca Film Festivals

    First up are five short films: Brink, The Ignorant Bliss of Sun and Moon, Loose Change, Mr. Stache and The Beaufort Diaries.  The latter is a short animated tale that tracks the rise and fall of a displaced polar bear in Hollywood.  It is narrated by David Duchovny and due to some fictional dialogue from David Mamet is kinda NSFW.

    YouTube also says that once you’ve blown through the first 5 short films, check the screening room on April 29th for the next batch.

    This is all brought to you, the viewer, by a partnership between YouTube, Tribeca, and American Express.  The Screening Room channel is just one in a number of steps YouTube is taking to become a colossus in the world of video.  Recently, they launched YouTube Live for live streaming and soon after streamed California’s indie music festival Coachella for delighted music fans around the world.