HOW many movies do you think you could watch in one day? Two? Four? Eight? Could you sit through the Lord of the Rings trilogy (plus extras) without feeling like you've been trapped for days in an orc's cave? asks Kevin Courtney.
With the average length of a major movie routinely exceeding two hours, you'll be lucky to get through a handful of films without a sore bottom, bloated bladder or severe eye strain.
Tonight, though, you might just be able to squeeze in a couple of dozen films, and still have time for dinner and a drink. This incredible feat of time-compression is brought to you by ResFest, the digital film festival which is logging on in Dublin's Irish Film Institute over the weekend.
Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, ResFest will offer a veritable smorgasbord of short films, ranging in length from half a minute to an epic half an hour. All are made by some of the sharpest and most creative minds in the independent film business, using the coolest, most advanced tools of the trade, including Final Cut Pro, Softimage, After Effects, Shake and even good old-fashioned 16mm.
The subjects range from the surreal (a man has an important engagement, but can't find his head) to the ridiculous (Oedipus Rex acted out by a cast of vegetables); from the sexual (a babysitter sneaks her boyfriend in for a tryst) to the bizarre (Pol Pot's office staff plan a surprise party for their evil boss); from the breathtaking (We Have Decided Not to Die) to the mouthwatering (Jonathan Glazer's award-winning Guinness ad). There are animated shorts, music videos, design showcases and even promotional films such as the celebrated Rare Exports Inc, an eight-minute video advertising a traditional Finnish family business.
There's an entire programme of shorts entitled Bushwhacked!, in which dissident film-makers put George W. Bush through numerous digitally-enhanced embarrassments. Watch Dubya grow a Pinocchio nose; see him sing Electric Six's Gay Bar in the company of Tony Blair; cheer as he reprises Charlie Chaplin's dance in The Great Dictator, complete with giant inflated globe.
What all these shorts have in common (apart from their brevity) is that they stretch the limits of digital media as far as their makers' imaginations will allow - and that's quite a stretch indeed.
"It's more of a showcase of technical innovation," says the IFI's Glenn Hogarty. "For instance, there have been a lot of bad Hollywood movies based on video game technology, but ResFest will have a programme of gaming-inspired shorts which will show how it can be done well. It's not just about visuals or technique either; it's also about narrative. There are some great storylines, too."
Although ResFest has been going for the past eight years, this is the festival's first visit to Dublin, and to celebrate its début in the Irish capital, the organisers are teaming up with Warp Records, whose CV includes groundbreaking videos for Aphex Twin, Autechre, Antipop Consortium and Squarepusher.
Coincidentally, it's also Warp's 15th birthday, so what better reason to look back on dance music's most out-there vids? Also showcasing their soft wares are Shynola, the four-man collective who made their name with the video for Quannum's I Changed My Mind and have gone on to create visuals for Radiohead, Lambchop, UNKLE, Junior Senior, Queens of the Stone Age and The Rapture.
The ResFest organisers selected their programme from 1,500 entries, painstakingly narrowing the list down to the best and most innovative.
"Naturally, ground-breaking shorts are hard to find," says Hogarty, "but Res is a big organisation, covering film, design, arts and culture, and they've put a lot of effort into pulling together the best shorts around."
This year's ResFest is the biggest one yet, reflecting the exponential growth of digital media around the world. Dublin is just one stop on a world tour that takes in more than 33 cities in 13 countries on six continents. Not only do the film-makers get a chance to showcase their work to a global audience, they also have a hope of upgrading to more lengthy - and lucrative - projects.
Director Kerry Conran, for instance, created a digital retro-world on his home computer which was eventually expanded to become Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. And the subject of ResFest's retrospective, Jonathan Glazer, started out making Guinness ads and Radiohead videos before going on to direct Nicole Kidman in Birth (see review, page 8).
Will Irish film-makers find inspiration from attending ResFest?
"Maybe I'm out of touch," says Hogarty. "Or maybe I'm not looking, but I haven't seen a lot of technical innovation coming out of this country. I would hope that Irish film-makers come and see ResFest and are inspired to push their own boundaries. We'll be in touch with film societies and film clubs to try and get them to come down, and we'll be contacting people on film-making courses such as NCAD's digital arts diploma to make sure they get to see it too."
ResFest begins tonight at 7pm at the IFI, Dublin, and continues tomorrow at 3.40pm and Sunday at 2pm. (01-6793477, www.ResFest.com)
