Virgil Widrich!

I know all of you who have been to short and sweet and seen one of Virgil Widrich's films, either OSCAR nominated 'Copy Shop' or 'Fast Film', have been absolutely blown away. So we asked the wonderful Mr Widrich to upload the 'making of's' in a Short & Sweet exclusive, so we could all have a glimpse into how this genius works!

The making of 'Fast Film':

The making of 'Copy Shop':

Signe Baumane

This week's upcoming Short & Sweet programme will take you on a rollercoaster of emotion, but as usual will end on a high with some more fun films from Signe Baumane. Signe is famous for her Teat Beat of Sex episodes. She currently lives in New York! You can buy all 15 episodes for only $19 (incl. packaging) here: www.teatbeat.com.

Short & Sweet has an exlcusive interview with Signe Baumane:

When did you discover your passion to write and be a film maker. Did you study?

I wrote my first novel when I was 8 and since that age I really wanted to be a writer and nothing else. Everybody kept telling me - you need to have some life experience to be a writer, but I was like - fuck life experience, I can imagine anything I want. My first novel was a romance, actually, more of a sexual escapade, my mother read it and was shocked how precisely her 8 year old described sexual act.

My short stories and poems were published in Latvian papers and magazines since I was 14, but people still kept telling me about getting life experience. So I went to Moscow to study philosophy and learn one or two things about life. Moscow State University at that time was the best school in the whole Soviet Union, am not even quite sure how I got in. Am not so smart to pass exams with the best results, but I might have charmed some of the examinators, impressing them with my integrity or Latvian pride, with something, not sure what. The University gave me the best education I could ever possibly get, thought me to think independently, ask questions and gave me a key to my Eternal Soul, I mean, to understanding myself as a part of the human race a bit better. I had an array of foreign lovers (in Soviet Union it was forbidden to have sex with foreigners, you could be kicked out of school or any good position/job you had) and learned a lot about life, passion, highs and lows of love. One or two things about sex, too.

What inspired you to write the Teat Beat Episodes?

I always liked to talk about sex. It is a very underestimated subject, and that, to my opinion, causes a lot of misunderstandings. If we talked more about it, we'd learn more. We'd shared some insights and eliminated the ongoing war between genders. But no, farts and taking shit are far more preferred subjects than sex.

What do we need to know about farting? It's all in the air! But sex - it's not so visible, although we all think about it every 8-12 seconds, and we need to bring it out, discuss it. In any case, that is my humble opinion.

But the story how exactly "Teat Beat of Sex" came about is a bit longer.

You’ve done extensive research on sex – can you tell the readers 2 things you’ve found out.

There are only 2 things to tell - 1) I had had sex and 2) I know nothing about it. I only know what I feel,

or how it felt with my partners but I have no idea what exactly my partners felt, and each of the them was so different, too... Am sure the ones that I dismissed as lousy lovers were amazing with other girls,

and some of my amazing lovers were lame with others. It's all so personal and based on so many mysterious components that I realize I will never be able to decipher sex. But I do have opinions. I discovered that what we call sexy is based only on the looks, not on true sensuality. True sensuality sometimes conflicts with the looks and fashion, and so you see what choices people make, what is more important to them - to feel or to look.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I dont really have a spare time, sorry to disappoint you.

What I do (animation) is a lifestyle, it starts at 7 am when I get up and am living it till 11 pm - Midnight when I go to bed.

What have you got in the pipeline?

I am working on a feature!! We need a co-producer! Do you know anyone who'd be interested?

Virgin Media Shorts

When putting on a short film festival one of the worries has to be that no one will turn up to see the films and show support. Luckily this was not the case at the Virgin Media Awards last month, there was a massive turnout all eager to support short film.

Not so lucky was the fact that we were all made to wait outside and queue round the corner (and up the stairs) for at least an hour, the excuse being 'The filmmakers are having their photos taken'. This was really unfortunate, as we all had tickets and were eager to support this festival. Eventually we gave up, left and never actually saw any films.

What was great was to see so many people interested in short films and witness their growing popularity.

GRAND PRIX WINNER:
Mixtape by Luke Snellin

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD:
CGI-brows by Rocketsausage

KLIK Animation Festival

JJ went International last week – we spent 5 days in the DAM...yes, Amsterdam! We went to the KLIK Animation Festival and this piece by Mathieu Labaye really blew us away. Amazing work Mathieu. THANK YOU! Can't wait to share this one with the Short & Sweet audience!

Keith Bearden

We had the pleasure of meeting the talented and very funny, Keith Bearden last week. He currently lives in NYC, but was shooting a commercial in France and came to London for a day to say hi to us! We love you Keith! “The Raftman’s Razor” was Keith’s very first short film. He wrote and directed it – this film has won numerous awards!

A poignant and timeless tale of the awakening of two small town American teens to the wider world of transcendent art.

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen

In September 2009, Short & Sweet was invited to the Co2penhagen festival. The very first carbon neutral festival in the world. We had our very own lounge zone and showed films on renewable energy over 2 days. All the energy was made on site and they also managed to reduce the energy in-take during the festival. Amazing to be part of this world movement.

Getty Images and Short & Sweet film Challenge

Last year, Getty Images approached Short & Sweet with a unique brief. They wanted to illustrate the many ways in which their immense archive could be used. Julia Stephenson (Short & Sweet Founder) conceived the Getty Images and Short & Sweet Short Film Challenge. Short & Sweet identified a selection of talented, undiscovered film makers. Ten Directors were chosen and given an opportunity to pitch. Four very different ideas were picked and those four Directors got to make their films come to life. The Directors chosen were Laurie Hill, The directing team Big Red Button, Jasmin Jodry and Ian Mackinnon with his directing partner Dominic Parker. They had 3 months to complete the films and were each given £1000.00. The films were judged by Eliza Williams (Creative Review), Bill Bungay ( CD BMB), Al Maccuish (CD Mother Vision), James Spence (CD BBC) Graham Fink (CD MC Saatchi) and Matthew Butson (Vice President, Hulton Archive). Photograph of Jesus by Laurie Hill won first prize.

Photograph Of Jesus by Laurie Hill has already won numerous awards.

Best Animation at Tampere Film Festival, Best Animation at Seattle Film Festival, Mclaren Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Perrington Stud By Big Red Button

Star Games by Jasmin Jodry

Long Jump by Ian Mackinnon and Dominic Parker