Thursday, May 7, 2009

Eat My Shorts - Tropfest Winner 2009

Every year Australia has a national short film festival known as Tropfest. This has grown into one of the World's Largest Short Film Festivals and is now held at various locations around the world. This year it was held on the 22nd of February in Sydney and broadcast live to each of the other states, and I attended my local screening.

I will not review the festival as a whole, but I will review the winning film, which was one of the two that I enjoyed greatly (I will review the other later down the line).

Be My Brother
Played for comedy, but with an underlying theme, Be My Brother was the winner of this years Tropfest. Set at a bus stop we are introduced to a young man with down-syndrome who doesn't let that get in the way of anything. He sees a woman sitting and waiting for the bus and begins to make notations into a voice recorder of her every move, before sitting down and striking up a conversation with her.

The film plays on social prejudices and the disconnection and isolation of people with disabilities, but does so in a touching and humorous way. The lead, played by Gerard O'Dwyer is passionate about acting and can reel off Shakespeare at the drop of a hat, he reveals his plight to the woman, who in return records a message for the benefit of his brother. The film certainly shows that you cannot judge a book by its cover and that everyone, regardless of their appearance should be embraced and loved.

You can view the film below:

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