This past weekend, Uptown Magazine hosted its first Short Film Festival, or USFF, which brought the attention of a variety of New York City socialites, tastemakers and film connoisseurs.
The goal behind the festival was to exhibit the diverse content that currently exists within the short film circuit, which touch upon a variety of cultural issues, while casting light on the new age of film industry professionals.
Themed as a weekend of “Short Films & Chill,” several films were showcased at MIST Harlem, where they have three different theaters.
“What exactly is a short film?” Generally speaking, a short film is a film that runs for 40 minutes or less and cannot be considered a feature film. So think of a short film as a film not showing at a major movie theater. The films normally don’t have any commercial advertisements like those hit bigs at the box office. It is normally the film that may touch upon specific issues and is more likely to be seen in a boutique theatre.
During the festival, the future coming filmmakers, writers, directors, producers, and actors were on full display. Short films such as Daddy Duty, One Last Drag, YanYuan –Strange Connection, Another Love, Film School Musical, The Way of Tea, and Q’s One Night Stands were shown in Theater B.
Although these films brought much applause while running simultaneously to others, the quality films being displayed in adjacent theaters were buzzing with added cheers and whistles for films such as Thing of Calvin, Damon at 86th Street and Story of A Girl.
Although in its infant stages, Uptown Magazine has performed the foundational effort to bring new and energetic talent to the forefront of short film world. This recent success can potentially gain the attention of major production groups to take these short films and further explore the impactful issues and themes they tackle.
In looking ahead to the 2017 film festivals, it’s an event to keep on the radar, as Uptown Magazine’s second installment of the festival will presumably be even better.
