“2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour”: small bites
2023 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORT FILM TOUR not rated 87 minutes in theaters
Every year, features from the Sundance Film Festival can become critical favorites — “Past Lives” is a notable example — but the fest’s shorter works can fade away.
The “2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour” brings a seven-film omnibus to cinemas across the country, and Kayla Abuda Galang’s “When You Left Me on That Boulevard” alone is reason enough to see it.
This lovely and funny shor t por trays a Filipino American family’s Thanksgiving get-together through the eyes of Ly, an introverted teenager who’s a daydreamer even before she gets stoned with her cousins. It’s a film that contains both bustling images and delicate vibes, innervoice stillness and subtle soundscapes, all of which can flourish in a movie theater.
Galang seems especially drawn to dialing into private spaces in social situations, for example when Ly talks about her boyfriend as if to herself, until a cut reveals she’s surrounded by family members.
Ly can sound endearingly oblivious, but instead of having the actor play that tendency for cheap laughs, the writer- director picks up on the warmth in the room.
Galang also looks out for different ways of showing how the family is together, whether it’s karaoke — the short’s title comes from a song Ly’s aunt belts out — or a cool split shot of kids and parents hanging out on either side of a wall. If past Sundance collections are any guide, this short might preview a feature, and Galang’s immersive exploration of inner and outer spaces makes one eager to watch what comes next.
Family bonds weather transitions in a number of the shorts. “Parker,” from Catherine Hoffman and Sharon Liese, the sole doc
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Where: umentary in this selection, teases out a rich, arduous history of Black experience in a decision by members of a family in Kansas City to adopt the same surname.
Interviews with the parents and their children show the love, and the fears and trauma, that can be inscribed in a name, and the peace of mind and unity promised by their choice.
Resembling vérité nonfiction, Crystal Kayiza’s “Rest Stop” follows a Ugandan American mother traveling with her three children to join her estranged partner.
Kayiza dwells on scenes that a feature might relegate to a montage, the better to sit with feeling unsettled and tired and scattered, but pushing ahead to another future. Liz Sargent’s “Take Me Home” is also a portrait in becoming, as an overwhelmed, cognitively disabled woman ( played by Sargent’s real- life sister, Anna) sends an SOS to her sister after years of relying on their ailing mother.
Comedies are well-represented in the collection: “Pro Pool” feels like a trailer for itself as it churns through retail workplace humor, while the stop-motion animation “Inglorious Liaisons” fondly portrays a goofy teen party, wherein people have light switches for faces. But Aemilia Scott’s shrewdly written, well- cast opener to the program, “Help Me Understand,” turns a focus group of women testing detergent scents into a nervy experiment in hungjury dynamics.
Shifting gears from satire to a double- edged dissection of point of view, it’s a snappy way of prepping viewers for the multiplicity of voices to follow.