An Evening of Shorts

Film Notes

Title	Director	Year	Length	Category	Synopsis
Ave Maria	Basil Khalil	2015	15 min	Comedy	Nuns of the Sisters of Mercy convent in the middle of the West Bank have their daily routine of silence and prayer disrupted when a family of religious Israeli settlers crash their car into the convent's wall.
Sam and the Plant Next Door	Ömer Sami	2019	23 min	Documentary	This Guardian documentary meets a boy growing up in the shadow of the nuclear power plant Hinkley Point C, who must choose between opposing it or benefiting from its educational bursary.
The Wheel Thing	Simon O’Neill	2023	10 min	Comedy	Psychotherapist Catherine spends her days imagining what she’d really like to tell her clients. One day a glance in a cafe connects her with Danny and everything changes. A romantic comedy about being swept off your feet, starring Samia Rida and Blaine Harrison.
Heart Valley	Christian Cargill	2022	19 min	Documentary	Heart Valley is about Welsh shepherd Wilf Davies. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the award for Best Documentary Short.
The Riot Act	Oliver Riley Smith	2017	15 min	Drama	After filming police shooting a black man, an amateur journalist takes to the streets to capture the ensuing protests. When he is attacked by riot police, he must decide whether to remain a witness or use his footage to fight back.
What's Virgin Mean?	Michael Davies	2008	2 min	Comedy	A woman cooks while her young daughter colours in a colouring book at the table. All is well until the daughter pipes up to ask her mother what "virgin" means.

What you thought about An Evening of Shorts

Film Responses

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
184 (41%)	152 (33%)	86 (19%)	22 (5%)	10 (2%)
Total Number of Responses: 454 Film Score (0-5): 4.05

Collated Response Comments

97 members and guests attended the evening of shorts. We received an average of 76 responses; a response rate of 78%. The overall score for the event is shown above. The scores for individual shorts in terms of popularity, are as follows:

What's Virgin Mean? 4.68; Heart Valley 4.45; Ave Maria 4.44; The Riot Act 3.67; Sam and the Plant Next Door 3.56; The Wheel Thing 3.50.

I have tried to group your comments under the film titles. Where I have not you will see them all after What’s a virgin mean?

Ave Maria

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
46 (59%)	23 (29%)	7 (9%)	1 (1%)	1 (1%)
Total Number of Responses: 78 Film Score (0-5): 4.44

“Amusing but confusing”. “‘fun’ or slightly uncomfortable in current circumstances? Unsuitable stereotypes”. “Difficult to read the subtitles”. “What an idea”. “Timely very clever – loved the twists like the nun as a mechanic”. “Upgraded to excellent as best of the longer ones”. “Interesting theme at this time – good fun”. “Illustration of how divisive religion is”. “Very apt in these times”. “Very funny – showed just how non sensical it all is”. “I enjoyed this very much”. “Most entertaining”. “Very funny, light relief in the current middle east situation”. “Bad timing for this film”.

Sam and the Plant Next Door

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
12 (15%)	29 (37%)	30 (38%)	7 (9%)	1 (1%)
Total Number of Responses: 79 Film Score (0-5): 3.56

“Fabulous young child actors – bad ending”. “I grew up there and no one had such a plummy accent”. “Fresh, bright young boys”. “Absolutely lovely children’s dialogue”. “Very clever and naturally presented. I loved Sam”. “Wonderfully natural”. “Found the lead boy very irritating!” “Interesting too”. “OK – but it didn’t get anywhere”. “Very thought provoking”. “Interesting on the unresolvable dilemmas of growing up”. “I grew up in sight of Hinkley Point, so very nostalgic! Very precocious child”. “Boring, obvious preachy Guardian fare”.

The Wheel Thing

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
11 (15%)	28 (38%)	26 (35%)	5 (7%)	4 (5%)
Total Number of Responses: 74 Film Score (0-5): 3.50

“Great actor and actress – I wish it was longer”. “Great script – but not convinced about the female lead”. “Thought provoking”. “A bit cringy”. “OK but a bit twee”. “Rubbish dialogue and acting”. “Good – smart script – could have been longer, more developed – well done”. “Interesting, different scenario”. “Very clever writing – right length”. “Rather stilted script and acting”. “Squeaky clean script”.

Heart Valley

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
41 (56%)	24 (33%)	8 (11%)	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
Total Number of Responses: 73 Film Score (0-5): 4.45

“Great filming but sadly no story”. “Very moving”. “One man and his beautiful sheep A contented simple life!” “Simple + historic – about a farmers life which will be lost”. “Contentment”. “Such a simple life”. “Very hard but simple life – lovely scenery (+sheep!)”. “Beautiful photography”. “Just made me feel sad”. “What a character”. “A rare and moving portrait of someone who’s content with their simple life”. “My outright favourite was Heart Valley. Very simple, beautiful scenery and a good feeling”. “Brilliant! Very good”.

The Riot Act

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
14 (19%)	34 (47%)	13 (18%)	8 (11%)	3 (4%)
Total Number of Responses: 72 Film Score (0-5): 3.67

“No storyline – appalling gross violence”. “A bit confused and muddled – very fast moving”. “Worrying. Very well filmed”. “Gritty”.  “Powerful”. “Such violence”. “Violent + hard to following places but overall good”. “Uncomfortable”. “Brilliant”. “Frightening”. “Problems of today made clear – very worrying”. “Not an easy thing to watch! But well-constructed”. “Awful, painful – not interesting”.

What's Virgin Mean?

Excellent	Good	Average	Poor	Very Poor
60 (77%)	14 (18%)	2 (3%)	1 (1%)	1 (1%)
Total Number of Responses: 78 Film Score (0-5): 4.68

“Great mum and daughter – why so short???”” Very clever”. “Perfect”. “Outstanding”. “Excellent end to the evening”. “Very professional”. “Brilliant”. “Very clever script – beautifully delivered”. “Small and perfectly formed”. “Brilliant but saw the twist coming”.

All other comments are collected below.

“A great variety – Ave Maria and Heart Valley particularly excellent”. Excellent choice of films again!” “Loved the variety- thank you! Preferred the non-actor ones”. “Great selection – Well dome Maxine” “Great selection – thoroughly enjoyable”. “Very enjoyable collection – good to experience this genre of film”.

“I wish I had but I’m afraid that I didn’t understand the Riot Act, but it was terrific and terrifying. All the films were superb”.

“Ave Maria Probably not great timing to have a go at the Jewish way of life. Poor. Sam and the Plant Next Door. Felt like I was hit over the head by the Guardian newspaper with this propaganda. Very Poor. The Wheel Thing. Average. Ticked all the right boxes. Heart Excellent and heartwarming. The Riot Act. Very Poor Awful, nasty unpleasant piece of work. What's Virgin Mean? Perfect. 10/10 Excellent.”

“What's Virgin Mean? Quite amusing and sweet short film, that would be more at home in a TV comedy sketch show as a result of its very short length (2 mins). The Riot Act. Unsettling short film that sought to show different perspectives and vastly different characters involved on both sides of a riot. Enjoyed it but the film would have benefited from a longer run time to develop these characters, as they seemed a bit one dimensional as a result of the time available in a short”.

“What's Virgin Mean? Brilliant 2 minutes”.

Heart Valley “Just perfect. It reminded me of a previous GFS film The Truffle Hunters”.

Heart Valley “Lovely scenes of the Welsh countryside and very gentle character study. Highlighted changing nature of countryside and farming”.

The Wheel Thing “Mildly amusing. Wish they had made more of the duality between what the psychotherapist said and thought... there was comedy gold to be mined there, but they only briefly touched on it”.

Sam & the plant next door. “Interesting documentary with a fascinating and thoughtful lead character. Didn't really get to the bottom of the issues raised, but certainly made you think”.

Ave Maria “Mildly amusing”.

“It seems I am a rare dissenting voice in not being a fan of an evening of short films. I prefer to get immersed and involved in a well told story told over 90 minutes or more. I'd be happy with a short film played before the main feature, but an evening of nothing but shorts I find unsatisfying. The short documentaries can be interesting but do little more than scrape the surface leaving a lot more unsaid or unanswered; the dramas undeveloped; and the comedies strained.

That being said, no disrespect to the curators who came up with a varied selection. Nevertheless, this is what I thought of them:

Ave Maria - Avg - mildly amusing but not absorbing

Sam and the plant - Good - sweet but would have liked more

Wheel Thing - Very Poor - unfunny, poor acting, very crass treatment of disability and mental health

Heart Valley - Avg - somewhat interesting but no real depth

Riot Act - Good - very realistic and challenging

Virgin - Very Good - a simple joke told very well without overstretching things, and a sublime punchline”.

“Ave Maria This is tremendously good with unfortunate current relevance. Wry, sharp and amusing rather than judgemental. Though there is little self-reflection on show which is perhaps what the continuing bloodbath requires. Five stars.

Sam and the plant next door My main query here is, what was the brief? Was there a brief? What is the intention? A nice portrait of a precocious child it seems to have little to say about Hinckley C and its impact beyond gently highlighting the unconvincing evasions of EDF's representative. Three stars.

The wheel thing Somewhat abrupt, hectic and tonally odd while quite amusing. My main thought was what a terrible physiotherapist the main protagonist is. Three stars.

Heart Valley. I know a few sheep farmers like Wilf, though Highland rather than Valleys and their lives always seem a perilous balance between onerous and unavoidable toil and responsibility coupled with, as here, the incidental rewards of a connection to your land in all its moods. It looks daunting to me, as it does here. Nicely done, Wilf is a man adapted to his lonely task as he sees fit and with that comes a quiet nobility. Five stars.

The riot act. Somewhat febrile and hard to follow with the constant changing of which camera lens we're looking down the story is somewhat contrived but the points of view are fascinating. It has much to say about our surveillance society and obsession with recording of events. does the presence of a camera change what happens? Four stars.

What's virgin mean? Sweet. Four stars”.

“What's a Virgin. “Very well done! Great pay off line. Riot Act. Uncomfortable to watch but important message. Heart Valley. Very touching, down to earth. showed the benefits of a simple life. Sam and the plant next door. Young boy, very articulate, but not authentic

“The riot act Depressing...both sides”.

“What's virgin mean “A filmic one liner :)”.

The riot act. “Lower build up than some of the others but think it paid off”.

“Heart valley. Successfully transported to the land of our fathers”.

“The wheel thing. Just enough to imagine a feature length version”.

“Sam and the plant next door. Kids were great but ultimately deserves more complete analysis”.

“Ave Maria. Quickly established. Effective use of comedic contrasts”.

“An Evening of Shorts - Sam and the Plant Next Door. Hard to believe that this was a documentary - it seemed like a very well-made drama (obviously believable!). Worth the watch”.

“An Evening of Shorts - Heart Valley. Heartwarming!”

“An Evening of Shorts - The Riot Act. I can see this filmmaker getting television work - the well-choreographed, tightly shot street scenes were gripping”.

“Couldn’t rate the Riot Act”.

“A range of depictions of the human race and their conditions – thought provoking with humour in places”.

“I am not interested in random documentaries. Last years shorts were all/mostly fiction – much preferred”.