Brief Encounters 5 · Bristol
124 films from 19 countries are recorded in the archive for this edition.
The fifth edition focused on Nordic cinema, reflecting the Dogme 95 movement and the exciting independent film revival across Scandinavia, with work from Thomas Vinterberg, Lukas Moodysson and Anders Thomas Jensen. Lynne Ramsay and Damien O'Donnell returned as guests fresh from their debut feature successes at Cannes and Edinburgh, discussing their short film roots. Experimental filmmaker Ernie Gehr made a rare UK visit. The festival introduced a partnership with The Script Factory and expanded its digital distribution seminar, while Catharine Des Forges continued as programmer for what was now a tightly curated one-week programme.
Read the 1999 Brief Encounters programme on the Internet Archive
Filmed around Bristol, the cityscape we see uses computer manipulation to alter time and space in a bid to reflect the distortion of our memories.
One night, Anna misses her train and finds herself alone in Paris trying to seek help from a stranger.
A film about the pleasures of friendship, ALWAYS ON SUNDAY follows a group of old ladies who meet at the Albert Hall on a Sunday as they have done every Sunday for the past ten years.
Birger hasn't had a visitor for eight years. Suddenly, there's someone at the door...
A relaxing bath turns into a nightmare scenario.
Teis and his younger brother Nico are both in love with the lovely Ghiinja. A charming film with a wonderful climax.
Animation. Winner of the 1999 Academy Award for Best Short Animated Film, BUNNY is a fabulous tale that offers a snapshot of the life of a lonely Grandma bunny.
Two white businessmen come to Africa searching for the ideal spot for a car rally race.
David and Kelly's relationship is falling apart. Their home is burgled and when David comes back he thinks Kelly has taken everything. Meanwhile, Harry the burglar returns to the scene of the crime.
Another fantastic, heartwarming animation from the director of UNCLE.
Time is running, duty calls, but there is a princess in distress...
A film about football, boys and breasts.
It's 1983 and Bryan the wuss is being seriously hassled at school by psycho Nick the class bully. But the school disco is coming up and Nick can't dance for toffee so he is forced to seek help from an unexpected quarter.
A digitally animated donkey speaks with many voices.
The Danish Film Academy voted this off-beat portrait Best Short Film of the Year. A moving, heartfelt and very funny story that enabled Vinterberg to make his feature film debut, THE GREATEST HEROES in 1996.
In the dark of night, when knives are sharp, anything can happen...
Using sand animation, this is a film about our human nest; the pulsation of societies, their tensions and contradictions.
Inhabiting the Wong Kar-Wei territory of late-night snack stops and indoor markets, FORGETFUL ANGEL follows Ki Chi-Wai, a 'cleaner', who one night puts his violent life aside.
A witty dissection of the process of film making.
Fab documentary about the plastic 'Futuro' house launched on an unsuspecting public in 1968 and heralded as a design classic.
Two children react with naïve simple emotion on learning their father's secret at a Christmas party.
A spirited Grandpa is tired of being relegated to the sidelines and makes a dramatic and reckless bid for attention.
Arriving home from a duck shoot, ten year old Stevie and his father Jake find a stranger in the kitchen with news that will turn their whole family upsidedown.
A day in the life of a guy who works for the council. Involving old women, bad smells and lino, HOME was the winner of the BAFTA Short Film Award 1999 and joint winner of the Best Short Film Award at the 1999 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Animation. One day a man bought a house in the city section of Kampen. But someone was already living there... Justly rewarded with prizes all over the world, this is a warm and funny animation about love and acceptance.
The awkward relationship between a father and middle-aged son trying to cope after the death of their wife and mother.
A highly successful media bitch goes shopping in the local supermarket for a baby.
A fictional portrait based on the accounts of an ex-addict.
Animation. Two ladies are chatting happily over coffee until a mischievous child spoils their peace.
A classical tale of the good homesteader against the out-of-town bad guy in this mini Western in which our hero's girl is kidnapped.
Animation. Martha's talent for domestic duties leads her life in a new direction after losing her husband to the charms of Cynthia, the next-door siren.
Ernest has got problems. At 74 his nightmares about the war are becoming increasingly confused with present realities of vulnerability, fear, conflict and loss.
A beautiful and bizarre look into a day in the life of one of the city's most mysterious occupant, the busking robotic street mime.
Animation. Based on a poem by Brian Patten, this complex use of sound and image explores the oppressive nature of education filtered through a child's imagination.
Filton in the summer of '71. An imaginative ten year-old lost in a world of spy books, local news and gossip becomes convinced his father, who works at the local BAC factory on Concorde, is in fact spying for the Soviets. This film was made through a joint SWMDA/HTV initiative.
A madcap guide to flying a plane. Joint winner of the Best Short Film Award at the 1999 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
A woman enters a peep show where the male performers hold the secret to female arousal.
On a local subway train a young girl sells flowers to earn enough money for a train ticket back to her hometown.
Animation. All things are weird and wacky on Planet Perscheid.
Animation. Inspired by the story of Judith and Holfernes from The Apocrypha, this is an ancient tale retold, of a city under siege and the terrible action taken by one woman to save it. Victim becomes tyrant and the cycle of war rolls on.
Set in a rural community on the Scottish border, a young salmon poacher tries to come to terms with his desire to leave his problematic family and homeland.
Shane and his mates want revenge on a local hermit who frightens them one night. Shane distracts the man as the gang carry out their plan. But who is the man? And why does he live in the middle of nowhere? Shane is about to learn something he may never forget.
Laura has bought a school skirt on credit from the second hand uniform sale but knows she has no money to pay for it. A beautifully shot film which subtly exposes the anxieties of childhood. Winner of the Best Short Film Award in Cannes 1999.
Animation. Yvonne, a chubby schoolgirl from Belfast, is caught between the dream of becoming a fashion model and the appeal of her mother's stodgy cuisine.
If you are looking for passion and adventure... the answer is bureaucracy.
Set in and around a Glasgow housing scheme, this film is a triptych of moments of reflection and loss in one girl's childhood and adolescence.
An award-winning autobiographical documentary by an artist who grew up in China during the historic upheavals of the '60s, '70s and '80s.
On a beautiful summer's day a young man strikes a strange deal with a devilish motorist.
Curly Mulligan is an inmate of a school run by the Christian Brothers. Then one morning Ledwidge discovers an unwanted hair...
Animation. A woman meets a man in a bar and things develop from there. An intriguing film about sexuality and power.
Jimmy loses an important computer disc and blames his long suffering girlfriend Denise, who in turn rises to the challenge of avoiding the blame.
Innovative use of sound and specially commissioned music combine to make a multi-layered film about the passion surrounding the game of football.
Using T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land', John Smith demonstrates his usual affection for local East End people with a witty and intellectual twist.
Broughton 'B' FC aren't just bad, they're awful. With regular scores of 27-0, they still cheerfully face their weekly inevitable annihilation.
A language problem in the tattoo parlour.
Casting a vote turns into something of an urban nightmare. Winner of the 1999 Oscar® for Best Short Film.
Animation. After witnessing the accidental death of a stranger Ruby seeks affirmation in the city around her finding it in surprising places.
Retired postal worker Bill Harrison has got a problem: his beloved wife Betty has been abducted by aliens. Locals say that Bill is a sandwich short of a picnic and that Betty has simply run off with the town's bingo caller, Tommy Scuttle. Is Betty out there somewhere?
Another young voice from the new Iranian cinema. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 1999 Tampere Film Festival.
The love story of a Gypsy girl, Zaim, and a Romanian lad, Cristian, which appears unnatural to the entire Gypsy community. The tale of an impossible love.
Music and turtles combine in this fun animation.
### Love on the Range
### Liver Lust or Louie
### Short Film in Communities Seminar