Available in virtual cinemas, on KinoNOw and on DVD August 8th

by Benjamin Leonard, Managing Zine Editor, Best Boy

Generally there’s a theme for a short film anthology that each title has followed binding them together. In this case, the theme is that they are from emerging voices from all over the world. That’s the focus of Dedza Films and Who Will Start Another Fire is their first release under that banner. These films also seem to be the first or second short that most of the directors have released. The availability of funding, resources, cast and crew vary wildly between them but each short has something special to offer that is, likely, from a different background than your own. There’s nine titles here and I’ll be giving a brief bio and synopsis for each one.

Like Flying 
Directed by Peier Tracy Shen
Runtime: 15 minutes

Shen is a Chinese writer and director working out of Los Angeles with a degree in English and film & media studies from Columbia and an MFA in directing from the AFI Conservatory. Her short film focuses on a young girl, Ming, who spends much of the day left on her own to recreate the sometimes unpleasant adult world around her. The standout here was the young actress playing Ming and Shen’s ability to let her play and then capture that and bring it across to the audience.

Family Tree
Directed by Nicole Amani Magabo Kiggundu
Runtime: 17 minutes

Nicole is a Ugandan-American filmmaker and journalist and is currently working on her first feature.  Her short also focuses on a young girl but, this time, she is living a very happy life until everything unravels when her famous father is in a car accident. She’s left wondering what (and who) family really is. There’s a lot of broad emotional swings in this one that are just a bit too much for me in such a short duration, but I really enjoyed how this was shot and there was one swing in the story that made the rest worth it for me.

Troublemaker
Directed Olive Nwosu
Runtime: 11 minutes

Nwosu was born in Nigeria and is currently seeking her MFA at Columbia University in screenwriting and directing. Sticking with shorts that focus on children, Olive’s follows the titular Obi. He goes around harassing all the people and creatures he comes in contact with. He seems to be enjoying himself, but he’s not seeing what his actions are doing to others. I took this one as a good reminder to try not to ruin other people’s good times with your own. It was shot well with endearing performances...even if he was a shit.

Polygraph
Directed by Samira Saraya
Runtime: 20 minutes

Saraya is a Palestinian actor, writer, and director living in Tel Aviv with a graduate degree in directing from Tel Aviv University. Her short is the first step away from following the lives of children. It opens with two women making love. We come to learn that one is in the Israeli military and her lover is a Palestinian nurse (played by Saraya). Their relationship seems as if it might be idyllic if it weren’t for multiple issues from work and family. There’s a lot of tension in this one and it is handled very well with great performances all around.

The Lights Are On, No One’s Home
Directed by Faye Ruiz
Runtime: 11 mins

Ruiz is a trans Latinx filmmaker from Tucson, Arizona. She’s drawn to filmmaking in order to push beyond the two-dimensional stereotypes of the typical trans women of color we see on the screen. Instead, she wants to show just how contradictory, messy, fun, and human it all is and I feel she was very successful with her short. More experimental than narrative, her film flips in and out of different periods of a young trans woman’s life. There’s times with her family, when she’s sober, battling drug addiction, when her home is empty and abandoned, and various points in her transition. They all commingle to provide a perspective of looking back on confusing or upsetting times. I really enjoyed the look and feel of this one.  It was shot and edited very nicely.

By Way of Canarsie
Directed by Emily Packer and Lesley Steele
Runtime: 14 minutes

Parker is an experimental non-fiction filmmaker and an alumnae of the Anomalous Hampshire College. Steele is a visual storyteller with an MFA in directing from the School of Visual Arts. Their short showcases the community of Canarsie, Brooklyn, which has been neglected by the city and then battered by Hurricane Sandy, with a mix of experimental film and straight interviews. They show an impressively wide array of residents that all have their own version of what their shared home is and needs. 

The Rose of Manila
Directed by Alex Westfall
Runtime: 12 minutes

Born in the Philippines with a Bachelor’s in modern culture and media from Brown University, Westfall is a visual artist interested in the relationship between dreams and memory. Her short is a fictionalization of the youth of Imelda Marcos. If you’re unfamiliar with Marcos, the film provides a brief synopsis. However, I think the film will not be as effective for you if you don’t know who she is going in. This is another one that was shot and edited together very well and it has a very interesting concept. I just wish the themes were strung together a bit more.

Slip
Directed by Nicole Otero
Runtime: 12 minutes

Otero is a writer, director, and editor who has done work for many museums across the United States. Her short has no dialogue and focuses on a woman that comes home to an empty house and seems ready to end the day but she is visibly unsettled. So, she heads back out into the nearly empty city, walking, taking the train, hopping a bus, and walking more. This has a solid lead performance but the use of color, light, and locations is amazing. 

Not Black Enough
Directed by Jermaine Manigault
Runtime: 19 minutes

Jermaine is an African American director, screenwriter, and producer. This is his second short film and the final of this collection. Manigault wrote it while he visited the Joseph Manigault Museum, which is the plantation where generations of his ancestors lived, worked, and died, enslaved. The compact version of the synopsis is that this is about a young Black man that, because of his interests, is considered by some to be not Black enough. This leads him to a wide range of reactions to being dismissed, disrespected, and disparaged. There's a lot conveyed here for it being less than twenty minutes long, but it comes across well with good performances and cinematography. 

While there won't be many people that love all of these shorts, I think the styles and stories are diverse enough that most people will enjoy at least a few, if not most. The DVD release comes with a short introduction from filmmaker Charles Burnett and trailers for each of the shorts. You can buy it through most major retailers as well as direct from Kino Lorber.