Short on Shorts: NZU and FRACTURE
The Bite Size Halloween series of spooky short films is back for its third season. The 2022 offering includes 21 stand-alone shorts blending horror, comedy, sci-fi, thriller and drama, showcasing BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women filmmakers, stories, and actors. Part of 20th Digital Studio’s mission to work with emerging filmmakers from underrepresented groups, Bite Size Halloween tackles issues including racism, gender, parenthood, sexuality, and identity. Shot in seven different countries, watch them all for Huluween.
Bite Size Halloween short films NZU and FRACTURE explore visions as wayfinding for truth in variations on a theme. Our Classic Couple Academy Short on Shorts take follows.
NZU
Writer/Director: Conscian Morgan identifies as Black and is of dual heritage: half Welsh, half Nigerian.
Length: 08:16
Synopsis: NZU tells the story of a white civil servant who visits his Nigerian girlfriend’s family to ask for her family’s blessing and is forced to face the darkness in his history.
Short on Shorts Commentary: A young man hoping to soon be a fiancé to his Nigerian girlfriend meets her family for the first time. Before they will accept him, he must take part in a cleansing ritual to examine the past and witness the actions of his forefathers. Must the truth of a past vision rob you of your future?
FRACTURE
Writer/Director: Jon K Jones identifies as Black and as part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Length: 08:17
Synopsis: Jordan Duvingeau stars as an astronaut who may actually be institutionalized in a white-led facility in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murders of Black men like Eric Garner and George Floyd.
Short on Shorts Commentary: An astronaut awakens from a dream to find he’s a mental health patient in an institution. His caretaker assures him he had a mental break due to societal unrest and violence against Black people. Convinced he is actually alone in tranquility on another planet, he struggles to determine what is real. How do you reconcile the vision you have for yourself with the vision others have for you?
Film photo credits: 20th Digital