After watching Alice, be sure to check out some of the free shorts on offer as The Auteurs teams up with the Centre Pompidou to show a free selection of shorts from their Hors Pistes festival. I haven’t watched any so I can’t say if they’re good or not, and they mostly look sad and possibly melodramatic in an independent short film kinda way (one is about “a caravan of men on horseback is slowly swallowed by a poisoning factory” that is a commentary on cancer and loss of traditional employment). So. Let me know if they’re good?

Perestroika songspiel (Russia 2008). Our project deals with a key episode during perestroika in the Soviet Union. The action of the film unfolds on August 21, 1991, after the victory over the restorationist coup. On this day of unprecedented popular uplift it seemed that democracy had won a final victory in our country and that the people should and would be able to build a new, just society. How did our heroes see that society? This is the question we try to answer in our film.The film is structured like an ancient tragedy: its dramatis personae are divided into a chorus and a group of five heroes. Our heroes are key types generated by the perestroika era, each of them with a particular vision of his/her role in history: a democrat, a businessman, a revolutionary, a nationalist, and a feminist. They act and they dream. They analyze their actions, their place in society, and their vision of the country’s political path. The chorus is the incarnation of public opinion. It makes moral judgments on our heroes and it foresees their futures, as if it were gazing on the proceedings from the present day.

Puppetboy. (Sweden 2008). For more than a decade eccentric filmmaker Johannes Nyholm has worked on films featuring a little clay figure he calls “Puppetboy.” Many hours of animation have been completed, yet very little has been made available to the public. Following the artist behind the scenes we discover a very intimate relationship between him and his protagonist.

Via Lactea (France 2010). A journey into Iñaki Aizpitarte’s recipe.

Tuna tune (United States 2009). In Tokyo, at the Tsukiji market, selling tuna fish is an event every day. This film/documentary mixes painting, sculpture and comic opera. This is an enigmatic world.

Lost Monument (Greece 2009). Lost Monument takes upon a controversial monument, a 4 meter bronze statue of former American president Harry S. Truman…located in downtown Athens, Greece…Ever since its erection in 1963 as a commemoration to the Truman Doctrine, the monument has been a favorite target of citizens wishing to express their opposition to the very idea of placing a US president’s statue in the capital city of a country whose civil war was decided thanks to that very president’s intervention.

Silent Elections (Belgium & DR Congo 2009). In the streets of Goma, children play at being news correspondents: Congo is preparing for its first democratic elections since 1960. Using a variety of sources, Sarah Vanagt collects elements from personal stories in a region torn apart by hatred and violence. Images and sound recordings taken by the children of Goma, TV news-clips and young soldiers’ accounts serve as her visual and audio material. Silent Elections is a documentary film on the memory and imagination of young Congolese on the eve of potential political change in their country.

Gourdoulou (France 2009)