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The Journal of Short Film -- NYC launch party this Saturday

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Journal of Short Film release party
November 12, 3pm

The Journal of Short Film will host its first release party/screening in NYC on November 12. The JSF is an unprecedented film quarterly, published on DVD, that promises to democratize filmmaking. The Washington Post calls it “intriguingly open-minded.”

Where: 2960 Broadway, Columbia Univ. film dept., Lifetime Screening Room (rm511), Dodge Hall, corner of Broadway and 116th St.

When: Saturday, November 12th, 3pm
Directions: #1 Local, exit 116th St.
Free

Visit www.theJSF.org for more info.

Thinking of submitting? We'll be accepting
submissions at the event.

While filmmaking is being revolutionized by digital technology, film distribution is not. But what good is a revolution if it remains a secret? The Journal of Short Film promises to bring short film out of the dark and to start democratizing film. It is the JSF’s intention to introduce masses of independent filmmakers to the world and to popularize and proliferate short film. Meanwhile, it will also be promoting diversity—almost half of Volume 1’s filmmakers are women, and a wide range of film is represented, including narrative, documentary, and experimental work. The JSF has used the literary journal model (plus recent Apple software) to create a sustainable model for truly independent production and distribution of short films. By providing an unprecedented venue for these films, perhaps the journal can liberate them from the narrow-minded and risk-averse film industry.

MOVIES
Catering to fans of short films
From the Washington Post

October 14, 2005

Debuting this month is the Journal of Short Film, a DVD-based quarterly dedicated to the art of the short.

It was founded by filmmaker and textbook editor Karl Mechem, of Columbus, Ohio, who put out the first call for submissions last spring and who modeled the ad-free compilation on literary journals.

The inaugural issue features nine films ranging in length from three minutes to a little more than 16, and running the stylistic gamut from science fiction (New Zealander Jonathan Brough's "No Ordinary Sun") to documentary (Ashkan Soltani's "Long Struggle," a look at land struggles between two Shoshone Indian sisters and the federal government).

Focusing more on the kind of short films you would see in an art gallery than at a typical film festival, the premiere issue of the "magazine" is an intriguingly open-minded roundup of everything from straight-ahead narrative (Steven Bognar's mother-and-teenage-daughter portrait, "Gravel") to the kind of thing contemporary art curators like to call "new media" ("Amelita Destruction," a segment from a set of live "improvised cinema" by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based art collective Potter-Belmar Labs, which specializes in interactive sculpture, installation, video and performance).

Annual four-issue subscriptions are available for $36 from thejsf.org . The first volume also can be purchased by itself for $10.

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Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
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