The World According to Shorts DVD

La Perra / The Bitch is a short film from the The World According to Shorts DVD that was released in 2006. This short film was directed by Hugo Maza.

My first thought is to read this as a part humiliation part voyeurism turned exhibitionism towards the goal of apodysophilia type of sex commentary. But as much overly sexual tones are in this short film, it is hardly about that at all.

Sure it is a fetish film, but not in the “normal” sex way, rather in more traditional definition of the mythic value of objects. In this case, the object is the maid, which as far fetish in the sex definition breaks the consensual part of the common sexual practice regulations; safe, sane, and consensual. In so far as the mythic object fetish definition goes, the maid actually represents her lower social class.

So the message that this short film is attempting to project through its imagery is that higher social class have quiet literally fetishisized lower social classes. The film is saying that those of a higher social class derive pleasure from denouncing those of a lower socioeconomic statues; they derive joy from their economic dominance, which is more akin to B/D style play than the apodysophilia in this film, but perhaps Chile has a variant definition of what subsection of sexual fetish is what.

Outside of that, the wife in this film has this expectation that the maid will fulfill a certain role based on stereotyping, but the maid never does steal from them. This also makes this short film a commentary on the damaging nature of stereotyping as people are doing it both as they fail to realize it, and then if they do realize it, fail to engage with that part of themselves in a more constructive way; just blaming their problems on others instead of themselves.

We Have Decided Not to Die is a short film from 2004 that was released on the 2006 DVD The World According to Shorts. It was directed by Daniel Askill with cinematography by Denson Baker whom won an award from the Australian Cinematographers Society for his work on this short film as the director of photography.

This short film is composed of three smaller parts called Rituals; Birth, Between, and Rebirth. Each of these specific sections deals with a traditional element – Birth is water, Between is earth / metal, and Rebirth is air. All three of them also have symbolic fire, the fire of the human soul or spirit as it travels on its journey to transcend physical life.

As the short is called We Have Decided Not to Die, the idea suggested is that as long as a person has the ability to hold onto their soul even as they move beyond the physical realm that they will never die. It is referencing the Buddhist cycle or reincarnation as well as the Judo-Christian idea that one does not die their soul just moves on to the afterlife, which in and of itself is a type of life.

United We Stand is a short film which was directed by Hans Petter Moland in 2002 and it was included on the 2006 DVD The World According to Shorts.

This short film features a group of old men who go out hiking, much like they have done for years. During their adventure they save a women from quicksand, but then get stuck in it themselves.

This short film seems to be a commentary on the Norwegian government being as the men are singing “The Internationale”, a common social-democratic anthem, and the Labour Party of Norway has traditionally held a lot of power as a social-democratic party.

Being that this film was released in 2002 it is fair to say that it is most directly a commentary on the 2001 Norwegian election in which the Labour Party hit its lowest point ever in the popular vote. This short film’s basic message is that the Labour Party’s time as a leading majority has passed and they are quickly fading into irrelevance; together they have stood and together they will be passed over for younger or better ideas and new goals for the development and progress of Norway.

Antichrist is a 2003 short film which was directed by Adam Guzinski. It is the fourth short film on The World According to Shorts DVD.

Szafran is meant here as a demon, or as he calls himself, the antichrist. Kacper is meant to be his foil, acting as underling that is questioning the morals and logic of commands he had followed from Szafran before. As such this short film takes the “fall of the one-wing angel” in reverse – this time it is a morally “good” character waking up to the “evils” around him. Kacper does not wish for the games they are playing to have a demonic over tone, and when Szafran gets buried, Kacper even asks for him to free himself as he is not comfortable with the idea of harm having been inflicted on his friend, just like he was uncomfortable with the fish Szafran killed in his hands earlier.

So then this short film’s purpose is to make the audience question the things around them that they normally regard as authorities or truth, things like religion. Antichrist wants the viewer to be able to come to the own vision of the world, even if that vision exists as a contrast or is in opposition of the predominate view of the world. This film wants to show the audience that while the world can look pretty terrible there are still good people out there trying to make things work and to turn life back into something less chaotic.

The Old Women’s Step was directed by Jane Malaquias and is from the The World According to Shorts DVD that was released in 2006.

This short film’s plot is about an old women who sells her chicken in order to buy a present for her grandson. It is also a short film about life’s necessities and the inherit value of a more simplistic way of living.

This short film is arguing that material objects are not worth as much as experiences, or giving other people experiences. The grandmother sells her chicken to get money for her grandson’s present because she values his happiness in having a gift as worth more than having a pet chicken for eggs is. Likewise being that this film is dealing with a very basic standard of living it also portrays to the modern audience that with gaining all of our physical possessions we have lost the interconnected relationships that used to be maintained between people.

Ring of Fire is an award winning surrealist animated short film which was directed by Andreas Hykade in 2000. It is the final, and only animated, short film on The World According to Shorts DVD.

The title is reminiscent of a Johnny Cash song of the same name, as both are about falling victim to desire. This short is in essence a morality play between good / evil and white hat / black hat.

The man with the black hat is very into the sexual playground and using women as objects, and seen through his attempted rape of the women in black and his abuse of the girl made of water. The man with the white hat is very uncomfortable being the the sexual playground, and is instead looking for beauty, which he finds in the form of the girl made of water. The girl made of water is, other than being the representation of beauty, is also a stand in for the environment as she is made of it. As such there is the play of having the environment being abused by some who only see the world as serving themselves and those who try to help the environment, but all they can do is cure the problems the first group caused since the world was already damaged from before they were born into it. What the short film is saying is that while those with more self-centered goals in resource allotments have gotten to the resources first there is still hope for the second group to come back from those damages and try to set things back on the correct path to heal the world.