Celebrating National Short Film Day and the Birth of Movies

It’s National Short Film Day!

Hard to believe that one singular 10 minute long event over 120 years ago spawned one of the most popular forms of media entertainment. In fact, we’re betting you’ve been enjoying plenty of movies at home during the 2020 pandemic thanks to their pioneering feat of technology!

Learn more about the History of Movies on today’s blog, and check out our selection of Short Films below:

National Short Film Day was created to honour and celebrate the birth of “film” as an art form.  On this day in 1895, The Lumiere Brothers revealed their collection of short films projected in front of a public audience for the very first time.  Auguste and Louis gathered 33 paying customers at the Grand Cafe in Paris, France, and presented a series of 10 short films.  Each film was only about 50 seconds long, but utterly captivated their audience!  Until that fateful December day, there had never been anything like it.

Origin of cinema!

The Lumiere brothers were pioneers of photographic and early motion-picture cinematic equipment. In fact, their first projector was called the  “Cinematographe” (based off of the Kinetoscope concept) and is where we derived the word “cinema!”  The first ever motion picture captured by the brothers was titled “Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory” and is the earliest known video recording.  The brothers captured this short movie using their Lumiere apparatus: a single camera used for photography and projecting moving images at just 16 frames per second.  They used this device to capture daily life in France, creating more than 40 films in 1896 alone!  They also pioneered the first newsreel and documentaries, thus popularizing a very modern way of delivering information.  They even sent a crew of cameraman across the globe to capture additional footage as well as show their work to new audiences.

The “Film Movement+” Organization has created a special day to celebrate this day and short films as an art form starting in 2019.  Check out this year’s picks which are available for free streaming at filmmovementplus.com!

If you’re craving more Short Film content, we recommend browsing streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Each of these services is host to a litany of short films in multiple genres!  In addition, you can also find incredible content for free on sites like YouTube or Vimeo which lend themselves naturally to short films.  With the popularity of TikTok increasing, you can also find an incredible amount of short-form movie making on there, too.  The possibilities are endless for this art form.

Once the world opens up again, you might even be feeling adventurous and want to check out this list of Short Film Festivals around the globe!

Press Play to Watch These Short Films Right Away!

Viewer Discretion Is Advised.
Some Films May Contain Sensitive or Triggering Content.
Some Films may contain flashing lights, flashing imagery, strobes, loud sounds, or disturbing visuals.

College film students Grace, Michael and Jimmy are making a documentary about upcoming abstract artist Jesse Valentine. While interviewing him in his home st...

A man attempts to exit an underground car park. Something doesn’t want him to. KEY CAST Driver | Joel Stanton The Figure | Connor Clarke KEY CREW Director | Josh Tanner Written by | Jade van der Lei & Josh Tanner Produced by | Jade van der Lei & Josh Tanner Co-producer | James Greville Executive Producers | Jade van der Lei & Derryn Watts Associate Producer | Murray Alford Cinematographer | Kieran Fowler NZCS ACS Editor | Michelle Mcgilvray Composer | Stevan Markovic Sound Designers | Lachlan Harris & Thom Kellar © PI FILMS. PTY LTD 2018 CONTACT: UNITED TALENT AGENCY (UTA) Jordan Lonner Jason Burns Charlie Ferraro

Valentina, a day-walking Black vampire protected from the sun by her melanin, is forced to suppress her bloodlust to regain custody of her estranged daughter...

Sort of a companion piece to our short Lights Out. Watch loud and dark. Made by a crew of two during quarantine. Making of: https://vimeo.com/404452071

Set in a small Texas town, a young Black woman becomes the prey of a cult built on a secret that is skin-deep, with a Southern virtuous figure at its forefro...

There Comes a Knocking is a proof of concept for a feature film by the same name. To learn more about that, watch the BTS found here ► http://bit.ly/makingtcak Addition BTS and set photos ► http://bit.ly/tcakbts In association with: Maker Table ► http://makertable.film/ Denton Film Outpost ► http://www.brutonstroube.com/outpost Bruton Stroube ► http://www.brutonstroube.com/ Credits ► https://imdb.to/2Bsz1q1 Our Partners: Nvidia Studio ► https://nvda.ws/31L2CGy Came-TV ► http://bit.ly/2Wt5nuF Frame.io ► https://mbsy.co/z6qWC LensProToGo ► https://www.lensprotogo.com/ FilmConvert ► https://www.filmconvert.com/ Aputure ► https://aputure.com/ Studiobinder ► https://www.studiobinder.com/ MPS Studios ► https://www.mpsfilm.com/

Low-resolution screener. Not for distribution. WRITER/DIRECTOR BREE NEWSOME CAST SAHR ALI as Charmaine BENTON GREENE as the Man BUENA BATISTE WEBBER as the Demon PRINT SOURCE INFO Bree Newsome 646 335 3262 bree.newsome@gmail.com TAGLINE “The next time you sleep, it’s gon’ be your wake...” LOGLINE A repressed woman does away with her domineering father, freeing herself to pursue her heart’s desire. Using a local folk magic called “root work”, she conjures a demon to aid her in creating the man of her dreams. However, she soon finds herself in a waking nightmare. SYNOPSIS As the sun sets on a small 1930s town in rural eastern North Carolina, a gravedigger solemnlydisplaces the earth as the townsfolk gather for a wake in the house of recently deceased Ezra Giles, whose body lies in a casket at the front of the living room. From dusk to dawn, they will keep vigil over the body, singing and praying for its soul to make a peaceful transition to the other side. The church ushers interrupt their gossiping long enough to express condolences and pity for Ezra’s lone survivor, his aging daughter, Charmaine. After years of living like a hermit under her father’s tyrannical rule, Charmaine’s youthful charms have faded and she is surely doomed to live out her days as a lonely old maid in her father’s rotting house. But what the others perceive as her sorrow-- her slumped shoulders and lowered gaze-- is in actuality Charmaine’s attempt to conceal the flicker of deception in her eyes; for she knows their pity on her is misplaced and their prayers for her father’s soul are in vain. As she goes through all the ceremonial motions of the burial, tossing dirt onto the grave of the father she murdered, Charmaine makes a stealthy manuever to carry away some of her father’s graveyard dirt hidden in her handkerchief. Not content to simply pray for what she wants or to let nature take its course, Charmaine resorts to a local folk magic called “root-work”. Carrying the hanky of graveyard dirt and a mojo box of dolls, fetishes and charms, she heads deep into the woods, until she reaches a clearing where she forms a protective circle around herself using salt. She conjures up a tricky demon who appears to her in the form of a woman and promises to provide Charmaine with the man of her dreams in exchange for her father’s soul which is trapped among the graveyard dirt in Charmaine’s handkerchief. When the Man arrives, complete with a wedding ring, he is exactly what Charmaine imagined from his crisp, white linen suit to his deep green eyes. When the gossipy church ushers come nosing around, Charmaine stuns them all by showing off her suave, sophisticated husband, who tells everyone that he is a physician. She revels in the envy of all the women who laughed at her and called her an “old maid”. But just as Charmaine rejoices in having everything she wants, the Man’s eerie perfection gives way to horror and revulsion when he reveals his true nature. She again summons the demon asking for help but instead provokes a terrifying encounter. Reminding Charmaine that the Man is her “root work”, the demon in no uncertain terms informs her that if she wants to get rid of him she will have to do it herself. Refusing to be outdone, Charmaine serves the Man a poisoned glass of sweet tea and finds herself joined once again by the townsfolk for a wake in her living room, this time mourning the death of her husband. But as day breaks, Charmaine realizes that the Man is waking up. Terrfifed of being found out, she pretends to be overcome by grief and throws herself on the casket, bawling and begging for time alone. As soon as the room is empty, she slips out a back door, hellbound for the shed. Grabbing an axe, she charges into the living room and flings open the casket to find the Man staring at her with his smiling green eyes. WHAM! She brings the axe down on his head. But her horror melts away to bewilderment when she finds the casket is filled only with the dirt she used to make him. At the burial site, Charmaine tosses dirt over the Man’s grave, keeping none of it for herself this time, wanting no part of him to linger beyond the burial. But as the Reverend performs the rites, speaking about God’s creation of man from dust, Charmaine is overcome with sickness and vomits. The gossipy ushers eye each other knowingly. Months later, they come nosing around to find Charmaine in a rocking chair on her porch, barefoot with a swollen belly. In an exhausted daze, she rocks back and forth complaining about not being able to sleep because the baby inside her is “always kicking, always keeping me ‘wake.”