This is a film still from MY DAD'S NAME WAS HUW by Freddie Griffiths at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.

Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 – Take Two Shorts #1

Just tuning in for Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020? To help you find your way around, we’re recommending some short film pairings that might excite you. > Buy your Festival Pass at cheapcutsfest.com where 60+ short films are available on demand [until 05 JUL].

By RADIANT CIRCUS

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TAKE 2: ALCOHOLIC DADS

Doesn’t sound like the cheeriest of topics, but bear with us…

Our first recommendation from this year’s festival is Freddie Griffiths’ powerful animation MY DAD’S NAME IS HUW: HE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC POET (2019, 8mins) which screens as part of the IN MY OWN WORDS strand and is in competition for Best British Documentary.

After the death of his father, who seemed to have drunk everything away, his son discovers a trove of poems that reveal more than he ever knew about this fragile man. Beautiful digital animation recreates the horror of addiction and awards a lost father a more dignified voice.

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

Natalia Koniarz’s live action film THE DAM (2019, 22mins) screens in the PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES strand and is in competition for Best International Documentary.

This intimate and revealing film starts uncomfortably with scenes of a father and son on a camping trip where the older man’s alcoholic illness is all too painfully obvious.

It becomes a study of attempted reconnection and reconciliation, where the two spend time building a damn together in a stream near their hut in the woods of the Bieszczady mountains. Koniarz captures the explosive touches of tenderness that resonate love through their otherwise troubled narrative. A rousing finalé of a campfire singsong shamelessly bellows their love to the mountain peaks just as it also hints at dark storms that lie ahead.

UNCONVENTIONAL STORYTELLING

This is a film still from THE FEAR OF DYING IN TRANSIT by Ian Purnell showing at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 (29 June to 05 July).
THE FEAR OF DYING IN TRANSIT by Ian Purnell at Cheap Cuts 2020 (29 June to 05 July).

RADIANT CIRCUS is delighted to be joining Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 as a judge and award sponsor for this year’s Unconventional Storytelling strand.

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

Main featured image: MY DAD’S NAME IS HUW: HE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC POET (2019, 8mins) by Freddie Griffiths at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.

This is an image of the poster for the Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival 2020 Edition.

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