Rent Boy
Trey Chapman
2025, 10 mins.
Naked ambition
Pursuing a career in the arts—especially music as more and more listeners get their hits from the internet rather than the concert hall—has always been fraught with challenges. Sometimes, it seems, just having talent is not quite enough to overcome the hurdles of expensive tutors or music schools—much less landing an agent. What’s a budding pianist to do?
In this case, the physique of the potential artist (Devein Druid in a bravura performance clothed or not), appears to be just as important as his technique and interpretative skills.
And so the young man strips, showers then takes his place at the grand piano as bare as the day he was born, only to be surveyed by cameras throughout the mansion by his unseen and exceptionally wealthy patron—in this instance scaling the intricacies of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune (a familiar selection in 2025—cross reference below).
Tellingly, importantly, wondrously the aspiring pianist has had enough of his unseen benefactor before forcefully demanding to meet face to face. The stunning result is one of the most powerful conclusions to any film at this year’s ShortFest and an unforgettable reminder for us all to count your blessings. JWR
Medusa
Sarah Meyohas
2025, 15 mins.
Love at first bite
Medusa (n)
- a free-swimming sexual form of a coelenterate such as a jellyfish
How this won Best Live Action Short Over 15 Minutes at this year’s ShortFest is beyond me (but, to be fair, there was no way I could have seen them all in just a few days).
The premise is intriguing: A Swedish young woman (the voluptuous Elektra Kilbey) is attacked by a jellyfish while swimming near a somewhat secluded beach. Luckily, it seems, once scampering back to shore, a concerned French beachgoer (Franck Sémonin, just a bit short from the mix of healer/lecher), comes to her aid with salve for the wound and then salve of his own making once his “patient” is conveniently in a lock hold in his upscale car’s window. Really?
Once more this season (cross-reference below), it’s up to Claude Debussy (in this instance the Première Rhapsodie) to add aural depth to the Medusa-like imagery, yet, when all is penetrated and done (replete with a shared post-coital cigarette), the point of the “bite” remains elusive. JWR
Shanti Rides Shotgun
Charles Frank
2025, 9 mins.
Driving Miss Shanti
Winner of this year’s Best Documentary Short, Frank has crafted a loving, viewer-friendly portrait of a no-nonsense driving instructor in NYC (curiously, none of her students were male).
The shotgun star (Shanti Gooljar), lovingly rules her sedan roost even as she remember her partner of many years, suddenly gone. And rather than sink into the ravages of “Woe is me” and literal crap shoots, she prefers to roam the streets of the Big Apple, preparing the next generation of horn honkers who will truly know how to merge. JWR