The World According to Shorts

This is a great package of 6 short films released only in New York last Friday. The package is distributed through New Yorker Films. According to the distributor, these films have been chosen from previous programs, with many considerations in mind —among them, "a balance of geographical origins, tones, styles and genres". Here are short descriptions:

"La Perra" (Chile, 17 min)
Director: Hugo Maza. A couple with an empty life make up a story about the new maid in order to satisfy their sexual obsessions.

"Ring of Fire" (Germany, 15 min)
Director: Andreas Hykade. Animated. Replete with outrageous sexual imagery, this tale of innocence lost and ultimately redeemed is accompanied by a lyrical voiceover (in appropriate cowboy drawl) that seems to have only the loosest of connections to the action on-screen.

"We Have Decided Not to Die" (Australia, 11 min)
Director: Daniel Askill. There are Three rituals, Three people, Three modern-day journeys of transcendence. The poster for this posting is from this film.

"United We Stand" (Norway, 9min)
Director: Hans Petter Moland. Eight old timers come upon a young woman stuck in a swamp. This short film was inspired by the Norway's Labour Party, and is a part of the collective feature film 'Utopia: No One is Perfect in the Perfect Country'.

"The Old Woman's Step" (Brazil, 15 min)
Director: Jane Malaquias. An old lady travels from the fishermen's village where she lives to the city to sell a chicken so she can buy her grandson a present.