The 16th edition of the Kinemastik International Short Film Festival is currently under way in Pietà.

The Neck of the Woods section is being presented as an installation in the Sa Maison Kiosk in Pietà. Photo: Kinemastik

This year, the festival has been split into smaller and more manageable parts to avoid large people gatherings, in line with all the health and safety requirements as necessitated by the COVID-19 outbreak.

As regards its format, the Neck of the Woods section ‒ which usually shows out-of-competition films in a corner of the Garden of Rest ‒ is being presented as a public installation in the Sa Maison Kiosk in Pietà. 

The kiosk’s octagonal structure features seven individual screens installed on each of its windows which are showing a selection of The One Minutes series for 24 hours until Sunday.

The kiosk and its content is visible from all sides and allows the public to spend any amount of time available to them.

The One Minutes series is curated by Ana Vaz, Jesse Darling, Salomé Lamas and Bar None and includes films that promote social change through engagement with the moving image. The content of the films demands a certain level of reflection, so, by returning to rewatch something or watch something entirely new, audiences are given time to digest and consider different perspectives on today’s realities. 

A scene from Florian Braakman’s Ik ben een Rotterdammer, 2018. Photo: The artist, courtesy of The One Minutes series – Islas Inútiles

For the festival’s closing, Kinemastik has invited Kristian Craig Robinson, aka Capital K, to launch his latest mini-album Birdtrapper live on Friday at the Pietà Boċċi Club. He will be followed by DJ Dean Wengrow and Kinemastik deejays. The event is sold out.

The final instalment of this year’s festival, made of the competitive section with a programme of shorts adjudicated by an international jury and eligible for the Kinemastik Audience Award, will take place in autumn inside film theatres in Valletta and St Julian’s.

Kinemastik is supported by Arts Council Malta through the Investment in Cultural Organisations fund and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

The Neck of the Wood section is showing daily until Sunday for 24 hours a day non-stop. Between 6am and 9pm, the programme is certified PG. It gets less child friendly between 9pm and 6am. For more information, visit, https://www.kinemastik.org/kisff2020. For more information about The One Minutes series, visit http://www.theoneminutes.org/the-one-minutes.

Signs pointing towards the Kinemastik kiosk. Photo: Kinemastik

Juan Arturo García, Introductory questions (excerpt), 2018. PHOTO: the artist, courtesy of The One Minutes – Our Soul Isn't a Border