#AnOccuranceatOwlCreekBridge

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Did you watch these 5 award-winning yet underrated short films on YouTube? Have a look!

A short film is what this fast-paced generation needs as it delivers many pieces of information and entertainment in a short span of time. Its budget is obviously lower than an average full-length movie but most of the time, it leaves an unforgettable impact on the viewer's mind. However, 2020 is the era of social media and digitalization where everyone wants to watch Something that fits with their free time and also fulfills the need to be engaged in a meaningful vision. Short films or Documentaries often ensures the aforementioned need of audiences. Meanwhile, YouTube is absolutely the place where most of the short films can be found free of cost in the whole world. To be honest, YouTube is one of the greatest media through which short films are being watched and promoted until today. Here is the list of 5 selectively chosen short films that spread different yet captivating messages to the viewers of all time. Small Deaths (1996)

Small Deaths (1996) Director Lynne Ramsay won 1996 Cannes Prix de Jury for her graduation short film, "Small Deaths". Here she portrayed the three essential times and learnings of a girl's life. These experiences cannot be named as pleasant. In the first part, "Ma and Da", we find a little girl who is singing a song while her mother is cutting the hair of her father for a night out. The father seems to be conscious of his new hairstyle but her mother assures him that it will be nice. At the end of the story her father, thanks to her mother for the hairstyle but does not bother to answer her question, if he will come back home at night. This makes us think about the indifference of the man. In the second part, called "Holy Cow", the viewers get a combination of innocence and reality in a short time limit. Here, we find two girls who are happily playing in the lap of nature until they find the disturbing image of the dying, rather bleeding cow in one corner of the ground. In the last part, "Joke", we see an adult girl who goes to a creepy place with her boyfriend while her boyfriend goes upstairs and calls her. She gets afraid that something is wrong and goes there but it is not what she thinks! This was the debut short film of Ramsey with the production of James De Paor. Here we find the detailed and vague direction and cinematography in many scenes like the eyes of the dying cow and the conflict of the palm of a young girl against the soft grass. If you have not yet watched this masterpiece or the loss will be yours. The Nostalgist (2014)

The Nostalgist (2014) As Giacomo Cimini said, "The life of every human being is a collection of memories. Can we trick ourselves by pretending something never happened?", He also picturized it through the relationship between a father and his son in his short film "The Nostalgist". It won the Audience Awards at Trieste Science+Fiction Festival and Utopiales, the Méliès d'Argent, and the Best Short Film at the Giffoni Film Festival 2014. The short film, directed by Cimini. It was actually based on a book with a sci-fi genre, written by Daniel H. Wilson. Here, we find the combination of a hard-core and technological reality of the future which is visualized as a heavenly fantasy world by a high-tech frame, set on the eyes. In the end, the father and the son get together after defeating the evil power and finally they accept the truth of the actual world instead of the well mannered and spectacular world of past or nostalgia. In this short film, we found the great use of VFX by Inky Mind which justifies Cimini's vision with Wilson's storytelling. 3. The Man Who Planted Trees (1987)

The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) "The Man Who Planted Trees" is an animated short film which was directed by Frédéric Back. It is based on the story also, named "The Man Who Planted Trees" by Jean Giono. It was released in 1987 and won the Academy Award for the best-animated movie. This short film is the story of Elzéard Bouffier who lost everything including his only son, wife, and his farm. But he did not get hopeless. In fact, he lived all his life alone in a stone house desolate country without water and planted unnumbered trees. The narrator of the short film saw that he even changed his occupation of having her of sheep as they were a threat to his trees. He now harvests bees. We see that Elzéard is such a man who doesn't even pay any attention to two world wars that happened in his lifetime. He is a quiet and hardworking man who plants lots of trees all along with his life. Can you imagine that a man planted trees all along his lifetime! That is why we find that the country is now green and full of trees, flowers, meadows, reeds, and full of reasons to have a pleasant life. This becomes possible because of one and only Elzéard Bouffier as the narrator says, "When I think that one man, one body, and one spirit was enough to turn a desert into the land of Canaan, I found after all that a man's destiny can be truly wonderful. But when I consider the passionate determination and the unfailing generosity of spirit that it took to achieve this end, I am filled with admiration from this old unlearned peasant who was able to complete a task worth, God," at the end of the short film. This is a great movie with some aesthetic sense of peace and creation. An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge (1961)

An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge (1961) "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short film based on the escape of a southern civilian from the execution. The police has accused him of wrecking the railway bridge in the time of Civil War. It won the Academy Award, BAFTA , and even the award in Cannes Film Festival. The short film is mainly based on a story, written by Ambrose Bierce. Here, in the short film, we find the depressing scene where the man is tied by toes and neck by a rope and dropped down in the river. But fortunately, he manages to untie the rope and swim to the banks of the river. He even gets successful to reach his wife and children. The overwhelming joy on his face when he saw his wife cannot be depicted by words. But the police starts following him when he escapes from the execution. They shoots at him too. And then…..? You have to watch this great short film of all time to know what happens after this. 5. God Sleeps in Rwanda (2005)

God Sleeps in Rwanda (2005) "When God wanders the world, at the end of the day He comes to Rwanda to sleep because He considers this to be the most beautiful place on earth," said Kimberlee Acquaro, the filmmaker of the short film, "God Sleeps in Rwanda" while quoting a proverb but the truth behind the name of this short film is actually devastating. This short film shows the terrifying situation of the survival rape and sexual violence during 1994 Rwandan genocide. Here,The Africa Program with The International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) sponsored the screening of  the documentary short film, "God Sleeps in Rwanda". Stacy Sherman, the director introduced Severa Mukakinani, a gang-rape victim of the genocide. Severa says in the documentary film that her 7 children were murdered in front of her and she was raped so many times that she lost the count. After that, she was cut with machete and thrown in the river but somehow, she lived. After a few times, she found that she was pregnant because of the rape and she did not want the child initially but she gave birth of the baby because it was innocent. Severa Mukakinani says, her child's name is Akimana, meaning, "the child of God". Fifi Mukabgoga is another victim of rape during the gencide. She could not say a word because she was dying as she got HIV-positive by the rape as many other women in Rwanda. She died in February 14, 2003. Another victim of genocide is a police woman who is HIV-positive and one of her children is also HIV-positive as her husband did not reveal his disease to her before marriage. She said that she earns 40,000 Rwandan currency but the medicine and treatment for AIDS is 41,000 Rwandan currency. She says, "I am not so wonderful" as she cannot get the cure for her son. Thus, the women of Rwanda are still trying to rebuild their lives after the horrible things happened to them but they are not able to fight with the destroyed economic and political structure of Rwanda. You should absolutely watch this documentary film, based on Rwandan genocide of 1994, at least once. These are five important and intimidating short films of all time. Do watch these and let us know in the comment section about how you feel and realize about life and the change of the time and it's consequences after watching these. Read the full article

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An Occurrence at Owl Creek bridge: Photographic research

Following up from my initial drawings at the Imperial War Museum and from books about military outfits, I decided to take some photographs inspired by some of the imagery featured in Ambrose Bierce’s short story. 

I tried to focus on details, inspired by the part of the story before Farquhar was about to be hung when he began to see every tiny element of nature, going down to the veins in the leaves and spiders spinning their webs. I think if I have time I should go out on another photographic shoot and take some photos with more of a human element in the compositions.