Watching over two hours of short films from the Karafilm festival proved a more testing experience than had been imagined due to a number of reasons. Firstly, the audience that turned up at the “prestigious” (read: stuck up) Islamabad Club (playground of the rich, pampered or connected) was about as abhorrent as cinema audiences get, including those watching horror movies in the vicinity of Times Square in New York City.

People with scant respect for other audience members continued to hold loud conversations with their chums throughout the screening – either face to face or then on relentlessly ringing cell phones despite their being a request to switch the cursed things off before the films began to roll. People drifted in and out of the screening room at all times totally unconcerned that there might actually be a few in the audience who were genuinely interested in watching the films on display.Secondly, the screening room soon felt like an igloo as there was no form of heating at all, despite being held at the coldest time of the year bang in the middle of January – ageing, arthritic joints didn’t take long to start throbbing with acute pain and it would’ve been a good idea to have come equipped with a blanket and hot water bottle and a flask full of soup. Thirdly, of the numerous films on display, quite frankly, a large proportion of them were mediocrity personified – yet still commendable that young budding filmmakers had made a stuttering attempt rather than not at all, after all, things can only get better. However among the heap were a handful of films that managed to show some creativity, thought and some cinematic ability and potential. Sadly there were not enough of these and in actuality the two hours often seemed endless last Sunday afternoon.

Short films have a tendency to be hideously irritating – it’s just the nature of the beast – can’t be helped but some of the stuff on display here was unbelievably bereft of any tangible evidence of skill.

The session started off with a film entitled “2.59 AM” by Uzair Akram which was basically a series of extremely close up mirror image shots of an eye and a face obscured by what appeared to be the shadow of a flying rubber bat! Through startling for its visuals to begin with, it petered out into repetition. Pity that some of the admittedly arresting visuals weren’t supported by an idea or a shape or any sort of message of intent or any aim. The film was merely four minutes of funky imagery that went nowhere and was thus ultimately nothing more than what it was on the surface. However, things were to get much, much grimmer as the programme progressed. The next film “A Tribute to Yousuf Machhi” was basically not much more than a rather dreary “home made music video”. Again the film had no statement to make, no thoughts or emotions to convey and cinematically and stylistically it was uninspiring.

An Indian entry “An Actor Prepares” was one of the strongest entries on display as at least there was an attempt at storytelling of some kind. Rajpal Yadav, the only character in the 10 minute film was genuinely amusing and the film displayed a certain craft and wit that was lacking in most of the films on display. At least it resembled a film with a beginning, middle and an end rather than merely appearing as a misguided experiment.

Next up was Manizhe Ali’s “Baig City” which featured cockroaches in “luxury housing” but the concept wasn’t done justice to by the fleetingly short film (50 seconds) which ended just as it got interesting. Pity as it really could have been a fascinating, witty and somewhat ironic little film, but in the end was memorable for it’s “blink and you’ll miss it” running time. Next came “Blur” directed by Ayesha Azher which featured an old man whose world went into focus from the blur it was when he put on his glasses. It was fairly well shot in muted black and white (appropriate for the subject) and the visuals supported the idea that the film maker attempted to portray fairly effectively. A commendable effort from a young filmmaker who may not have worked wonders with this particular short but certainly suggested potential for future projects.

The next film was a German-UK entry “By the Way” directed by Steve Coe which toyed with the subject of change but had the appearance of a dated 80’s music video and a soundtrack to match and left this viewer cold (as if that was needed!). “Light Me Up” was one of a couple of entries from Portugal. It was a crudely animated short about a firefly that lightens up the life of a man plunged into darkness. The film failed to impress with its visuals or particularly with its theme yet at least it was attempting to convey some sort of idea which many of the other shorts didn’t even attempt. “Ezula” was another very short short with a rather garbled concept that was delivered through some very amateurish animation. Running just a minute and 41 seconds this film failed to hit the target with its jerky and less than impressive visuals.

“God Likes Watching TV” contained some very impressive visuals but wasn’t able to convey any sort of idea and certainly didn’t reflect its rather interesting title. This was yet another animated short – one of several which suggested that there might be a separate category for animated shorts in festivals to come. “Horroresque Retro Battle Fest” from Britain fused DV live action footage with 3D animation but failed fizzle and was more irritating than it was interesting. “Lust” from Pakistan by Syed Ali Nasir took a quote from Pakistan’s notorious serial killer Javed Iqbal and set it to a montage of imagery from the streets of the nation. The films imagery was unexceptional yet the director’s intention was to present the humdrum to suggest that there might be something far more sinister when one scratches the surface of such mundane everyday images. “Lust” had far more of a message than most of the films on display and one looks forward to the future projects by a director whose work showed commendable thought.

“My Red Trainers” by Mahera Omar was one of the more unfortunate shorts of the lot, devoid of meaning or any interesting visuals or perhaps the cold in the screening room had started to numb the brain by the time it was screened. “New Age” by Khalid Qureshi and Faisal Shaukat was mind boggling as all it contained was a long scrolled top to bottom shot of an admittedly intriguing illustration but the film hardly reflected any cinematic skill at all. What was on display was certainly interesting (the illustration) but there was no evidence of any cinematic ability on the part of its creators apart from the fact that they know how to focus a camera!

“Noise” by Syed Muhammad Raza Zaidi was one of the strongest efforts on display with its interesting shot composition, its theme and the effective editing and use of sound. The film had a point to make and the director managed to convey his theme and his thoughts to good effect. Raza Zaidi’s is a name that has been logged into the memory bank and one hopes that continues the highly promising work, glimpses of which he displayed in “Noise”.

Ammara Gul Aga had a second entry entitled “O Say Can You See” which tackled the “glorified symbolism of the (US) flag, which hides the suffering America has caused around the world”. Alas the lofty ideas were rather let down by the visuals on screen. However Ms Gul Aga certainly has some unusual and striking ideas and it may not be long before her visuals start to do better justice to her obvious talent. “Original Bob” an English entry contained a fascinating theme and had the ability to involve the audience more than most entries managed yet its presentation was sadly flat and uninteresting.

“Samovar” a debut effort by Hammad Khan was as though the organizers had deliberately left the best effort to close the session. This film was head and shoulders above the rest of the competition in that not only did it have a very relevant story to tell but that it did so very effectively with some excellent shot composition and editing. Khan’s effort was direct, honest and even revealing in what it portrayed and much of the symbolism he employed (other than the birdcage) was suitably subtle and muted. This was an exceptional effort for a debut filmmaker and clearly displays his love for cinema and indeed a natural aptitude for the medium.

“Scribble” was a humorous short about changing technology by Faisal Qureshi that impressed with its tight editing and its ability to deliver the message it set out to do. The film was one of the more impressive non Pakistani efforts and easily the best of the West based shorts however the same cannot unfortunately said about “Self Portrait in Three Parts”, the less said about which the better. The UK made “Swansong” was also one of the strongest shorts on display and arguably had the best sense of narrative storytelling. It was witty, visually involving and was one of the few shorts that had a beginning a middle and an end.

“The Tree Officer” was more animation and had terrific wit and some solid stop motion animation but somehow the parts didn’t equal a satisfying whole. Finally there was a film that clicked with the motley local audience called “Value Added Cricket” which was yet another case of a nifty idea but not for a second over four minutes did the director of the film display that he had any sort of stylistic command at creative filmmaking as basically all it contained was a shot of a TV screen showing a famous cricket match. The idea was an amusing one but its presentation failed to convince that its creator had any particular skill at putting together a cinematic experience of any worth.

Finally there was yet another animated short called “Zee and the Penguin” that contained some fairly decent yet unmemorable imagery but failed to involve this rapidly tiring viewer. That some of the best efforts on display were locally produced suggests that it’s not all over for cinema here in Pakistan even if the old formula style of commercial filmmaking might be heading towards extinction. Huge credit must go to the organizers of the Karafest for providing a forum and an outlet for the aspiring and obviously talented local filmmakers of Pakistan and elsewhere – Bravo!