Synopsis
BAFTA-Recognised festival LOCO (aka The London Comedy Film Festival) is back to share the best comedy short films.
Sometimes a film leaves you unsure whether to laugh or shudder, to feel amused or disturbed. These short comedy films revel in the funny dimensions of the dark, the daunting, and the downright despairing. Their stories of bumbling stickups, maddening bureaucracy, political gaffes, and the odd case of murder prove that no area is out of bounds for comedy.
Programme
Agent Marten (10th anniversary competition winner)
Dirs/Wris. Harry Robinson and Tom Briggs
Mr Chapman simply wants to feed ducks in the park, but government bureaucrat Agent Marten doesn’t give duck-feeding licenses out without some hefty paperwork.
Pram Snatcher
Dir/Wri. Theo James Krekis
Two vagrant criminals head to a remote service station off the A90 for one last job.
Leave to Remain
Dir/Wri. Remy Bazerque
Things get wild at the ‘VISA and immigration services’ when Karim, a young Iranian father living in the UK is mistakenly threatened with deportation.
Sucking Diesel
Dir. Sam McGrath / Wri. Freddie O’Donohoe and Sam McGrath
After a bungled petrol station robbery, a caustic petrol station owner must decide whether to protect her idiot employee or turn him over to the most dangerous man in Ballybeg.
Choked Up
Dir/Wri. Jill Worsley
A politician learns just how quickly things can go terribly wrong in the age of social media whataboutery, when a career-defining live TV interview goes off the rails due to a tickly cough.
Gordon the Racist
Dir/Wri. Jo Romero
Gordon the racist has died. Enter nervous undertaker Allen, desperate to upsell the Barratt Solid Mahogany Coffin to his grieving widow Griselda Grout.
On Your Behalf
Dir/Wri. Ana Garcia Rico
We all have pet peeves which irritate us. They may seem insignificant, but who has never muttered the phrase ‘I could kill them’? In the small police station of White Heights, Detective McHendry can’t catch a break with an endless collection of unsolved homicides. When Ava starts to talk, he can hardly believe what he’s hearing; he could have never imagined the motivation behind the crimes.
Super, Thanks. You?
Dirs/Wris. Simon Allen and Liam Wilson
Monday morning office small talk digs up Brian’s big weekend.
The Mountain
Dir. Clare Macdonald / Wri. Adam Steedman Thake
Matthew is tired of feeling down and wants get back to normal. But his relentless inner voices aren’t going to make things easy. In fact, they’re going to make sure it’s an ice-cold uphill struggle.
One Shot
Dir/Wri. Zam Salim
Filmed in a single unbroken take, we see an actor do multiple versions of the same action. He’s forced to deal with multiple setbacks and frustrations until he finally arrives at a dark perfection.