Family Portraits

Selection of documentary, animation and drama, with each film offering a distinctive take on the modern family.

Familial relationships have long been an abiding concern for filmmakers, and this programme of shorts demonstrates why.

Directed By Tweedie, Duncan Cowles’ brilliant documentary in which he turns the camera on himself and his grandad, is a comment on the filmmaking process, their relationship, and intergenerational tensions. The Bigger Picture’s unique style of life-size animation (rather than miniature sets) gives the story of two brothers coping with their dying mother a powerful and affecting edge. And Jean-Julien Collette’s extremely impressive fictional short Electric Indigo explores what it is to be a ‘modern family’, and will most likely make you feel that your family is far more ‘ordinary’ than you suspected. (dir. Duncan Cowles) UK, 2014 – 17min (dir. Daisy Jacobs) UK, 2014 – 7min (dir. Eliane Esther Bots) Netherlands, 2014 – 21min (dir. Orlando Cubitt) UK, 2014 – 15min (dir. Jean-Julien Collette) Belgium, 2013 – 24min (dir. Fabrice Bracq) France, 2014 – 7min Family Portraits is one of our Short Film Competition screenings.