Scarlet's Aesthetica Report:Experiencing the Festival

As a York resident, I know a secret. It’s a bit like Harry Potter; some are muggles, others are wizards. I was once the former, until I donned my yellow ‘Press Pass’ lanyard (for the Aesthetica Film Festival 2024) and unlocked the Chamber of Secrets to a cinematic world of sorcery. 

I was endowed with unlimited ‘potion’ classes in ‘crafting iconic scores’ and ‘capturing the perfect shot’ as well as virtual tickets to Platform 9 ¾ (the City Screen Picturehouse) where one can board the Express train to filmic utopia - you wouldn’t want to miss out. 

My journey began at 10:30 on Wednesday morning. I collected my very own wand, the Aesthetica lanyard, and enthused over the initial poster exhibition at the City Screen venue - a tantalising glimpse and prelude to my week at the movies! I was teased by the visually appetising assortment of  movie posters, wrapped in pink, blue and green tinted foil like candy confectionaries. Each A5 sized portal unlocked its own world. I teleported into the lush green canvas of Tennis, Oranges. I felt intrigued by the eclectic mix of rabbits, tennis courts and citrus fruits advertised to me in such a dreamlike manner. I scheduled ‘Animation 2 - Escape Plan’ into my week’s itinerary…

My first proper taste of Aesthetica was at the 12:00 masterclass led by Simon Franglen:

A leading ‘wizard’ in the filmmaking industry. I waited in line, juggling excitement and foot pain (I had taken the risk of wearing heels this morning when choosing my outfit). All of a sudden I was in the land of the flicks, in close proximity with the screenwriters awaiting their fame. I confidently channelled ‘press woman’ with my pad and tiger print pen, a proud official for Hard Magazine. 

We were granted VIP access to a scene from Franglen’s upcoming project: Avatar: Fire and Ash, which was played both with and without music. He broke down the structure of film anatomically and classed ‘music’ as the heartbeat: so when we were exposed to the muted version of the scene, it was totally lifeless. Franglen had each audience member captivated with these mini experiments and fed us verbatims about his glorious L.A days on set. I was interested in talking to Franglen about the growing shift from classically composed scores to the ‘soundtrack’ and which one tends to resonate more. His response was that the soundtrack has become an ‘aesthetic’ within screen culture, and the younger gen are obsessed with a poppy medium of sound (using Barbie as an example).

The programme for the festival was crafted into five daily strands, each like a vignette in a motion picture manifesting its own unique theme. I attended a screening titled ‘The Power of Liberation’ which showcased 5 shorts revolving around the question of ‘are our identities fixed or do they perpetually develop over the trajectory of our life?’ Alone With You stunningly captured this ideology through the rigid dichotomy set up in the narrative between the protagonist’s self-autonomy and the identity her culture and family have moulded for her. It’s set in a post-coital world where the ‘used condom’ is stripped from its associations with artificial  matter and manifests into a permanent signifier of the disruption she’s caused her body through the eyes of society. The short time frame simply wasn’t enough for this piece and as the rolling credits transitioned into the next one, I was plagued by the ambiguity surrounding the protagonist’s ability (or inability) to achieve ‘The Power of Liberation’. 

I got into conversation with the ‘Anna Wintours’ of the film scene: Tom Dream, Bex Cassie, Katie Metcalfe and Raquel Coucero, who introduced me to the new and upcoming ‘Fashion Film’. This medium is a “blend of mainstream and subculture” which carries an “unspecified style” and represents a “space for everything”. I was shown four examples of each of the panellists take on this style, and concluded that there is a lot more than ‘advertising the ‘brand’ going on here. Tom Dream’s ‘Knotted Gold’ for Gucci experimented with poetry and synthesised sounds of the typically English seaside town to produce a whimsical tale which explores style-nostalgia and the beauty in nature. The role of poetry was essential to the viscerality of the overall piece, transforming it into a theatrical show with Park’s ‘monologue’ running throughout. This clarifies the fashion film’s purpose in recounting meaningful experiences to its audience as opposed to being designed solely for aesthetic purposes.

I really leaned into the ‘going to the movies’ trope on day 3 by packing a tub of popcorn in my bag for the 12:00 screening: Road to the BAFTAS. The six short films of this category were most definitely ‘sweet treat’/’popcorn munching’ worthy, as each had an emotional resonance and had each audience member entranced for the entirety of its four (or thirty one) minutes. Some induced tears, some emitted fits of laughter and others did both. It’s the films that make you ask all sorts of questions about life that you really, truly watch, and each exemplified that flawlessly.

Overall, I was impressed by the festival’s efforts to provide the perfect mix of short films from the ‘new’ and not yet ‘critically acclaimed’ to ’Oscars-worthy’. The scale of cinema was very varied which offered the perfect balance of discovering new talent and celebrating with the filmmakers who have produced award-winning works.