| ...To Skin a Cat | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Dan O'Berry |
| Cinematography | Richard E. Brooks |
| Edited by | Alexander Serpico |
Release date |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
...To Skin a Cat is a short film by director Dan O'Berry. This 22-minute black and white short film won multiple film festivals including the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, and the Memphis International Film Festival. Almost every scene in this film is one long take. There are no close-ups or medium shots. Executive director and founder of the DC Independent Film Festival, Carol Bidault, said in a statement that the works of Dan O'Berry reminded her of that of early Jim Jarmusch. [1] O'Berry actually interned under him after college, which may explain the similarities in style.
A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". In the United States, short films were generally termed short subjects from the 1920s into the 1970s when confined to two 35mm reels or less, and featurettes for a film of three or four reels. "Short" was an abbreviation for either term.
The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) is the oldest independent film festival in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1999, DCIFF exhibits features, shorts and documentaries from around the world. The festival also hosts world premieres, seminars, and workshops, and also sponsors discussions on topics that impact independent filmmakers "On the Hill" hosted by the Congressional Entertainment Caucus. The festival includes a dedicated POLIDOCS section for documentary films that shed light on human rights, politics and social justice and an international high school film competition started in 2013. The festival also has an oral history collection program Going to the Movies documenting the role of movie-watching in US cultural history.
James Robert Jarmusch is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor, and composer. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing such films as Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), and Paterson (2016). Stranger Than Paradise was added to the National Film Registry in December 2002. As a musician, Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released two albums with Jozef van Wissem.
