Short & Sweet at Katy's Palace Bar

Last night Katy's Palace Bar in Kramerville, northern Johannesburg, hosted the debut appearance of short-film promoter Short & Sweet. Founded by Julia Stephenson, it grew out of her experience in the UK film industry and started life in Cape Town in 2009. With an unmatched view of the Sandton skyline Katy's Palace Bar was the perfect venue. Eight short films ranging in length from five to twenty minutes had the 150-odd guests rubbing our chins and smiling quizzically as we tried to get the film directors' messages. It's a genre that has yet to take off in SA, and only one of the films was from here, but this is a good way to get people interested.

Mark Valentine, owner of Katy's Palace Bar, is best known for Amatuli, which he started from the boot of his car before moving into a converted house in Corlett Drive, and then three years ago into its purpose-built warehouse in Kramerville. Kramerville is Joburg's new rave de facto design quarter with lots of well known brands and shops moving there from all over the city. Mark was one of the first and had prime pick of location, on the brow of the hill with spectacular views of Sandton and the Magalieburg. He has converted the top floor into Katy's Palace Bar, now one of Joburg's hottest party and corporate function venues. (It's named after his elder daughter, while his second daughter Emily's name is the inspiration for his 5-star guest house/restaurant in Plettenberg Bay, Emily Moon. Not losing out, James, his son, has the Sir James van der Merwe function room and bar at Amatuli named after him.)

     

Mark Valentine on the right with friend      

                                                        

Julia Stephenson chose it as the venue to launch Short & Sweet, and will be running viewing events every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks (more info on her website). She is a pocket dynamo and speaks with passion about her brainchild - 

Independent and underground, our vision is to consistently inspire guests, expose talent, provoke thought and ultimately celebrate film. We are dedicated to the exhibition of film as a critical art form in its own right. The environments we screen in are always engaging and social, with hundreds gathering at each event to share impressions and opinions in this unique forum.   

  

The lineup included a darkly humorous film, The New Tenants, directed by Dane Joachim Back, which won the Short Film Oscar in 2009. It features a gay couple who moved into a flat the day before. We find them sitting at the kitchen table chatting. One's chain-smoking the other's complaining about him blowing smoke into his eyes. The smoker's into a wine-fueled monologue about death and how at every second someone is having their one final thought......

There is a knock at the door. A diminutive elderly lady appears asking to borrow some flour so she can bake a cake for her grand daughter. On getting into conversation she casually mentions that the previous tenant, Jerry, along with the two guys on the floor below, were shot dead. That's why the flat became vacant. As the smoker tries to turn her away the other appears with a plastic bag  filled with what looks like flour which she gratefully accepts. They close the door and return to the kitchen table. 

Next, a man appears at the flat looking for his wife, who it turns out is the old lady's grand daughter, and Jerry who they explain is dead. Jerry had obviously been banging her up and the cuckolded man vented his pitiful story as the tenants listened helplessly. 

Another knock at the door. The man goes to open it looking aggressive and wielding a crowbar but as the door opens a shot rings out and he falls to the ground, dead. The unwelcome new guest announces himself with "you must be the new tenants, my name is Zelko, welcome to the building, you haven't by any chance found my kilo of heroine on the premises, have you?.  We begin to get the picture. 

The door knocks again and they ignore it, but they are assailed by a volley of insults from the little old lady - "what have you done to my grand daughter!" The drug dealer then shoots her through the closed door, opens it and drags her into the room before the now terrified tenants, a thick smear her blood left on the passage floor behind her.

He is now very angry, realising the tenants have given away the heroine mistaking it for flour and is just about to shoot them when another woman appears out of nowhere and bashes him over the head with the crowbar she found on the body of the first dead man. She is clearly the grand daughter, stoned out of her brain. She collapses onto the couch and passes out, presumably to die of a massive overdose. 

Completely bamboozled and stunned, the chain smoker pulls out two cigarettes and lights them simultaneously, giving one to his boyfriend who sucks on it guiltily. They then take each other by the hand and embrace in a waltzing pose and dance into the passageway to the sound of a song, Tonight is the last, please don't think of the past.

As they move into the street gazing lovingly into each other's eyes and the camera pans out, the ingredients of cinnamon buns scroll up the screen. Heroine isn't one of them.

Very weird, but it clearly impressed the Oscar judges.

The other films also impressed - an evening well spent, with popcorn and a glass Hendrick's gin and tonic on the house. Well done Julia and Mark, we'll be back!