“If you think of something, do it.” – Lydia Davis

Lydia Davis, the sovereign of all things brief, has a good point. At cléo we thought of something and hope you’ll be a part of it: the SHORTS issue! Because, yes, as the saying goes: good things come in small packages. But we’re also curious to explore this theme because short films never seem to get enough love–despite the fact that the form is a fertile ground for new discoveries when it comes to emerging voices. Plus, for the cinematic completists out there, short films can also shed light on the key inspirations and ideas of a favourite director.

So, to prove that size really doesn’t matter, we’re looking for short and sweet pieces on works of film that have blown your mind despite–or because of–their brief runtimes.

Short films by your favourite director! Alanis Obomsawin’s Christmas at Moose Factory (1971); Claire Denis; Athina Rachel Tsangari’s The Capsule (2012); Julie Dash; Midi Onodera’s Ten Cents a Dance: Parallax (1985); the list goes on and on!!

Shorts and activism: John Greyson’s The ADS Epidemic (1987); Ronit Bezalel’s You Can’t Beat It Out of Us (1991), Mirha Soleil-Ross & Xanthra MacKay’s Gendertroublemakers (1993); Shirikiana Aina’s Brick by Brick (1982), the work of Field of Vision; Laura Poitras.

Fashion shorts!: How directors like Ava Duvernay and Agnès Varda have worked with famous fashion houses to bring the tactile to the screen.

Fresh shorts: debuts, first looks, discoveries by the next big thing! Tell us about someone we can’t wait to discover! Pieces on student shorts welcome. Go #teens!

Looking for more ideas? Check out Short of the Week and Le CiNéMa Club.

To submit: IN ONE PDF DOCUMENT send us your pitch of 300 words and three writing samples (please send links or, if no link is available, single-spaced articles no longer than 3000 words). Label the PDF document: LastName_FirstName_FILM

Tip! Please look over our past issues to get a sense of the kind of work we’re looking for and to ensure we haven’t already covered the film you’d like to write about.

The deadline for pitches is May 15, 2017. Articles should be between 800-1000 words. The deadline to submit articles is June 12, 2017. Based on our current funding, cléo offers a $125 CAD honorarium per article.

Submissions and general inquiries: cleofilmjournal@gmail.com