CHRIS THURMAN: Well-made tales for viewers with attention deficits
The 2022 MyFrenchFilmFestival is available to view free of charge until February 14
Ours is an age of attention scarcity. We are so easily distracted that sometimes a Facebook post of more than two paragraphs gets the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) treatment. A video has to pique our interest within a few seconds or it gets swiped away. We judge content by the amount of attention we have to expend on it: the more time it will take, the less likely we are to give it a try.
In such a climate, short is good. Unsurprisingly, creative forms previously viewed as having limited commercial viability are ascendant — especially when commercial imperatives now weigh heavily against traditionally bankable “longer” forms. The short story is less unwieldy than the novel, and requires less commitment from the reader. The same principle applies to film: sometimes even the two hours to watch a feature can’t be found, but a short film can fill a 15-minute gap. ..
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