BEHIND THE CAMERA: THE SHORTS CIRCUIT
You’ve entered TCM’s Campus Moviefest and you’re ready to produce your own short film. Now, is the perfect time to tune in to current and legendary filmmakers as they tackle the challenge of keeping it brief. TCM’s shorts festival offers a unique opportunity to see a range of rare short films, many of which have never been released theatrically. Now, TCM brings the very best of short films from early pioneers like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton who mastered the art of silent comedy to legendary filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and David Lynch, whose short works are as compelling as their celebrated blockbusters. The Shorts Circuit showcases obscure gems like Francois Truffaut’s Les Mistons, an early film by the distinguished French director, along with groundbreaking pieces like Chris Marker’s La Jetée, which relied on the use of still photos to tell a story. In one week, Turner Classic Movies gives you the chance to learn from the masters, many of whom started their illustrious careers in short form.

9.19
RASHOMON (1950) 88 mins
DIRECTED BY: Akira Kurosawa
WHAT MAKES IT A CLASSIC: Kurosawa’s pioneering use of fractured storytelling.
HAS INSPIRED THE LIKES OF: QUENTIN TARANTINO, GEORGE LUCAS
“Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves. They cannot talk aboutthemselves without embellishing. The script portrays such human beings – the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel better than they really are.”
-Akira Kurosawa on Rashomon
Although Kurosawa was already a seasoned filmmaker at the time of Rashomon’s release, most critics consider this film to be the director’s first genuine work of art. The first film to put Kurosawa on the map of world cinema, may be best known for the flashback structure of the script, in which different characters recount their recollections - often wildly different - of a crime that involved them. Rashomon is utterly open to personal interpretation, as Kurosawa refuses to wrap the story up in conventional terms leaving the audience to draw their own conclusions.