This local festival will project short films onto Pieta’s historic kiosk for special COVID edition

The pandemic may have scuppered their plans to hold a full version of their annual showcase of alternative cinema and music this year, but the NGO behind Kinemastik Short Film Festival (KISFF) have come up with a very cool COVID-times solution. 

Now in its 16th edition, the niche-but-staple summer event will go ahead in what the team behind it are calling an “exploded” form, in order to respect health directives and still put on a show, albeit in a unique way!

It will feature a series of short films, projected on a loop, on the adorably historical Pieta’ Kiosk, situated on the traffic island that also doubles as a public garden which faces Rumours Bocci Club, which will also serve as a party and after-party venue: another Kinemastik trademark.

“We felt that we couldn’t guarantee people’s safety [with our usual setup], so we came up with a format that would allow only small groups of people to access the screenings and side events,” Kinemastik co-founder and festival administrator Bojana Dimitrovska says, reassuring fans that, “all in all, the elements of a KISFF are all there, just a little exploded in space and time”. 

The short film screenings will run from 24th July at 7pm until 2nd August at 7pm, and will be projected on a loop, 24/7, for the entire nine-day duration of the event. 

Bojana confesses that Kinemastik, which is always keen to stage screenings in unconventional spaces, have had their eye on the Pieta Kiosk for some time. “It’s a little architectural and historical gem and it hasn’t been in use for a while. The kiosk played perfectly into the concept we had in mind so we got in touch with the Pieta Local Council and managed to secure the venue,” she says.

The ‘Neck of the Woods’ programme will be populated by films taken from the The One Minutes Series, an Amsterdam-based but globally focused network devoted to presenting one-minute short films of high quality and social and political resonance.

The screenings will be launched with a party at Rumours Bocci Club on 24th July at 7pm. Check out the full festival programme here. Kinemastik is supported by Arts Council Malta through the Investment in Cultural Organisations fund and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

This article features the research and contribution of Teodor Reljić, freelance journalist, script writer and editor.