Kinbaku- Art of Bondage (Finland, 2009), at 13th TDF, Thessaloniki Film Festival This fascinating short documentary film by director Jouni Hokkanen tells the story of ‘tight binding’, a Japanese form of art through bondage on women who want to be bound. Apparently, tying things up is a sacred quality in the Shinto religion, and this does not exclude the tying up of people as well. Rope artists who express themselves through bondage are considered to have ‘rope fetishes’ usin...

ABSTRACT NOTIONS was made up of six shorts (in screening order):   THE OPERA SINGER [2010] dir Nadaav Soudry {2 mins} - This short is a satire of an opera singer giving her best performance whilst selling out. I found it funny and truthful, short and sweet. Soudry has managed to make a statement with a 2 minute short mainly mostly made up of a slow zoom of the title character's face.  FROG IN THE WELL [2010] dir Ken Ochiai {15 mins} - A man who just lost his mother, who ...