Typically, shorts programs end up rather neglected at major film festivals, and film festivals that focus exclusively on shorts tend to be marginalized as well. But short filmmaking on the independent level (and it's pretty much all independent, because it's not like Hollywood studios are investing in short films) is at least as exciting as feature filmmaking, and sometimes more so. Without the need for huge budgets and long shoots, filmmakers can often squeeze in a great deal of innovation and artistry into 10 minutes or so.
I checked out CineVegas' Shorts One and Shorts Three programs (Shorts Two unfortunately conflicted with other stuff I had to see), as well as the Nevada Filmmaking Shorts. In Shorts One, highlights included The Hunter, a stark black-and-white thriller based on a Tobias Wolff short story; Grammy's, a goofy dark comedy; and Everything Will Be OK, the latest from animation nutjob Don Hertzfeldt. I saw some of Hertzfeldt's other work at the Animation Show at the San Diego Comic-Con last year, and I found it sort of repetitive and silly, but this latest film had a seriousness to mix with the absurd humor that gave it more substance, and I liked that.
I was disappointed to miss Shorts Two, since it was the designated "weird" program (although there were plenty of weird shorts in the other programs), and Shorts Three wasn't as strong as Shorts One. It did include the entertaining Bitch and the mildly amusing Knock Knock (winner of the festival's MySpace contest), as well as Room 10, co-directed by Jennifer Aniston as part of Glamour magazine's Reel Moments series, which went on to win the festival's Jury Prize for shorts.
Here's the thing: I can't comment on the quality of Room 10, because I didn't see it (I had to leave the screening early to make it to something else, and it was last on the bill). But even if it was really, really good, I guarantee it wasn't so much better than all of the 27 other shorts (not counting local productions) in the festival that it had to be awarded over the independent filmmakers who put together budgets and productions on their own and came up with some damn fine work. You are celebrating independent short filmmaking and you give an award to Jennifer goddamn Aniston? Give me a break.
Anyway, back to the shorts. The Nevada program this year was quite strong, although a little lengthy (at 10 films, it probably could have been improved by cutting two or three). I especially liked Chris McInroy's zombie comedy Recently Deceased; The Mark, the latest weird, '50s-style freakout from Thomas Barndt, whose The Walking Ink was a highlight of last year's Nevada Filmmaking program; Lowell Gleason Wears Glasses, an off-kilter comedy from the Nix brothers; and the demented Sally Peppers: Neighborhood Detective by Jason Leinwand, who also happens to be a good friend of mine (don't let that put you off -- the movie is very good).
It was heartening to see sizeable audiences at all of the shorts programs; I'd encourage anyone looking for interesting, exciting films to check out the shorts programs at CineVegas in the future, and also to make it out to Boulder City's Dam Short Film Festival in February. - Josh Bell