TIFF13: Short Cuts Canada Programmes 6 and 5

I love short films. I'm always fascinated by how filmmakers rise to the challenge of constructing and delivering a compact visual story that has all the impact of a full-length feature. To me they are like the perfect hors d'oeuvres: a bite of bliss in one bite, or a bite of blech that conjures the Tom Hanks caviar moment in Big. I had a few blech moments watching the Short Cuts Canada Programme this year, with individual bites of perfection in each section, but with Programme 6 being the most satisfying viewing followed Programme 5.

 PROGRAMME 6

At left is director/writer, Jasmin Mozaffari, whose work, Firecrackers surprised me with the overall quality of the filmmaking and the depth of the acting (by Vanessa Orford and Lindsay Smith). Who hasn't seen the story before of two young women wanting to escape their small town prisons to make it in the big city? Mozaffari has crafted a film cloaked in gray and black, in which you can feel the girls' dreams and smell the despair of truck stop diners.

Nova Scotia's Cory Bowles has discovered a talent in young Keeya King (left), whose character Talia has much to learn about the Anatomy of Assistance. Surrounding King is a wealth of Canadian talent with the casting of Raven Dauda, Clé Bennett, and bit part by Sandi Ross.

Wayne Robinson's Foreclosure uses full-frontal male nudity to perfection as a metaphor for the vagaries of office life while Chris Goldade's Drop flips the switch by showing how a stay-at-home son interprets the sudden arrival of a World War II soldier landing in his parents' front yard. Jordan Hayes delivers a bit of romance to this section with a Lay Over, in which two twenty-somethings spend an evening taking in the sites of L.A. while Devan Scott's grad film, Paradiso, is a broad send up about brotherly love and being stuck in a hell of a heaven.

SCREENING DATES:

Thursday September 12
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
7:00 PM
Friday September 13
TIFF Bell Lightbox 4
12:15 PM

PROGRAMME 5 HIGHLIGHTS

Two of my favourites in this section are Impromptu and Roland.

IMPROMPTU  is a gorgeous animated short by Bruce Alcock whose sweeping lines and colourations exquisitely complement the music of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu and the actions and dialogue of Chuck and Sylvie as they negotiate their relationship and the mixed bag of abrasive, perplexing, amusing and increasingly inebriated guests that Sylvie has invited home for dinner. Bravo!

ROLAND directed by Trevor Cornish (co-written with Niall Kelly) is a hilarious satire set in the world of retail. "How can I help your art today?" is the greeting art store employee Roland (Daniel Beirne) spews by rote as he meets each client that comes into the store. While his coworker (stage/screen actress Lindsey Clark) chats on the phone leaving him to deal with customers, Roland's evening turns into a store clerk's nightmare (both perceived and real).

For information on other films in this section CLICK HERE.

SCREENING DATES:

Wednesday September 11 TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 9:15 PM Thursday September 12 TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 2:30 PM
Toronto International Film Festival Sept. 5-15 Get Tickets: 416.599.TIFF | 1.888.599.8433 http://tiff.net/thefestival