Shorts, shorts, shorts. Lots of them worth seeing at the VIFF. The next segment I saw this year Space And Time which consisted of nine shorts filmed by Canadian directors. They were all different but all shared something in common:

-24:24:24 dir. Daniel Dietzel- This is a film shot on a Montreal street corner facing the CCSE Maisonneuve over a 24-hour time period. What makes it amusing is that it shows the same corner with images of various hours at once. Sometimes all 24 simultaneously. The splitting of the various footage images in its sections along with the sounds mixed in will definitely make you curious during the whole thirteen minutes. The images of time and seeing the images of the Maisonneuve and the tower of the Olympic Stadium add to its charm. It’s surprisingly pleasant and enjoyable to watch. Quite the kaleidoscope.

-By The Pool dir. Karine Belanger- The film begins at an outdoor pool as a worker cleans the pool out in the spring just before it opens. He finds a small fish. Throughout the film, there are images of people doing aquarobics, swimming laps, swimming and playing, going off the diving board, late-night lifeguard parties and even a pool emergency. As summer ends, the diving board gets taken down and the pool gets drained. The man cleaning the drained pool finds a big fish! Funny how a film simply showing the summer of an outdoor pool can be amusing.

-Ranger dir. Sandra Ignagni- It’s a boat trip from a town in Labrador to an Arctic town. The long trip on the M. V. Norther Ranger is documented from boarding for deoarture to arrival. It focuses on everything from passengers to the captain directing to crewmen working to the waters it travels to passengers sleeping overnight to its arrival. It makes for a good simple unnarrated documentary film that tells a lot.

-Last Night dir. Joel Salaysay- Sarah is woken up by a phone call by her friend Jamie and tells her to come over. However the calls become more frightening over time as Jamie calls her back and doesn’t know where she is. Jamoe sounds like she’s lost or has lost her memory. As Sarah tries to get help, she tries to keep connection with Jamie. This is a good short as it keeps the audience intrigued not knowing what will happen next and hoping for the best for Jamie and Sarah.

-Late Night Drama dir. Patrice Laliberte- A young thug is in pursuit with a man he’s at odds with. He finds him at a night club and picks a fight with him. As he’s booted out, his girlfriend is angry at him and they get into a squabble in the car. After he throws a fit, she leaves him to drive off by himself.

This was all in French with the subtitles absent. Despite it, I could get a good sense of what’s happening. This is your typical night club drama you see all the time. What makes this film intriguing is its method of ‘follow-around’ cinrmatography. The audient follows the story wherever the young jerk goes keeping one in the thick of the drama

-Oh What A Wonderful Feeling dir. Francois Jaros- A woman deals with a truck-stop that’s normally a meeting place for those working their job, a spot for young people biking around and even a place of ill repute. She tries to make sense of the situation while also trying to solve a problem of her own. Even the paranormal comes into play. It doesn’t make for a lot of sense but it does tell the story well.

-Seven Stars dir. Sofia Banzhaf- A Vancouver woman visits Tokyo but struggles with her feelings of anxiety and alienation there. It’s a four-minute film that tells its situation. It’s more about the person in the place and their feelings rather than what happens.

-Stone Makers dir. Jean-Marc E. Roy- It’s just a four-minute film of a work day in a granite quarry but it’s more if you look close enough. The machines move around in almost a fluid motion like they’re dancing and the granite slabs look like works of art. It makes for an ‘oddly-satisfying’ film.

-Einst dir. Jessica Johnson- It starts with a view of a lone section of the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. Then a young woman comes to take off her clothes with nothing but a swimsuit on and swim in the Seymour River. As she goes under, she doesn’t re-emerge, leaving us to wonder. The quality of this short is its mix of natural beauty added with the mystery of the story. That’s what makes the film intriguing.

The nine shorts shown in this segment were all impressive. It was good to see them. There were some with stories to tell while some were more about focusing in on the scenery and the area around them. There were a few that turned out to be just footage and filmage of as-is situations. They remind you a lot of these ‘oddly satisfying’ videos on YouTube of everyday things that are somehow picturesque to look at and even tell its own story. Now you know why these ‘oddly satisfying’ videos are a hit.

Space And Time was an impressive selection of Canadian films. It was an hour and a half well-spent and was very enjoyable.