Growing up I was always a huge fan of short stories. I was a voracious reader and they helped make me feel like I was getting more bang for my buck (or my parent’s buck as it were) when I read compilations. But even besides the fact that I could read more stories, and thus go on more adventures, I loved how they provided small snap shots into the character’s lives. They allowed me more freedom to come up with a continuation on the narrative, allowing me to fill in the gaps and construct worlds that only I would experience.

But while short stories have allowed authors to flourish, short films seem to be a slightly different animal. Too often festivals focus only on the ultra short films that have to rely on ironic or O’Henry style endings to drive the film, resulting in an all to often seemingly manufactured and formulaic genre.

Thankfully, the Flyway Film Festival cares not about running times, preferring instead unique tales and wondrous characters regardless of if the film is three or thirty minutes. Because of this, it is the audiences who benefit if they decide to attend this festival.

The Fridge
Director: Allison Orr
United States | 7 min | 2008

The first short I had the privilege of watching, The Fridge has set an incredibly high bar for the other shorts to follow. The Fridge takes the challenging and complicated topic of climate change and brilliantly illustrates it in seven glorious stop-motion minutes. Using a refrigerator as the setting, The Fridge explores what happens to the food when someone accidentally leaves the door open and the culinary delights within thaw out and begin to explore their new world. Will the now booming micro-ecosystem manage to survive when malfunctions?

Fledgling
Director: Tony Gauly
United States | 7 min | 2009

Fledgling is a fascinating micro documentary about Kevin and the baby crow he finds on the street one stormy evening. Shot in an archival fashion, it is both compelling and alluring as you watch Kevin struggle with his desire to help the crow and his fear that by doing so he will ruin any chance that it might live a more “natural” life.

Alex’s Halloween
Director: Daniel Persitz
United States | 15 min | 2008

Alex’s Halloween has something you won’t see often at Flyway, star power in the form of one Jane Lynch. And while Lynch is great as the fanatic health foodie she’s hardly the focus of this tale. Rather we follow the adventures of Alex as he recreates the wondrous tales of the various Halloween costumes he is try to choose from. Its fantastical fun for the whole family. Well, as long as you prefer Three Musketeers to granola that is.

Penny
Director: Mary Cates
United States | 6 min | 2009

Penny follows the travels of a long forgotten and often ignored Penny. And while the short may follow the standard plot conventions of most short films, its twist on the old rhyme “Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you’ll have good luck!” makes for a sweet and amusing tale.

Calendar Confloption
Director: Andrew Jiminez
United States | 24 min | 2009

Calendar Confloption is the story of a twelve year old girl who is so scared of her upcoming New’s Year Day birthday that she attempts to stop time and prevent it from every happening. But when the year’s Holidays begin appearing in her bedroom wondering what is going on, things start to really get strange.

A narrative short after my adolescent heart, Calendar Confloption immediately reminded me of fantastical fairy tales of my youth like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. So to say this film appealed to me is quite the understatement, as I could scarcely contain my grinning throughout the film. Bring your kids and your inner-child and prepare for a magical one-room adventure.

Cheese Wars
Director: Taylor Pipes
United States | 24 min | 2008

Moving to Wisconsin when I was eleven, I was forced to learn two important rules. The first is that a drinking fountain is not a drinking fountain. It is a bubbler. (Do not ask why, it is a rabbit hole you will never escape.) The second is that Wisconsin is cheese country. Both of these facts are irrefutable. But i the twenty years since I moved to Wisconsin something changed, California decided that it wanted to challenge for cheese supremacy, and with its massive corporate and high-tech farms, it looks like it will happen sooner rather than later.Cheese Wars documents this “friendly rivalry”, and while it does its best to remain objective despite its director’s Wisconsin ties, it can’t help but lean in one direction.

Its easy to see why this film is being so well received, as its neither mean nor intent on making one side look bad, but rather it attempts to show two sides of an industry and the passions of the people who drive each side. These people are proud of what they make, they simply focus on different things to define their success. And while its easy to say that because I’m from Wisconsin that I will gravitate to their way of making cheese, but I feel safe in saying that I gravitate to the side that makes cheese in a way that I feel is right. And hopefully, I actually am.

Colore Non Vedenti
Director: Jay Cheel
Canada | 29 min | 2009

It should be noted that know Jay. I wouldn’t say we are close, but we have bought poutine together. That’s practically second base in Canada. So feel free to cry “Biased!” when I say this; Colore Non Vedentirocks. If you’re a genre film fan you are in for a treat, as its a film that carefully balances humor and horror, while still managing to tell an interesting and complex science fiction yarn. As an added bonus you’ll get to see some fascinating and inventive visuals (think Giallo), making the film easy to sum up as thus: its like Mario Bava directing an episode of The Outer Limits. Yes, its that freaking good.

Tags: Alex's Haloween, Allison Orr, Andrew Jiminez, Calendar Confloption, Canada, Cheese Wars, Colore Non Vedenti, Coolore Non Vedenti, Daniel Persitz, documentary, fairy tale, film, films, fledgling, Flyway Film Festival, giallo, Jay Cheel, Mary Cates, Penny, Pepin, Science Fiction, short film, short films, Taylor Pipes, the fridge, Tony Gauly, United States, Wisconsin

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Independent Indies, Movies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.