We Like Short Shorts

Comments (0) By Jef Otte Thursday, Jan 27 2011

When it comes to the silver screen, it seems there’s little opportunity to see much of anything that doesn’t involve gratuitous explosions or testicle injury. And of the many theater-shunned forms, the most neglected could be the short: Unless you’re at a film festival, you’re just not going to find too many short films.

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But if your short attention span craves something friendlier than the standard ninety-minute fare, then you’re in luck, because Boulder’s International Film Series has been chosen to a set of nine short films, courtesy of one of the most highly regarded film festivals in the land. Sundance Shorts is the brainchild of the Sundance Arthouse Project, an exclusive Sundance effort to push its more obscure fare to discriminating audiences — and the IFS was one of fourteen entities nationwide to be selected to participate.

“Sundance Shorts has become sort of an annual feature for those of us who participate in the Arthouse Project,” says IFS director Pablo Kjolseth. “We sift through all the shorts and came up with ones with a good balance between being lighthearted and unique, representing different countries and highlighting female directors.” Their selections have ranged from the now virally popular Drunk History (the one screening not on YouTube, by the way) to Mr. Okra, a documentary that peers into the soul of New Orleans through the eyes of one charismatic vegetable salesman. In other words, it’s the most diverse 113 minutes of film you’re likely to see in one place this year.

The screenings run tonight through Saturday, with showings at 7 and 9:30 p.m. nightly in the IFS space in Muenzinger Auditorium on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. Tickets are $6 ($5 for students); for more information, call 303-492-1531 or visit www.internationalfilmseries.com.
Jan. 27-29, 7 & 9:30 p.m., 2011