Ten Outstanding Shorts from Outfest 2006

”First Date” (Dir. Gary Huggins, USA, 2005, 20 min.)

The film’s official logline - a volatile ex-con will stop at nothing to keep a date with the underage boy he met online - captures the storyline but does not indicate the absurdly comedic moments in store for viewers who discover this 20-minute gem.  Shot on a borrowed camera and edited on a borrowed iMac, “First Date” is helmed by a Kansas City librarian who found his star, Santiago Vasquez, among the library patrons.  The short next plays the Vancouver Queer Film Festival in August. 

”guy101” (Dir. Ian W. Gouldstone, UK, 2005, 9 min.)

Shown in the same Boys’ Shorts program as “Available Men,” “guy101” shares with “First Date” the hook of on-line hook-ups.  In this particular case, the entire film (made at the Royal College of Art) is a collage of internet imagery put together in After Effects as a way of experimentally illustrating the saga of sexual encounter gone horribly wrong.

”Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” (Dir. Andrea Janakas, USA, 2005, 22 min.)

Writer/director Andrea Janakas offers up a day-in-the-life of two small-town girls in 1979.  An American Film Institute (AFI) student film adapted from Nona Caspers’ short story “La Maison de Madame Durard,” this teen drama benefits from strong performances from leads Annie Quinn and Amanda Seyfried. 

A scene from Jenifer Malmqvist’s award-winning short “Peace Talk,” which screened at the recent Outfest. Image courtesy of NewFest.

”Hold Up” (Dir. Madeleine Olnek, USA, 2005, 7 min.)

A selection from the Girls’ Shorts program, “Hold Up” is an example of a short film that actually suffers from being shown in a genre festival, as the audience anticipates the lesbian-angle twist.  Luckily, Columbia film student Madeleine Olnek has a charming enough story in this comedy of a corner store robbery gone awry that Outfest viewers enjoyed the film nevertheless. 

”Peace Talk” (Dir. Jenifer Malmqvist, Sweden, 2005, 14 min.)

Winner of Best Short at NewFest: the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film Festival, this Swedish film is a nicely executed coming-of-age piece about a pre-teen tomboy’s not-so-innocent play date with her pretty best friend.

”Rape for Who I Am” (Dir. Lovinsa Kavuma, UK, 2006, 26 min.)

A South African documentary that played before the feature doc “Cruel and Unusual,” Lovinsa Kavuma’s compelling half-hour piece interviews Johannesburg women assaulted because of their sexual orientation who are becoming activists via an anti-hate-crime awareness campaign.

”Reporter Zero” (Dir. Carrie Lozano, USA, 2005, 25 min.)

Another short doc that played before a feature (in this case, “Books of James”), “Reporter Zero” is a portrait of Randy Shilts, the legendary San Francisco newspaper reporter who pioneered AIDS coverage.  Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival and a gold medal winner at the 2006 Student Academy Awards, “Reporter Zero” benefits from the unique perspective of the filmmaker, a student at U.C. Berkeley‘s Graduate School of Journalism. 

[Kim Adelman is the author of “The Ultimate Filmmaker’s Guide to Short Films.”]