Cinematical

Welcome back to Eat My Shorts, where Cinematical regularly highlights short films that you can watch from the comfort of your nice warm computer. I'm going to try to fill Erik Davis's shoes, or rather -- well, if I said "shorts" there, I'd probably get reprimanded for harassment. At any rate, Erik's a tough act to follow. Since I'm just starting, of course I am looking for shorts to feature -- if you've made a short film yourself, or seen one online that you've enjoyed, please email shorts AT cinematical DOT com with a link. The entire short must be available for public viewing online. I love watching short films so writing this column is going to be a real treat for me.

On my first week, I thought I'd start with some shorts that I've seen at film festivals recently and have found online. The shorts all have been featured at Texas film festivals (what can I say, I rarely get to leave the Lone Star State), where most of them won awards ... or should have. Short films usually don't play many theaters, and few end up on DVD, so normally when I see something good at a film festival, it's frustrating because other people don't usually have the opportunity to see the film I'm gushing over. Fortunately, the miracles of the Internet mean that I can share some of these festival favorites with you.

• Coming to Town: This may be the reason why we revived Eat My Shorts. Seriously. Kim Voynar and I caught this short (pictured above) before the movie at AFI Dallas we saw together, Beings, and it was the funniest thing I saw during the entire festival. It's related to Christmas and let's just say that it would pair beautifully with Bad Santa -- I originally wanted to say you could pair it with Silent Night, Deadly Night, but Coming to Town is actually more entertaining than the 80s horror film.
• Hobo with a Shotgun: I first saw this short at SXSW although it was not in the festival lineup -- it won the "fake grindhouse trailer" competition and played during the Grindhouse 101 panel featuring Robert Rodriguez. In Austin, Alamo Drafthouse has been showing the short before Grindhouse. Decide for yourself whether this is more grindhouse than Grindhouse. (At least it's shorter.)
  
• The Lonely Lights. The Color of Lemons: Won a Special Jury Award in the Experimental Shorts category at SXSW this year. A complete change of pace from the above two films -- get ready to slow down and pay attention. As a young man views inkblots, childhood memories come swarming into his head. It took a few minutes for me to get into the mood, and then I really enjoyed the film.
  
• They're Made Out of Meat: Won the Best Comedy Short award at Fantastic Fest in Austin last year. A charming science-fiction tale based on a play by Terry Bisson. Character actor Tom Noonan is one of the stars. Science-fiction doesn't always require a lot of special effects and fancy sets, as this short demonstrates.
  
• If I Had a Hammer: Won the Best Animated Short at Fantastic Fest last year. Director Andy Bean offers us some insight about the ancient gods and their method of procuring tools of destruction. Not only is the action funny, but keep an eye on the background images, which made me laugh.