If you haven’t made it to the festival this year then you might be wondering what the introductory shorts are like. They’ve been fairly artsy for a few years and quite a few have fallen flat. This year they have gone in a different direction and most of the spots are only a few seconds long. They depict familiar film festival types or situations (ie the first guy who doesn’t make it into the sold-out screening, the reluctant first question-asker) usually in the theatre itself. A few of them miss the mark — the ‘pretentious film-goer’ over-analyzing the film and the ‘festival Ironman’ who neglects his family and subjects others to tuna smell may be real types but it kind of feels like the festival is insulting its most passionate patrons. I do like the guy wearing four jackets who has to save everyone’s seats.
I’d like to see a different angle on the question-asker: “My question is in three parts,” and “This is more of a comment than a question...” Or I’d like to see a portrait of my favourite festival-goer ever who carefully pulled a bottle of red wine and a fluted wine glass (not plastic) out of his backpack after a film started.