Ever since I’ve been attending, there has been a promotional short at the beginning of every Vancouver festival film. Many people look forward to seeing the three different films, usually about thirty seconds long, and for those who go to a couple dozen or over a hundred films it makes a difference whether these film bites are tedious or something special.

For about ten years I’ve been thinking fondly of the series of shorts which all featured Ken dolls recreating scenes from other films, particularly Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise (who is kind of plastic like a Ken doll). Other people I mention this to also remember how funny this was and I’ve recently tracked it down here on YouTube. It still holds up, especially if you can remember the very serious original trailer from Mission: Impossible.

My other favourite was in rotation a few years ago. It was a mock trailer for a film which was meant to represent the type of crazy films the festival turns down every year. I mean who wants to see some totally self-involved documentary about pants, right? Wrong! The trailer for “The Pants I Have Owned” was one of the most memorable offerings that year and I would happily have sat through ninety minutes of the Eastern European narrator’s stories about his many pairs of pants. You can see this one on the filmmaker's website (click archive and scroll down to Pants I Have Owned).