Shorts That Are Not Pants debuted at the Carlton Cinema for its fourth shorts film showcase. A full house was in attendance for a shorts programme of seven films, including two world premieres. One of the world premieres turned out to be my favourite short of the night. The short was called The Cub and even though it was a mere five minutes long, it was full of deadpan humour and one hell of a great ending. The short was directed by Riley Stearns, who is the husband of actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who also produces the short). Both gave a pre-recorded intro for the film, which was quite entertaining in of itself. The other world premiere of the night was Who Remember How It Ends? by Toronto filmmaker Matthew Brown. The short involves an encounter in an elevator, which includes a sci-fi twist towards the end. The short was made in collaboration with TheSubstream.com, which released a number of behind-the-scenes videos during the production of the short. In fact, you almost need to be quite familiar with the site in order to get the tongue-in-cheek case of mistaken identity present within the plot. Some of the other highlights of the night for me included a wonderful pun-filled animated short The Ballad of Poisonberry Pie, which was a western featuring a town full of talking pies. There's a brief live-action segment in this short, which featured a great sight gag. Aftermath of Meadowlark Lane features one of the most awkward conversations that you would ever have with your parent(s) and is quite funny. Edmond the Donkey was an Canadian short about a man, who thinks he's a donkey. It was definitely the oddest short of the bunch. Rounding out the programme were The Secret Number, about a man obsessed with a “number” between 3 & 4, and Foxes, about a woman obsessed with foxes. That's my overview of Shorts That Are Not Pants. The next edition is tentatively set to occur sometime in January.
