It was another great year for the Best of Alberta Shorts program. A near sell-out every year, this year it served as the closing gala presentation. The films were all great and the Q & A with filmmakers from most of the films was enlightening. Greenwash Gang was conceived, shot, and edited in 17 hours for a 24 hour film competition. Ellen's Shoes is Han Siu's first film. He shows great promise as a feature film director. I had heard many people talk highly about The Island. I think it played at FairyTales this year. Fallow is the first film in a planned trilogy. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for the two films to follow. Intergalactic Who's Who - Zig 5 was an interesting take off from the Hinterland Who's Who series. Zig 5 is the fifth in the series of Intergalactic Who's Who. I think the director said there are at least three more to come. A Tax on Pochsy is the latest in a series of plays/short films about the character Pochsy (anagram of Psycho). A fantastic film that engaged the entire audience. It is rare to find a film that is so well filmed as well as funny. 5 Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica was adapted from Dave Bidini's stories. I think Cam Christiansen has won this award the past two years (for I Have Seen the Future and The Real Place). Although, those films were both deserving of the award (with the former even being short-listed for an Academy Award) I was glad to see the streak broken this year. Trevor Smith directed a music video for Dan Mangan's song The Indie Queens Are Waiting. I have watched this video countless times since it was posted online a couple of months ago. Mangan will be performing in Calgary at the Marquee Room Monday, October 5th. Dead Walkers appeared to have the most cast and crew in attendance. We will probably be hearing more about this film in the coming months as it continues to be accepted to impressive film festivals around the world.
At the gala, A Tax on Pochsy was announced as the winner. A well-deserved win.
