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SHORT CUTS I
Showtimes: 2/15, 2pm and 2/16, 8:30pm GU.

LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Tiffany Shlain, United States
Playfully updating the 1950s school documentary, Shlain offers the fictional stories of a conservative politician, a young couple, and a fundamentalist activist are interwoven with a factual chronicle of the decline in amphibian populations to expose the creeping erosion of reproductive rights. (14 mins.)

ATAMA-YAMA (MT. HEAD)
Koji Yamamura, Japan
After a stingy man eats some cherry seeds, a cherry tree grows on his head and he gets into a lot of trouble. A modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese Rakugo story Atama Yama. (10 mins.)

HYPER
Michael Canzoniero, Marco Ricci, United States
Need more time? Check out Ace Bivone’s Timesavers. His trademark methods include How to Multi-Task Each Moment, Economize Your Actions, and, of course, Create Your Own Shortcuts. And the best part is—the whole thing is over and done within just five minutes! (6 mins.)

TUNANOODA
David Zakin, United States
A story of lifeguarding and lunchmaking—connections between culinary and narrative traditions—as a boy eats lunch with his grandfather. (10 mins.)

UNITED WE STAND
Hans Peter Moland, Norway
Eight old men on vacation come across a woman stuck in a swamp. More than willing to help her out, they get stuck themselves. Inspired by the Labour Party. (8 mins.)

DEAD ROOSTERS
Andrij Parekh, United States/Ukraine
Two reunited brothers descend into an explosive rivalry where competition and jealousy have an irreversible outcome. Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival. (14 mins.)

SHADOW MAN
Amanda Rudman, Britain
A young girl secretly spies two men breaking into a decrepit house. Fascinated, she gets their attention and befriends them. Soon the line between friendship and intimacy becomes blurred, and the little girl may be crossing dangerous boundaries. (12 mins.)

THIS CHARMING MAN
Martin Strange-Hanson, Anne Marie Kurstein, Denmark
After years on the dole, 35-year-old Lars Hansen is set on a retraining scheme. One day at the job center his file gets mixed up with that of El Hassan, a Pakistani. 2003 Oscar for Best Live Action Short, Best Short, London Film Festival. (31 mins.)
Total running time: 98 mins.

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SHORT CUTS II
Showtimes: 2/19, 8:30pm and 2/21, 1pm GU.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN IN THE WORLD
Alicia Duffy, Britain
A girl. A dog. A mother. A topless man. This bewitching snapshot examines an encounter between a young girl and a topless man as the small girl searches for something to do. (6 mins.)

TERRA 7
Aristomenis Tsirbas, United States
A curious alien creature discovers the terrifying truth behind a mysterious object in the sky. Rich CGI fuels this sci-fi short with a political twist. (7 mins.)

HARVIE KRUMPETY
Adam Benjamin Elliot, Australia
The biography of an ordinary man seemingly cursed with perpetual bad luck. (23 mins.)

TERMINAL BAR
Stefan Nadelman, United States
A fascinating pictorial history of a NYC bar whose customers, from the hard-drinking working class Irish to coiffed African American gay males, continually transform its focus over the last 10 years. (16 mins.)

LUCY AND RICKY
Jesus M. Rodriguez, United States
Do you know how to say f—–k in Spanish? (3 mins.)

SALARYMAN 6
Jake Knight, Britain
A modern tale of the life of a Japanese Salaryman. Shot in Tokyo, the mundane and repetitive routine is shown in detail as he attempts to piece together his life using the aid of a pocket camera after losing his memory. (7 mins.)

GAY BOYFRIEND
Ryan McFaul, United States
In their debut music video, the “Ukes of Hazzard” want a guy who can shop all day and cuddle all night. And straight boys need not apply. She just wants a man who can shop all day and cuddle all night! (3 mins.)

EXTN. 21
Lizzie Oxby, Britain
Orman is having a fruitless conversation on his mobile phone. He is running back to his office but getting nowhere. If he could just get through to Mr. Langley everything will be resolved but someone (or something) is intercepting his calls…. (9 mins.)

COMPULSORY BREATHING
David Munroe, United States
From the world’s capital of killing yourself (San Francisco) comes this twisted bouquet of a love story about a suicidal human beatbox and a forlorn street urchin who wants to borrow his gun when he’s finished. (10 mins.)
Total running time: 100 mins.

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SHORT CUTS III: TECHNIQUES OF THE OBSERVER
SHOWTIME: 2/24, 8:30 pm GU.
A Program of Recent Avant-Garde Films Curated by Cinema Project.

TRAUMA VICTIM
Robert Todd, United States
A film shot on the roadside between visits to maximum-security prisons. In photographing the land in hypervibrant color, the film creates a sense of emptiness, solitude and personal reflection. (16 mins.)

GLOW IN THE DARK (JANUARY-JUNE)
Rebecca Meyers, United States
Rebecca Meyers' most recent film takes us on a somnabulistic journey through fields of light -- window reflections, street lamps and full moons. (6 mins.)

ELEMENTS
Jim Jennings, United States
Formal abstractions of the Manhattan cityscape, viewed through the physical and emotional blurring of a rainstorm. (6 mins.)

ENDLESS PRESENT: BIOGRAPHY OF AN UNKNOWN FILMMAKER BY CORNELIUS THISTLE
Kathryn Ramey, United States
An unconventional and multi-layered approach to autobiography, incorporating hand-processed abstractions, ethnography, and the work of artist On Kawara and anthropologist Ray Birdwhistle. (30 mins.)

FIGURES IN THE LANDSCAPE
Thomas Comerford, United States
Made entirely with a pinhole camera, these lush and grainy images shot in the suburban landscapes of Schaumburg, IL are set to the backdrop of narration from various found texts recounting the history of the region, creating a story about land use and develop-ment in North America. (10 mins.)

JOURS EN FLEURS
Louise Bourque, United States
A mottled abstraction of decaying flora which takes its title from the French-Canadian term for a girl’s first period. (5 mins.)

GANYMEDE & CALLISTO
Courtney Hoskins, United States
An optically dense study of the moons of Jupiter—both as a visual subject and as a metaphor for Hoskins’ relationship to the late filmmaker Stan Brakhage. (7 mins.)
Total running time: 85 mins.

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SHORT CUTS IV
Showtimes: 2/26, 8:30pm and 2/27, 8:45pm, GU

A DUBLIN STORY
Graham Cantwell, Ireland
In contemporary Dublin, Clocker and Sanga are two young street kids whose innocence is starkly contrasted by the harsh environment in which they live. (14 mins.)

THE FINE ART OF POISIONING
Bill Domonkos, United States
A lavish chiaroscuro montage of 2D and 3D animation, still-photography and hand-drawn images, create a netherworld of deceit, plotting and secretly served revenge. (6 mins.)

TOM HITS HIS HEAD
Tom Putnam, United States
Tom hits his head. Tom gets dizzy. Tom is afraid to leave his house, but Tom thinks his house is haunted. Tom buys guns and a hazmat suit. Tom sees the devil in his bathtub. Tom thinks he’s the Antichrist. Tom needs help. (11 mins.)

THE WORLD OF INTERIORS
Bunny Schendler, Britain
Procrastination lies at the center of this whimsical animation of a young man on the verge of going out, a disheveled flat, and the siren call of a ringing phone. (7 mins.)

MAGDA
Chel White, United States
A first love is corrupted as a man recalls his affair with a beautiful circus contortionist. (6 mins.)

WITH HONORS DENIED
Mimi Gan, United States
Japanese bombs hit Pearl Harbor on a Sunday. Monday marks the start of a young girl’s war. (15 mins.)

ETERNAL GAZE
Sam Chen, United States
An animation inspired by the life and torment of Alberto Giacometti, one of the great scultptors of the 20th century. (16 mins.)

PERFECT
Rankin, Britain
The debut short film from London-based photographer Rankin is an unexpected, provocative look at domestic abuse. (13 mins.)

RAVE AGAINST THE MACHINE
James Harvey, Richard Rudy, Stevan Riley, Holly Lubbock, Britain/Yugoslavia
During the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s, a troubled group of friends in Sarajevo strove to keep their sanity through the music they made; parties they organized and the radio they broadcast. (24 mins.)
Total running time: 88 mins.