Shortcut 100 Film Festival Preview Music Box Theatre Oct 8

Shortcut 100 Film Festival is a Passport Free Ticket to Global Travel!

This Sunday a wide assortment of very short films -- from horror to comedy to drama and more-- will be showcased at the Music Box Theatre, which is hosting the SHORTCUT 100 FILM FESTIVAL.

What a cool way to travel -- with popcorn!-- without leaving town!

Just take a quick look at these teasers to get a sense of the WIDE variety in films this hors d'oeuvre of a film festival offers.

YOU, as an audience member get to VOTE on some of the awards. YOU, get to hang with some of the most edgy up and coming filmmakers from Chicago and beyond.

WOW- a showcase of women filmakers' work!!! Bring it on!

SPACEMAN.

An astronaut prepares for launch, only to be interrupted by the calls from his mother to get out of bed. Suddenly, we no longer see the blinking lights of a space shuttle, but rather the warm glow underneath a comforter in Rupert Madurski’s bedroom. His launch was imagined, just one of several fantasies in Christopher Oliva’s narrative short, SPACEMAN.

SPACEMAN. depicts the life of Rupert Madurski, an off-beat man living at home with his mother who aspires to be an astronaut. Unfortunately for him, NASA has discontinued their manned space missions (Rupert characterizes this as only a minor setback). Played with oddball charm by Scott Nelson, Rupert proceeds through a series of idiosyncratic scenes, edited to mix his fantasies with what is actually occurring. The film’s finale takes these fantasies to new heights when Rupert stumbles onto the soundstage for a film about space, leaving the film’s conclusion up to interpretation in a scene that seems to knowingly nod to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Recommended for: Fans of idiosyncratic dramedies
Not Recommended for: Audiences who dislike fantasy

cupid is not a terrorist

Bellopropello’s animated short film, cupid is not a terrorist, begins with a long tracking shot through a mass of tangled, black branches. Amidst these branches fly two winged hearts, one pink and one red. After disappearing over a hillside, a flurry of arrows soar through the sky, and viewers are transported to the view of a man and a woman on a bench.

Bellopropello’s use of shadowy figures and silhouetted characters creates a darker tone, populating the world of cupid is not a terrorist with Gothic-looking gates and a full moon. The camera swoops about in a manner akin to the pink and purple winged hearts that at times can feel dizzying. With an array of anthropomorphized ideas, sound bites, and comic-inspired speech balloons, cupid is not a terrorist gives audiences a variety of avenues to ponder the randomness of finding true love and the role of some Cupid-like entity in such escapades.