If variety is the spice of life, then Short Cuts Canada?s Programme 3 is a perfectly seasoned chicken cutlet.  That?s not a particularly clever lead, and it doesn?t make much sense if you think about it for any period of time.  Short films after all, are not delicious chunks of meat.  (Personal note: Stop watching Food Network till 5 a.m.)

But what else can a hungry man say about a programme that delivers everything: Canadian master Larry (seen on your right) Kent?s Hastings Street, shot in 1962; an ultra-modern time travel paradox in Hirsute; an adaptation of a 1967 Terry Southern screenplay (Plums and Prunes); a ridiculously funny mockumentary on Segway-riding, role-playing dweebs (Knights of Atomikaron); not to mention cutting-edge animation (Blood Will Tell) on the same bill as an eloquent eulogy for a lost way of life in Farmer?s Requiem.

The filmmaking process was markedly different for the filmmakers involved also. Troy Nixey (Latchkey?s Lament) spent five years lovingly constructing his ambitious short.  The charming pals behind Knights of Atomikaron however, claim to have grinded their hilarious and highly commercial piece out in one day.  Trevor Cawood, who made the enigmatic and stylish Terminus, almost takes computer generated graphics for granted they come so easily to him, where Larry Kent battled endlessly with the difficult process of syncing sound with images shot nearly 50 years ago in the days when you couldn?t edit on a laptop.

In short, there?s a lot to see here.  And your last chance is tomorrow at noon. So don?t sleep in!  For more detailed descriptions of the films mentioned and others in Programme 3, check the link above.  Me, I?m going to eat a pickled egg.

Trevor Cawood, director of Terminus, and Troy Nixey, director of Latchkey's Lament.