Short films stretch the imagination

Bumbershoot is typically synonymous with outdoor fun, but if you're into movies, Seattle's biggest arts-and-music festival provides an annual survey of short, independent filmmaking from Seattle and around the world. In its second year of partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival, the 12th annual 1 Reel Film Festival offers ample reasons to head indoors, including showcases for local filmmakers, critics' darling Miranda July, imaginative animation and a whole lot more.

This year's program presents dozens of films in 27 categories. The festival begins at noon Saturday with a departure of sorts: Legendary indie-film writer/director John Sayles will show clips from his upcoming film "Honeydripper" (described as "a story that captures the transition from blues to rock 'n' roll"), followed by a Q&A session with Sayles.

The categories are presented as one-hour programs, each consisting of three to six films relating to specified themes. Favorites from the Seattle International Film Festival make a return appearance, along with local efforts from SIFF's "Fly Filmmaking Challenge."

Here are some highlights based on 35 shorts available for preview:

Today

One-Reel's pre-festival appetizer is a free 7 p.m. program of six international shorts. It includes "Death to the Tinman" (Ray Tintori, U.S., 2007), an offbeat adaptation of L. Frank Baum's "The Tin Woodsman of Oz," filtered through the anguish of lost love ... and lost body parts.

Saturday

SIFF's 2007 "Fly Filmmaking" entries — in which local crews had five days to shoot and five days to edit a 10-minute film — will be shown from 3 to 4 p.m., none more impressive than Matt Daniels' "Numb," a clever gothic tale of an orphan girl's visit to her bizarre uncle's mansion. Think "Lemony Snicket" with more dreamlike story-

telling.

Local filmmakers also shine in the "Picture & Sound" category of music videos (2-3 p.m.), including a 2006 Laura Veirs video by Lynn Shelton (director of the well-received local feature "We Go Way Back") and two clips by local director Sue Corcoran, whose penchant for kitsch and vampy fun is on display in videos for Andrea Wittgens (2007) and Captain Vintastic (2006).

In the "Nothing As It Seems" category (7-8 p.m.), "Morning Fall" (Edward McGinty, U.S., 2006) is a 9-minute slice of irony about a man, disoriented after a motorcycle accident, who doesn't realize that a parallel incident has fatefully occurred.

Despite its title, "The Saddest Boy in the World" (Jamie Travis, Canada, 2006) is one of the festival's funniest highlights, a black comedy that plays like a morose kid's version of "Harold and Maude." It's playing in the "Pretty, Witty, and Gay" category (8-9 p.m.).

In the "Dystopia" category (9-10 p.m.), the 2006 Brazilian short "Tyger" is another winner, turning the classic William Blake poem into a puppeteer-driven vignette of a giant tiger stalking a big-city landscape.

Sunday

In the all-Swedish "Stockholm Syndrome" category (2-3 p.m.), the animated short "Habitat" (Lars Arrhenius, Johannes Müntzing, 2006) follows nine people and a dog in a three-story apartment building, where human nature leads to some very amusing developments.

The weekend's funniest, most wickedly entertaining short is the 14-minute British comedy "Silence is Golden" (Chris Shepherd, 2006), in which a Cockney kid wages war on his annoying elderly neighbor. It's like a wacky riff on Neil Jordan's "The Butcher Boy," showing in the "Crime Story" category (5:30-6:30 p.m.).

Equally impressive is "Checkpoint" (Ben Phelps, 2006), an Australian short in which a foolish prank, racial profiling and pent-up frustration lead to a twist ending with tragic repercussions. It's brilliantly directed, and plays in the "Outer Limits" category (9-10 p.m.).

Monday

"Made in Seattle" (2-3 p.m.) is a typically mixed-bag category of local hits and misses, and while Shawn Telford's 13-minute "Gimme Music, Gimme Shelter" (2007) presents an enjoyably offbeat example of unlikely romance, Salise Hughes' "Everyone I Have Ever Known" (2006) is a trippy, multitextured experiment in no-budget ingenuity.

"July in September: The Short Films of Miranda July" (1-2 p.m.) showcases three early films from the acclaimed writer-director of "Me and You and Everyone We Know." The shortest is "Getting Stronger Every Day" (2001), in which July does what she does best, turning ordinary moments into something extraordinary.

"Best of SIFF Audience Award Winners" (3:30-4:30 p.m.) is highlighted by Dan Brown's made-in-Seattle short "Pierre" (2007), in which a French mouse tries his best to impress the lovely human women he encounters.

As always, documentaries make a strong showing, especially with "Ride of the Mergansers" (Steve Furman, U.S., 2006), an amusing study of a rare duck species, screening in the "Stranger Than Fiction" category (4:30-5:30 p.m.); and the 2006 Belgian film "A Hell of Fishing," a damning indictment of free trade and its devastating impact on the Senegalese fishing industry, playing in the "Planet Cinema" category (5:30-6:30 p.m.).

In the "Center of Gravity" category (8-9 p.m.), the 2006 Argentine short "The Last Block," directed by Javier Nir, is a charmingly innocent study of a young boy and girl in an intimate moment; some may cry foul, but it's a tender interlude handled with discretion and authenticity.

Finally, the aptly named "Fascination" category (9-10 p.m.) concludes with the 20-minute German short "Exploding Buds" (Petra Schröder, 2006), a bizarrely inventive exercise in splendid surrealism, played out in an enchanted forest of dazzling light, music and color. It's a perfect closer to a weekend full of cinematic wonders.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net