Bumbershoot's 1 Reel fest features best of SIFF shorts — and more

Once again, Bumbershoot's annual 1 Reel Film Festival, now in its 14th year, has been wisely outsourced to Seattle International Film Festival programmers, who have cherry-picked short films from SIFF's own recent offerings and added quite a few more.

Beginning with a two-hour sneak preview at 8 p.m. today, 1 Reel's festival includes 22 programs of 113 films from 52 countries. Here are some highlights.

Friday

Friday's kickoff at 8 p.m. includes Destin Daniel Cretton's outstanding "Short Term 12," a 22-minute drama told so well it leaves you with the impression you've just seen a memorable feature. The film, a SIFF award winner, concerns a day at a residential treatment program for kids: the fights averted, the contraband drugs discovered, the violent outbursts restrained. Cretton's cast is spot-on, and his strength is in making every character believable.

Also on the bill is the very funny Swedish short "Instead of Abracadabra," about an adult amateur magician who lives with his parents. Drawn to an attractive new neighbor, the would-be Houdini badgers his father into letting him put on a show at a family party. A final sight gag is not to be missed.

Saturday

The day begins at noon with the hourlong "Films4Families," kid-friendly fare including the promising "Crane and Digger," a romance between earth-moving vehicles.

At 1 p.m., a tribute to photographer Robert M. Knight — who has been shooting rock musicians for decades — will be followed by a screening of "Rock Prophecies," a documentary chronicling Knight's quest to find both himself and the world's next great guitar player. There will also be a Q&A with Knight and director John Chester.

"The Best of SIFF 2009 Jury Award Winners," at 3:30 p.m., includes Irish filmmaker Ken Wardrop's cute "The Herd," in which separate interviews with a farmer and his aging mother reveal differences of opinion about how to handle the strange appearance of a young deer among their dairy cows. In the same program, Laurie Hill's "Photograph of Jesus" is an amazing work of animation about the bizarre requests people make of a library's archives (for example, a photo of Jack the Ripper).

Sunday

At 2 p.m., "Picture & Sound: Music Videos" presents the three-minute "White Winter Hymnal" a dreamy, Claymation response to the baroque pop of Seattle's Fleet Foxes.

"The Best of SIFF 2009 Audience Award Winners," at 4:30 p.m., offers the hilarious "French Roast," a computer-animated vignette about a wealthy fellow who forgets to bring his wallet to a cafe.

At 8 p.m., "The Meaning of Life" program includes the haunting "200 Block," an oddly meditative documentary about the sudden destruction of a street in Bozeman, Mont.

A couple of films at Bumbershoot have end-of-the-world themes. The best is Shawn Morrison's drama-comedy "Forever's Not So Long" (part of "The Twilight Zone" program at 9 p.m.), about a man and a woman, strangers to one another, who hook up for the last four hours of Earth's existence and look as if they've lived a lifetime together.

Monday

Paul Robinson's "Fanatic," part of the "Critical Mass" lineup at 1 p.m., is a truly original, unpredictable story about a dwarf bicycle courier who steers clear of everyday harassment and condescension, finding an unlikely measure of tranquillity at a cafe with a woman and her blind, garrulous mother.

If you're sick of vampire lore everywhere, "Thicker Than Water" is just for you. A clever satire on the bloodsucking trend as well as a thoughtful piece on society's slow acceptance of minorities, "Thicker" (part of the "Reel Grrls" program at 2 p.m.) is among Bumbershoot's best this year. Also on that bill is "Dark Material," an animated piece about various artists working with black and white in different mediums.

The festival draws to an end on a ho-hum note with the poorly acted, environmental-disaster short "Greenspoke" (in the "I Have Seen the Future ... " program at 8 p.m.). Much better is the low-key fun of "The Day My Parents Became Cool" (in the "Made in Seattle" program at 5:30 p.m.) following a bunch of teens as they try to figure out how to get adults to stop acting like them.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com.