Stony Brook Film Festival

The Stony Brook Film Festival is in it's 11th year and I've attended portions of the last 3 years. This year's movies have by far been the best films I've seen screened at the festival. The shorts Volare and Transgression have been very good and I really enjoy the form. Short films are an incredible art form that really condense emotion and message into film less than 30 minutes in length but often less then 15 minutes long. Some of the full length features seem to get drawn out and lose a themselves in their indie-ness or artisticness, but by the emotion, passion and symbolism used in these short films is conveyed more suscinctly and effectively.
I wish more short film would be made available either thru the internet or at commercial movie theaters, unfortunately, running these emoton-packed nuggets of film would not be economically viable and thus, once again, because of our cash-driven economy, great work that could really change people's perceptions and challenge ideas is left to gather dust in university film collections.
I urge any and all readers of this blog to check out your local film festival when it comes around and support the production, distirbution and viewing of independent short films as well as full length movies and those theaters who show them, whenever possible.