Metro Digital Shorts
Metro Theatre (Citadel Theatre, Zeidler Hall)
Feb. 6, 9 p.m.

Even James Cameron probably got nervous at the premiere of Avatar. For any filmmaker, seeing their work screened in a theatre is the pinnacle of showmanship; all the blood, sweat, and celluloid is up there for a live audience to applaud or scrutinize. Luckily for the budding auteur directors in Edmonton there’s a place where they can get their first taste of a cinematic screening — Metro Digital Shorts.

Run in its current form by the Mostly Water Theatre troop, MDS is a seasonal film-festival competition, taking place over six pulse-pounding rounds from October to May. For the organizers, the ongoing contest is an opportunity to display their own comedy, as well as helping others.

“We started doing this when it was called Metro TV,” says Sam Varteniuk, a Mostly Water member. “We got renewed every single time for a whole season. And we really liked it.” When the original organizer left town, the theatre group stepped forward to keep it alive. Now the former regulars find themselves running the show. “We get to be funny, we get to help other people do their work, and it brings together a lot of great energy from different levels of the artistic community.”

Using an American Idol-style panel of artists from the Edmonton area, filmmakers introduce their pieces, and then respond to praise or persecution from the guest judges. Points are tallied from audience votes, while judges have the power to award extra to their top picks of the night.

“I think originally I was supposed to be like Randy Jackson … we gave that up after about five minutes,” says Peter Brown of CBC Radio, a regular judge for MDS. “One of my favorite things about it is seeing people who submit a film and get some comments, then you see them actually get something out of it. It’s a really low risk, low stakes way for people to just try to make something funny or touching and get some feedback.”

But wait, there’s more. Every screened film receives a $50 check made out to the artist (for directors as cheap as myself, that’s usually the budget for a short). The top four point-getters have an automatic invite to show at the next screening, and the winner of the night receives a coveted $100 in prize money. The champion that stands atop the movie-making mountain in the spring, once the dust settles and seasonal points are tallied, gets two tickets to fly anywhere WestJet flies.

For regular front-runner James Cadden, the prize-winnings are just gravy. “It’s a chance to actually get your work screened in a theatre setting, which as an indie-amateur, is not an opportunity you often get.” According to Cadden, it’s the camaraderie that keeps movie-making possible. “This is the best way to start networking if you want to meet new people with the same interests, at the same level, and build working filmmaking relationships.”

Aside from a five-minute maximum there are no limits on the genre or the length of a piece, leaving the field wide open for experimentation. According to Brown, it’s the possibility that each round brings which keeps it interesting. “Every once in a while, not every week, and not every film, but you will see something really great, a person or an idea you’d never heard of before. It’s fun to see a new, funny artist that you didn’t know before the night.”

And now time for a shameless plug: my short, Two, will be playing on Saturday night, Round Three, so come out and vote if you can. It didn’t cost a hundred million to make, but in the end every movie is an Avatar to the people behind it.