Sundance Shorts Wrap-Up

Though the feature-length films at Sundance often have a higher profile, the short LGBT films programmed there can provide a real hint of what’s to come in gay film.

BY Kyle Buchanan

January 30 2009 1:00 AM ET

Another timely
short was Jenni Olson’s "575 Castro St.," which
played the real recordings of Harvey Milk’s
pre-assassination tape over static shots of
Milk’s camera shop, recreated as a set for Gus Van
Sant’s biopic. "575 Castro St." is also
available online (on Focus Features’
Milk site), auguring a new trend that expands
the audience for these shorts before their festival runs are
over.

Madeleine
Olnek’s sharp, award-winning comic short
"Countertransference" was just one of the films to benefit
from an iTunes promotion during the festival, and
though Coley Sohn’s amusing "Boutonniere"
hasn’t yet made it online, the short (starring gay
faves Wendy McClendon-Covey and Zachary Quinto) had a method
of distribution at Sundance that was just as
ingenious: bright pink bracelets that disguised a jump
drive containing the film.

Some movies leave
Sundance struggling to find a distributor, but when it
comes to getting seen, the new wave of savvy short directors
are as fleet as their films.