Shorter Letters

Among the 800 or so Canadian shorts submitted to the Vancouver International Film Festival, Nathan Douglas’ 33-minute (which premiered at Locarno in August) is both emblematic and anomalous. Emblematic because its production model—no institutional support, limited budget, cast and crew sourced from friends and acquaintances—is characteristic of the conditions faced by filmmakers yet to make their debut feature in Canada, where public endowments frequently depend on a transition to more substantial runtimes; and anomalous because its awkward (mid-)length and obscure sentiment set it apart from the vast majority of accepted submissions, which are often reverse-engineered to cater to the dubious inclinations of overworked programmers and unimaginative funding agencies. The limited critical support for short and mid-length narratives, the widespread perception of such films as