"Janwaar"

Short films are great no matter their actual quality level, because if it turns out the particular short you’re watching isn’t your jam, don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.

On the other hand, if you like it, a short film can be a wonderful little packet of joy. It can be a jumping-off point to a deeper dive on the subject, filmmaker, actor or even the aesthetic.

This year’s BendFilm Festival is packed with a plethora of shorts to choose from, each offering something special. Here are just a few of the ones you should check out at this year’s festival.

“Concrete and Steel”

Two men (Luis Tosar and Daniel Guzman) are left for dead in a concrete livestock guzzler somewhere in the middle of an unknown farm, far from the ears of anyone who can help. Chained together and to a concrete block, they try and figure out a way out when the water begins to fill the trough. The two friends come to terms with what they’ve done as well as reveal their truths to each other in this oddly sweet, well-written Spanish black comedy.

“Run Totti Run”

This animated, heartbreaking and heartwarming story of a boy and his dog brought me to ugly tears within a few minutes, but it was so worth every salty drop shed. Its sweet and simple story is perfectly matched with pastel-like art that furthers the plot’s magical and fantastic elements. Pack your tissues.

“Ice Merchants”

A father and his son live on the edge of a mountain, literally, and every day they break up the ice they’ve created overnight, parachute off the deck of their precariously perched abode and sell the ice to the village below. But when the weather begins to warm and no ice forms, their lack of a product becomes the least of their worries as the snows above them begins to melt. Without saying a word of dialogue filmmaker João Gonzalez utilizes incredible hand-drawn animation and fantastic use of motion to move the audience completely by the end of the short, beautiful film.

“Get Stung”

From Bend-based director, Nick Logsdon comes a weird and wonderful animated short featuring the half-naked Dutch Guy who, after he’s stung, helps bring the disgruntled worker Honey Bee back to his hive to die and come to terms with said death. This strangely beautiful but ridiculous and darkly funny short hits all the sweet spots while speaking to a deeper truth.

“El Portafolio”

Director Scottie Cameron tells a seemingly simple story in such an effective way. In his 10-minute short, a man (Juan Carlos Cantu) arrives home late for dinner, and in telling his wife (Alma Martinez) why, he opens up many questions for his audience. While driving home, the man offers a lift to a disheveled stranger (Albert Hammond Jr.) carrying a strange case and walking along the desolate roadway. The unpleasant stranger clings to the case and even after the man questions him about what’s in it, he rudely refuses to tell him. The whole ordeal is brilliantly told and just vague enough to be good without compromising the effect it has.

“I Am Salmon”

A beautifully shot outdoor short featuring stunning Pacific Northwest landscapes and fish rubbing (gyotaku) married with an equally moving poem told from the perspective of the salmon. The art and poem, both by Duncan Berry, provide a thought-provoking message about not only the fish and their ecosystem as a whole, but humanity’s part within it.

“Sembrando el Futuro/Seeds for the Future”

This documentary features two intersecting stories at the heart of the family of the Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca. The brothers behind the culinary powerhouse want to cook dishes their elderly mother ate during her youth while rebuilding her childhood home. But they come to find the shockingly diminishing rate of crop diversity and that many of the ingredients in those dishes simply aren’t available anymore. But thanks to seed banks around the world, scientists, as well as horticulturalists, are working to change that.

“Janwaar”

A fine example of the power that skateboarding can have. A small, impoverished village in India built a skatepark that dramatically changed the local youth outlook on life and commitment to their studies and bridged the community’s caste divide.