3-D and brevity

At the opening night shorts program, host Barry Levinson invited each filmmaker to come up to the stage to introduce his or her film.

It took Bennett Battaile a while to sidestep out of the middle of the packed row and climb the stairs to the stage.

"[My film] is shorter than the time it took me to get up here," Battaile said. "Enough said." That would be a great Oscar speech, wouldn't it?

The film was, indeed, a mere 1.5 minutes of 3-D animation called "Gnatural Wonders," with gnats making formations like an Army air show or a double helix. Yes, the MFF passed out commemorative 3-D glasses for this. I wonder how many people kept the glasses on for the second film before realizing it was not in 3-D.

Levinson recalled his first 3-D movie. It was the Three Stooges in 3-D, and that finger-poking-your-eyes thing was used ad nauseum, coming out at the viewer. I hope the MFF can find a copy of this some day and show it at a future festival.