The take-away from Friday's DC Shorts 7 p.m. Showcase is that you can get away with a lot more in a short film; it can be that much more raunchy, bizarre, offensive and opinionated. And I was a happier viewer for it.

Here were my thoughts on the films in Showcase 3, which will screen again Sunday September 13 at 6 p.m. at the E Street Landmark Theater.

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Photos By Ben Crosbie

The sixth annual DC Shorts Film Festival kicked off its week of screenings this Thursday, with a two-hour showcase of 11 short films that surprise with their depth of story, creativity, and entertainment value. I've been going to the fest for the last four years, and while there's always reason for me to come back year after year, DC Shorts always has its share of lackluster flicks.  But Thursday's screening demonstrated that one or all of following are true:

• Opening night is always the best.
• There are more and more indie filmmakers and they're only getting better.
• The selection committee is particularly savvy this year.

Here are my thoughts on the films in Showcase 1, which will screen again Saturday,  September 12 at 9:00 p.m. at the US Navy Memorial, and Sunday, September 12 at 1:00 p.m. at the E Street Landmark Theater.
Read More "The Best and Worst of DC Shorts’ Showcase 1" »

“This was our film school”, said director Aron Gaudet about his first feature documentary, The Way We Get By, which has screened at more than 20 film festivals in the last three months, including Silverdocs this past week. Gaudet and his now fiance/film's producer Gita Pullapilly spent four grueling years on the project, working full time at other jobs while traveling sometimes 19 hours in a car for a shoot. But the overwhelmingly positive reaction from audiences has made the journey much more than just a learning experience.

Set in Bangor, Maine, the film follows three elderly individuals - Bill, Jerry and Gaudet's mother Joan – who go to a small airport every day to greet the troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite facing failing health, depression and mounting debt, the three are committed to greeting the troops as they first step back on American soil, even if it's as early as three in the morning.

I had the opportunity to chat with Director Aron Gaudet. Here's what he had to say:

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Winning the Sterling US Feature Award at Silverdocs was a surprise to directors Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher, whose documentary October Country moved beyond the traditional three-act narrative with a layered character study of a low-income rural American family.

The portrayal is particularly intimate in that it follows Mosher's own family.  He is the eldest of three to a mother who admits to forfeiting her dreams to motherhood at an early age and having a knack for picking bad men.  The same trait seemed to pass to her daughter Daneal, now the single and unemployed mother of a beautiful toddler named Ruby. Littlest is Desi, a sharp-minded but devastatingly sweet girl who despite being privy to child and domestic abuse and teen pregnancy, shows promise for breaking out of her family's cycle.

I had the opportunity to meet with Palmieri and Mosher this weekend. Here's what they had to say:

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Casting in fiction filmmaking is often said to make or break a film.  But this is even more the case in documentary, where casting often involves making a bet that the subjects' lives will make for an entertaining story.

Director Marshall Curry certainly bet well when casting three tween race kart drivers for his latest doc, Racing Dreams, which picked up the award for Best Documentary at Tribeca and screened this past week at Silverdocs.   Annabeth (11), Josh (12) and Brandon (13) “popped out” in screen testing, said Curry, who sensitively documented  their earnest, sometimes sad, and often humorous childhood travails all the while competing in the year-long World Karting Association Championship.

Curry last swept the festival circuit with his first documentary, Street Fight, which picked up an Oscar nomination in 2005.  His latest features sharper production values but no less compassion.

I was able to meet up with Curry after his screening at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring on Saturday. Here's what he had to say:

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