CHRISTOPHER WOOD: TFF DAY 3: COMEDY SHORTS >>>

Laughs are a tough sell, especially among independent filmmakers working with limited resources and untrained actors. Despite such setbacks, punchlines with intelligence and insight can still reach audiences. The Tacoma Film Festival works screened Saturday at SOTA take their comedy seriously.

Maybe because most of the shorts feature older characters that they end up avoiding YouTube’s level of self-conscious silliness. Take Marty Yacovelli from the mockumentary Cabbie. Marty is a 36-year-old nobody with big dreams of driving a taxi in the Big Apple. He wanders around wintry Chicago while sharing his hatred of inferior modes of transportation: “If you’re a trolley, drive off a cliff.” His cab gab makes for one likable kook. The middle-aged wife in local filmmaker Joseph Andolina’s One Year Later shares Marty’s chattiness â€" much to the chagrin of her husband, who finally takes action.

Both PK Granny and Taken turn the title “helpless old lady” on its head. The white-haired heroines don’t let age stop them from unleashing a little inspired havoc on some unwitting youngsters. Another codger comedy, The Grayed Escape, shows one man yearning for pleasures beyond the walls of his nursing home. His constant scheming reveals a need to shed restraints imposed upon him by an uncaring system.

The absurdity of society’s rituals is a topic which finds release in comedy; The Man from Mars, Blind Luck and Double Talk all examine one of our strangest ceremonies: the first date. Hailing from Norway, Mars deploys sparkly special effects to heighten its saga of woman’s encounter with some out-of-this-world male behavior. Men find it hard just communicating with each other in Talk. Unfortunately, the film spells out its “surprise” ending way before the climax.

The good-natured Blind Luck follows a matchmaker’s attempt to unite two jaded souls. Following the screening, writer/actor Jody Arensberg shared stories about the inception of Luck. “Short films and stories come naturally to me,” she says. 

Tacoma Film Festival schedule
Sunday, Oct. 5
Full details here

11 a.m.
The Grand Cinema
For a Few Marbles More, The Natural History of the Chicken

12:30 p.m.
Tacoma Art Museum
Lumia, To Live: A Cinematic Study of Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie

1 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Last September, Radioactive Red Bull

2 p.m.
School of the Arts Blackbox Theater
E for Everyone

3 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
In Times of War: Ray Parker’s Story, The Ostrich Testimonies

3 p.m.
Tacoma Art Museum
Fish, but No Cigar, Forced Perspective: Odessa, Verlaine, Everett DuPen: Sculptor, Dudley’s World, Mugs, Paradittle, Some Assembly Required, Tacoma Chalk Off

4:15 p.m.
School of the Arts Blackbox Theater
Crawford, For You, My People

5:10 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Certifiably Jonathan, Stuck

6:15 p.m.
School of the Arts Blackbox Theater
Four Minutes on an Abandoned Bridge, The Skyjacker

7:15 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Alone

8:15 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
For a Few Marbles More

8:15 p.m.
School of the Arts Blackbox Theater
Memorize-You-Saw-It, Some Assembly Required, Tacoma Chalk Off, Velocipede, Bike Project

9:15 p.m.
The Grand Cinema
Beauty 24, Young Love