YOUR DAILY GUIDE TO THE 2010 TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL >>>

Strangely, the allure of free movies enticed but a mere dozen or so devotees to the University of Washington campus Tuesday evening. I suppose the Tacoma Film Festival can't match dinner's siren call for a weary student.

What influences magnetically pull us in one direction instead of another? four short films asked. The answers vary - for the men in Robert Sickels' entertaining doc Walla Walla Wiffle, life centers around a one-day wiffleball tournament each year in Eastern Washington. Wives roll their eyes as business owners, bank VPs and others become boys again with help from a featherweight yellow bat. Yet recreation ventures into obsession for some; one hardcore player, also a family man, makes the curious comment, "I look forward to this [tournament] more than anything else in life."

Longing for an old flame spurs the hero of One For Love into visiting an abandoned moviehouse. Before him on the screen flicker moments from his past relationship. Seated in the theater, the young man finally realizes a casual utterance's hidden meaning. But can this now impassive observer rectify past mistakes? Writer-director Seth Laird poignantly reflects on his own medium as a guide to forgiveness and understanding.

The tyke in Lost and Found wants nothing more than to rid himself of the penguin that arrives on his doorstep one morning. So, like any resourceful animated child, he builds a boat and paddles to the South Pole with his bothersome cargo. Thanks, Pixar, for raising the bar - now I expect every digital cartoon to have adorable characters, stunning visuals, and a weepy ending. Lost and Found, based on a book by Oliver Jeffers and narrated by actor Jim Broadbent, delivers in all three departments. Besides, who can resist an ittle bitty PENGUIN??

I could have stayed suspended above that frigid ocean forever, watching those two new pals embrace, but Wen Lee had to jerk me back into the real world.

"Know your stuff!" the pumped host tells her viewers.

Um, ok, I timidly reply.

"What's in a cup of coffee?" she asks the camera in Bill Nye-esque closeup.

I think you've had a few already, so go ahead and tell us.

And Lee literally hops over to Costa Rica to roll up her shirtsleeves and harvest coffee cherries with migrant workers, whose livelihood hinges on a fickle global market. What's in a Cup has an obvious television-friendly format, making its inclusion in a film fest odd, but still an entertaining look into how joe makes the world go (in more ways than one).

Two days of TFF remain; so get out there and know your cinema!

Click here to see a schedule of today's Tacoma Film Festival films.

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