Sac-Animation

People go airborne in an elevator in Hang Time. Two guys attempt to decode newspaper personal ads in Esperanto. A troubled young man struggles with massaging his answering machine announcement while drinking wine in This is John. And the abstract artwork of Ceci n’est pa un penis (This is not a penis) certainly does look at times like the mast of manhood. Welcome to this nugget-laced but widely uneven compilation of film shorts presented by the Sacramento Festival of Cinema. This Saturday-only screening includes cell animation, digital and experimental art, media compositions, and live action shorts from such local talent as Mark Herzig, Brian Clark, Darrell Fourney, Jonathan Morken, and H.G. Leissel, and filmmakers from around the globe. The music videos feel out of place and probably should have been shaped into a separate program but there are plenty of redeemable moments tucked into this cinematic smorgasbord for mature audiences.