Resfest

With the sheer number of film festivals out there, it does a critic's heart good to finally be able to wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend one. Consisting primarily of short films shot digitally that push the boundaries of form and content, Resfest should gladden the hearts of those who miss MTV's Liquid Television or even those other things MTV used to play...what were they called? Oh, yeah...music videos. An entire block of festival programming is in fact dedicated to that form, courtesy, for the most part, of electronica-type artists, since they tend not to feel the need to show their faces onscreen, but also from Radiohead and cartoon band Gorillaz. Among the short-film highlights are the surrealistic free-form of What Is That; the Austrian Franz Kafka-meets-Louis C.K. Copy Shop, filmed in a style that looks as though it's been run through a temperamental photocopier; the autobiographical Helicopter by Ari Gold, whose mother died alongside rock promoter Bill Graham; and Man With the Beautiful Eyes, a Charles Bukowski poem set to expressionist animation. The overall effect is almost like watching a Spike and Mike festival at which nothing sucks. Two features are also showing: Scratch, the acclaimed Sundance documentary about turntable DJs, and the celebrated CG anime Blood: The Last Vampire.