The time is 9:16pm. The location is the Isabel Bader Theatre on Charles St., one of the many theatres that will be hosting TIFF 2009 films. Tonight is a very special night-the launch of Short Cuts Canada Programming with instalment 1. There is no doubt that the line-up is out in full force tonight, and those who have had a helping of this healthy dose of Canadiana before will know that this series brings together an array of eclectic national talent.

The crowd seems to generally between 25-35 and there is no shortage of colourful chatter amongst the excited people. A woman in-line declares that she hopes to catch all of the Canada Short Cuts Programming as she finds it a great opportunity to see works of multiple artists under the cover of one ticket price. Once seated in the theatre it is clear that the support for Canadian shorts lives large in the hearts of a close to sell-out venue that anxiously wait to see what's in store.

Now it's time for the show.... An exhale releases from me when the lights turn back on and I smile with satisfaction:

A conscious mind can take a journey of real vs. surreal, humans often battle with the stillness of welcoming life vs. the movement of being faced with death and this is a metaphor and reality on screen tonight. Caitriona Cantillon's Swimming Lesson transports to a place of domestic familial awkwardness but still manages to touch the heartstring of feeling realistic and relative to family life.  The stillness of the water somehow manages to make the moments of this short flow with intensity of wanting to know more about how the relationships have become so confrontational between 2 daughters and a mother, that though overbearing, feels painfully estranged from her children.

The Spine is a melancholic and beautiful walk through the journey of a long-term relationship of a couple that seems to love madly and love each other madly. That is, madly both in a hopelessly tragic and romantic way. The main side-effect through all the years of marriage is a loss of communication and respect of what brought them to each other in the beginning. Dan and Mary are two multi-faceted characters and Academy Award winner Chric Landreth's quirkiness is strong and bold.

Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq staring in Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael's Tungiijuq proves to be an intelligent collaboration of unique minds. My exposure earlier in the summer to Tagaq singing at Harbourfront Centre and now on-screen, wins me over as a fan of her intensity and rawness. Scenes of graphic carnivore behaviour ignite reaction and the briskness is perfect as a setting. The connection of Inuit culture and nature is never lost as the guiding spirit of life and death. Being transfixed to Tagaq's anthropomorphism is simply stunning. 

An education is given about what a baby is exposed to through dangerous hazards in everyday life, from eating to the ingestion of led in toys and paint finishes.  My Toxic Baby is a lively journal of Min Sook Lee's commitment to her daughter, Song Ji, and the devotion of mother to child is warming and motivating to promote activism and awareness. Helping is the fact that all the babies in the film seem to be ridiculously cute!

La Chute falls into the distress of elementary school teacher Marie's life in a moment that provokes her to make a choice to confront a parent of one of her students about child abuse. Whether what motivates her is an act of obsession as a persecutor or the mindfulness of a caregiver is in question.

Short Cuts Programme 2 continues today at 4pm at Isabel Bader Theatre.