Toothy, childish grins outshine the cardboard canines of an infamous wolf in one of the 40 selections that comprise New Zealand's largest short film festival.
Show Me Shorts, featuring releases from New Zealand and further afield, will run from November 9-18 at Rialto Cinemas and offers a stylistically varied selection of films grouped into six themed sessions (Love and Other Catastrophes, My Hero, Unrestricted Access, Explorers, Nerds' Revenge and Comedy Corner).
Jackie Van Beek, winner of the 2009 event with Just Like the Others, returns to the festival with Little Red Riding Hood, a collaboration with Dunedin-based producer Aaron Watson.
Watson began his media career as an actor and writer for television, then spent 15 years working in central Europe and Russia as a tour director. During this time he filmed two documentaries with friend and collaborator Te Radar, one in East Timor (Timor ODDessy) and the other in Israel and Palestine (Christmas in Bethlehem).
More recently, Watson has been working with Van Beek and cinematographer Ari Wegner.
Little Red Riding Hood is the fourth short film on which they have combined their skills.
The trio's 2011 Show Me Shorts festival entry, Go The Dogs, was nominated for two awards at last year's Aotearoa Film and Television Awards (Best Short Film and Best Performance in a Short Film), and also enjoyed success offshore, having screened at festivals in Berlin, Sundance and Melbourne.
For Little Red Riding Hood, Van Beek again found inspiration in young people, Brittany-Anne Romijn, the star of Go The Dogs, appearing alongside 40 or so children from a Melbourne special needs school.
"Jackie was in Melbourne, doing drama classes for children with autism or pronounced learning difficulties," Watson explains.
Little Red Riding Hood is, as its title suggests, a fresh take on the old children's tale: a girl sets out to visit her grandmother, strolls through a forest and meets a wolf, which in turn greets Granny before having its fate sealed via the blade of a woodsman.
"Instead of doing a school play at the end of a three-month course, Jackie did a short film," Watson says.
"We had no other intention than to give a bunch of kids a good time. But the film came out so well that when we looked at it back in New Zealand we thought we'd release it. And it's been going well. It had its world premiere in Australia and has played at two festivals.
"The film has a wonderful naivety to it, but the kids also put in great performances."
Like many, Watson regards short films as a stepping stone to a feature-length release, but emphasises there can be other motivations in producing streamlined stories.
"People do regard them as a stepping stone and when we made our first few they were self-financed. We then got into a few festivals and started building some momentum; that's when the New Zealand Film Commission started taking notice of us. A feature film is the end goal for Jackie and myself.
"Another big thing about short films is they offer people the chance to experiment, to try out techniques. Because it is such an expensive business, you want to make sure something is going to work before you are let loose with a big budget.
"Then there are those who make short films because that's all the story needs. The first short film Jackie and I did, In Safe Hands, based on the Green Lane scandal involving the hiding of 3000 infants' hearts, was 12 minutes long and that's all it needed to be.
"A beautiful short film is a great thing."
See it
The Show Me Shorts Film Festival screens at Rialto Cinema, Dunedin, from November 9-18.
For more information, visit www.showmeshorts.co.nz
