“I enjoy a variety of entertainments.”  “I don’t want to commit 2.5 hours to a movie I might hate.”  “YouTube killed my attention span.” These are just a few of the reasons to attend Eat My Shorts, a screening of the funniest short films of the last two years, presented at the Just for Laughs comedy fest on Saturday July 28 at 9pm.

Eat My Shorts features a smorgasbord of cinematic amuse-bouches from around the world: fifteen films from Canada, UK, USA, Ireland and Argentina, each clocking in at between 5 to 13 minutes long. These shorts are the best of the bunch, sporting accolades including Oscar nods (“Wild Life”, “Luminaris”); wins at the SXSW film festival (“Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”, “(Notes On) Biology”); as well as the winner of the BAFTA 2011 Best Short Film (“The Eagleman Stag”). And one of the shorts features our own home-grown Hollywood It girl: Jessica Paré (aka Megan Calvet Draper on Mad Men) stars in “Sorry, Rabbi” a tale of misunderstanding set in Montreal’s Mile End.

The shorts programming runs for 109 minutes, so it’ll be primo party time when you emerge from the theatre. Head up to Casa del Popolo for Soirée, Rabbi where DJs ABS and Slutsky (director of “Sorry, Rabbi”, one of the aforementioned JFL shorts) will provide the tunes.

Eat My Shorts: July 28 at 9pm @ NFB CineRobothèque, 1564 St-Denis. Tickets $13.

Soirée, Rabbi: July 28 at 11pm @ Casa del Popolo, 4873 St-Laurent. No cover.

~ Heidi Craig