Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival Preview

This October, there will be gardening, butchering, pop star idoling, porn star ogling and chainsaw maids a-chaining... basically a little bit of everything thanks to the Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival. Now in its 6th year of programming fantastic short selections from the land of the rising sun, the festival has screened over 130 films to over 5000 audience members with hopefully many more to come.

Divided into five programs, (all named after fruits!) the festival runs from October 7th-10th with every program screening twice, giving you more than enough chance to see all the films.

The first time I attended the festival was in their second year in 2004, and one of the most outrageous animated selections, Auto Mommy, was so memorable that it's still stuck in my brain. So I was hardly surprised when one of my favourite viral videos of recent memory was selected to be featured at the festival. Take a sneak peek here of Chainsaw Maid, a film that has been circling around the internet for the past few months, redefining the zombie-claymation genre with one fell WHRRRRRRRRRRRR.

The opening night program on Tuesday October 7th, at 7pm will be featuring several short films by rising talent, director Hiroyuki Nakano. One of which, Iron, was selected and screened at Cannes this past year.

For more information about the festival and the program schedule, be sure to visit www.tjsff.ca. The Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival will be taking place at Innis Town Hall, with advance tickets and passes available at Queen Video (480 Bloor St. W. / 412 Queen St. W.) or SANKO (730 Queen St. W.)