In the cushy seats at the Isabel Bader Theatre I watched INT 6: It Ain't What You Do. The words, "Who programmed this?" ring through my head as I watched this programme of international shorts that started off really strong ... then made its way down a very bumpy hill.

It started off with the fantastic GET THE PICTURE questioning who is actually making the news, the media or the people as a journalist and photographer are escorted through a warzone that may or may not have been staged.

AGAINST THE SUN was a rather painfully slow documentary (and it's a short) about a potter. The voice of his mother yelling at him to shoot his crazy dog is placed over him creating a sculpture out of clay. It was actually a pretty short to look at, if the volume was turned down.

The morbidy humourous THE CARPENTER AND HIS CLUMSY WIFE started out quite promising as the mix of visual effects and whimsy was a change from the soundtrack of a nagging mother. The Edward Scissorhands-like story deterioriated after awhile when it became quite obvious what was going to happen.

THE LODGE, an experimental short left my head scratching. It was fun to watch, but what exactly was the point? The cast of characters looked as if they were thrown out of the 70s into a lodge and given all the free drugs they wanted to consume forever. The programme book reads, " ... invites some people he can think help him at his summerhouse ... hoping to reveal their true selves with some simple exercises ... not everyone is meant to be at one with nature." ???? Exactly.

KABUL CINEMA was questionable at best. The concept was engaging enough as a boy wheels around his movie cart in war torn Afghanistan to make a living. He falls for this girl, whose father doesn't want him anywhere near her. Then the civil war breaks out in their area and they have to make a scramble to safety. And then, that's where it lost me because through a series of flashbacks, flash forwards, flashes of the imagination ... I have no idea what was going on.

The animated THE TREE OFFICER was wacky plastercine comedy about a tree officer who mans the complaint line of the city. He regularly gets calls to chop trees down. He is a tree lover, Internal conflict and wackiness ensues.

Continuing on the wackiness streak we end with SHORT/FILM in where two actors find themselves stuck in a short film wanting to get out. In order to make it out, they have to embrace all of the cliches and wannabe plot motifs to the chargrin of the leading man. Predictable ... you decide.

Int 6: It Ain't What You Do screens again this Saturday at Innis Town Hall @ 7:15pm.