This year's eclectic and genre-tolerant selection for the One Minute Film and Video Festival includes 52 international shorts, all of which are -- as promised -- exactly sixty seconds and focus on and around the theme of "secret". As one might guess, some filmmakers adhere to that theme quite literally, while others stray in all sorts of creative and unusual directions.

Highlights for me include: Baywatch (which has nothing to do with Pamela Anderson larking about on a beach) has an eccentric lifeguard who rescues a dummy before giving it a proper burial; Postering: Reading the Secrets of the City is a slickly edited montage featuring the political poetry of phone pole banners; and the nicely ironic Childish Thoughts has a punch line just as good as its simple but effective visuals.

Our resident film writer and masterful self-promoter Matt Brown will not only be hosting the event, but has appearances in not one but two oddball companion pieces (This Thing is Bigger than the Both of Us: These Are Facts and This Thing is Bigger than the Both of Us: The Secret of String). Matt's not the only one capitalizing on precious screen time though, the one and only Dave Foley shows up (accidentally?) in two screwy gonzo skits (Dave Foley vs. The Hulks and Dave Foley and Fans: the 2nd Sequel).

The screening starts tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema. Tickets at the door are $10.

Photo: One Minute Film Festival