Anyone scared off by the idea of experimental film should consider just how bizarre the nonexperimental has become. Imagine Edison being lugged to Iron Man and expected to make sense of the cuts, perspectives and narrative shorthand our minds have shaped themselves to parse. Because truth is always tougher than fantasy to capture in art, filmmakers such as Kansas City's Heather Brown aim to convey, as Virginia Woolf would have it, "that jar on the nerves." To do that, they turn to techniques far removed from the ones Hollywood has developed to bring us the workaday fantastic. In She Caught My Ketchup, the short that screens at 8 tonight at Third Eye Productions Studio (2024 Main, 816-931-7160), Brown utilizes the experimental to reveal the everyday: A gaggle of redheads dish over a series of meals, with the secret drama apparent in their interactions. Seven other Brown shorts precede Ketchup, including the sunny, animated stroll Forty First St., which was named Outstanding Experimental Film at 2007's Winnipeg Film Festival.
Fri., May 2, 8 p.m., 2008
