With plenty of whit, absurdity, melodrama, and the uniqueness of left field humor, this year's UAF Film Club Film Festival earned my laughter, as well as a few small whimpers of horror.

In general, I liked the film order. It seemed to keep the audience away from some of the fidgeting and restlessness that was present at last year's festival. This year also showcased better films and better audio. The festival started with a short introduction from the festival directors Paul Gentemann and Ricky Dean Monsey, who gave the appearance of many sleepless nights of back bending work over the computer.

Many of the films in this year's showing were long, boring or abstract. Apparently, I'm told, some films did not make the cut, including a film about the fermentation of semen, and a sock puppet show.

The first half of the festival started with short films, including one by Alaska Gravity Works that featured hair raising metal music. Following that was "The Ding," one of my favorites, which many of us can relate to when faced with the moral dilemma of car doors and tight parking spaces.

"A Novel Inspiration" brought a cultural and romantic aspect the festival with the story of an Interior love-triangle. I appreciated the film for its quirkiness.

The abstract film "Khwan Nhee" was a bit too quirky for my innocent Big Bird weaned brain. The film was animated and used the technology of the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center well. But this was the film that brought out a small whimper. I just don't take to the color blood red unless it's running off my steak. Even ninjas made their way into a film called "Carlos Has Yet to Die." I can't really remember the plot or if there was one, but it reminded me of a Jackie Chan or Jet Li film, where the plot isn't as important as the smooth moves, hyyy-aaaaa noises and kick butt action.

"The Patent Riddle" was too long for my attention span, but the "Psychic Monkey" was the perfect reward at the end of the first half of the films. If you have ever had problems with puppies chewing or peeing on the rug, perhaps it would be better to take a leaf out of the "Psychic Monkey" and just shoot it before it starts mind control murder.

Laced deliciously throughout the films were short shorts, which reminded me of commercials. These shorts involved annoying classroom situations. My attention span is like bad sex, short and quick, so this is why these films were so wonderful. They took out all of the dramatic pauses, intellectual dialog and just made do with quick witty phrases and jokes.

My favorite of these was the situation of the boy with the ringing cell phone in class. His professor answered his phone and told the boy's girlfriend that the flush-faced boy was with another girl and to try back later. Of course, you would have to have been at the films to appreciate them.

The second half of the festival was not so light hearted with a longer length film entitled "Morbid Buried Secret." I recognize many in the film as friends and that's why it pains me to say that it wasn't the most pleasant thing to sit through. Though overall quality seemed to improve from last year's film, audio still seemed to suffer.

I wasn't able to follow the plot of the film. I have given my brain time to mull it over and the best I've come up with is that there was a menacing flash of light/blob thing that was lurking in the underground tunnels under our very school. The film did build up suspense at times, which impressed me for a student film. There was a display of what I like to delicately call "boobs," a shower scene depicting the reasons why stalls should be disinfected, and many, many dramatic reflective looks and pauses. The film did offer good use of special effects for a student film.

Monsey, one of the festival's coordinators, is my newly found hero with his clever, sharp films. He scored another with "Whiipiiish" a short about two video game playing couch potatoes (or as I like to call them Sofa-taters) who do not like Animal Planet, exercise, or girlfriends. There were a few more films after that, but my attention wandered away during the two extremely long and superficial music videos. I loved the dancing but I think I could have done without the bar scenes and the sandwich dancing demos.

Over all this years festival should have had a bigger audience for a better film festival.