Yellowknife (May 26/06) - Sometimes there's nothing better than a movie. But how about 40 short films strung together into two nights of comedy, innovation and ridiculousness over two sold-out nights?

That's what St. Patrick and Sir John high schools provided during their respective film festivals last Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Capitol Theatre.

Both fests featured student movies in a number of styles, from normal filming to stop-motion animation, covering genres from skateboard documentaries to zombie-horror.

The St. Pat's festival ran on Wednesday, with a number of short sports films and comedic pieces. A strange, surreal standout was "Get Me a Ham Sandwich of the Dead," a tongue-in-cheek zombie film with a copious amount of intentionally slow, awkward escapes.

"Chairmation" caught the eye, as chairs and students moved around St. Pat's through the power of stop-motion and clever editing, set to Beethoven's Fifth. The grainy, stylish, black and white filming of "Emo" was also a crowd favourite.

The night closed with the a new installment of "The Shammy Boys," the spoof super-hero series featuring festival organizer Rob Hart and various St. Pat's instructors. This episode, "Rings of Ire" featured surprisingly well-choreographed light-sabre battles, equally surprising special effects and a lot bad jokes.

Hart said "The Shammy Boys" was meant to be an inspiration to students, to show them how far technology can be pushed.

"It's a glimpse of what can happen if you put in some extra time on stuff," he said.

Sir John's film festival ran the next night, opening with a series of amusing animated shorts from Aiden Cross.

The standouts of the evening were generally longer pieces, such as "The Hound of the MacDougalls" and "The Batman and Spider-Man Experience, featuring The Hulk," which spoofed Sherlock Holmes and the famed super-heroes, respectively.

"Hound" was a ridiculous take on "The Hounds of Baskerville" that kept shifting gears from murder mystery, to spoof comedy, to high-paced action and finally to a lengthy and hilarious "Moulin Rouge" inspired musical sequence.

"Batman and Spider-Man" was equally ridiculous, as the title characters (or their store-bought equivalents) battled a series of thugs in Sir John's halls. The film was complete with the necessary "BAM" and "POW" sequences and a cameo appearance from Batman's "trusty bat-guitar."

Organizer Arnold Krause said he knew the event would be a hit when he put the films together for the festival.

"I know if I'm laughing, the kids will be laughing too," he said.

Both film fests were successful fundraisers, selling out the 200-plus seat theatre both nights. For St. Pat's, this money goes directly into buying equipment for media programs, while Sir John puts it towards scholarships for students moving on to post-secondary media programs.

Both organizers had kind words to say about Pido Production, who handled the sound and technical issues for both nights, free of charge.

"We can put the money we make back into the film program," Hart said.

ST. PATS FESTIVAL WINNERS

Best Actor

Brandon Erasmus "Emo"

Best Actress

Erin Gullberg "Scooby Doo"

Best Sports Movie

"Rebel With a Scooter" - Babyn Nolting Productions

Best Dramatic Movie

"Emo" - Warren Tedrick Productions

WAMP Award (Best Technical Aspects) Movie

"Chairmation" - A Devon Woodward Production

Palm d'Shammy (Best Overall Movie as judged by the SPHS Academy)

"Emo" - Warren Tedrick Productions