Film Festival short films packed with big issues

"Reporter Zero" is a profile in courage which tells the story of an intrepid reporter, Randy Shilts, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle during those early years when the AIDS epidemic was thought of as a "gay disease," and not a worldwide epidemic that knew no sexual orientation or gender.

Shilts was openly gay, and worked tirelessly on the story when most other major publications and political leaders refused to acknowledge its increasing and lethal presence. Shilts went on to write the national bestseller, "The Band Played On," the title of which, better than a thousand words, captures what occurred for far too long. It proved to be a prescient work, and detailed what lay ahead, and the failure of institutions to respond when they had the means and the evidence to do so.

Just as the book was published, he disclosed that he too had the HIV virus, something he had known for six years, and so began a long journey where he was slowly robbed of the opportunity to do the work he so very much loved to do.

"The Danish Poet" is a delightful, animated tale which ponders a whole series of events which led to the beginning of one life. It tells the tale of Kaspar, a poet who suffers from writer's block. He has lost his mojo and doesn't know how to get it back, and so sets off on a trip to Norway. Thus begins a journey of more than a thousand steps, all told in a wonderfully captivating way. Kaspar encounters bad weather, hungry goats, angry dogs, and a woman he could love forever. But alas, the best laid plans of mice and Kaspar are not to be, and so he returns to Denmark brokenhearted. But wait, there's more.

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Films, and narrated by Liv Ullman, this is a remarkably sweet film that will be enjoyed by the entire family.