Palm Springs International ShortFest brings star power

Glenn Close’s introduction to short filmmaking involved a Sony Handycam and a spontaneous one-day shoot.

“I can’t believe my little film is now being shown at film festivals,” she laughs on the phone from her home in Maine.

Close’s 18-minute film, “Pax,” is one of the featured presentations at the 16th annual Palm Springs International ShortFest running through Monday. Out of 3,000 worldwide entries, 314 short films are being shown packaged into 52 “themed” programs.

Close’s film, which she co-directed and narrates, is part of a lineup of animal-themed shorts titled “Animal Attraction” running on Saturday afternoon. “Pax” is the name of a service dog given to returning Iraq war vet Bill Campbell. Close’s film documents the touching reunion between Campbell, Pax and Laurie Kellog, the woman who trained Pax as part of the Puppies Behind Bars program at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women where Kellog is incarcerated. Close had previously met Campbell when she interviewed him for her dog blog, Lively Licks.

“It’s an amazing story to have a dog trained by a woman in prison given to a man whose life was virtually destroyed when he returned from Iraq. Pax has given them both a new leash on life,” Close says. “It was an emotional day and it was really seat-of-the-pants filming. We couldn’t say, ‘Let’s do that again,’ or ‘Let’s get closer.’ It is what it is, but I am very proud of it because it tells an important story. You can pack a pretty powerful punch in a few minutes.”

According to festival director Darryl MacDonald, the explosion of technology and new media has made it a fertile time for short films. “I think it’s really spurred the interest in the short film format,” he says.” We are seeing a lot of great filmmakers from around the world producing really interesting and refined work. I think, in many ways, it’s more creative than what we are seeing in feature films at the moment.”

Selections vary from the inventive French short “The Postcard,” in which postcards literally come alive, to the cheeky and very Aussie take on God in “Glenn Owen Dodds” (part of the “On Top Down Under” program, which features a bunch of unique Aussie shorts), to “Little Red Hoodie” an outrageous Scottish take on Little Red Riding Hood. The award-winning documentary, “Wagah,” shows the bizarrely entertaining military ritual that takes place at twilight on the border between India and Pakistan.

“It’s really like reading short stories — you can have fun traveling the world from your theater chair in a very short amount of time,” says the Festival’s film curator, Kathleen McInnis.

In addition to Close, the ShortFest is packed with loads of star power either behind the camera, acting or lending voices to animated shorts. Familiar faces appearing on film include Alicia Witt, Matthew Rhys, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor and AnnaLynne McCord, while Helena Bonham-Carter, Meryl Streep, Spike Jonze and Forest Whitaker can be heard voicing animated characters. Kirsten Dunst directs her contemporary take on the Christ story in “Bastards” and James Franco has written and directed three shorts that will be screening.

Though Franco may be better known for his range of eclectic film roles from “ Spiderman” to “Milk” to “ Pineapple Express,” the actor has spent the last two years at a film graduate program at NYU. The three films are the result of some very productive homework. “I didn’t want the films to be just exercises,” Franco says. “I wanted them to stand alone, tell a story and be able to be seen outside the course.”

His first film, the haunting “The Feast of Stephen,” picked up an award at the Berlin Film Festival, while his second film “The Clerk’s Tale” was screened as part of Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival.

Based on various contemporary poems, Franco’s films (which also include “Herbert White,” starring actor Michael Shannon as a family man with a dark secret) show a unique cinematic sensibility and talent for visual style. “I didn’t really set out to make films that featured a protagonist alienated from the world that has a tortured inner life, but that definitely seems to be a running theme I’m attracted to,” he says.

Franco will also attend the festival for a Q-and-A session with Variety’s Peter Bart. “Actors always complain that the worst part of making a film is the press tour, but it’s a different story when you’ve directed the films. I could talk about them for hours,” he laughs.

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Where: Camelot Theatres, 2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs

When: Ends Monday, see festival website for full schedule.

Price: Individual screenings, $10 (matinee before 3 p.m., $9); Reel Deal 6-Pack, $45; galas and special events priced separately.

Info: (800) 898-7256; https://www.psfilmfest.org