Catch "Exposure" and Stretch Your Imagination

In this era of big-budget blockbusters crammed with spectacular special effects, it can be easy to forget that sometimes the best things come in the smallest packages.

The Sci-Fi Channel, on the other hand, has recognized that by developing an excellent weekly hour called Exposure that features a handful of fascinating short films by directors both well-known and aspiring to be. If you have access to Sci-Fi and haven't had a chance to tune it yet, make a date with yourself. You won't be disappointed.

The April 19 edition offered 10 Seconds by Christophe Joly, in which a convicted killer has 120 seconds to reach a finish line to receive a life sentence instead of death. He is pursued by the family of the man he killed, who are armed with high-powered rifles. Solid Action Love Partner by Walter Williams was set in the 1930s and has an abusive husband bringing home a robot to do the household chores. He intends it as an insult to his longsuffering wife, but the end result is far different than he'd planned. In Phillippe Robert and Jean Claude Thibaut's Les Ailes de l'Ombre, a seemingly paranoid criminal holds his psychiatric nurse hostage, screaming that the mysterious "thing" that killed his brother is coming for him. And it does. Hors Jeu, an anime-style offering from Eric Galliardo, has a man speeding through a surreal city to meet a beautiful woman before she leaves without him. Christian Volckman's Maaz, a man in a heavy black cape leaps and climbs through a strange empty city, seemingly pursued by--himself? And, finally, on a lighter note, in The Nightshift by David Kury two nightmare creatures argue over who has the right to scare the child sleeping in the bed.

A word of warning: these are not for younger viewers. Although most tend to be about PG-13 level, others definitely push the boundaries of sex and violence. On the other hand, that's the point. Short films like these are experiments in cinematography, editing and story. They question limits and insist on challenging the narrow definitions of what is.

Those who lack the Sci-Fi Channel but do have Internet access needn't suffer, either. They can view the same film on the official Web site, provided they have the proper equipment for it. Minimums needed are Shockwave Flash 4 and Netscape or Internet Explorer version 4 or higher. You'll need the Real G2 Player to watch the films, not to mention at least a 56K modem and a fairly high-speed processor. Even with that, you may find the download causes a time-out.

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