5/5 Some real gems here
  by Regent T. St Claire (Culver City, CA)
An awesome collection of Horror shorts. From the humorous "Sister Lulu," to the grisly "Coffee Break" I think, to the reason I got it in the first place - "The Separation," this collection is well worth the money. My fave at this point is the haunting "The Grandfathers."

4/5 Fun stuff.
  by Robert P. Beveridge (Cleveland, OH)
Small Gauge Trauma (Various Directors, 2005)

To celebrate ten years of the Fantasia Film Festival, Mitch Davis picked thirteen of the short films that have run there over the years and worked with Synapse Films to release this little gem of a disc. Small Gauge Trauma presents these thirteen films, with a surprising number of extras.

Perhaps the best of these is The Separation, Robert Morgan's twisted little puppet show (Synapse's description is "Cronenbergian", though I'd liken it more to a weird combination of David Lynch and Jan Svankmajer) about Siamese twins who are separated, but find themselves nervous and insecure when on their own. Japan, of course, turns in a strong showing with L'Ilya, a relatively long (at thirty-nine minutes, the second-longest piece here) movie about a woman whose career consists of chronicling the moments of death of a rash of Japanese suicides, and how that affects both her and her loved ones. I'm only hitting the highlights; many others here are almost as strong.

There are some weak spots, most of which have to do with translation rather than the films themselves (the subtitles on Gorgonas are unintentionally hilarious, and one of these films doesn't seem as if it belongs at all, but those are minor considerations. For the most part, you're getting three hours of great short cinema. You want it. ****


5/5 Small Gauge - Big Impression
  by Kurtis Spieler (New York, NY USA)
I have always been a fan of short films. I feel that short films can be a truly powerful cinematic experience, one that can't always be matched in a feature length film. Unfortunately, it is so hard to find a decent collection of short films on DVD - Small Gauge Trauma is definitely an exception.

The DVD features 13 award winning short films from the Fantasia film festival over the past ten years or so. Every short film on this collection has it's own voice and is unique in some way. My personal favorite was a film entitled "Infini" - I found this one to be very moving. Some other highlights are "Gorgonas" - an animated short, "I'll See You in my Dreams" - a must see for zombie fans, and another personal favorite of mine "Tea Break" - a gorehounds dream, while also being a satire on desenitization (ironic). The last film I will mention is a particularly disturbing short called "Love From Mother Only" which despite what the title may imply, is actually about black magic - a word of caution, I found this short to be extremely unsettling and I have seen a lot of disturbing films. Something about this one has a real creepy feel that gets under your skin if you let it (this may be a good thing for some people, but I'll let you make up your own mind). Nonetheless, it is affective, much like the other films in this collection. I would have spent the money for just these films alone.

If you are a horror fan, a fan of extreme cinema, or a fan of short films in general, then check out this DVD - you won't be disappointed. It is great that Synapse took the time put this collection of short films on DVD, I hope they will continue to show an interest in releasing other collections of short films as it is very difficult to see these types of films outside of the festival circuit.