Tropfest is the annual Australian short film festival.  It is annual, or meant to be, but we had one in February 2013 and another one on Sunday… Whatever, shorts are great, and the more the merrier I say.

It was another coolish/gloomy/rain-filled Melbourne summer’s day.  The festival was being streamed across the country and we were constantly treated with shots of a glorious sunset at the Sydney site.  In Melbourne the shorts were held across several locations. However, why people chose anything other than the Royal Botanical Gardens is anyone’s guess.  After wandering around aimlessly in the gardens we stumbled upon the Moonlight Cinema and sat ourselves just behind the people that paid.  Really, people paid for a free event to sit just in front of us…

Anyway, the surrounds were spectacular and we had a giant Toblerone to provide us with warmth through the evening ($6 at Target, no joke).

There were 16 finalists and we resolved ourselves to sit through the rain (unlike those who fled at the first drop).  It was well worth it.  The shorts this year were an eclectic mix of comedy, tear-jerkers and the token wtf?  I’d take these any day over the depressing now-I’m-going-to-go-and-off myself movies which can heavily populate these events. Why do people want to make us sad, why?!

My favourite was ‘Off The Meter’. It was about a Melbourne taxi driver who, “off the meter”, picked up refugees (seemingly arriving by boat on the Yarra…) and helped to make their initial days in Melbourne pleasant.  This was closely followed by ‘Charades’, which brought out the competitive child in us through its team of three giving it their all to win a charade championship.

-Ruki