Here is your archetypal bad date story, told from the perspective of the apparent victim. Though we’d like to hear the other side of the story someday, this side will do for now. Jerry and Orrin Zucker do short animated videos on the more excruciating moments of Jerry’s life. Their short comedies have won awards and have received favorable comments from Time and The Wall Street Journal.

A middle aged man carrying the burden of a troubled life ruminates about his past in this quiet, contemplative film. Todd Tinkham, a former New England resident now residing in North Carolina, has won many prizes in festivals around the country. The Film Festival has shown his work for the last two years.

The Restoration Project is a personal documentary about filmmaker’s attempt to rescue a 1949 8mm film taken by his grandfather of his then infant father. Precise and detailed, the film reminds us of the fragility of memory and the documents we use to retain it. Jesse Kreitzer is a graduate of Emerson College and the director of Illumine Productions, a Super 16 mm production company and is currently working on his first feature film.

A short documentary about one of the most deeply disturbing medical conditions ever to strike the (fortunately for now) few victims who’ve experienced it. Watch at your own risk, suspended between pity and horror. This film is brought to you as a public service by Twenty American Dollars, a film production company run by Deb Malone and Anne Continelli.

If you’ve ever wondered what those guys are doing with their fire trucks during the summer, now is your chance. Erik Smith, a producer from Marblehead, captures the fun, the excitement, and the testosterone-fueled frenzy of this propulsive water sport.

Not everyone is likely to have a 12th birthday party like Lindsay, and not everyone in the neighborhood is happy about it. Why do you think she did what she did and what do you think it means? Erin Laing is a filmmaker from Montreal who is living in Berlin developing a feature film. The Birthday Girl, her first film, won the grand prize in a Canadian short film screenwriting competition.

This is another short animation from the itsjerrytime studio (see above) and is about one of those excruciating moments of adolescence and young adulthood that the Zuckers capture with such hilarity.

Coq au Vin is the story of a young woman who returns to the rural home of her grandparents after the death of her grandmother and tries to re-establish a place for herself in her family. The film recently won Third Prize at the East Lansing (Michigan) Film Festival in March. Janina Maria is a former Marblehead resident who recently graduated from Columbia College, a well-known film school in Chicago.

The Acorn, shot in part at the Acorn Gallery in Marblehead, is a moody work with classic elements—a mysterious alluring woman, a naïve young man—that asks the classic questions: What do we know about others? What do we know about ourselves? The filmmakers are local writers, editors, and cinematographers of long standing. Note: This film contains some intimate behavior and offscreen violence.

A nocturne is an artistic composition intended to embody feelings consistent with evening or night. Domonkos’ film, inspired by two poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley, uses archival footage, overlays, words and music to create a sense of being displaced and then placed in a universe in which “everything is evening.” Bill Domonkos is a filmmaker from San Francisco. His music video of The Fine Art of Poisoning was shown during the 2006 Film Festival.

An old man working on the docks of Brooklyn, the butt of commentary and threats by his bosses and coworkers, finally stands up for himself and lets his colleagues know what he is made of. Jason Solokoff is a filmmaker from New York whose films depict the sometimes harsh and unforgiving New York City environment with loving attention. His Treasure of Riverside Park was shown at the Film Festival last year. Note: This film contains graphic language and violence.

Marblehead photographer Michael Haley has created a photo essay of the world of Revere Beach. It’s a contemporary view, but with a fond look backward.