Shorts. We’re not talking about real Maine men who walk around in 14-degree weather with canvas shorts and a sweatshirt (although that should be a story in itself) we’re talking about the 2015 Maine Short Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday, Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Frontier Café in Brunswick.

This has all the hallmarks of a pretty decent Cheap Date. It costs $8 per person, and even though it warrants a bit of a road trip down to Brunswick, it gets you out of the Truman Show of the Midcoast. Plus, you can pre-game at Brunswick’s awesome brewery, Lion’s Pride.

But back to the film fest. This is the first short film show of its kind in Maine sponsored by the Maine Film & Video Association and featuring nine short fiction, non-fiction and documentary films from eight Maine filmmakers. The 90-minute event will begin a theatrical tour all around Maine starting tomorrow night.

MFVA Board Chair Richard Kane said, “I think short films are very important because today, peoples’ attention spans are limited to the 144-character limit. People don’t spend more than a few minutes on Vimeo or YouTube and with remote controls clicking past commercials, it’s important in our field to be able to capture people’s attention very quickly with a story. By encouraging more filmmakers to make more shorts and to have these competitions each year to find the best shorts, it serves a good purpose and encourages our members to become more professional.”

More than 25 filmmakers around the state submitted shorts, up to a half-hour running time, into the competition. To whittle down the selections, three of Maine's top film reviewers: Daniel Kany, art critic with the Portland Press Herald, Ben Fowlie, founder and director of the Camden International Film Festival, and Louise Rosen, artistic and executive director of the Maine Jewish Film Festival, all presided over the submissions. None of the films identified the filmmakers, so board members of MFVA were able to submit theirs as well.

To that end, Kane got a pleasant surprise when his film with co-producer Melody Lewis-Kane was chosen. In These Times is a documentary about the Tree of Life Food Pantry in Blue Hill.

“It’s essentially a story to encourage people to support their local food pantry to help end hunger,” he said.

Other highlights of the film festival he mentioned included Ursula, about a young girl who wanders alone in the forest until she meets a mysterious sunbather adrift on a lake, in which nothing turns out to be quite what it seems. He also mentioned Liz, a documentary of a girl homeless at 13, who has lived a tragic life of despair, raging behavior and a brutal fight to survive on the streets.

Midcoast Mainers will also remember Deux Ex Machina, by Seth Campbell Brown, which once premiered at the Camden International Film Festival, featuring local Jack Churchill and his trials and triumphs in building a steampunk motorcycle. Find out more behind that story in our 2012 feature “Seth Brown to debut short film at CIFF.”

To find out the premise of all nine films visit www.mainefilm.org  or watch the embedded teaser video.

The Maine tour schedule follows.

Jan. 8 - 7:30 p.m., Frontier Cafe, Brunswick
Jan. 15 - 7:30 p.m., Guthries, Lewiston
Jan. 29 - 7 p.m., Stonington Opera House
Feb. 4 - 7:30 p.m., Space Gallery, Portland
March 18 - 7 p.m., Railroad Square Waterville
March 29 - 3 p.m., The Strand, Rockland
April 9 - 7 p.m., The Alamo, Bucksport
April 10 - 7 p.m., Hammond Hall, Winter Harbor
April 17 - 7:30 p.m., Denmark Arts Center, Denmark

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com