A partnership between the graduating members of Petaluma's 2009 Chamber of Commerce Leadership class and the fine folks at SRJC, the Petaluma Film Alliance presents the second annual Petaluma Film Festival on May 1, a daylong event matching long attention spans with short films.

Some 26 films are slated for matinee, evening and even midnight viewing at the Mystic Theatre, featuring the animated short Help! by Analy High School student Isabel Fischer that takes the classic Beatles tune and reinvents it. Petalumans Sylvia Binsfeld (Dorme) and Jhonathan Florez (Bideo Uno) are also honored.

Those who attend the full day will see an astonishing amount of work by Canadian filmmaker Jamie Travis, who has a trilogy of films (Patterns) studding the afternoon program and two shorts from his The Saddest Children in the World series screening in the evening and at midnight. (A still from the first Patterns is above.) London's Institute of Creative Arts hosted a retrospective of Travis' work last year and Vancouver's Ion magazine writes, "His shorts combine the macabre subject matter of David Lynch and Todd Solondz with the art direction of Wes Anderson."

To borrow professional phraseology: Dude is hot.

See this and more at the Petaluma Film Festival, Saturday, May 1, from 2:30pm. Mystic Theatre, 23 Petaluma Blvd. S., Petaluma. $10-$25. 707.778.3687.

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