The folks from Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival certainly are proud of themselves - many of the special features on their Small Gauge Trauma DVD are aimed at lauding the festival, its fans, and its accomplishments. I've not been to Fantasia personally, but if Small Gauge Trauma is anything to judge by, it's a festival well-worth the self-adulation. Small Gauge Trauma is a solid collection of shorts - representing an interesting and varied cross-section of cinematic styles, aesthetics and countries of origins - all of which have garnered one award or another. Having watched the shorts (along with the Fantasia TV ads, festival trailer and television coverage included as extras on the DVD), I'm considering July in Montreal as a future vacation destination (which thankfully would leave me in Philadelphia in April for local film festivities.)

There are two ways of watching the DVD - and both have their own merits. One can select the "Play All" option, which paces the shorts in festival format, with some variation in length, subject and seriousness. (Having sat through some poorly arranged shorts presentations in the past, I can assure you that the order in which a full collection is viewed makes a world of difference.) In this case, Small Gauge Trauma launches the viewer with Sister Lulu a Gothic black comedy which director Phillip John describes as an, "European flavored, black and white, porno/ existential horror short." . I'd say "porno" is a bit strong for a film that sins only by including some nudity and the suggestion of sacrilegious sex; rather I'd say it's an easy and amusing introduction into this grim, humorous and often moving collection. I personally favor the "Play All" option, because it ensures that you see all 13 offerings, even the inexplicably included musical send-up of the 80s party-kid drug culture, Ruta Destroy!- a fine short that manages to capture the era with humor and style - but which seems out of place in a collection so dominated by the horror and fantasy genres.

Alternately, one can access the alphabetical list of individual titles. I initially skipped this method, assuming it was akin to the ho-hum Chapter Selection many DVDs offer as an extra; a tactical viewing error on my part. As it happens, choosing a short from the alphabetical list brings up that short's sub-menu, complete with director biography, and other short-specific extras such as commentaries and various featurettes. These extra features are not accessible from the main extras menu (a design flaw, I feel), and some of them really shouldn't be missed, being as entertaining as the shorts themselves. For example: the music video for I'll See You in My Dreams, the title song for the Portuguese zombie short of the same name; the Flat-N-Fluffy commentary which is provided not by the director, but by a rather rude robot who speaks very little about the movie making process and much more about robot sex - which is interesting too, in its own way); and the twangy, musical production commentary on Tea Break from director Sam Walker & writer Timothy Reeves. I forsee using this feature when pairing the shorts with feature films for home-brewed double features. For example, the sweetly sad and genuinely horrific puppet animation, Separation, would work excellently as a pre-feature short for Brothers of the Head - and the surreal Miss Greeny would show well with ...well, nearly anything. Even if it isn't thematic you really can't go wrong with Miss Greeny - it's thirty seconds of wonderful from Japanese director Tenkwaku Naniwa.

The audio, visual (and spelling in the case of sub-titles) quality varies some from short to short, but overall the presentation is very good. In addition to the short-specific extras and the Fantasia hoopla, the DVD also comes with an introduction by horror personality Coffin Joe, some comments from Fantasia Director of International Programming, Mitch Davis, and a full color insert with descriptions of each short, including a listing of the awards and honors. As is to be expected from any collection, not every short will be to everyone's liking, however I doubt even the most discerning viewer could quibble about each short's quality. There's no trauma here, unless you count getting through the 13th short and realizing there's no more left to watch.