A long overdue review for April, but just in time to remind readers and fans of the Loft’s First Friday Shorts contest that this coming Friday will be the Year End Showdown wherein all the winners from the past 12 months compete for the grand prize. And my apologies for the interminable delay.

April’s FFS contest was a gong-a-thon. Time and again the crowd roared, and the films fell as Max whacked the ancient brass disc. I’m sorry to report that it was not due to a rabid, gong-crazed crowd, although everybody vented plenty. Most of flicks that fell to the gong deserved it.

But we did not know going in that the gong would dominate the evening. As the audience found their seats, the Loft crew screened a charming series of movie trailers from 1970s black-sploitation flicks. The clothes, the attitudes, the ass-kicking, the slang… it took me back to a simpler time. Plus the trailer for “Wattstock,” a documentary I’d never heard of, but which appears to be a about a giant 1970s rock concert (think Woodstock) featuring just about every black music star of that era. I’m compelled to hunt it down at Casa Video one of these days.

Max greeted the crowd warmly and announced that he and his lovely wife are expecting baby number two very soon, and that he could get the call any time. Now (weeks later) we know baby number two has been safely delivered. Congratulations Max and Ginny! In keeping, Max opened the show with one of his picks, an animated short called “D.O.G. O.B.G.Y.N.” about a doggy doctor who delivers a baby for a skydiving couple while in freefall.

Then the contestants started screening films. The night led off with “Bitch I’m Broke” by Bear which followed a hapless youth searching for pocket change to call a girl on a payphone (remember payphones?). Gonged! And the next film, gonged! Then gong, gong, gong, gong, gong. Everybody riding the gong train, and it feels good. The first film not to get gonged, I think, was “Time Goes By” which was a dance track with still photos about a vain teenager, and I missed the filmmaker’s name.

Thank our lucky stars that Luke Howard saved the evening just before intermission with his ingenious comic short, “Nipple,” about a guy who loses one nipple (it falls off one morning) and becomes obsessed with his lost nipple. It was funny as hell and great comic acting. Note to Howard: lose the inter-titles, edit a little tighter, and you’ll land some film festivals.

The second half of the night was better, not so many gongs, and the films were plenty strange. I must admit that although I wrote down the titles, none of them stuck with me enough to ponder or praise three weeks later. Two more Max picks did stick with me, however. The deranged and hilarious animated short “George Washington” by Brad Neely, and the mock commercial “Turbo Heather” which is once again from the SCADshorts collection. They’re both standouts and both on the web.

All the filmmakers tried, and some tried harder than others, especially in the second half of the night. But when it was all over, there was not even a clap-off. Max asked for a show of hands, and “Nipple” coasted to a clean victory. Thanks to all the filmmakers for their efforts. Don’t stop making films, don’t stop learning to make better films, and some day you’ll get paid!

See you at the Year End Showdown this Friday night at our favorite temple to the motion picture arts, the Loft Cinema. Who will win the big money?