BY ROBIN SHANNON
L’Observateur

RESERVE—A traveling film festival showcasing the talents of filmmakers living and working in the southeastern United States will be making a stop in Reserve Saturday for a one-night screening.

St. John Theatre, 115 W. Fourth St., Reserve, will play host to the second annual Southern Arts Federation Short Circuit Film Festival on April 4 staring at 7 p.m.

The theater and the Houma Regional Arts Council are presenting the Short Circuit festival, which is the only program that spotlights filmmakers living and working in this part of the country. St. John Theatre is the only location in the area screening the films.

Tickets to the three-hour marathon screening are $15 and are available at Allied Express, 101 Carrollwood Drive, LaPlace, the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum, 7910 Park Ave., Houma, and at the theater box office.

The Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival is a series of 12 short films chosen for their artistic merit by a panel of media arts professionals. The films, which will tour the U.S. and Canada throughout 2009, range from fiction and animation to experimental and documentary. This year’s festival features work by filmmakers from Georgia, Louisiana and Florida.

The films are not rated, but some do contain adult language and content. Viewer discretion is advised.

For a list and description of the films being shown, visit www.southarts.org and search “Short Circuit” or www.stjohntheatre.com.

The Short Circuit Traveling Film Festival is a program of the Southern Arts Federation (SAF), a non-profit regional arts organization. Founded in 1975, SAF creates partnerships and collaborations; assists in the development of artists, arts professional and arts organizations; present, promotes and produces Southern arts and cultural programming; and advocates for the arts and arts education.

The organization works in partnership with the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.