What is more, just last week I uncovered not one, but two SIFF veterans who have been paying to watch SIFF since its inauguration. All in all, I was looking forward to an exciting display of fresh local filmmaking talent.

I should have known better.

On exhibition, once again, are many of the tired genres we have come to expect from local filmmakers. We have, as usual, The Polished School Project; The Gimmicky Cheap Shot at the Censors; and yet another Self-indulgent Expression of Teenage Angst packaged in discordant French music and strained verbiage within the mind of an emo girl.

Kick-starting the night’s program was the two-minute animation short White, a solid stop-motion effort from Tan Wei Kiong which could have really benefited from an extended storyline. Marrying Tim Burton’s vision of spindly appendages with a block for a head, Wei Kiong’s short was aesthetically intriguing though the question of identity was barely explored before the short film ended.

Identity was the theme for the second short of the night as well. Fonzi by Kirsten Tan is one of those shorts that could have been, well, shorter. My belief is Kirsten owes much to her visualization and DOP for making the Singapore Shorts Finalists.

Conversations recycled the staples of local film school projects – an old man, old locations in saturated colors and an old cliché of a story. Director Tia Quah can throw in the odd faux oldie, but we have seen all of these elements before, and we have seen them done better.

Well, the difference in quality between recycling old clichés and adapting old plays can be painfully obvious: Boo Junfeng’s Katong Fugue, based on a segment of Alfian Sa’at’s play Landmark: Asian Boys Vol. 2, coming right after Conversations was particularly instructive. In Katong Fugue, Junfeng successfully parlayed a wordy script into an affective voiceover aptly assisted by clean and sharp visuals. Junfeng won me over in 10 minute and I believe the double applause he received from the night’s audience was totally deserved.

Eric Khoo’s “Pain” (1994) is an unflinching and coldly silent look we can mutilate our own bodies (giving it its rightful R21 rating). Whether it is burning yourself with a cigarette, poking your fingers with needles, or cooking your victim’s ear and eye in a frying pan, this award-winning work was, to put it aptly, painful to sit through.

Nizar Hussain and Nazir Hussain’s “Ragged” (1993) sess a “karang guni” man attempting to forget his past. Interspersed with familiar images and more-than-comfortable silent moments, this work may not go down well with the impatient viewer.

Meng Ong’s “Waves of a Distant Shore” (1992) may be talky and beautifully-shot, but the New York University graduate’s work lacks the emotional punch, probably due to its foreign context.

The short which talked the most was CheeK’s “Married” (1994), which featured a predictably boring couple in predictably boring shots. While the little Malay girl was adorably cute in Dzulkifli Sungit and Remi M Sali’s “Influence” (1995), it wasn’t enough to leave an impact with us, in terms of visual or audio.

Whether sound is your thing or not, the stories told in this collection of shorts will have you listen out to all sort of sounds, and yes, even noises (that includes the irritating popcorn-muncher next to you in the cinema) around you.

The rambling old man actually made a point in this 31-minute work, which explained why angry Harry was created in the director’s full-length feature Perth (2004).

The ethereal “Absence” (1997) by K Rajagopal (the man never made anything after this short) and the wacky “Beansprouts and Salted Fish” (1997) by CheeK exploited the element of the “shocking twist”, to mixed effects. It really depends on whether you buy this tried-and tested formula.

Elsewhere, Wee Li Lin’s “Norman on the Air” tells the geeky and cheesy story of a boy who believes that he is in love. The 1997 work reeks of a tacky style that will have you laughing your head off. That made us whether we were giggling with the short’s protagonist, or at its dated approach.

But what went down well with us was Tan’s other work, “Sons” (2000).

Through his signature photographic images and a lingering dialect narration, the guaranteed tearjerker made us, as well a few other members of the audience, whip out hankies in the pitch-dark theatre.

The varied palette of shorts here also included the baffling “Datura” (Abdul Nizam, 2001), TM!US (Shermeen Ng, 1998) and Eve of Adha (Leonard Yip, 2001). While boasting of pretty visuals, these works had us scratching our heads in wonderment.

Han Yew Kwang’s sullen “The Call Home” (2001) and Sun Koh’s delightful “The Secret Heaven” (2002) told stories of wanting to break free, from the eyes of a gullible Indian worker and a wide-eyed little girl. Though very different in styles, these two works will touch your senses in the most humane way.

Comedy-lovers embraced Colin Goh’s “eAhlong.com” (2001) while geeks found solace in Alaric Tay’s endearing portrayal of a guy named Guy in Wee Li Lin’s “Another Guy” (1999).

Everyone went home happy after this series of shorts – after all, besides having caught the diverse range of shorts, this programme runs at 152 minutes, which is a very good deal for the price of one ticket.

The personal work brought us to the suicide scene, the funeral, and gave us unabashed interviews with the deceased’s family members and relatives. If this isn’t the best way to make your point, we don’t know what is.

After being emotionally shaken, this collection of shorts displayed a very interesting range of creativity, from the innovative and beautifully-shot “A Family Portrait” (2004) by Boo Junfeng, the silent but powerful “Subtitle” by Gavin Lim, to the lyrical and calming “Quietly” by Oon Jit Fong.

The very short animation works “Where is Singapore” (Kelly Ling, 2006) and “Elephant: OK” (Srinivas Bhakta, 2005) were a little too brief to leave an impression on us.

What we define as “leaving an impression” would be Kirsten Tan’s stylistic but bare “10 Minutes Later” (2006), which showcases an interesting array of performances and well-composed shots.

And every filmmaker knows how kids make for winning formula in his work. Just look at Autograph Book (Wee Li Lin, 2003) and Di (Michael Kam, 2006) for examples of adorably lovable little girls and boys.