Ten Short Films Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In Episode Zero of the Ten Short Films Podcast, Tara and Charles introduce the story behind the Ten Short Films Festival — a nomadic Canadian festival born from Tara’s wish to screen her short film "Forget Me Not" for family and friends in honour of her grandmother.

What began as one cinema screening in Kitchener soon travelled to Ottawa’s Mayfair Theatre, with curated programs, filmmaker Q&As, People’s Choice Awards, sidewalk awards ceremonies, and a growing dream: to bring short films to ten cinemas across Canada, then carry the winning films overseas.

Charles and Tara discuss the festival’s origins, its love of documentaries, dramas, horror, French Canadian cinema, and the open invitation for filmmakers across Canada to submit bold, personal, memorable films.

In this episode of Ten Short Films Podcast, Charles and Tara host a filmmaker conversation from the Ottawa edition of the Ten Short Films Festival at the Mayfair Theatre.

Joined by Cristi Parpalita, Jean-Philippe Grignon, Thomas Hinse, Laurie Caron, Aisha Lasfar, Delroy Goveas, and Gracie Henneberry, the discussion explores what makes a film feel distinctly French-Canadian beyond language.

From Québec’s documentary traditions and restrained visual style to absurd humour, family simplicity, nature, road trips, romance, tragedy, and films made across language barriers, this episode looks at how French-Canadian cinema finds poetry in ordinary people, intimate emotions, and stories that feel close to home.

In this episode of Ten Short Films Podcast, Charles and Tara host a filmmaker conversation exploring documentary and family stories — films that begin close to home and grow into something much bigger than memory.

Joined by Gagan Preet Singh, Tara Mühlberghuber, Nicole Bedford, and Laurie Caron, the discussion explores grandparents, parents, home, distance, grief, love, and the quiet everyday moments filmmakers capture before they disappear.

From creating personal time capsules and filming the people closest to us, to the responsibility of telling real stories with honesty and care, this episode looks at how documentary can preserve not only who people are, but how it felt to be with them.

In this episode of Ten Short Films Podcast, Tara Mühlberghuber speaks with James Lessard, Delroy Goveas, Gracie Henneberry, and J-S Boyer about men’s mental health, vulnerability, love, isolation, and the emotional force behind genre storytelling.

Through a candid conversation about dark, romantic creature horror, they explore how masculinity can teach men to suppress pain, how regret and grief can become terrifying inner worlds, and why checking in on people matters more than we realize.

The discussion also goes behind the making of the film — from sleep paralysis and uncanny horror to visual style, local Ottawa locations, emotional performance, broken glass, improvised intensity, and the strange joy of turning personal fear into cinema.