Both Martha Colburn and Jennifer Gentile are prolific filmmakers who create edgy, disarming films. Working in Baltimore, Colburn's super-8mm animations and 16mm found-footage films bristle with energy and irreverence. Often collaborating with a poet or songwriter, Colburn's exuberant visuals keep pace with the most idiosyncratic rhythms. Popular and unpopular culture are equally lampooned, from dance classes to Woody Allen, from everyday anxiety to unfulfilled expectations. Jennifer Gentile, relocated in Los Angeles from the Bay Area, creates quirky, digressive narratives. Whether on road trips or guilt trips, Gentile 's couples disintegrate before our eyes. Much of her work centers on women's experience, and in fairy-tale stories, imagined biographies, and hyperreal dialogues, things tend to get difficult. Moods shift over minor annoyances, life takes unexpected turns, and narratives inevitably spill over into absurdity. Both Colburn and Gentile are fascinated with the possibilities of storytelling itself; their explorations vary from whimsical to disturbing, from strange to playful, but are always vibrant.-Kathy Geritz