Lighten Up

Mike Plante, Short Film Programmer

Before becoming a writer-producer (and voice) on Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, John Viener wrote and directed some comedy shorts about messed-up white men. In Lighten Up, Viener also acts a man who must get a ride to the doctor for an unusual personal problem. And only his angry-white-guy buddy is available. Hilarity ensues, which is not easy in a short. Veiner shows that it takes more than a weird idea to make a comedy–you’ve got to have some really funny writing and acting to pull it all off.

Sundance often shows dark dramas, but we also have a long history of comedy. Whether it’s animated or full of comedians, dry and dark or just goofy, existential questions about what it all means, or as stupid as humanly possible to make you smile–we like to make people laugh. Here is a playlist of comedy shorts from our 30 years of showing films.