"Pickle," a 16-minute documentary on an older couple's proclivity for taking in animals with physical handicaps that often meet untimely, and sometimes horrific, deaths, proved the clear crowd favorite at the Maryland Film Festival's opening night short-films program Wednesday.
"It was a film that showcased how truth can be stranger than fiction," said Skizz Cyzyk, a filmmaker and former Maryland Film Festival programmer who was in the audience as the 18th annual festival opened at the Maryland Institute College of Art's Brown Center.
The work of Baltimore native Amy Nicholson, "Pickle" features her dad, Tom, offering his deadpan take on a succession of animals taken in by him and his wife, Debbie. They include a chicken (Ginger) with a staph infection, a paraplegic possum (Pogo) and a rooster (Pavarotti) who ends up as the meal for a red-tailed hawk.
The story of these animals, told with a casual sincerity by the elder Nicholsons that was underscored by the puckish camerawork and animation of the director, had the 500 or so audience members laughing throughout the film. Its mix of gentle humor and unforced affection clearly won over most of the crowd.
"It's really difficult translate that into film and make it work on every level," said actor-producer Eric Bannat (Matthew Porterfield's "I Used to be Darker").
Amy Nicholson, who said she's shown "Pickle" at about seven festivals so far (including Durham, N.C.'s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, where it won the Full Frame Audience Award), appreciated her hometown audience's welcoming embrace.
"This is the best audience we've had," she said. "The lady in front of me was making me laugh, she was laughing so hard."
"Pickle" may have been the crowd favorite, but each of the shorts screened Wednesday night was received warmly. They included ""Soy Cubana," a documentary visit with the soaringly melodic a cappella quartet Vocal Vidas in their hometown of Santiago de Cuba; "Doorcuts," a trippy experimental short featuring a woman and a succession of doors leading into a medley of realities; "1985," a poignant tale of the inestimable value of human contact; and "Affections," watching as a young woman struggles, with daunting exuberance, to find what the film's title promises.
The evening's films were introduced by directors Zach Clark and Lauren Wolkstein, both Maryland Film Festival veterans who have films showing at this year's festival.
"Everyone was really engaged," said Bridey Elliott, the writer, first-time director and star of "Affections," who had to fly back to Los Angeles on Thursday to work on another film. "I think they were really awesome."
The Maryland Film Festival continues through Sunday at venues in and around the Station North Arts District, including MICA, the Walters Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Single Carrot Theatre and Baltimore Lab School.