showcase.ca is proud to be the broadcaster home of Mobile Stories. This series of shorts is a co-production between iThentic and the NFB, with the participation of the Telus Innovation Fund, the Bell New Media Fund and our sister network - IFC Canada.

The goal of the Mobile Stories project is the creation of a collective, narrative-based, online and mobile storytelling experience. As a part of the experience, six original short films, each under 3 minutes running time, were commissioned from a select group of award-winning Canadian directors. The working theme for all of the shorts was Obsession.
       
All of the shorts are now streaming in our video centre, so have a look already! In no particular order, the shorts are:
       
Dirty Trick
by Malcolm Clarke

 
Mikey stands at the bank teller wicket, anxiously watching as the teller speaks to her manager. He braces himself as she returns, obsessing over what could be wrong. They do the last thing he expects, and it suddenly makes sense: this is the friendliest bank in town.

Wish You Were Here
by Shui-bo Wang

A love triangle with a twist. Melissa is a young woman from Shanghai living in Montreal. For the last two years she has been obsessed with her old boyfriend, Ming. She writes to him every day. But her letters never get answered. Thomas is in love with Melissa, but he can't seem to get through to her. He finally finds out why.

Moments
by Hubert Davis

A grown man transports himself in a vivid memory. He is 10 year-old boy living in the country with a father struggling with depression and alcohol. Feeling helpless and hopeless, the boy becomes obsessed with trying to escape. He looks up and sees an airplane. In that moment he realizes that he can escape his pain, even if for now, it can only be through his imagination.

Baggage
by Renuka Jeyapalan

Unbeknownst to one another, a journalist and a young woman share a flight. In a hurry to get to their hotels, they grab each other's luggage by mistake. Instead of calling the airport and reporting the problem, they get carried away by the mystery behind the contents of the suitcases. Obsessively, they examine each item and make wild assumptions about the owner. Finally, the tension breaks when the woman calls the journalist. Or does she?

Superbald!
by Apeman888

A man is obsessed with losing his hair. He experiences five distinct stages, the same stages anyone experiences when they deal with loss. They include: denial, anger, miracle cures, grief and acceptance. Women shun him because of his thinning hair, strangers judge him as suspicious and untrustworthy because of his "skinhead", and drug companies prey on his insecurities. But in the end, it's the bald guy who has the last laugh.

The Ascent of Man
art work by Bruce McCall with animation by Smiley Guy Studios

Bruce McCall's May 14, 2007 cover of The New Yorker is about man's obsession with progress and technology. The artwork features an ape on a rock who evolves into a cave man, an Egyptian, a soldier etc. and along with these evolutions come the technologies of each new civilization. McCall's original art is animated by Toronto's Smiley Guy Studios.