Short shorts: a lesson

Anyone who continues to do their job while sending out positive vibes in the middle of a devastating personal crisis is my hero. Local actor John Lambert is such a hero.

Last year, while he was organizing the annual Short Shorts Film Festival, his wife Ivania, a native of El Salvador, was in the last stages of her long battle with cancer, one she had beaten repeatedly but would ultimately lose on March 9. While caring for her and their two kids, Lambert continued his festival and never lost his good spirits. "The reason I loved her is because of the habits that resulted from loving her," Lambert told the Current. "Staying strong no matter what is what she'd wanted me to do and what she herself had done. She was never bitter and she could've been if she wanted to."

Once he became mom and dad, Lambert continued being strong, this time by laughing at himself.

"Single motherhood is a new experience for me," he wrote on his Facebook page. "I pass the time by arguing with myself about who left the toilet seat up."

Appropriately, the next edition of the Short Shorts Film Festival will be for films in Ivana's native language: Cortos Cortos (the Spanish Short Shorts, hosted by Bolivian singer, actress, dancer, and Telemundo reporter Geraldine Ortega), taking place October 13 at 13th Floor Studios, is already accepting submissions. The entrance fee is $10 and films (10 minutes or shorter, or between 10 and 20 minutes) should be sent to CORTOS CORTOS Film Fest c/o John Lambert, 1421 Brookstone, San Antonio, Texas, 78248. The deadline is September 30 at 11:59 p.m. Critic's Pick and People's Champion get $300 each. Proceeds from ticket sales go to Patient Family Services at Cancer Treatment Research Center.

The regular Short Shorts is scheduled for February 2013 and the deadline for that is December 31 at 11:59 p.m. Send all inquiries to bruizbrutha@yahoo.com.

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