As the SXSW Film Festival gears up this weekend, regular SOTW contributor, Jason B Kohl, sat down with two filmmakers from UCLA's MFA Directing Program en route to Austin. Their shorts couldn't be more different from each other in every aspect from production through post, but the two had many common insights to share.

If I could have somehow avoided the news about Sundance starting today, I would have—today is the start of the 34th straight Sundance Festival that yours truly will be failing to attend. 34 times have films been watched, pitches been made, deals been sealed, without me.

In our announcement Tuesday I mentioned my skepticism in finding any of the Short Film Oscar nominees online, but you, our readers, did not share my defeatist attitude and unearthed a couple! Thanks go out to Hans and Sam, now you can watch one film from each of the 3 short film categories: Documentary Short Subject, Short Film (Live-Action) and Short Film (Animation). Follow Short of the Week on Facebook [caption id="attachment_4586" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Click to Watch"][/caption] Documentary Short Subject—The Warriors of Quigang: A Chinese Village Fights Back In Quigang, a tiny hamlet of 1,900 people, a nearby chemical plant is polluting the land and water.