Espresso Worth Watching (NAPSA)—Did Robert Redford get his start this way? Not quite, but a group of film students’ flicks have been entered at the actor’s famous Sundance Film Festival—and they oweit all to espresso. It all started when the espresso maker Krups came up with the cool idea of turning six film students loose, armed with cameras and all the coffee they could drink. The result was six, 60- to 90-sec- ond shorts that run the gamut from animated drama to martial “Espresso Ninjas” is one of six shorts dedicated to coffee. One short depicts a homesick immigrant growing more confident with each sip of espresso. Another uses animation to portray a heartbroken woman regaining strength over a cup. A third follows dueling ninjas, battling to impress their master with their espresso-makingskills. All six films reflect on the passion some people (and certainly the filmmakers) seem to feel for coffee. One short even follows a man who chooses dates by how they fix their cup ofjoe. Each short features a new Then, working under the aegis of New York University professor Richard Brown, a film historian arts action flick. Krups espresso machine, from the pump machine XP4050 to the fully automatic XP7230. These home versions make an espresso or cappuccino in 60-90 seconds— hence the 60- to 90-second time limit on the shorts. Krups gave each filmmaker a grant and an espresso maker. and host of AMC’s “Movies 101,” the students started filming. “Filmmaking can be a cutthroat business, so I’m glad I got a chance to do this and possibly further my career,” says Young H. Lee, creator of “Espresso Ninjas.” Lee, who was born in Taiwan, bills himself as a huge coffee fan. His fellow filmmaker, Stefan Kubicki, jokingly says he was raised on a steady diet of “Top Gun’ and anti-communism.” His short, “The Cup of Truth,” brings viewers inside a 1973 Bulgarian interrogation room. He’s hoping it fares as well at Sundance as the interrogator does in his film (the prisoner talks after having some espresso). To watch the films, visit the Web site www.espressoshorts.com.
