One of my favorite things about summer on Martha’s Vineyard (apart from the beach) is going to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. This year, I was asked to review High Hopes, a collection of short films.

The first one, called A Theory of the Evolution of the Turkey, begins with a teacher giving a simple, fun class project: drawing a turkey. Now, I’m sure almost everyone in one point in their lives has drawn a turkey by tracing their hand and then coloring the hand to look like turkey. So, as you can imagine, after you’ve done it a lot of times it can get quite boring, and that is where the story starts. A girl is sitting at her desk and instead of drawing the hand-turkey like everyone else is, she lets her imagination take charge. She draws a strange, colorful turkey that plays music! After she draws it, it comes to life. Maybe imagination is a good thing ... I won’t tell what happens in the rest of the short, that is for you to find out. Overall, I thought that this was a great short.

Another short film screening is The Little Mouse Who Wanted to Touch a Star. All of us have an ambition, right? Something we want to do? Well, in this short there is a little mouse who never gave up on his dream. What is his dream? The little mouse always wanted to touch a star. He would try with every chance he got. He would sneak out of his bed at night and he would go outside to try to touch a star. After each time that he didn’t succeed he would try to get higher up. He climbed from a flower to a wall to a lamppost and then he even climbed a church steeple. Even then, he didn’t touch a star. Then Christmas came and he tried to climb the Christmas tree to touch the star on top. On his way to the top, ornaments came to life and told him of how he could be a solider general or live with a doll or even become a sailor. Even after hearing all of this, his mind was set on touching a star. I’m pretty sure you can guess what happens next. In the end, he does exactly what he wanted to do. On a scale of one to five (five being the best) I would give this short a five.

Dear Fatty is a short about a hamster that lives in a little house by himself. One day, he gets a letter from someone asking him to go visit them. So he takes a train and leaves his house behind. When he gets off of the train, he sees his house in the distance. In the end, he never sees the person who wrote the letter to him. I thought that this short was confusing because I couldn’t really understand what was going on. Other then that I thought that Dear Fatty was good.

Next is Ruby Who? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone totally different, just for a little while? Well, Ruby is a girl who goes on a walk in the city and she keeps seeing things that she wants. So she gets a wig, a coat, a cookie, roller skates, balloons, a wagon, and a dog purse. In the end, she realizes that she doesn’t want all of that stuff. She would rather be Ruby. I liked this short a lot. It was fun to see Ruby being transformed into a different person.

In the short film Sparrow and the Boll, the main character is Sparrow, a curious sparrow who finds a boll. With the boll, Sparrow goes to a man who cuts bolls up. Then she goes to a woman who turns bolls into yarn. Sparrow then takes the yarn to a yarn-dyer who dyes the yarn red. The next stop she makes is to the weaver who is just about to weave the yarn when Sparrow takes the yarn to a girl who ripped her dress. With the yarn, the girl is able to fix her dress. I thought that this short was okay. I liked some of the other shorts better, but the animation in this was cool.

Art is the last short film. It is about Art. Art loves art. He loves everything about it. He loves to sketch, doodle and paint. He draws squiggles, lines, dots and even curlicues. He likes color, zigzags and splatter paint. And the biggest fan of Art’s art is his mother. I really enjoyed watching Art. It was cool to see how far you can get with only a pencil. After I saw Art I felt like drawing!

I hope that you enjoy these shorts as much as I did. See you there!

High Hopes is the first film in the Cinema Circus series form the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. More than just movies for kids, this is a big tent event with acrobats, jugglers, stilt-walkers, face-painting and more, as well as activities and discussion to encourage children to think as well as watch. Did we mention the pizza and free popcorn?

Cinema Circus was developed by artistic director and Island educator Lindsey Scott, and Nicole Dreiske, creative director of The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the largest and longest running film festival for kids in North America. She will introduce High Hopes Wednesday, July 1, at 5 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center at Beetlebung Corner.

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Also tomorrow, Vanity Fair special correspondent Matt Tyrnauer will open film festival proper with the award-winning documentary he produced and directed, Valentino, The Last Emperor, screening at 8 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center.

This feature-length movie goes inside the singular world of one of Italy’s most famous designers, Valentino Garavani. It documents the colorful and dramatic closing act of Valentino’s celebrated career, capturing the end of an era in global fashion. But at the heart of the film is a love story: the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti.

Just as in years past, the Scottish Bakehouse will be in the kitchen cooking up tasty treats for sale. The audience is also invited to stick around after the show for a reception on the patio.

Tickets are $6 for members, $12 for nonmembers and are available for purchase in advance online at tmvff.org. For details, call 508-645-9599.