That hushed chattering you hear during the early days of May is the sound of a flock of baby films swarming the city. The tireless volunteers at Movies on a Shoestring annually wrangle this miniature movie mob into four different programs known as the Rochester International Film Festival. Our planet's oldest happening devoted exclusively to short films, 2007 marks RIFF's 49th installment, with a couple dozen tiny opuses from both far away and close to home all hoping to nestle in your brain and snuggle up to your heart. You're not made of stone, are you?

Thursday

RIFF 2007 opens with the cleverly edited A Life's Work, which wordlessly chronicles the existence of a lonely old woman whose lifelong constants include a cigarette, cherry-red lipstick, and melancholy acceptance. "I wasn't always this way," reports the hero of the slightly unsatisfactory Peephole, a man whose creepy obsession with his neighbor causes him to learn something about her that he can't undiscover. Creation features noisy animated beasts offering up another theory as to the origin of everything around you, while the fascinating homegrown documentary Let's Have Tea explores the inspiration for and realization of Pepsy M. Kettavong's public sculpture honoring the friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

Friday

House of the Olive Trees was shot in lovely Greece (the Mediterranean one) and tells the surprisingly compelling tale of Anna, a restless loner bucking against her love for a boyfriend whose understanding has its limits. Madeline-esque animation is the medium used for Polka, in which a talented violinist shyly attempts to capture the attention of the hat-clad stranger at the bus stop. The comical Mr. Kim's Burning Night hails from South Korea and follows the title character as he tries to make it through a smoke-free evening while trapped at the office. Ninety Days, a moving short about a young woman's efforts to secure her boyfriend's release from a South African prison stars Beth Winslet, also possessed of the vulnerable grace enjoyed by her more-famous sister. A parallel with current events could easily be drawn from Roma Sub Rosa, a historical mini-epic about the bloody cost of war.

Saturday afternoon

Worms in the Big Apple is an enlightening documentary about the rewards of urban composting and further evidence that kids dig dirt. Love is truly blind in My Night with Miss Marple, a sweet short about two people who didn't mean to fall for each other. Deviation, created using an online game and cleverly scripted dubbing, is an ingenious exercise in modern filmmaking. A frustrated entrepreneur finally has his day in Dog Eat Dog when he hits upon a shockingly effective marketing strategy. Michael Keene follows up 2005's paint-and-ink recounting of Rochester's first homicide with In Search of White Crows, a interesting animated piece about 19th century Spiritualists Kate and Maggie Fox.

Saturday evening

Tongue is firmly (and fondly) in cheek for the mockumentary When Broom Sticks Were King, a warm homage to the lost art of Brooklyn stickball. 24's DB Woodside co-directed and stars in first., a tensely shot narrative about hit men, retribution, and salvation. A playground melts the years off an elderly couple in the joyfully animated Swing, and the gripping though amateurly acted Rundown examines the crisis of conscience that ensues when one newscaster's secret becomes that evening's lead story.

This year two shorts have been duking it out in my mind for the title of favorite, though I can't decide between them - and I don't particularly want to. The first, showing Thursday, is Germany's Kodachrome, an über-charming love letter to Kodak's late color reversal film (it stopped production in 2006), shot in Super 8 and set to the Paul Simon song of the same name. Caress of the Creature, showing Saturday evening, is a goofy little monster movie in which a macho construction foreman tries to come to grips with the homoerotic feelings awakened by the mysterious water beast that tickled him. Filmed in black-and-white and teeming with campy double entendres, Caress of the Creature might have made some valid points about open-mindedness towards gay sea creatures and Sunshine State rednecks, but I was giggling too uncontrollably to care.

The 49th Rochester International Film Festivalscreens at the George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m.; Friday, May 4, 8 p.m.; and Saturday, May 5, 4 and 8 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are most appreciated. For a complete lineup of films, visit www.rochesterfilmfest.org.