Robert Ong curates submissions for local indie film group Electric Shadows. Currently, he has 250 films to sift through, with everything from a Pashtun music video to a passionate (maybe) Bulgarian romance. Interested in helping out? Join in by subscribing to the Electric Shadows email list at electricshadows.bj@gmail.com

About how many short submissions do you have to go through for Electric Shadows? We've received hundreds of submissions from film-makers around the world. We don't specify any genre, length or country of origin so it gives a really great mix of videos. They can be animated shorts, fiction, documentaries, adverts; anything and everything.

At the moment I have around 250 videos to get through and that number is growing, so there is plenty of work to do. We usually give volunteers a small batch of 5 films to do at a time. Each film is around 7 - 10 minutes and it's not too strenuous. So volunteers can do as many or as few films as they like. We usually ask for a rating for each film and a short description.

What's the skill level like? It varies, really. In some you find great production quality, almost to the level of a mainstream film. In others you see really interesting camera work or script work. There's always something interesting in a film.

So far today I've seen a Pashtun music video from Pakistan, a quirky fantasy from South Africa and Spanish sci-fi. I never really know what I'm going to see which is great.

Apart from one exception I've always found something about a film that I like. I watched a lovely short about a Bulgarian love story just now. I've never heard Bulgarian before and, for this one, I loved watching the scene play out in a completely unknown language.

Can you give any examples of shorts that really struck you (either for being excellent, or horrible)? This is a very enjoyable process. Film makers put alot of effort into these shorts and you can always see it in the films.

One really nice one that struck me was by a Malaysian. The Apprentice 学徒 by John W.J. Cho. It's a documentary about an elderly photographer in Kuala Lumpur, whose business is slowly dying around him as the world changes. Nowadays his business is completely supported by taking police portraits. I was expecting to just see a short documentary about a deeply unhappy old man but instead I thought he's enigmatic and surprisingly charming. A really simple subject, shot beautifully.

There is only one film that I've had a bad reaction to and it struck me as by far the worst film we've ever received. I've just watched it again to make sure I'm not exaggerating and it's still bad.

It was made by a man in New York, who styles himself as a 'post-auteur'. He sent us a 'post-romantic comedy' that he believes will change the world and express the human condition. What he actually made was a mess. He thought by throwing some computer after-effects on and labeling it art-house that he could grab some praise. So, take a clichéd idea, atrocious camera-work and add a little misogyny and a massive steaming pile of narcissism and arrogance, and you're close.

Are you involved in filmmaking yourself? I'm no film-maker. My background's more in Art History. But I've been really lucky with Electric Shadows to be able to go to some great film festivals in Beijing and meet some very interesting people.

Why does Electric Shadows focus on showing shorts? For the audiences Short films are a brilliant way to get a quick film fix. Unlike full-length they don't need so much investment because if you don't like one particular film, another will come along pretty quickly. For film-makers shorts are cheaper and quicker to make so you can see so much more variety of opinion, expression and ideas.

In the past we've put on short film screenings in Wudaokou and they've been packed to the rafters with Chinese students, who wouldn't usually be able to find and see these films themselves. This is the main attraction of putting on shorts. Film-makers can connect with a new audience in a country most of them have never come to.

We don't just focus on shorts. We also do monthly screenings of full-length features as well. This month we are showing animated films at the Riverback Cafe every Wednesday at 7pm.

Who usually attends these events? Anyone and everyone is invited. Not all of the shorts are in English so we don't just get young, male, white expats but a huge variety of people ranging from Chinese students to people who work in the film industry or those who are just interested in watching a few well-made, interesting short films.

If you were to make your own short, what would you shoot? I went to the Brazil Film Fest last night to watch a film called 5x Favelas. They gave some residents cameras to shoot their own short films and gave them assistance editing, shooting and training. I'd love to try a similar project in Beijing's Hutong districts. I think it would be great to see what comes out of a project like that.