They Show Short Shorts

Working in inch-size bites ourselves, we empathize with filmmakers who create shorts, those 100-calorie-packs of cinematic exploration that rarely stretch beyond 15 minutes.

The ever-growing D.C. Shorts Film Festival is bringing nearly 90 of these morsels our way over the next week. Some of the offerings of the international fest, which continues through Thursday:

Today, follow up the Arts on Foot festival with the screenwriters competition. The event, which is fairly offbeat for movie festivals, will have actors reading live from seven scripts. $12. 6 p.m. (Also at 6 p.m. is a separate screening of shorts that includes the local flick "Barberin,' " Ben Crosbie's seven-minute look at a day in a District barbershop. A 3 p.m. screening features "Truth or Dare," about friends trying to catch a peep at a topless sunbather.)

At 9 p.m. is a screening of the eight-minute flick "The O Word," and the totally epic (it's a whole 15 minutes!) Colombian movie "20 mil," both of which we hear are worth seeing. In "O," a bride's mother locks up her daughter to prevent her from making a huge mistake. "20 mil" follows a pair of 7-year-old friends whose bond is tested . . . when they begin selling cookies on the school bus.

The festival also features all kinds of affiliated parties and a free family screening today at 1 (get tickets at 11 a.m. at the D.C. Shorts Arts on Foot booth, Eighth and F streets NW). Film tickets, $12. All at the E Street Cinema near Metro Center. 555 11th St. NW. For a full schedule and tickets, visit http://www.dcshorts.com.

Save the Date

FOR FAMILIES: Spare Your Kids the Boo at the Zoo Heartache It's very cutthroat, raising children today. Even Halloween is about the haves and the have-nots -- you either have your tickets for this always-sold-out event at the National Zoo or you're Bad Mommy, frantically dialing everyone you know for spares. Here is our advice: Mark your calendar. Tickets for the Oct. 26-28 festivities go on sale to non-FONZ (Friends of the National Zoo) members Tuesday at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. They are a whopping $25, but that covers all the food and crafts and entertainment (kids younger than 2 are free and don't need tickets). 5:30-8:30 p.m. each day. 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. 202-397-7328 or visit Ticketmaster outlets or http://www.ticketmaster.com.

ON STAGE: Patti LuPone Thinks She "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" The Tony Award-winning actress has built a career of late playing vicious femmes in New York productions of "Sweeney Todd" and "Gypsy," but it's the Broadway songs she hasn't sung that inspired her one-woman show. Expect selections from "Hair," "Funny Girl" and "West Side Story" when she visits Strathmore on Oct. 5. $32-$82. 8 p.m. Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100.

LITERATURE: The National Book Festival Despite iPods and iPhones and all the other iDistractions that seem to undermine reading, many thousands of people find their way to this annual event celebrating writers and their craft. About 70 well-known authors (including Ken Burns, Jennifer Holm, M.T. Anderson), illustrators and poets (including new Poet Laureate Charles Simic, a Pulitzer Prize winner) will talk about their books and meet-and-greet when the festival returns to the Mall on Sept. 29. Free. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Mall between Seventh and 14th streets NW. 888-714-4696 or, for a full schedule, visit http://www.loc.gov/bookfest.

The District

Today

FOR FAMILIES: Preview the New Theater As part of the Arts on Foot Festival the Shakespeare Theatre Company is previewing its new Sidney Harman Hall today. The schedule includes performances by CityDance Ensemble, Afro Bop Alliance, open rehearsals of the Shakespeare Theatre Company's upcoming productions of "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Tamburlaine," and demonstrations of stage combat and stage blood. Free. 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. (Performances are on the hour.) 610 F St. NW. 202-547-1122.