Times have never been better for film buffs in San Diego. Film festivals, each with its own unique, artistic vision abound, giving audiences the chance to experience more cinema than ever before. While most devote some time to short subject features, only one bases its entire premise on this — alt.pictureshows, taking place Sept. 9 starting at 7 p.m. at downtown’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD). Films will be screened at the museum’s outdoor plaza, as well as in several themed rooms, including horror/suspense and documentaries, at the museum’s exhibition space across the street. The evening’s soundtrack will be provided via a DJ set from David J (of Bauhaus, Love and Rockets). Each room’s film program will be looped throughout the event. A $5 admission allows attendees in to all rooms as well as a video installation at the SDSU Gallery a block away. Since the festival’s inception in 2003, the plan was always to create a unique experience for the movie going public, said Neil Kendricks, filmmaker, MCASD’s film curator and the event’s founder. “When you usually go to a film festival you pay for your ticket and you go to a specific auditorium and you sit through that entire program,” he said. “What’s different about alt.pic-tureshows is that you are kind of given a map of all the spaces and a list of films. Then we cut you loose. You can go and watch whatever you want to watch. Its physical channel surfing,” Kendricks said. Another difference from most film festivals is that alt.pictureshows does not do a call for entries. Kendricks looks for films throughout the year, visiting other festivals and getting to know film makers from around the world. “It’s a very organic process,” Kendricks said. This year, nearly two dozen films will be shown. “When I’m looking for stuff early on, I don’t quite know what the rooms [themes] are going to be,” he said. “I’m searching for things that are going to work well together, but I really don’t go in with any preconceptions, like I’m going to do a room that’s built around a specific theme. But, I will find maybe one or two films that are really interesting and then I’ll think, ‘What would fit with this particular movie?’ And then [the program] slowly evolves and takes on its own personality from there.” Among the selections this year are Splice writer-director Vincenzo Natali’s horror film, “Elevated,” as well as a pair of films — science-fiction fable “Pumzi” and a drama, “The Tunnel” from African filmmakers Manuri Kahu and Jenna Bas. Animation fans will also find much to enjoy, including Jeff Drew’s “One Square Mile of Earth” and Bastien Dubois’s “Madagascar, A Journey Diary.” Kendricks points out that with rare exception, short films are not money makers. “Sometimes they’re a conduit to a longer adaptation or something like that, but for the most part these are labors of love, passion films,” he said. “These artists didn’t go into film to get a Hollywood contract. They had a story to tell or they love the format.” While some might consider a film that’s under 20 minutes to be a lesser work compared to a full-length feature, Kendricks disagrees. “It’s really not about length, sometimes less is more,” he said. “There’s something nice about finding a little gem of a short film that gets the job done in 5 to 10 minutes. They can be just as memorable as an epic film that’s three hours long, in terms of how poetic or how moving something might be or how it might express its point of view.” Alt.pictureshows WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 9, 7-10 p.m. WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 1100 Kettner Blvd. COST: $5. Free to MCASD members. INFO: www.mcasd.org