From the outset of this documentary you feel you are with writer, co-director and narrator Judith Helfand on this journey of discovery about the origins of something most of us take for granted everyday - PVCs. (polyvinyl chloride).

The victim of a radical hysterectomy at the age of 25 as the result of uterine cancer, Helfand embarks on a journey to find out all she can about the blue vinyl siding that has been used to re-dress her parents' Long Island home. She seeks to prove to them, amongst other things, that there is a healthy alternative to the vinyl siding they have chosen.

This film is as much a commentary on the corner modern man has painted himself into as it is a cathartic exercise for Helfand.

The message of `Blue Vinyl' is both powerful and timely. Helfand does a very good job of making a salient point of the benefits and perils of everyday products that enhance daily life but in many cases are like unexploded bombs.

A looming question in the film is if she can convince her parents to do what she considers the `right' thing'. The exchanges between her and her parents are poignant and sometimes comical and will remind many of their own parents and their desire to cling to what is comfortable despite the inherent risks.

`Blue Vinyl' is a treat - food for thought conveyed with honesty, insight and just enough balance to make the viewer aware of the precarious nature of our co-existence with man-made materials.

Short: `The Light that Followed': This short film tells of the murder of theatre manager Robert Parrington Jackson in 1946 at the Odeon Cinema in Bristol, England. The film `The Light That Failed' was playing that night. There is a scene in the film where a gun is fired several times.

Hidden in this sound of gunfire was the actual shot that killed Parrington Jackson. But what was the reason behind his murder? Who left this World War II veteran and erstwhile actor dead on the floor of his office with a bullet wound to the head? Was he the victim of a botched robbery? No money was taken that fateful evening. He was alleged to have been a womaniser, so was the culprit a jealous husband or boyfriend? We don't know.

This film attempts to answer this decades old question. It is noted that the victim's wife married again just six months after his death. And who was to become her new husband? None other than the assistant manager of the same theatre where Parringon Jackson was murdered. This would have been an intriguing premise for further investigation, but there is no pursuit towards that end.

There are comments from a former usher at the Odeon who claims to have experienced supernatural feelings he attributes to the ghost of Parrington Jackson. Is the place thought to be haunted? Do others who work there experience the same strange feelings? This is another potentially interesting premise that this film fails to explore in more depth.

We are compelled to draw our own conclusion as to what actually happened to Robert Parrington Jackson. No one seems to have an answer to this mystery. `The Light That Followed' starts off promising but unfortunately, quickly dims.

Showing tomorrow at 9 p.m. at the Little Theatre and Thursday, April 18 at 4 p.m. at the Liberty Theatre.

Dwayne Williams