Ford is smiles in front mechanically  By Stephanie Bunbury
September 12, 2005  Australian short film The Mechanicals drew
delighted laughter and immediate interest from Italian
distributors.  Directed by Sydney actor Leon Ford, The
Mechanicals became the only Australian film to screen in Venice,
having been rejected by film festivals in both Sydney and
Melbourne.  In a brisk and jolly nine minutes, Ford suggests all
the appliances involved in an office worker's morning ritual are
actually being operated by people hidden in the walls.  One
controls the light in the fridge, one waits beneath the toaster
to scorch the bread dropped through the slots, one stands ready
with a microphone to do the radio in different voices as soon as
the innocent householder switches it on.  "I was living by
myself in a little flat in Kings Cross for a few years," says
Ford, 30, "and one day I was standing under the shower thinking,
as you do, about where things come from. The idea just grew from
there. I needed friends."  He was a