Thursday, 2022
ALL FILM SCREENINGS ARE VIRTUAL WEDNESDAY 12 PM to THURSDAY 12 PM
BLOCK 1
BRING THEM HOME
Short Documentary
(30 min) United States
Directed By: Rika Boomgaarden, Tamara Jatchvadze
Written By: Robert Walker, Rike Boomgaarden, Tamara Jatchvadze
Produced By:Andrei Rosca, Robert Walker, Elaine Carmody
Synopsis:Hip-hop artists Rob Young and Drei Ros highlihght the story of Hector Barajas; a renowned deported veteran who founded The Deported Veterans Support House. Rob and Drei connect with military and trauma experts and travel to “The Bunker”, a meeting place for exiled veterans in Tijuana Mexico.
Easy Money: Fraud, Fortune and Failures
Documentary (54 min) United States
Directed By: Dave Manoucheri, Victor Nieto
Written By: Dave Manoucheri
Produced By:Dave Manoucheri, Derek Schnell, Ariel Roblin, Claire Blakemore
Synopsis:“More than $20 billion sent to fraudulent accounts across the country by California’s unemployment department.
From massive spending on Rodeo Drive to prisoners taking benefits, this documentary details the missteps and mistakes by a state agency that lost billions in tax dollars.”
BLOCK 2 at 3:15 PM
Remnants of Memory
Short Documentary (25 min) US
Directed By: Michael Arlen Davis
Written By: Michael Arlen Davis, Sherry Daniel
Produced By:Michael Arlen Davis, Jyll Johnstone
Synopsis:Fine Art Photographer Charles Johnstone explores the vivid canals and ancient passageways of Venice, Italy in search of a new book project. A meditation on artistry and craft, “Remnants of Memory” celebrates beauty in the overlooked, anonymous objects we pass every day.
Grandes Horizontales
Documentary(46 min) usa
Directed By: Leslie Zemeckis
Written By: Leslie Zemeckis
Produced By:Robert Zemeckis, Leslie Zemeckis, Donnalee Austen
Synopsis:Grandes Horizontales – the A-list of courtesans, the pop stars of their day. They were marked by an extravagant lifestyle, often ruinous to their patron or patrons as it took a handful of lovers to pay their expenses. It was said “their ability to wind men around their fingers while picking up a chateau or two on the side was legendary.”
BLOCK 3 at 3:45 PM
Gboy
Short (5 min) USA
Directed By: Geoff Browne
Written By: Geoff Browne
Produced By:Geoff Browne
Synopsis:When two teen activists are caught on the grounds of an oil refinery, a boisterous teen must convince a trigger-happy guard to set them free.
Transience
Short (14 min) USA
Directed By: Jake Stark
Written By: Jake Stark
Produced By:Jake Stark
Synopsis:Two brothers from south of the border make their way into Texas, but as they cross onto a ranchers land, their world is turned upside down.
Oliver & the Pool
Feature (101 min) Mexico
Directed By: Arcadi Palerm-Artis
Written By: Arcadi Palerm-Artis, Gibran Portela
Produced By:Milko Luis Coronel, Arcadi Palerm-Artis
Synopsis:When something unexpected happens in 13-year-old Oliver’s family, all he wants to do is walk away. He takes up residence in a poolside lounge chair and decides there’s no reason to move. Ever. Through moments of death, excrement, and basic physics, Oliver learns that some truths just can’t be ignored.
BLOCK 4 at 4:45 PM
Breakfast in Bed
Short (8 min) United States
Directed By: Noah Robins
Written By:Noah Robins, Michael Reale
Produced By:Noah Robins, Michael Reale
Synopsis:This film is about a hotshot and a hot pot.
It’s Always Something
Short (11 min) United States
Directed By: Derrick Scocchera
Written By:Derrick Scocchera
Produced By:Joe Sikoryak, Rahil Alimohammad
Synopsis:A social satire narrated by Stephen Fry (Gosford Park, The Sandman). Through a series of vignettes, the often inexplicable behaviors of contemporary humans are observed and commented upon by a droll narrator. No matter how outlandish or senseless the action, one thing is certain: “It’s Always Something.”
The Tip
Short (16 min) USA
Directed By: Katerina Tana
Written By:Katerina Tana
Produced By:Lis Kern Shaw, Katerina Tana
Synopsis:“In 1968 Los Angeles, a restauranteur can’t make payroll. He wishfully interprets an illegible dinner order ticket as a hot racing tip. He dashes to the track racing against the clock only to discover once the race has started.
It tells the earliest days of a now legendary LA restaurant which had humble origins and never lost touch with its humanity.”
Road to the Lemon Grove
Feature ( 89 min) Canada/Italy
Directed By: Dale Hildebrand
Written By:Charly Chiarelli, Dale Hildebrand
Produced By:Dale Hildebrand, Chris Gunther, Jil Amadio
Synopsis:An old-school Sicilian father tries to negotiate his way into heaven… but the only way in is to get his reluctant son to travel back to Sicily, reunite his feuding family, and help all find love in places they never imagined.
BLOCK 5 at 5:45 PM
Almost Winter
Short (12 min) USA
Directed By: Austin Kolodney
Written By:Daniel Rashid
Produced By:Daniel Rashid, Austin Kolodney, Jack Rosman
Synopsis:A physics professor on the cusp of retirement and his fresh-out-of-college assistant must navigate their changing relationship as the assistant realizes he is becoming his boss’s caretaker.
The Lucky Man
Short (15 min) Ireland
Directed By: Laoisa Sexton
Written By:Laoisa Sexton
Produced By:Ten Thousand Hours Films
Synopsis:In a rural Irish pub, a simple-minded barman’s fleeting encounter with a difficult customer highlights his need for intimacy.
We’re All In This Together
Feature (86 min)Canada
Directed By: Katie Boland
Written By:Katie Boland
Produced By:Katie Boland, Jim Sternberg, Paula Brancati, Gail Harvey, Jay Firestone
Synopsis:When matriarch Kate Parker miraculously survives plummeting over a waterfall in a barrel — a feat captured on a video that goes viral, suddenly, the dysfunctional Parker’s have to do something they never thought possible: act like a real family.
BLOCK 6 at 6:15 PM
Mazel Brouk
Short (25 min) France
Directed By: Hanael
Written By: Hanael
Produced By: Hanael
Synopsis: A group of women with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds are gathering in the South of France for a bachelorette party. The bachelorette party ends up higlighting everything that unites them in today’s France, starting with the way men seek to restrain the freedom of these women, including in their emotional and sexual lives.
Balloon Animal
Feature (88 min) USA
Directed By: Em Johnson
Written By: Em Johnson
Produced By: Monica O’Hara, Ruvi Leider, Katherine Waddell
Synopsis: A young circus performer, Poppy Valentine, is stuck under the harsh demands of her father and their community’s expectations. But while on a quick night out to let loose and have some fun with her friends, she finds herself captivated by small-town America, which then forces her to question everything.
BLOCK 7 at 6:45 PM
‘Til We Meet Again
Student Film (6 min) United States
Directed By: Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal
Written By: Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal
Produced By: Eden Bailey
Synopsis: A recent widow, has the opportunity to reconnect with her husband, but at a cost.
SymBionic
Student Film (6 min) United States
Directed By: Jack Tenbusch
Written By: Jack Tenbusch
Produced By: Jack Tenbusch
Synopsis: After clipping her wing on a robotic facility antenna, a little songbird forms an unlikely bond with the robot she inadvertently activates.
From Pressure
Student Film (7 min) United States
Directed By: Seth Kelman
Written By: Seth Kelman
Produced By: Nalani Ogawa
Synopsis:After pulling off a small-time jewel heist, a desperate couple struggles to lay low as their seedy landlord pursues their outstanding debts.
Outside the Consulting Room
Student Film (7 min) US
Directed By: Fangming Liu
Written By: Fangming Liu
Produced By: Fanling Han
Synopsis:Li Qi’s father was a doctor who died fighting the Covid-19. After the epidemic, Li Qi takes her sick mother to the hospital where her father had worked and accidentally gets a box of her father’s relics. She has a conversation with the person sitting next to her outside the consulting room.
LACHESIS
Student Film (9 min) USA
Directed By:Gregory Alexander Foltynowicz
Written By: Gregory Alexander Foltynowicz
Produced By: Addison Toney, Bailey Chafin, Johnny Mocker, Matt Antunez, Lily Moser, Tanaseth Tulyathan
Synopsis:The struggle between the choices one makes – both independent and imposed – forces a man to come to grips with his own life and path.
Soundproof
Student Film (10 min)United States
Directed By:Gabriela Lima
Written By: Priscila Santa Rosa
Produced By: Kevin Aguirre
Synopsis:Soundproof explores the effects of miscommunication in a relationship and the mistrust that arises from that. When placed in a situation of extreme pressure, can a couple surpass these obstacles or will they succumb to assumptions and suspicion? When one can’t speak, true feelings and raw emotion take over, with dangerous consequences.
Good Neighbors
Student Film (13 min)United States
Directed By:Lennon Sullivan
Written By: Taylor Amble, Lennon Sullivan
Produced By: Atanacio Rodriguez
Synopsis:In a horror twist on a classic fairy-tale, struggling art student Frankie is amazed when one morning she awakes to see that someone – or something – has completed her paintings for her.
The Science of Wishes
Student Film (13 min)Lebanon
Directed By:Michelle Bado
Written By: Michelle Bado
Produced By: Nicholas Toubia
Synopsis:“A young girl faces an existential crisis as she presents her middle school science project on the topic of her older sister’s wish making powers.
Hypothesis: Magic is real.”
The Call of Water
Student Film (19 min)USA
Directed By:Kaya Tone
Written By: Kaya Tone
Produced By: Brian Plain, Tim Preston, David Maire, Kaya Tone
Synopsis:High on mushrooms, Nadia and her friends inadvertently open a portal, plunging them into the astral-plane. There, she must face an ancient keeper of the land and of the water. To return to her body, Nadia must come to terms with her responsibility to her homeland and the water that it protects.
Magdalena
Student Film (24 min)United States
Directed By:Michael Lazovsky
Written By: Michael Lazovsky; Maxwell Hersh
Produced By: Yuky Shen, Pablo Zamorano
Synopsis:Czechoslovakia, 1971. A resilient woman cannot shake the demons of her horrific past as they return to haunt her and threaten to destroy the life she is tirelessly trying to build.
