Denver Film Festival: Shorts Lineup
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- DirectorDavina PardoHolocaust survivor Eva Schloss preserves her story interactively so that she will be able to tell it forever.
- DirectorSergio FalchiStarsAntonio ToccoDavide FalchiUwizeymana CostaAn old rude fisherman meets a refugee girl.
- DirectorBahman ArkBahram ArkStarsDavoud NourpourA man who wants to pass the border, disguises himself as a ram.
- DirectorNathan TruesdellStarsMary AllenBig ChuckLil JonThe city of Cleveland was abuzz on September 27, 1986. Over 1.5 million balloons were about to be released at once, breaking the world record. What could go wrong?
- DirectorEkaterina FilippovaOnce the birdie met a hippo. They became friends and have built a lovely house together.
- DirectorNiki Lindroth von BahrStarsSven BjörklundMattias FranssonCarl EnglénA dark musical enacted in a market place, situated next to a freeway. The employees of the various commercial venues deal with boredom and existential anxiety by performing cheerful musical turns. The apocalypse is a tempting liberator.
- DirectorBritt RaesStarsBraden LunsfordMadison ReevesRudi RokA tragic comedy of a sweet little girl, who grows up to be a crazy old cat lady.
- DirectorTravis LindnerJustin TyrrellStarsNathan LundTimmi LasleyNate GustBefore he opens his new restaurant, a desperate chef seeks constructive feedback from his friends.
- DirectorDina FiasconaroStarsAya CashJenn HarrisWill RogersIn a surrealist take on a 1950s commercial, a bored housewife attempts to spice up her marriage by preparing a delicious meatloaf for dinner. What emerges from the kitchen is "The Queen of Meatloaf" incarnate, who proceeds to invade the homes of consumers and wreak havoc on the commercial set.
- DirectorJessica KingdonYiwu International Trade City is the world's largest market, selling cheap goods wholesale in a city south of Shanghai. The fake flowers, toys, pens and alarm clocks traded in Yiwu eventually end up in dollar stores across the planet, but I focus on the people who sell these goods that we take for granted. As a character study of the market itself, the film peers into the lives of those who run this global trade. The sellers, full of life and individuality, live against the uniformly oppressive backdrop of their livelihood. A somber man painstakingly counts tiny metal parts on his desk in a pen shop. A business lady sweet talks one of her customers, peppering him with insults and compliments, but in between the buying and selling, vendors all find different ways to pass the time in this gigantic mall. A mother yells at a group of young boys, berating them for losing a toy. A man in a suit hums along to a haunting song waiting for a customer as the clocks he is selling tick away. Two young siblings play a video game while lazily eating KFC from the bucket, licking their fingers. While these stories seem small and insignificant, in the context of the film, the dialogue and actions take on new weight and meaning, elevating the quotidian to a realm of discovery.
- DirectorNanna Kristín MagnúsdóttirStarsÓlafur Darri ÓlafssonRagnheiður Ugla Ocares GautsdóttirAgla Bríet GísladóttirA single father wants to fulfil his young daughter's wish to throw a slumber party for her friends, but it turns out to be more of a challenge than he thought due to the rules of modern society.
- DirectorGeoff MarslettStarsAbby AndersonPaul GordonKaitlin MaestesA WEDDING, CELL PHONES, RIFLES, BEER & DEER. Sometimes getting married means giving up your old friends; sometimes it means not making new friends; most of the time it means passing up new loves. Hopefully it's worth it. In this tragic romantic comedy the couple's losses are a little more literal. When their pre-wedding hunting trip in the mountains spins out of control the happy couple struggles to make everything right again.
- DirectorJason A. KesslerStarsJonathan FlandersKatie KohlerEman EsfandiA Hollywood script reader comes across a script that may or may not lead to the horrific death of anyone who passes on it.
- DirectorRoseanne LiangStarsMarsha YuenJacob TomuriDavid T. LimIn an aging private hospital, a single-minded surgeon is forced to break her physician's oath when violent gangsters storm in to stop a crucial operation.
- DirectorMahdi FleifelStarsAtef AlshafeiJalal QaniryThymios KoukiosAlone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.
- DirectorMark BorchardtStarsMark BorchardtU.F.O. BobSheldonMark Borchardt turns his camera on the UFO Daze gathering in Dundee, Wisconsin, where he finds an abundance of fascinating characters, a mystic landscape, and the paradox between empirical evidence and extraterrestrial longing. Featuring luminaries who claim to be in direct contact with the aliens themselves, this film offers an objective vantage point for its subjects to outlay their beliefs unhindered by censorious reasoning. If anything, this documentary will keep you on your toes and your eyes to the skies.
- DirectorStacey SteersEdge of Alchemy is the third film in a trilogy examining the psychological terrain of women's inner worlds. In this handmade film, assembled from over 6,000 collages, the actors Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor are lifted from their early silent features and cast into a surreal epic with an unending of the Frankenstein story and contemporary undercurrents of hive collapse. Music by Lech Jankowski (Brothers Quay). Edge of Alchemy received major funding from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Creative Capital Foundation. "Edge of Alchemy is the epitome of Stacey Steers' unique vision of collaged re-examination animations, an uncanny way to carry on in the great tradition of surrealist cinema. Max Ernst would refer to Lautréamont's sewing machine and umbrella to define the structure of the surrealist painting as 'a linking of two realities that by all appearances have nothing to link them, in a setting that by all appearances does not fit them.' I would add, making it all feel so seamlessly inevitable and inexplicably right...the 'feeling of form', as Suzanne K. Langer might have put it..." (Phil Solomon)
- DirectorOlga OsorioStarsTeo GaliñanesÓscar GaliñanesRicardo de BarreiroSummer of 1982. Teo claims he has found a wormhole. His brother Óscar does not believe him - at least not for now.
- DirectorRory StewartStarsLynsey BeauchampOliver KennedyJuliet KnightAfter a chance encounter with a grieving old friend a charismatic Spiritualist attempts to prove the virtue of her beliefs, but all does not go as planned.
- DirectorDario OrtegaStarsMaya OrtegaNick HollandGeoff MarslettAn Assassin with a near perfect College Basketball Playoffs bracket deals with the obligation of the job and the distractions of being a sports fan.
- DirectorCharlie ShackletonStarsCaspar SalmonA search for the truth behind a fishy tale.
- DirectorRobert BeaversBased on the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, a look at the artist's life and work in Florence.
- DirectorLaura MossStarsElizabeth AshleyJordyn DiNataleJimi StantonA coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Ted Bundy's execution in 1989.
- DirectorQiu YangStarsShuxian LiFrank SunYaning DingIn a nameless Chinese city, a mother with her daughter missing refuses to go gentle into this good night.
- DirectorRobin ComisarStarsNevada CaldwellCarrie CoonJordan GelberA woman gets stuck in a Red Lobster commercial.
- DirectorSam PeetersRight-wing populism is spreading through Western Europe like wildfire. In this unscripted documentary, Sam Peeters portrays an ironic caricature of life in the Flemish suburbs, which reflects the current European zeitgeist.
- DirectorWilly BerlinerStarsDave HansonJim SantangeliKathy SearleA man finds a family of strangers in his house and has an extremely difficult time asking them to leave.
- DirectorSol FriedmanOver a Chinese food picnic at the beach, Stephen Hawking and Kanye West discuss Dance moves, Drake and the art of Divination.
- DirectorFabio FriedliFrom a seed to war, from meat to love, from indifference to apocalypse. An attempt to capture the world in a nutshell.
- DirectorMeedo TahaStarsYumna MarwanMoe LattoufTony MehannaAt a bus stop near Beirut, a veiled Lebanese woman and a migrant Syrian worker get in a tumultuous moment and are arrested. They must argue their innocence in the face of the only witnesses: a bus full of women on their way to Koran school, each with her version of the truth.
- DirectorMari MiyazawaWhen captured by fashionable and new things, and it seems like you are about to lose sight of yourself, stop and think a little. Consider what it is that can help you regain control of yourself. You will definitely find it very close to you. I want to convey that thought to children with this work.
- DirectorRob BrunnerJustin HardingStarsAlana ElmerBowen HardingPeter HigginsonAn obsessive choreographer on a creative retreat with her toddler awakens a fairy corpse with disturbing intentions
- DirectorWes HurleyNathan M. MillerStarsWes HurleyElena BridgesBenjamin JakupcakWes Hurley's autobiographical tale of growing up gay in Soviet Union Russia, only to escape with his mother, a mail order bride, to Seattle to face a whole new oppression in his new Christian fundamentalist American dad.
- DirectorGal MuggiaStarsTia GaliliOfir Peretz
- DirectorDavid WilsonStarsChristin GarciaQuinn HaynesLyndon JohnsonM83's imaginative Do It, Try It music video that premiered at Sundance NextFest, written and directed by Grammy nominated director David Wilson.
- DirectorEric M. LevyStarsBrendan CliffordJames DunnA suicidal citizen refuses the aid of a nosey mailman. But the mailman doesn't want to help him-- he wants to help him do it.
- DirectorChintis LundgrenStarsTrevor BorisFrance CastelDrasko IvezicA hot young plumber Toomas breaks into the harmonious life of Manivald and his retired mother.
- DirectorBenjamin BeeStarsQasim BaigAnthony JosephsMarta JosephsA touching and warmly funny fable about two estranged brothers from a traditional orthodox Jewish family forced to reunite when their father passes away.
- DirectorCaitlin FitzGeraldStarsJessica AnguianoRachel FowlerAshton JonnardIt's a very human thing to want to protect your children, a very human thing to doubt yourself. Mrs. Drake intertwines good intentions with perplexity in a beautiful portrait of the faltering nature of motherhood.
- DirectorYoni LappinStarsIzzy CofieTarzan HaynesHoney MaczOfficial music video for "Love$ick" by Mura Masa featuring A$AP Rocky.
- DirectorErin SangerStarsCorey CottTaylor HessKenzie RossA family's plan to stage an intervention unravels.
- DirectorDouglas CushnieStarsNitzia ChamaAndoni GraciaFrancisco Ovalle1810: Isadora, an Indigenous Californian (Tongva) woman, faces a battle to survive after being emancipated from the abusive Los Angeles mission where she was raised. She's helped by Domingo, a Franciscan friar, on the journey to bring her to a Native village where she can she can be safe.
- DirectorThom JamesStarsJaclyn VoglElsbeth McCallPeter W. JorgensenKelly and Rosa, two struggling followers of the occult, have found a secluded cabin in the woods in the hopes of summoning the devil in peace. Only once in lifetime does this extremely rare date happen but when their call to the devil is interrupted by unapologetic Bud, a banana bread wielding neighbor who has no intention of leaving - things look like they could go straight to hell after all.
- DirectorJennifer ProctorIn films, as in life, the bathtub is often considered a private space for women - a place not only to groom, but to relax, to think, to grieve, to be alone, to find sanctuary. For Hollywood, though, it's also a place of naked vulnerability, where women narratively placed in harm's way have no escape. Using appropriated movies, this experimental found footage work deconstructs the representations of women in this domestic space as historically framed in popular film.
- DirectorScott TakedaStarsKate CookKristen DeVore RakesScott TakedaKate is excited to participate in her boyfriend's family tradition.
- DirectorCatherine LicataStarsGeoff MarslettDoug SilbertAkasha VillalobosWhen a couple's cat goes missing on a cross-country move, their relationship is tested.
- DirectorRobert BeaversThe filmmaker's mother's house and garden, examining the shadowy atmosphere of loneliness and stillness.
- DirectorMike HayhurstIn a world full of pears, what can you find to fill your pit? A story about longing, love, and finding your other half...
- DirectorAna ChubinidzeA small man lives in a suitcase. One day, after his home is repeatedly kicked over by a stranger, he gets his vengeance only to discover his preconceptions were wrong.
- DirectorPaloma BaezaStarsHelena Bonham CarterJoseph MayIn a harsh Arctic landscape, a hungry and solitary polar bear has to decide if a naïve Canadian grizzly bear is her food or her friend.
- DirectorKaveh MazaheriStarsSonia SanjariMohammad Hossein ZiksariSiamak FarsiMaryam's husband died in front of her eyes and she just watches until he died.
- DirectorShingo UsamiStarsShingo UsamiTatsuoCat MartinA father and a son overcome a death with their love and cultural identity firmly squeezed into a Japanese riceball.
- DirectorPatrick BresnanIvete LucasStarsAir Force OnePalm Beach International Airport's newest snowbird has become one of the fastest growing roadside attractions in the United States.
- StarsRyan GunnarsonLauren YormackAnthony CubbaAfter a breakup, a young woman decides to take emotions out of dating and find her soulmate using nothing but science, logic, and The Romantic Method.
- DirectorKazik RadwanskiStarsIgor DrljacaNicole FairbairnJasmin GeljoRecent immigrants to Canada, working on scaffolding break the routine of their job by observing the people in the the neighbourhood from a unique, precarious and ephemeral vantage point.
- DirectorStan BrakhageAn experimental short film by Stan Brakhage which combines color, lights, and blurred images of children. This is part of the Scenes from Under Childhood Series.
- DirectorZuki Juno TobgyeA migrant worker from South India, who's customs says he is not allowed to marry at an even age, tries to find a wife before his 32nd birthday whilst working as a lorry driver in Singapore.
- DirectorStefon BristolStarsEden Duncan-SmithDante CrichlowParish BradleyTwo Brooklyn teenage prodigies, C.J. Walker and Sebastian Thomas, build make-shift time machines to save C.J.'s brother, Calvin, from being wrongfully killed by a police officer.
- DirectorAdisaStarsGideon AdlonSamantha HanrattyElisabeth HarnoisWhen a teenager gets abducted by a human trafficking ring, her mother, Sharon, enlists the help of her estranged friend, Lena, to find her. Lena is then forced to face her own past.
- DirectorJonatan SchwenkAfter a flood, some fishes got stuck in old trees. In danger of drying-out they scream sharply. Woken up by the noise, the inhabitants of a nearby cave don't feel happy about the unintended gathering...
- DirectorNatalia Chernysheva
- DirectorLaurel ParmetStarsArin MacLaineEllie YorkeAlexandra GirelliniAmanda struggles to keep something inside, as she spends the day taking pictures of her best friend.
- DirectorNed WenlockA young stag, lacking impressive antlers, must improvise with sweet music in order to have any chance during the mating season.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsBearthm BrakhageCrystal BrakhageNeowyn BrakhageWe move back and forth between scenes of a family at home and thoughts about the stars and creation. Children hold chickens while an adult clips their wings; we see a forest; a narrator talks about stars and light and eternity. A dog joins the hens and the family, while the narrator explains the heavens. We see a bee up close. The narrator suggests metaphors for heavenly bodies. Scenes fade into a black screen or dim purple; close-ups of family life may be blurry. The words about the heavens, such as "The stars are a flock of hummingbirds," contrast with images and sounds of real children.
- DirectorClémentine Robach
- DirectorPhilip LeungStarsTony LeungSean LiuLori PhunThe Suitcase is a short film about a little girl from rural China whose mother attempts to calm her down as she is smuggled to Canada inside a suitcase. As she confronts airline attendants, guard dogs, and baggage handlers from within the suitcase, the mother paints a rosy picture of her surroundings in order for her not to panic. This live action / animated film deals with the resilience of immigrants, and the lengths they go through to establish a better future for their family.
- DirectorPhil GiordanoStarsJohn ArcillaMercedes CabralAndrei FajaritoAfter refusing a ritual circumcision intended to usher him into manhood, Rene-boy (10), tries alternate methods to remove this mark of cowardice.
- DirectorNatasha TonkinStarsLisa DiveneyOne family's search for connection in a digital world.
- DirectorAina ClotetStarsMarcel BorràsAina ClotetVicenç FonolledaIn a couple there are wonderful, tender and desperate moments. Losing your pet when you are waiting for your first baby, can trigger them all at once.
- DirectorJennifer ZhengSome things can only be understood with maturity. New light is shed on childhood cultural misunderstandings when a Chinese mother and her British born daughter speak as adults for the first time.
- DirectorJustin KrulStarsWhitney StarkImre Van OpstalA young ballet dancer is struggling with here choices about her future as a dancer.
- DirectorWilliam Caballero
- DirectorIfunanya MadukaIn 2014, 276 teenage girls came together for exams in Chibok, Nigeria -- by dawn, nearly all had disappeared and their school was burnt. Jessica, an escapee, shares her haunting account of a friendship violently interrupted by Boko Haram.
- DirectorMercedes MarroIt's a starry night in a poor neighborhood in Latin America. Oscar is sleeping in his room when a sudden wind wakes him up. From his window he sees a little goldfish in a dirty puddle gasping for air.
- DirectorElizabeth ItoStarsJackie BuscarinoAnne ItoDoug ItoWatch this exclusive short about a day in the life of Douglas aka T-Kash, a monster trying to fit in at his high school.
- DirectorGrant ConversanoStarsMairon AlvarezFallyn BrownAhna DemaroAutumn, fed up and exhausted, cuts ties with her heroin addict boyfriend in a gas station parking lot. Stranded and alone, she approaches a semi-truck driver eating by himself. The two strangers awkwardly share a table.
- DirectorDaniel PfefferStarsDarlene MonroeLucas MonroeJoshua RiveraSuspicious his brother is stealing from him, Lucas goes on a search through town to confront the problem.
- DirectorGillian Wallace HorvatStarsChase WilliamsonHeather KafkaMegan MercierA branding intern loses the life he once had after an encounter with a mysterious blonde and her whiskey bottle... but gains something very special in return.
- DirectorAyel KamalAyçe KartalStarsZeynep Naz DaldalS., 8 years old, is a little Turkish girl with an overflowing imagination. She is keen on nature and animals. While she is looking back on the good old days in her grandparents' village from hospital room, dark and terrifying memories emerge and, little by little, begin to make sense.
- DirectorRory Alexander StewartStarsEmma CurtisEmma CaterAinslie HendersonJoan's efforts at teenage rebellion are frustrated by her illness and her overbearing mother, until her increasingly vivid dreams and an overzealous tutor inspire her to realise her independence.
- DirectorStan BrakhageStarsStan BrakhageMyrrena SchwegmannJane WodeningStan Brakhage films the birth of his first child, Myrrena.
- DirectorBrian BolsterStarsAlexandra de SteiguerLocated ten miles off the coast of mainland New England, the Oceanic Hotel is the grand, yet far-from-modern home to the thousands of guests who brave the choppy seas to visit during the warmer spring and summer months. Off-season, the hotel and the 43-acre Star Island on which it sits is home to one woman - its winter caretaker who braves the colder, darker months of inclement weather by embracing the solitude and finding inspiration, and life, in what would otherwise be considered the 'bones' of winter.
- DirectorDon HertzfeldtStarsJulia PottWinona MaeJesse CilioEmily is visited by a backup clone of herself from the even-more distant future, as they must venture into each other's psyches in order to restore the clone's deteriorating mind.
- DirectorAdrian SilisteanuStarsSorin MihaiElena UrsaruAlina SerbanBecause of ID issues, Pardica, a 50-year old Roma man, risks the authorities separating him from his underage daughter, who has just had a baby.