Films
The 2008 Film Festival Selections |
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**Click category heading link to take you to film synopses This Years Festival Schedule: 2008 Schedule (Click Link) |
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Shorts: |
Features: Animation: Music Video: |
Documentary: |
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American Piety (24m, U S A) dir. by Steven Karageanes - Andy is a misguided goof who has more faith in his iPod than God. he drives away Susan, his computer-matched girlfriend, with his belief that the afterlife is just a dirt nap. Later, Andy is hit by a car and ends up in limbo with Mr. Ying and Ms. Yang,"consiglieres" to the Almighty. To return to Earth, Andy must choose a religion from three "speed-dating" sessions with Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. If he doesn't, he will end up taking a dirt nap --- forever. What would you do?
Audition (20m, U S A) dir. by Sam Holdren - Life may lead anywhere once you choose to see the signs in this tragic comedy of a man who travels to the big city to audition for a movie.
Cadence - In a reality where human contact has become devalued, Andrea finds herself caught in a never-ending cycle of helping others reawaken long-forgotten feelings for each other, wondering if it's too late to make a difference.
Cantata in C Major - Six-hundred -five film clips are assembled and used to create a piece of electronic music. As the visual component appears in the center of the screen, the original analog audio is sent to the left channel while it is simultaneously converted into digital music data and sent to the right channel. The digital data is also transposed into traditional musical notation and displayed on the screen as it is converted. The film includes an animated "chalkboard" introduction that explains the entire process.
Choke Kick Girl - Choke. Kick. Girl. is an action comedy Half Hour pilot about a young Midwest man that watches too much UFC and uses fight skills he learns to get back his dad's stolen pension money from corporate suits.
Collector - Justin Sayer (Brad Renfro) suffers from a mental illness which causes vivid hallucinations. The voices in his head have caused him to isolated himself from the world and from his two year old son. After several unsuccessful attempts by visiting therapist to cure him, Justin attempts to hide his illness from a new therapist. This therapist is unlike any other.
Dino Beat Up - While playing soccer in the backyard, two boys find the impossible-a velociraptor footprint. Together they embark on a perilous journey to find the carnivore and research it's life. After a close call with a venomous snake, and an even closer call with the raptor itself, the boys find an abandoned T-Rex egg. One of the boys must find the strength to save the other, and the egg, when the dinosaur returns.
Flip - What begins as a simple firing of a mentor quickly turns into a story of misperception and deceit as what is said and seen is not quite the truth. With each revelation a new reality is revealed. The first word is a clue. The first lie is just the beginning.
Grayed Escape - An affectionate comedy about an old man who plots his escape from a dingy nursing home, racing against a callous orderly and his impending mortality.
Green Grass - The grass is always greener...or is it? An illegal immigrant and an Irish American, two competing landscapers, face a moral dilemma as they fight to do right by their families.
Narenjak - Set in the middle east, amongst the 'war games' of adults, 'Narenjak' is the story of three innocent boys who amuse themselves with their own playground version of war. When they stumble across a live grenade, their mock battle takes on a real character as they argue over what to do with their find. But their games are not the only danger...
High Hopes - Back from Jamaica, a suburban slacker promises his girlfriend that he is finally ready to put his weed habit behind him...just not yet. True to form, he calls his friends to smoke with him, only to lose sight of the weed. Now their desperate, yet lazy, search for weed leads them to a pimp, a drug dealer, and a hustler.
The Executioner's Tale IV: Legacy - William Tyler puts into motion a plan of revenge against the woman he feels is responsible for the death of his daughter and leaving him in a wheelchair. (shown out of competition)
In Between - In between solitude and love, is there a place for sincerity? Alicia is pregnant and wants to have the child. Her partner Mateusz, moved by a hidden reason, doesn't agree with her life changing decision.
Keys (23m, U S A) dir. by Christopher Babers - When Leann receives a grim diagnosis of cancer, she and her bi-racial son Eli travel back to her childhood home in the Midwest, in order for her to make amends with her estranged father.
Late -A family running late is faced with more problems than they expected. . .
The Lost Toy - Jack, black bike patrol officer, racially picked on and discriminated against by white officers at the station, snaps at a white boy tagging a graffiti wall. When the police chief and his wife show up at the door to Jack's dinner invitation, what awaits Jack isn't what he's expected.
Manifesto - Travis, a US soldier serving in Iraq, leads his men into a dangerous raid. Insurgents await the troops arrival. Back in New York City, his wife gets ready to have her first child without him. They long for each-other as their journeys drawl closer to an end.
Meeting in the Middle - When old flames, Ellen and Adam, go to therapy to discuss their recent separation, they both tell their respective side of the story. Ellen starts from the beginning and Adam from the end. Their stories will eventually meet in the middle, giving both sides a surprising revelation.
No Wind No Waves - A Chinese man comes to America for the first time to visit his son, but his trip goes terribly awry when he discovers his son has been mysteriously arrested.
A Noble Way - Upon learning disturbing news, a young couple decides to investigate the deepest recesses of their hill country ranch. Soon they discover a strange house and a mysterious paternal connection begins to unfold. Will Mark Noble determine if love is stronger than pride?
Nora Breaks Free - When sixteen year old Nora Cunningham is grounded by her overprotective mom, she runs away from home . As she pursues her romantic interest at a wild kegger, she runs into a string of very over the top, wacky characters.
Rabia - Rabia is a woman who must blow herself up in order to exist. From the moment she straps explosives to her bare body, we are exposed to flashbacks of Rabia's past, filled with abuse, rejection, and struggle. By the time she steps onto a popular Israeli beach, awaiting to kill hundreds of innocent civilians in a massive explosion, we find ourselves asking whether Rabia's act is one of evil or one of heroism?
Refuge - Have you ever felt like you're being watched? Well Jakob Lyons thinks he is. The big question isn't by who or why but is it real?
Return to Menu -While on a date, Jason must correct an embarrassing mistake before the girl notices.
Save Me - A backwoods serial killer ignores pleads for mercy from an attractive young damsel, but does take the time to hear her suggestions for a greener future.
Someone to Love - Lauren's boyfriend is a jerk and everyone knows it but Lauren, so her girlfriends send her off to Snooze You Lose Speed Dating Service where you are guaranteed to meet your soul mate in fifty-five minutes or ---not.
The Audition - First-year lawyer discovers her long lost vulnerability when she returns to the stage.
Two Wolves - When a young boy is taken on a camping trip by his father, he finds a wallet containing a large amount of cash. He pockets the cash without a second thought, returning to his camping trip as if nothing had happened. His father later tells him a story that changes his perception of his actions, and he decides to send the money back to the wallet's owner. However, the son learns that not all was as it seemed at the campgrounds that day.
Wedding Night - A bride and groom examine the day's curious events, at a bed and breakfast with an owner who is a little too excited about the love birds staying with her.
Zombie Jesus - On a stormy night in the parish of a small town you've never heard of, the Son of God at last returns to grant his most fervent followers the gift of immortality - by having them join him in the ranks of the undead!
All Along - A mid-life voyage into the fantastic.
Bad for Business - Jerry has made a career of getting dumped. But when it's time to do some dumping of his own, his soon-to-be ex doesn't take it so well.
Freezer Burn - A scientist falls for his wife's 14-year-old art student and, using the technology from his research, freezes himself to align his age with hers.
Greetings from the Shore - Still reeling from the death of her father, a young girl spends one last summer at the Jersey Shore before heading off to college. But when her plans fall apart, the girl stumbles into a mysterious world of Russian sailors, high-stakes gambling, and unexpected love.
Henry May Long - Henry May is the self-destructive, golden child of a prominent New York family in 1887. Henry Long is a resourceful, terminally ill entrepreneur. Their chance meeting reveals to both men what they have lost to get where they are, what they are willing to risk to get what they want and what they are willing to lose to live.
Reel Zombies - Independent Zombie Film makers, Producer Mike Masters and Director David J. Francis, the team behind the commercially unsuccessful Zombie Night 1 and 2, set about to complete their trilogy, only this time, using the real zombies that have taken over much of the world.
Sleep to Dream (60m, U S A) dir. by Michael Noens - Rachel Bergman has a blackout, waking to find herself smothering her boyfriend, Jack to death. By the time she realizes what she has done it is too late. Rachel flees the scene of the crime, ending up in a hotel room. After only being there a few moments, the phone rings. On the other line is a witness to the crime; someone who has been watching Rachel for a long time and this witness isn't going to let her off easy.
Sympathetic Details - An assassin begins to develop a conscience.
Wherever You Are -"Wherever You Are" is a darkly comedic tale of a seemingly well-to-do family on the day they visit a shrink for help. (But shhh! They don't want the whole town to know they actually have problems...) The father is a closet homosexual. The mom's legally insane, their younger son has ADHD, their older son stutters, and their middle child, a daughter, is sexually promiscuous. Let me introduce you to the Bernstein family.
Wonderful - George Beaman wants to be George Bailey from the movie "Its A Wonderful Life". There are only two problems -- George Beaman's wife left him and took the kids, and of course, George Bailey doesn't really exist. Everything will change for him -- not because of the intervention of an angel, but because this Christmas Eve has many surprises and wonders of its own, ranging from a stint in jail to swimming to save a garbage bag in the Flint River, to a stopover at a poor inner-city church, a few minutes contemplating the fate of Carl the Cutter, a session with a wizened lady of the evening and culminating with wearing flashing Christmas lights in the back yard of his estranged wife's new house. Laced with humor and Christmas spirit, WONDERFUL is a burst of good cheer. Comedy/Drama.
7500 Miles to Redemption -A gifted guitarist and several inmates find a redemptive liberation through a selfless act of kindness when they help to build a school in Vietnam, 7,500 miles outside the walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Their four year journey ends in a powerful story of transcendence.
Austin's Movie - Austin is an eight-year-old boy with autism. He loves the public art sculptures in his town, Brighton, Michigan and takes pictures of them with his digital camera every day. However, some people in this town are not pleased with these sculptures that Austin loves and photographs, and some are even vandalized. The movie depicts this unique young who helps us see things we miss in life...
Bending Space (56m, U S A) dir. by Kenny Dalsheimer, Penelope Maunsell - Georges Rousse and The Durham Project- What happens when a visionary meets the creative spirit of a former Tobacco Road town in the midst of a downtown civilization? A singular grassroots arts project emerges that confounds expectations and takes the city of Durham, North Carolina by storm as buildings from a past incarnation of the city are transformed into temporary canvases for dramatic public art.
Blue Devils - The story of VMF-451 during WWII', is a story of survival, of brash young men and their first encounter with war, with death, with homesickness --- with life. It is a story of now quiet, older men, aged by war and time, but still holding on to the spark that made them one of the best squadrons of World War II.
Considering Democracy - What does the rest of the world think and how does the U.S. compare?
Courting Condi (107m, U S A) dir. by Sebastian Doggart - Can one man with a dream win the heart of the world's most powerful woman?
Courage - Sharon Browne's children have a rare syndrome called Mucopolysacchridoses III (MPS III) . This is the story of one mother's dedication for her children.
Creator of God (63m, U S A) dir. by Vivekanand Palavali - This is the story of how a brain surgeon's quest, starting as a teenager, finds answers to how and why the idea of God came into human existence and if God actually exists. In these times of holy wars and Jihad, the documentary also explores if religious intolerance and insanity are based on Gods that do not exist.
D.O.P.E. (60m, U S A) dir. by Chris Aherns - DOPE is a look at four legendary world champion skateboarders, Jay Adams from Dogtown's Z Boys, Christian Hosoi, Dennis Martinez, Bruce Logan it examines their rise to the top and their descent into the drug and crime culture and slow climb back to life. Narration is by legend Danny Trejo music title song by P.O.D. Archival period footage along with current interviews makes this a must see project.
Hackers Are People Too - Hackers have gotten a bad rap for too long! This documentary aims to present a portrait of the modern hacking community from the community's perspective to Average America. Hackers are more than how they are portrayed in the media: hackers are programmers, business men, feds, inventors, teachers, students, parents, artists, pranksters, gamers, nerds.....most importantly, hackers are people too!
Hell Drivers - Risking their lives at bargain prices, aging county fair daredevils struggle to entertain a new generation of kids raised on video games and insane YouTube stunts. Can the old-fashioned stunt man survive?
In Bed With A Mosquito - Betty Brassell has spent nearly every day of her retirement - rain or shine - protesting in the streets of New York City, her walker currently emblazoned with 'Arrest Cheney.' But when an injury sidelines her from a busy schedule of protests and vigils, Betty is homebound and finds herself wondering how much longer she will be able to take it to the streets. 'In Bed With a Mosquito' is an intimate portrait of activism and aging in New York City.
Redemption Stone - Redemption Stone introduces Tom Lewis, a storyteller of quiet power who brings an extraordinary spirit to his life and work. Tom's compelling memoir recounts the aftereffects of poverty, social upheaval and rebirth that shape his unique American journey. Life altering experiences help Tom confront the challenging issues surrounding him. He then turns hardship into hope for the children in his community at a place called The Fishing School.
Renaissance Men - No information submitted at this time.
Victoria - Victoria is a documentary short about a disheveled piano (Victoria) and the people who play her. Located in a homeless and low-income dining room in San Francisco, it could be argued that Victoria has never sounded so good.The Year at Danger - Nine days after getting married, Steve Metze found out he was being deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Metze, a West Point graduate, Desert Storm veteran, and documentary filmmaker, decided to pack a camera and document his year in Iraq.
Animal Instincts - Animal Instincts is an action packed claymation of epic proportions. A cow and a sheep battle it out in a fight for ultimate farmyard supremacy.
Fish (5m, U S A) dir. by HyunJean Lee - I want to show the unique friendship between Chulhwan and I. We are so close that we don't mind each other's rude jokes because we understand that we are just being playful. This short is basically showing our typical, interaction that we always share and how comfortable we are with each other.
Fresh Fruit - 'Fresh Fruit' is a stop motion animation about a pear and an apple whimsically musing about fruit life in their home-style refrigerator.
Goldilocks Redirected - This short animated film combines two- and three-dimensional animation techniques to tell a familiar tale in a whole new way.
Raccoon & Crawfish - No information submitted at this time.
Red & Blue (4m, U S A) dir. by Tyler Ayres - RED & blue is a short story about personality and perseverance. Each day two little balloons hold a race. The protagonist, Blue is quiet and soft spoken. He loves to race even though he isn't fast, and never wins. The antagonist, RED, is a bully. RED wins every race and constantly picks on Blue. Blue still loves to race. He tries to be RED's friend, but the bullying continues. Blue finally decides not to race anymore and flies away. As he is flying away, he learns about himself, and quite by accident,
how to fly much faster.
Valentine Song - A music video by "Miller & Katsumi," an alternative folk-rock duo from Ann Arbor, Michigan, formed by Laurence Miller, veteran punk rocker singer song-writer/guitar player, and Katsumi Nagae, singer song-writer/guitar player. The video's unique, syrupy look with a saturated texture was created in the following way; first, they learned how to mime to the recording of the song (a multi track recording by Miller) at double speed. After the video shoot, they slowed the footage back down to standard speed and re-inserted the song's original audio into the video during the editing process. The set design was created by Ryan Brewer, an interior design artist, who currently resides in New York.