This year’s 2018 Portland International Film Festival’s will present two programs of short films by Oregon-based makers highlighting 14 new projects, including films by local movers and shakers like Mark Smith (Two Balloons), Portland film archivist Greg Hamilton (Thou Shall Not Tailgate), Scott Ballard (North & Nowhere), Dawn Jones Redstone (We Have Our Ways), and Sean Whiteman (Bramble On), but also drawing attention to work by emerging talents like Abby Thompson (Lovely Legs), Daniela Repas (Mnemonics), and Nesto (Gut Feeling).
Made in Oregon 1: Confluences:
LOVELY LEGS (Dir. Abby Thompson) – Portland
After running her over with his car, a man attempts to part ways with his secret, robot girlfriend in the middle of the forest. (10 mins., narrative)
MR. PETERSON (Dir. Josh Young) – Portland
High school students reel when they learn of a popular teacher’s suicide. One student in particular feels the weight of this loss as he searches for answers to his own identity. (20 mins., narrative)
TWO BALLOONS (Dir. Mark Smith) – Portland
Two lemurs who live in floating airships attempt to make contact with one another. (9 mins., stop-motion animation)
NORTH & NOWHERE (Dir. Scott Ballard) – Portland
Devan moves back to the country to help care for her ailing father. When her sister checks him into an assisted care facility against her wishes, she devises a plan to break him out. (12 mins., narrative)
MNEMONICS (Dir. Daniela Repas) – Portland
Using hand-drawn animation, a Bosnian refugee tells a story of her home, which has been logged and kept as drawings carefully stored in boxes on a shelf in her room. (12 mins., documentary/animation)
BRAMBLE ON (Dir. Sean Whiteman) – Portland
A young man wakes to find a mysterious creature hiding in the bushes outside of his window. Is it a traveler from another world or memories of his past manifested in a plant being? Shot on VHS. (9 mins., narrative)
BLACK CLOUD (Dir. Derek Sitter) – Bend
Moments after deciding to give life one more shot, a man wanders into a chance encounter with a couple of armed thieves. (5 mins., narrative)
Made in Oregon 2: Wilderness:
THOU SHALL NOT TAILGATE (Dir. Greg Hamilton) – Portland
Art car creator, retired postman, minister, and founding member of the Portland Cacophony Society, the Rev. Charles “Chuck” Linville’s life as an outsider artist is chronicled using archived 16mm footage and music from Linville’s vast record collection. (26 mins., documentary)
WE HAVE OUR WAYS (Dir. Dawn Jones Redstone) – Portland
In a dystopian future that severely clamps down on women’s health rights and corporations act as singular gateways for access to clinics and procedures, two young women risk their lives to help those who have been cast aside or deemed not worth the cost. (16 mins., narrative)
BREAKFAST (Dir. Sijia Huang) – Portland
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Or was it neither and just the imagination of a child? (4 mins., animation)
CONCRETE CANVASS (Dir. Gary Lundgren) – Ashland
Retired boxer Evan Sanchez is haunted by headaches, failure, and living on the streets until he finds himself back in the ring after a run in with an ex-girlfriend. (18 mins., narrative)
REDEMPTION (Dir. Sam Neff) – Portland
A young woman seeks to find a spiritual place of renewal after a traumatizing event. (5 mins., experimental)
UNBUCKLED (Dir. Tessa Ribitsch) – Portland
A young woman chooses to undergo a minor procedure, an insertion of an IUD for birth control. The procedure takes a turn for the worse, and medical sensitivity disappears right on the table. Based on a true story. (10 mins., narrative)
GUT FEELING (Dir. Nesto) – Portland
Two scientists toss logic, reason, and the scientific method to the wind in favor of a “gut feeling” that their seemingly dangerous experiment will work. What could go wrong? (6 mins., narrative)
Related posts:
