'Peas and Carrots' and 'Here’s Yianni!' Headline 3rd Dances With Films, NYC Edition Lineup

Peas and Carrots by Evan Oppenheimer — Peas and Carrots (courtesy DWF)

Evan Oppenheimer’s Peas and Carrots will make its world premiere as the Opening Night feature, and Christina Elioupolos’ Here’s Yianni! is the Closing Night selection of the film lineup for the 3rd New York City edition of Dances With Films (DWF) film festival taking place December 5-8, 2024.

DWF NYC’s lineup of 141 films, includes 22 narrative and midnight features, 9 documentary features, 18 television and streaming pilots, and 92 short films (76 combined narrative and midnight, with 16 documentaries). All screenings will take place at Regal Union Square (850 Broadway).

Opening Night will feature the World Premiere of DWF alumni Evan Oppenheimer’s Peas and Carrots, that follows a teenage girl in New York who is the child of a couple that were one-hit wonders in the 90s. She also travels in a bizarre alternate reality, where everybody only says three words: “Peas and Carrots”. Naturally, her family forms a new band and start rocking out together. The film stars Kirrilee Berger, Jordan Bridges, and Amy Carlson, and the local NYC-based production also includes the involvement of numerous legendary New York musicians. Members of the Ramones, Sonic Youth, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and Guster all contributed to this movie, both with new music in the score and (in some cases) with appearances on screen. Oppenheimer’s film The Auteur Theory screened at DWF in 1999 with an early appearance by Natasha Lyonne.

Closing Night will feature Christina Eliapolous’ whimsical comedy drama Here’s Yianni! starring Joe Cortese, as the title character, and Julia Ormond as a longtime couple who run a beachside family diner. Yianni develops dementia and slips into a parallel realm, believing he is the host of a late-night talk show with the diner’s staff and customers as guest stars. Meanwhile, his wife tries to hide his illness from their coworkers and best friends (Kevin Pollak and Rosanna Arquette). When a woman and her seven-year-old son move in across the street, Yianni becomes convinced that the young boy is the son they lost 30 years ago and after he escapes home and runs into the boy, Yianni must find a moment of clarity so he can navigate them both back to the diner and their worried families. The film also stars Eric Roberts and Sofia Vassileva.

Additional narrative feature films making their world premieres are Jason Mendoza’s drama Good Friday, about poor street kids who find themselves himself at odds with loan sharks and the neighborhood’s street tyrant, after a botched house robbery. Dom Cutrupi’s Lola Dust focuses on an aspiring actress who finds herself the subject of a deep fake campaign featuring her image and thrusting her unwillingly into a threatening world hidden in plain sight. William Tyler Wiseman’s Moonwater follows the efforts of a man, battling his own alcoholism while trying to revive his late father’s old, dilapidated moonshine still deep in the woods for one final batch. The world premiere of Bari King’s survival tale Itch leads the Midnight category! in which a horrific outbreak transforms its victims into self-destructive shells. A widower grappling with grief takes refuge in a seemingly safe department store with his estranged young daughter, Olivia. However, their sanctuary quickly becomes a nightmarish trap, as the infection quickly closes in on them.

Making its North American premiere is Howard Goldberg’s Double Exposure. The film features the dramatic collision of the past and present, as a man, in a life and death struggle with himself, combats his guilt over what happened to his first love in a #MeToo tragedy. DWF alumni (Goodbye, Petrushka 2022) Nicola Rose returns with her second feature Magnetosphere, which will be making its US premiere. At the center of the film is a 13-year-old girl with a rare ability to see sound and hear color. Her dad’s ramshackle theatre production introduces her to a host of influential new people, shaking up her attempts to keep her ability a secret.

Documentaries making their world premieres at DWF NYC are Liam Le Guillou’s A Cursed Man in which the filmmaker’s exploration of the world of witchcraft and the occult, leads him to have a curse placed on him forcing him to question the nature of reality and belief. Victoria Kupchinetsky’s Calico Rebellion looks at a family of farmers in the Catskill Mountains whose ancestors staged the Anti-Rent War 200 years ago, changing the cause of American history, and paving way to the anti-slavery movement and to Abraham Lincoln’s new political party. Mikaela Shwer’s The Kids Are Not Alright looks at the abuse suffered at the hands of the Troubled Teen Industry, an unregulated network of for-profit institutions claiming to fix wayward teenagers.

The 2024 Dances With Films NYC official selections

OPENING NIGHT FEATURE

Peas And Carrots
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 96 min.
DIRECTOR: Evan Oppenheimer

CLOSING NIGHT FEATURE

Here’s Yianni!
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 101.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Christina Elioupolos

ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES

A/Way
USA, 2024, 62 min.
DIRECTOR: Derek Shane Garcia

Adventure Tom
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 110 min.
DIRECTOR: Miguel Duran

Boundary Waters
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 98 min.
DIRECTOR: Tessa Blake

The Collaborator
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 124.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Travis Hodgkins

Double Exposure
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I USA, 2024, 93 min.
DIRECTOR: Howard Goldberg

The Ego Death Of Queen Cecilia
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 86 min.
DIRECTOR: Chris Beier

Good Friday
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 62 min.
DIRECTOR: Jason Mendoza

Lola Dust
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 90.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Dom Cutrupi

Magnetosphere
US Premiere I USA, 2024, 89.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Nicola Rose

Moonwater
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 118 min.
DIRECTOR: William Tyler Wiseman

Our Happy Place
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 91 min.
DIRECTOR: Paul Bickel

Screams From The Tower
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 118 min.
DIRECTOR: Cory Wexler Grant

Sergeant Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 78 min.
DIRECTOR: Jarrett Jung

Sonny Boy
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 90 min.
DIRECTOR: Kristen Hansen

Step Back, Doors Closing
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 98 min.
DIRECTOR: Carter Ward

Year One
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 93 min.
DIRECTOR: Lauren Loesberg

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

A Cursed Man
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 98 min.
DIRECTOR: Liam Le Guillou

A Little Hope For Chicago
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 74 min.
DIRECTOR: Leon Lozano

All American
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 87 min.
DIRECTOR: Mark Andrew Altschul

Bastards Of Soul
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 84 min.
DIRECTOR: Paul Levatino

Bulletproof: A Lesbian’s Guide To Surviving The Plot
EAST COAST Premiere I CAN, 2024, 105 min.
DIRECTOR: Regan Latimer

Calico Rebellion
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 75 min.
DIRECTOR: Victoria Kupchinetsky

The Donn Of Tiki
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 100 min.
DIRECTORS: Alex Lamb, Max Well

The Kids Are Not Alright
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 90 min.
DIRECTOR: Mikaela Shwer

Spyral
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 83 min.
DIRECTOR: Bill Guttentag

MIDNIGHT FEATURES

Astral Plane Drifter
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 89 min.
DIRECTOR: Scott Slone

Bleeding
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I USA, 2024, 97.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Andrew Bell

Itch!
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 82.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Bari Kang

Straight On Till Morning
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 104 min.
DIRECTOR: Craig Ouellette

PILOTS – TV & WEB

A Legend Is Hatched: I Become Famous… In My Own Mind
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2023, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Victoria Myers

Ada Episodes 1 & 3
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 21 min.
DIRECTORS: Elizabeth Cox, Kirill Yeretsky

Babyteeth
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Paul X Sanchez IV

Dropped
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 16.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Lucy Hirschfeld

Eden For Two
USA, 2024, 22 min.
DIRECTOR: Colin Henning

Fortune
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 27.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Matthew Perkins

The Fun In Funny
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 22.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Christine Lakin

Gasbag
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 24 min.
DIRECTOR: Christopher Gerson (part 1), Julie Kramer (part 2)

Hive
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 48 min.
DIRECTOR: Dan Jones

Le Parrot
USA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Rachael Sonnenberg

Like Comment Subscribe – Ep 1 (Pilot)
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 8.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Sabina Olivia Lambert

Loft And Found
USA, 2024, 30 min.
DIRECTORS: Pete O’Hare, Phillip Kibbe

Makeshift Society
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 23.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Serena Schuler

The Murder Network
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 23 min.
DIRECTOR: Christopher James Lang

Nightfish
USA, 2024, 23 min.
DIRECTOR: Sophie Niesenbaum

Passage
WORLD Premiere I CAN, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Karl Janisse

Pike
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Alex Klaus

The Pinto Variety Hour
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 23 min.
DIRECTOR: R.J. Sullivan

Raging Doll
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Ruthie Marantz

Rat Czar
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Ana Breton

Running Erins
USA, 2024, 35 min.
DIRECTOR: Guillermo Ivan

The Self-Love Act
USA, 2024, 20.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Kareema Bee

United Crafts Of America
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 47 min.
DIRECTOR: Sergio Camacho

World Twistories
EAST COAST Premiere I USA/UNITED KINGDOM, 2023, 22.5 min.
DIRECTORS: Brian Wallace, James Longley

NARRATIVE SHORTS

1 In The Chamber
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Annie Girard, Diana Wright

A Thousand Cuts
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 18 min.
DIRECTOR: Meredith Chin

Artificial
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 9.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Dustin Cook

Ashes To Dust
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Clark Childers

Baby
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 15.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Jack Campbell

Bill
EAST COAST Premiere I UNITED KINGDOM, 2024, 10.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Emily Dhue

Biological
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 14.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Justin Emeka

B!Tch I’m Early (B.I.E.)
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 6.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Jesse Cowell

Blue Plaque
WORLD Premiere I ENGLAND, 2024, 16 min.
DIRECTOR: Fraser Clubb

Body Buddies
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 3 min.

Boy Band
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 16 min.
DIRECTOR: Benedict Chiu

Brooklyn
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 20.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Timur Guseynov

Bullet Proof
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 13 min.
DIRECTOR: Sara Newton

Canchas
WORLD Premiere I SPAIN, 2024, 17.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Paula Blanco Pérez

Charon
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 11 min.
DIRECTOR: Daniel Casey

The Circle
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 20.5 min.
DIRECTOR: David James Schultz

The Clock Painter
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 16 min.
DIRECTOR: Dylan Levine

The Coder
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Will Crouse

Color Theories
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 16.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Devin Jane Febbroriello

Composure
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 11.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Grant Raun

Dead Pet Shark
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 13 min.
DIRECTOR: Misha Gankin

Draft Night
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 19 min.
DIRECTOR: Thomas Glinkowski

El Secreto
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 17 min.
DIRECTOR: Daniel Rocha

Escape
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 3.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Lorenzo Manetti

The Everlasting Life Of Debbie Gomolka
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Brian Sacca

Fast
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 14.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Clayton Henderson

Fast Forward To Forever
US Premiere I USA, 2024, 10 min.
DIRECTOR: Dylan Martin

Feign
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Adam Rioux

Finishing Notes
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Stephanie J. Röst

Good Boy
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I USA, 2024, 18 min.
DIRECTOR: Colin Russell

Harlem Fragments
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 18 min.
DIRECTOR: Cameron Tyler Carr

Have We Met?
WORLD Premiere I CAN, 2023, 9.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Megan Robinson

Hive
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Felipe Vargas

Humanzee
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 23.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Taro O’Halloran

Irma
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 12.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Roger Torres

It’s Not You… It’s The Aliens!
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Taylor Anthony Miller

Maggie’s Not Okay
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Vance Smith

Mal Culo
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Anna Salinass

Me And Dad
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I USA, 2024, 8.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Shane Connellan

Moon & Back
US Premiere I USA, 2024, 12.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Pony Nicole Herauf

No Escuchado
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I PUERTO RICO, 2024, 7 min.
DIRECTOR: Jazmín Caratini

One Final Day
NORTH AMERICA Premiere I USA, 2024, 6.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Paul Hollingsworth

Pace
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Beck Williams

The Paradise Road
NEW YORK Premiere I MEXICO/USA, 2023, 25 min.
DIRECTOR: Lisa Marie Tedesco

Plus One
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 10 min.
DIRECTOR: Claire Buss

Pull Over Right Here
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Erin Elders

Ripper Was Here
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 19 min.
DIRECTOR: Joel Kazuo Knoernschild

Role Play
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 16 min.
DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Katz

Rosebud
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 13 min.
DIRECTOR: Emily Coutts

Salve, Anima
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Juan Zuloaga Eslait

The Seagull (But Like, Not Chekhov)
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 3 min.
DIRECTOR: Devon Wycoff

See This
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Tricia Lee

Sick Day
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 11.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Hughes Ransom

Sid The Kid
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2023, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Sofia Lane

Sky
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 14.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Andrew Lucido

Stronghold
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Meghann Artes

Stuck
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2023, 8.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Dan Abramovici

The Sun Is In My Eyes
US Premiere I MEXICO/PUERTO RICO/USA, 2024, 9.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Pablo Tapia Pla

Supercritical
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: John Osment

Swedish Death
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I IRELAND, 2024, 12.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Kristina Yee

Sweet & Crunchy
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 2 min.
DIRECTOR: Hunter Woelfle

This Means Goodnight
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Peter Charney

To Hell With You
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 15 min.
DIRECTOR: Jason Sheedy

Wait To Tell Mother
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 11.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Emma Elizabeth Steiger

Watching Walter
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 17 min.
DIRECTOR: Mitch Yapko

We Good?
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Shawn Dempewolff

Why Are You Like This?
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 9 min.
DIRECTOR: Nate Hapke

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

The Afro Mexpats
USA/MEXICO, 2024, 16.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Ebony Marie Bailey

The After: A Chef’s Wish
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2023, 26 min.
DIRECTOR: Umar Riaz

The Believers
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 19.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Evan Newman

Blues People
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I MALI, 2024, 8.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Jeffrey L. Page

Days Between Rest
EAST COAST Premiere I USA/UGANDA, 2024, 12 min.
DIRECTOR: Peter Decherney
PRODS: Peter Decherney, Sara Byala

Degrees Of Freedom
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 33 min.
DIRECTORS: Aisha X. Elliott, Cheryl Wilkins, Kathy Boudin, Jake Ratner

Follow The Sun
EAST COAST Premiere I USA, 2024, 27 min.
DIRECTOR: Sybil Wendler

Just Start
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2023, 7.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Will Floor

Keeper
USA, 2024, 39 min.
DIRECTOR: Hannah Rafkin

On Beyond Fences
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 21.5 min.
DIRECTORS: “Lara” Jacqueline Hartzenbusch, Tom Donohoe, Jack Kudas, Wes Smith, Silvia Sonntag

The Original Badass
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 11 min.
DIRECTORS: Simantini Chakraborty, Godfrey Reggio

R.E.S.C.U.E.
NEW YORK Premiere I USA, 2024, 25.5 min.
DIRECTORS: Keenan Ferguson, Martha McGuinness

Stolen Springs
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere I USA, 2024, 35 min.
DIRECTOR: Houston Diaz

Taras
EAST COAST Premiere I UKRAINE/USA, 2024, 11.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Zeppelin Zeerip

Tides Of Change
WORLD Premiere I USA, 2024, 2.5 min.
DIRECTOR: Justin Wheelon

Tsumugu: Spinning The Thread Of Life
US Premiere I USA/JAPAN, 2024, 10 min.
DIRECTOR: Toko Shiiki