Film Festivals

Sundance Announces 2018 Short Film Awards – Álvaro Gago’s “Matria” Wins Grand Jury Prize

[caption id="attachment_26681" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Francisca Iglesias Bouzón appears in Matria by Álvaro Gago[/caption] Winners of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival jury prizes in short filmmaking were announced at a ceremony in Park City, Utah, with the Short Film Grand Jury Prize going to Matria, written and directed by Álvaro Gago. This year’s Short Film jurors are Cherien Dabis, Shirley Manson and Chris Ware. Short Film awards winners in previous years include And so we put goldfish in the pool. by Makato Nagahisa, Thunder Road by Jim Cummings, World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt, SMILF by Frankie Shaw, Of God and Dogs by Abounaddara Collective, Gregory Go Boom by Janicza Bravo, The Whistle by Grzegorz Zariczny, Whiplash by Damien Chazelle, FISHING WITHOUT NETS by Cutter Hodierne, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom by Lucy Walker and The Arm by Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos and Jessie Ennis.
2018 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards:
The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to: Matria / Spain (Director and screenwriter: Álvaro Gago) — Faced with a challenging daily routine, Ramona tries to take refuge in her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to: Hair Wolf / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Mariama Diallo) — In a black hair salon in gentrifying Brooklyn, the local residents fend off a strange new monster: white women intent on sucking the lifeblood from black culture. The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to: Would You Look at Her / Macedonia (Director and screenwriter: Goran Stolevski) — A hard-headed tomboy spots the unlikely solution to all her problems in an all-male religious ritual. The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to: The Trader (Sovdagari) / Georgia (Director: Tamta Gabrichidze) — Gela sells secondhand clothes and household items in places where money is potatoes. The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to: GLUCOSE / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Jeron Braxton) — Sugar was the engine of the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to America. Glucose is sweet, marketable and easy to consume, but its surface satisfaction is a thin coating on the pain of many disenfranchised people. A Special Jury Award was presented to: Emergency / U.S.A. (Director: Carey Williams, Screenwriter: K.D. Dávila) — Faced with an emergency situation, a group of young Black and Latino friends carefully weigh the pros and cons of calling the police. A Special Jury Award was presented to: Fauve / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Jérémy Comte) — Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game, with Mother Nature as the sole observer. A Special Jury Award was presented to: For Nonna Anna / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Luis De Filippis) — A trans girl cares for her Italian grandmother. She assumes that her Nonna disapproves of her – but instead discovers a tender bond in their shared vulnerability. Image: Francisca Iglesias Bouzón appears in Matria by Álvaro Gago, an official selection of the Shorts Programs at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lucia C. Pan.
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“This Is Home: A Refugee Story,” to Air on EPIX in 2018 Following World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival

This Is Home: A Refugee Story which world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, will make its television debut on the premium pay television network EPIX, later in 2018. Directed by Alexandra Shiva (How to Dance in Ohio), This is Home is an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugee families arriving in America and struggling to find their footing. Displaced from their homes and separated from loved ones, they are given eight months of assistance from the International Rescue Committee to become self-sufficient. As they learn to adapt to challenges, including the newly imposed travel ban, their strength and resilience are tested. After surviving the traumas of war, the families arrive in Baltimore, Maryland and are met with a whole new set of challenges. They attend cultural orientation classes and job training sessions where they must “learn America” – everything from how to take public transportation to negotiating new gender roles. This Is Home goes beyond the statistics, headlines, and political rhetoric to tell deeply personal stories, putting a human face on the global refugee crisis.
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Berlinale 2018: More Films Added to Competition and Berlinale Special Lineup

[caption id="attachment_26657" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Museum[/caption] Another five films, including Steven Soderberg’s Unsane, and Gael García Bernal in Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museum, have been added to the Competition lineup of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival; and a further six films have been invited to participate in the Berlinale Special Program. The 68th Berlin International Film Festival will take place from February 15 to 25, 2018. The complete program will be presented on February 6, 2018.
Competition
7 days in Entebbe USA / United Kingdom By José Padilha ( The Elite Squad, Garapa ) With Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Eddie Marsan, Lior Ashkenazi, Denis Menochet, Ben Schnetzer, Angel Bonanni, Juan Pablo Raba, Nonso Anozie World Premiere – Out of competition Ága Bulgaria / Germany / France By Milko Lazarov ( Otchuzhdenie ) With Mikhail Aprosimov, Feodosia Ivanova, Galina Tikhonova, Sergey Egorov, Afanasiy Kylaev World premiere – Out of competition Season of the Devil (Ang panahon ng halimaw) Philippines By Lav Diaz ( A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery ) with Piolo Pascual, Shaina Magdayao, Pinky Amador, Bituin Escalante, Hazel Orencio, Joel Saracho, Bart Guingona, Angel Aquino, Lilit Reyes, Don Melvin Boongaling World premiere Museum (Museo) Mexico By Alonso Ruizpalacios ( Güeros ) With Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro, Simon Russell Beale, Bernardo Velasco, Leticia Breedy, Ilse Salas, Lisa Owen World premiere Unsane USA By Steven Soderbergh ( Traffic, The Good German ) With Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple, Aimee Mullins, Amy Irving World premiere – Out of competition
Berlinale Special
Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast The Happy Prince Germany / Belgium / Italy By Rupert Everett With Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Colin Morgan, Edwin Thomas, Rupert Everett’s European Premiere – First Feature Becoming Astrid (Unga Astrid) Sweden / Germany / Denmark By Pernille Fischer Christensen ( A Soap, A Family, Someones You Love ) With Alba August, Trine Dyrholm, Magnus Krepper, Maria Bonnevie, Henrik Rafaelsen World premiere
Berlinale Special at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele
AMERICA Land of the Freeks – Documentary Form Germany By Ulli Lommel ( Tenderness of the Wolves, The Boogey Man, Absolute Evil ) With Ulli Lommel, Tanner King Barklow, Nola Roeper, Gil Kofman, Chris Kriesa, Lilith Stangenberg, Tatjana Lommel, Max Brauer World Premiere Tribute to Ulli Lommel RYŪICHI SAKAMOTO: async AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY – Documentary USA / Japan By Stephen Nomura Schible ( Ryūichi Sakamoto: Coda ) International premiere
Berlinale Special at Kino International
The Interpreter Slovak Republic / Czech Republic / Austria By Martin Šulík ( The Garden , Landscape , Gypsy ) With Peter Simonischek, Jiří Menzel, Zuzana Mauréry, Attila Mokos and Anna Rakovská World premiere Usedom – The Sea View – Documentary Germany By Heinz Brinkmann ( The Carbide Factory, Come Into The Garden, The Boehme Case – The Wondrous Life Of A Left-Handed Man )
Competition
3 Days in Quiberon ( 3 Tage in Quiberon ) by Emily Atef (Germany / Austria / France) 7 Days in Entebbe by José Padilha (USA / United Kingdom) – Out of competition AGA by Milko Lazarov (Bulgaria / Germany / France) – Out of competition Season of the Devil (Ang panahon ng halimaw) by Lav Diaz (Philippines) Black 47 by Lance Daly (Ireland / Luxembourg) – Out of competition Damsel by David Zellner and Nathan Zellner (USA) Do not Worry, He Will not Get Far on Foot by Gus Van Sant (USA) Dovlatov by Alexey German Jr. (Russian Federation / Poland / Serbia) Eldorado by Markus Imhoof (Switzerland / Germany) – Documentary, out of competition Eva by Benoit Jacquot (France) Figlia mia ( Daughter of Mine ) by Laura Bispuri (Italy / Germany / Switzerland) The Heiresses (Las herederas) by Marcelo Nessi Marti (Paraguay / Germany / Uruguay / Norway / Brazil / France) – First Feature In the Aisles (In den Gängen) by Thomas Stuber (Germany) Isle of Dogs by Wes Anderson ( United Kingdom / Germany) – Entertainment Pig (Khook) by Mani Haghighi (Iran) My brother’s name is Robert, and He is an Idiot (Mein Bruder heißt Robert und ist ein Idiot ) by Philip Gröning (Germany / France / Switzerland) Museo ( Museum ) by Alonso Ruizpalacios (Mexico) La prière ( The Prayer ) by Cédric Kahn (France) The Real Estate (Toppen av ingenting) by Måns Månsson and Axel Petersén (Sweden / United Kingdom) Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie (Romania / Germany / Czech Republic / Bulgaria / France) – First Feature Transit by Christian Petzold (Germany / France) Mug (Twarz) by Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland) Unsane by Steven Soderbergh (USA) – Out of competition
Berlinale Special
AMERICA Land of the Freeks by Ulli Lommel (Germany) – The Bookshop by Isabel Coixet ( Spain / United Kingdom / Germany) The Happy Prince by Rupert Everett (Germany / Belgium / Italy) Gurrumul by Paul Williams (Australia) – Documentary, debut movie The Interpreter by Martin Šulík ( Slovak Republic / Czech Republic / Austria ) Monster Hunt 2 by Raman Hui (People’s Republic of China / Hong Kong, China) RYŪICHI SAKAMOTO: async AT THE PARK AVENUE ARMORY by Stephen Nomura Schible (USA / Japan) – Documentary The Silent Revolution (Das schweigende Klassenzimmer) by Lars Kraume (Germany) Becoming Astrid (Unga Astrid) by Pernille Fischer Christensen (Sweden / Germany / Denmark) Usedom – The clear sea view by Heinz Brinkmann (Germany) – Documentary A Journey to the Fumigated Towns (Viaje a los Pueblos Fumigados) by Fernando Solanas (Argentina) – Documentary
Berlinale Special – Berlinale Series
Bad Banks – Director: Christian Schwochow – Head writer: Oliver Kienle, based on a concept by Lisa Blumenberg (Germany / Luxembourg) Home Ground (Heimebane) – Creator: Johan Fasting – Director: Arild Andresen (Norway) Liberty – Creator: Asger Leth – Director: Mikael Marcimain (Denmark) The Looming Tower – Creators: Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, Lawrence Wright – Director: Alex Gibney – Written by Dan Futterman, based on the book by Lawrence Wright (USA) Picnic at Hanging Rock – Director: Larysa Kondracki (episodes 1-3) – Written by Beatrix Christian, Alice Addison (Australia) Sleeping Bears – Creator and director: Keren Margalit (Israel) The Terror – Showrunners: David Kajganich and Soo Hugh – Director: Edward Berger (episodes 1-3), (USA)
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Sundance 2018: See New Poster for Nicolas Pesce’s PIERCING Starring Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska

Here is the poster for Piercing, written and directed by Nicolas Pesce, that World Premiere in the Midnight section at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Piercing stars Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Marin Ireland, Maria Dizzia, and Wendell Pierce Reed (Christopher Abbott) is going on a business trip. He kisses his wife and infant son goodbye, but in lieu of a suitcase filled with clothes, he’s packed a toothbrush and a murder kit. Everything is meticulously planned: check into a hotel and kill an unsuspecting victim. Only then will he rid himself of his devious impulses and continue to be a good husband and father. But Reed gets more than he bargained for with Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), an alluring call girl who arrives at his room. First, they relax and get in the mood, but when there’s an unexpected disruption, the balance of control begins to sway back and forth between the two. Is he seeing things? Who’s playing whom? Before the night is over, a feverish nightmare will unfold, and Reed and Jackie will seal their bond in blood. Based on the critically acclaimed cult novel by Ryu Murakami, Director Nicolas Pesce (THE EYES OF MY MOTHER, Sundance 2016) blends psychological horror with comedy and stylish neo-noir, resulting in a sly take on the fantasy of escape and the hazards of modern romance. 2018 Sundance Film Festival Screenings: World Premiere: Saturday, January 20th at 11:59pm (PC Library) Public Screening #2: Sunday, January 21st at 8:30pm (Egyptian, PC) Public Screening #3: Wednesday, January 24th at 8:30pm (The MARC) Public Screening #4: Friday, January 26th at 11:59pm (Broadway 6, SLC) Public Screening #5: Saturday, January 27th at 11:59pm (PC Library)
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Sundance 2018: See Bart Layton’s AMERICAN ANIMALS New Poster

Here is the new poster for American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton and World Premiere tonight in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. American Animals stars Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd, and Udo Kier. Lexington, Kentucky, 2004: Spencer and Warren dream of remarkable lives beyond their middle-class suburban existence. They head off to colleges in the same town, haunted by the fear they may never be special in any way. Spencer is given a tour of his school’s incredibly valuable rare book collection and describes it all to Warren. Suddenly, it hits them—they could pull off one of the most audacious art-thefts in recent history, from the university’s special collections library. Convinced they can get away with it, they recruit two other friends. Suddenly, the dance of knowing what happens if they cross the line becomes all-consuming. Buoyed by an exceptional cast, BAFTA Award–winning documentary director Bart Layton (The Imposter, 2012 Sundance Film Festival) makes a brilliant leap into the world of fiction, cleverly utilizing elements of nonfiction to propel the narrative. A “mostly” true story, American Animals is both a thrilling heist film and an existential journey of four misguided young men searching in all the wrong places for identity, meaning, adventure, and the kind of life that movies are made about. 2018 Sundance Film Festival Screenings: World Premiere: Fri. 1/19, 3:30 p.m., Eccles PC Press & Industry Screening: Friday, January 19th at 6:00pm (Park Ave Theater) Second Public Screening: Sat. 1/20, noon, Grand SLC Third Public Screening: Sat. 1/20, 10:00 p.m., Redstone 2 PC Fourth Public Screening: Sun. 1/21, 9:00 p.m., Sundance Resort Provo Fifth Public Screening: Wed. 1/24, 3:00 p.m., PC Library PC Sixth Public Screening: Fri. 1/26, 9:00 p.m., Sundance Resort Provo Seventh Public Screening: Sat. 1/27, 11:30 a.m., MARC PC
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Paul Schrader to Receive Award at Audi Dublin International Film Festival + Premiere “First Reformed”

Director and screenwriter Paul Schrader will receive a Volta Award at the Irish Premiere of his new film First Reformed at the 2018 Audi Dublin International Film Festival. Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director, said “Paul Schrader started his career as one of the talented young filmmakers who were at the centre of an extraordinary renaissance of American cinema in the 1970s. Schrader has also had a remarkable career as a director and, as a critic, he’s a passionate advocate and interrogator of film culture. I know my excitement at his visit and the Irish Premiere of First Reformed will be shared by many of Dublin’s cinema fans and we’re delighted to be honoring him with ADIFF’s prestigious Volta Award.” In First Reformed, ex-military chaplain Toller (Ethan Hawke) is tortured by the loss of the son he encouraged to enlist and struggles with his faith. A faith that’s challenged by befriending a radical environmentalist, Michael, and upon learning of his church’s complicity with unscrupulous corporations. Previous winners of Audi Dublin International Film Festival’s Volta Award include Al Pacino, Julie Andrews, Danny DeVito, Daniel Day-Lewis, Joss Whedon, Brendan Gleeson, Angela Lansbury, Stanley Tucci, Stellan Skarsgård, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ennio Morricone. The Volta Award is named after Ireland’s first dedicated cinema, the Volta Picture Theatre on Mary Street in Dublin, which was opened on the 20th December 1909 by an enterprising young novelist named James Joyce. Schrader will be this year’s ADIFF Guest Curator, selecting and introducing three films that have inspired his own work as a filmmaker including Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket (1959), Yasujirō Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon (1962), and Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg’s Performance (1970).
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Audi Dublin International Film Festival 2018 Announces Rich Line-up of Irish Documentaries

[caption id="attachment_26613" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot[/caption] With the festival about a month away, the Audi Dublin International Film Festival taking place February 21st to March 4th, 2018, gave a taste of their exciting 2018 film program by announcing this year’s Irish documentary line-up. Festival Director, Gráinne Humphreys said, ‘This year’s Irish documentary line-up, full of World and Irish Premieres reveals a preoccupation with the tensions between long-held traditions and the contemporary society. These extraordinary films ask questions of what we can treasure and protect, what can be re-invented and what we need to learn to let go of. These profound and searching documentaries give a glimpse of what’s in store when the full Audi Dublin International Film Festival programme is announced on 24th January’. One farmer’s courageous struggle to maintain a centuries-old lifestyle in the shadow of a huge multinational is traced in the Irish Premiere of Feargal Ward’s The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid; the walk of the Camino is re-invented as a Kerry curragh sea journey in the Irish Premiere of Dónal Ó’Céilleachair’s The Camino Voyage featuring Brendan Begley and Glen Hansard; and Paul Duane traces a hypnotic musical journey that brings us to the earliest Western music still in existence in the World Premiere of While You Live, Shine. A less welcome tradition, that of dissident Republican vigilantism in pockets of the North, is shockingly explored in the Irish Premiere of Sinéad O’Shea’s much-anticipated A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot. The Troubles also reverberate through the Irish Premiere of Donal Foreman’s The Image You Missed, which sees the filmmaker grapple with the legacy of his estranged father, Arthur MacCaig, and the decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland that he created. Each year the Arts Council’s Reel Art scheme, in association with ADIFF and Filmbase, commissions two films that offer filmmakers a chance to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme. Receiving their World Premieres at this year’s festival in the IFI are Rouzbeh Rashidi’s Phantom Islands, a visceral exploration of the boundaries between documentary and fiction and Niall McCann’s reflective encounter with Irish musician and artist Adrian Crowley in The Science of Ghosts. Lastly, major Irish filmmaker Pat Collins returns to documentary with Twilight, a beautiful evocation of the end of day, that was filmed over two years in Baltimore, West Cork.
Irish Documentaries at ADIFF 2018
The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid The Science of Ghosts Phantom Islands Twilight Light While You Live, Shine The Image You Missed The Camino Voyage
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Berlinale 2018: Guy Maddin’s “The Green Fog” Among 44 Films Featured in Forum 2018 Lineup

[caption id="attachment_26603" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] The Green Fog. Regie/directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson[/caption] The Forum program of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival will feature 44 films, 35 of which world premieres. This year, Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art is putting on the Forum as part of the Berlinale for the 48th time. 21 years after his directorial debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, Korean director Hong Sangsoo makes a more auspicious return to the Forum. Grass is another cheerfully melancholy story about the guests at a small café whose owner loves classical music. Kim Minhee, who won the Silver Bear for Best Actress in 2017, plays a café regular who always seems to be at the table in the corner writing on her laptop. She repeatedly draws inspiration from what’s happening around her, picking up the threads of the dialogue and spinning them further and sometimes even actively intervening in conversations. Is she perhaps the author of these relationship dramas in miniature, whose stores and themes mirror one another? French director Claire Simon is equally willing to try out new experiments in her documentary works. In her new film Premières solitudes (Young Solitude), she creates a cinematographic space for open, intimate discussion together with pupils from a school in the Paris suburbs. As they talk together about their backgrounds, parents, first loves, longings and fears for the future, ten ordinary teenagers forge ever closer bonds. It’s good to realise you’re not alone. For his part, Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa is showing a film at the Berlinale for the very first time. In Den’ Pobedy (Victory Day), he observes the huge crowds that gather each year at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin-Treptow on May 9th and records the hustle and bustle with quiet precision, as different moods come to the fore: pride, contemplation, patriotism, curiosity, the desire for recognition. Two films from this year’s program draw on video material shot by their directors in periods of political upheaval and imbue it with new significance. At the end of the 1980s, Kristina Konrad collected opinions on the streets of Uruguay in relation to a referendum to be held on a law granting impunity to those responsible for the military dictatorship. Unas preguntas (One or Two Questions) takes a magnifying glass to the democratic process. Around the same time, the scandal surrounding the Nazi past of former UN General Secretary and Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was making headlines worldwide. Edited together entirely from archive footage, Ruth Beckermann’s Waldheims Walzer (The Waldheim Waltz) is a documentary essay of frightening topicality. Julien Faraut also works with material largely shot in the 80s in L’empire de la perfection (In the Realm of Perfection). Back then, tennis-obsessed director Gil de Kermadec attempted to use film as means of analysing the game. His meticulously shot footage of John McEnroe matches during the French Open forms the starting point for an ironic look at the parallels between film and the sporting world: cinema lies, sport does not. Corneliu Porumboiu’s Fotbal Infinit (Infinite Football) takes an equally peculiar look at the world of sport, this time in provincial Romania, following a local official’s attempts to bequeath the world an improved version of the beautiful game. But does everything here really just revolve around football? Two features from the US shine a light on intellectual escapism. Ted Fendt’s second feature Classical Period is once again shot in Philadelphia on 16mm and tells a drolly melancholy story about intellectualism and loneliness. The members of a reading group exchange cultural and literary references with such vigour that there’s little room for anything else: an attempt to leave the modern world behind or merely their own solitary existences? Ricky D’Ambrose’s debut Notes On an Appearance may be set in Brooklyn, but unfolds in a similar milieu. Before the backdrop of the disquiet spread by the followers of a controversial philosopher, the film uses both real-life documents and smartly falsified writings to tell the story of a young man who one day disappears without warning. An eerie look at modern life with shades of dystopia. Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline on the other hand plunges into the analogies of creativity and insanity. The young titular heroine doesn’t like spending time with her mother, played by actress Miranda July, and feels far freer when with her theatre group. But where does the border lie between personality and role? Two features from Morocco explore gender relations. Jahilya by Hicham Lasri (the title alludes to the pre-Islamic “time of ignorance”) is a furious condemnation of the misogyny of Moroccan society and all its attendant malice. Narjiss Nejjar’s Apatride (Stateless) gives an account of a historical event from a female perspective, an event that still dictates the relationship between Morocco and Algeria to this day. Full of beguiling images, her feature shows how a gentle, yet determined woman attempts to prevail over the border between the two countries. It would be more than appropriate to refer to the electrifying directorial debut An Elephant Sitting Still as a new hope for Chinese cinema. But its 29-year-old director Ho Bu, who had previously made a name for himself with two novels, took his own life soon after the film was completed. This visually stunning work links together the biographies of a range of different protagonists in virtuoso fashion, narrating the course of one single, tension-filled day from dawn until dusk, painting a portrait of a society marked by selfishness in the process.
The films of the 48th Forum:
14 Apples von Midi Z, Taiwan / Myanmar – WP Afrique, la pensée en mouvement Part I by Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Senegal – IP Aggregat (Aggregate) by Marie Wilke, Germany – WP Amiko by Yoko Yamanaka, Japan – IP Apatride (Stateless) by Narjiss Nejjar, Morocco – WP Aufbruch (Departure) by Ludwig Wüst, Austria – WP La cama (The Bed) by Mónica Lairana, Argentina / Germany / Netherlands / Brazil – WP La casa lobo (The Wolf House) by Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León, Chile – WP Casanovagen (Casanova Gene) by Luise Donschen, Germany – WP Classical Period by Ted Fendt, USA – WP Con el viento (Facing the Wind) by Meritxell Colell Aparicio, Spain / France / Argentina – WP Los débiles (The Weak Ones) by Raúl Rico, Eduardo Giralt Brun, Mexico – WP Den’ Pobedy (Victory Day) by Sergei Loznitsa, Germany – WP Die Tomorrow by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, Thailand – IP Djamilia (Jamila) by Aminatou Echard, France – WP Drvo (The Tree) by André Gil Mata, Portugal / Bosnia and Herzegovina – WP L’empire de la perfection (In the Realm of Perfection) by Julien Faraut, France – WP An Elephant Sitting Still by Hu Bo, People’s Republic of China – WP Fotbal Infinit (Infinite Football) by Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania – WP Grass by Hong Sangsoo, Republic of Korea – WP The Green Fog by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, USA / Canada + Accidence by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Canada – WP Interchange by Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky, Canada – WP Jahilya by Hicham Lasri, Morocco – WP Kaotični život Nade Kadić (The Chaotic Life of Nada Kadić) by Marta Hernaiz, Mexico / Bosnia and Herzegovina – WP Last Child by Shin Dong-seok, Republic of Korea – IP Madeline’s Madeline by Josephine Decker, USA – IP Maki’la by Machérie Ekwa Bahango, Democratic Republic of the Congo / France – WP Mariphasa by Sandro Aguilar, Portugal – WP Minatomachi (Inland Sea) by Kazuhiro Soda, Japan/USA – WP Notes On an Appearance by Ricky D’Ambrose, USA – WP Old Love by Park Kiyong, Republic of Korea – IP Our House by Yui Kiyohara, Japan – IP Our Madness by João Viana, Mozambique / Guinea-Bissau / Qatar / Portugal / France – WP Premières armes (First Stripes) by Jean-François Caissy, Canada – WP Premières solitudes (Young Solitude) by Claire Simon, France – WP SPK Komplex (SPK Complex) by Gerd Kroske, Germany – WP Syn (The Son) by Alexander Abaturov, France / Russian Federation – WP Teatro de guerra (Theatre of War) by Lola Arias, Argentinia / Spain – WP Tuzdan Kaide (The Pillar of Salt) by Burak Çevik, Turkey – WP Unas preguntas (One or Two Questions) by Kristina Konrad, Germany / Uruguay – WP Waldheims Walzer (The Waldheim Waltz) by Ruth Beckermann, Austria – WP Wieża. Jasny dzień. (Tower. A Bright Day.) by Jagoda Szelc, Poland – IP Wild Relatives by Jumana Manna, Germany / Lebanon / Norway – WP Yours in Sisterhood by Irene Lusztig, USA – WP
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2018 Slamdance Film Festival to Open with World Premiere of “Pick Of The Litter”

[caption id="attachment_26597" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Pick Of The Litter[/caption] The Special Screenings program for the 24th edition of the Slamdance Film Festival features provocative work from remarkable talent that celebrates the festival’s DIY spirit. The festival will present four features in the Special Screenings Program: Bernard and Huey, directed by Dan Mirvish; Roll With Me, directed by Lisa France; Quest, directed by Santiago Rizzo; and the world premiere of Pick Of The Litter, directed by Don Hardy and Slamdance alumni Dana Nachman. Pick Of The Litter will screen as the festival’s Opening Night Film presentation. The Special Screenings program will also feature the festival’s closing night film, Bernard and Huey, a narrative feature directed by Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish and written by Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning cartoonist, playwright, and screenwriter, Jules Feiffer. Slamdance will host a filmmaker discussion with Slamdance Alumni, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo. The conversation, moderated by Slamdance Co-Founder and President Peter Baxter, will highlight the filmmaking duo’s history with the fest and impart career insight for the this year’s class of Slamdance filmmakers. During the discussion, Slamdance will also honor the Russo Brothers with the Founders Award, which is presented to a Slamdance alumni who has continued to support the indie spirit of the festival well into their careers. The award was first presented in 2015 to director Christopher Nolan (Inception, Dunkirk). The 2018 Slamdance Film Festival will run January 19-25.
SPECIAL SCREENING LINEUP
Bernard and Huey (USA) – Narrative Feature Director: Dan Mirvish Screenwriter: Jules Feiffer Synopsis: From a script by Oscar/Pulitzer-winner Jules Feiffer (Carnal Knowledge), this is the story of two men behaving badly, and the strong women who rein them in. Cast: Jim Rash, David Koechner, Mae Whitman, Sasha Alexander, Eka Darville, Richard Kind, Nancy Travis, Bellamy Young Pick Of The Litter (USA) World Premiere – Documentary Feature Directors: Dana Nachman, Don Hardy Screenwriter: Dana Nachman Synopsis: Pick of the Litter follows a litter of puppies from birth through the day they make it to become a Guide Dog and into the hands of a blind person, or… get cut from the program. The audience comes along on the two-year odyssey as the five dogs train to become guide dogs. Only the best dog will make the cut. Quest (USA) Narrative Feature Director: Santiago Rizzo Synopsis: Quest is a non-romantic story of love, about a friendship between a 12-year-old graffiti addict who faces constant abuse from his step-father, and a teacher named Tim Moellering who believes there is no such thing as a bad kid — only a bad situation. Based on the stories of their lives, the first draft of Quest was written by director Santiago Rizzo and his teacher Tim Moellering. This is their story. Screenwriters: Santiago Rizzo, Darren Anderson Cast: Dash Mihok, Lou Diamond Phillips, Lakeith Stanfield, Betsy Brandt, Greg Kasyan, Marlyne Barrett, Sepideh Moafi, Tobit Raphael Roll With Me (USA) Documentary Feature Director: Lisa France Screenwriter: Jeff Buccellato, Lisa France Documentary Subjects: Gabriel Cordell, Christopher Kawas Synopsis: After hitting rock-bottom, a newly sober paraplegic attempts to save his gang-banger nephew’s life by bringing him along on a 3,100-mile wheelchair trek across the United States. What starts out as a challenge to push an unmodified wheelchair from California to New York, morphs into a transcendent journey.
POLYTECHNIC PROGRAM
The State of Film / Crowdfunding for Career Independence With Emily Best & Gerry Maravilla Friday, January 19 – Noon – 1:30pm Emily Best and Gerry Maravilla from Seed&Spark are here to share how crowdfunding can be an important tool for raising funds, widening your audience, and communicating with current and future fans in order to ensure that this isn’t the only project you make – it’s one of many in your lengthy filmmaking career. You’ll also find out why data, inclusion, and distro all factor into your success on Seed&Spark, the only platform with a 75% success rate for filmmakers. Learn why crowd-building has to occur before crowd-funding, how to set a realistic campaign goal, how to craft an effective pitch video, what the unique Seed&Spark feedback process is like, and how to continue your connection with your community after your campaign ends. Two Brothers, Twenty Years: The Russo Brothers’ Past and Future With Joe and Anthony Russo Saturday, January 20 – Noon – 1:30pm From their 1997 Slamdance premiere to their establishment of The Russo Brothers Fellowship at Slamdance 2018, Anthony and Joe Russo have seen the film industry change more (and more quickly) than it ever has before. While working on myriad projects over two decades, the Russos have seen old-fashioned theater-going give way to pocket computers, streaming services, and endless OnDemand options. Amidst these changes, the brothers rose to studio heights while retaining the authenticity and artist-driven focus of independent filmmakers. As mentors and partners, Anthony and Joe spend lunchtime with us, deconstructing the mythology of their own “indie success story,” and openly sharing the challenges they’ve faced and wisdom they’ve gained. (De)escalation Room by Columbia DSL With Lance Weiler and Nick Fortugno Sunday, January 21 – Noon – 2pm What if we built an environment inspired by negative conversations and behaviors found on social media platforms and in the real world? Inside of this environment, situations quickly escalate. But this time, we would be able to do something about it. The goal of the (De)escalation Room project is to design a creative framework that allows people to take the lead in creating their own immersive, collaborative experiences. Within these experiences, they’ll be able to teach each other how to identify escalating situations and safely de-escalate them; change norms around escalation; and leave room for self and group reflection on the process. At Slamdance this January, Columbia DSL will present the next iteration of the (De)escalation Room. This workshop-style experience will transform audience members into participants, working together to collaboratively explore de-escalation. When I Was You I Wish I Knew: The Ins and Outs of Distribution With John Charles Meyer & Cullen Hoback Monday, January 22 – Noon – 1:30pm Slamdance alums John Charles Meyer (Dave Made a Maze) and Cullen Hoback (What Lies Upstream) remember how exhausting, overwhelming, and scary a time like this can be, no matter what sort of distribution possibilities you’re considering. Social Media Charm School With Julie Keck and guest “influencer” Tuesday, January 23 – Noon – 1:30pm In this time of BRB and OMG, charm and relationship building can seem like a lost art. However, a little charm can go a long way, especially if you’re trying to gather a following for your amazing cinematic endeavors. In this session, find out how to put your best face forward on social media to make real connections with your audience, potential collaborators, influencers, ambassadors, and friends. Based on years for filmmaking, film marketing, and social media experience, Julie Keck from Seed&Spark will walk you through the platforms you should be on, how much time you should spend on them, how to strike the right tone, how to use social media during a crowdfunding or other campaign, and how to do all of this and still have time left over to, you know, make movies. Bonus: Everyone who attends will get a free digital copy of Julie’s book Social Media Charm School. Happy early birthday. Art Of The Pitch With Julie Keck & Emily Best Wednesday, January 24 – Noon – 1:30pm Your dream project is often rattling around in your head (and then on your laptop) for years before you share it with anyone else. And when it’s time to share it with potential collaborators, investors, or audience members, it can be hard to sum up all of your hard work into a quick 5-minute pitch. Don’t worry – you’ll get there. It just takes practice. This workshop-style program is for filmmakers ready to start putting their work into the world, as effectively as possible. Emily Best and Julie Keck of Seed&Spark will share tips about how to present your idea to different audience, how to prepare for meetings, and why practice is your friend. Be prepared to practice your 5-minute pitch in a safe and secure space, with others in your shoes. And if we’re lucky, we might ask you to pitch to the whole group. No time like the present to build your audience, right? You do not have to have a practices, readied pitch to attend this session, only an idea for your next project and a willingness to both share your idea and listen to others. Ready? Let’s do this. Life As a Truly Independent Filmmaker: A Survival Guide With Noel Lawrence, Robert Koehler, Titanic Sinclair, Jennifer Goodridge, and Alissa Torvinen Thursday, January 25 – Noon – 1:30pm While the fine arts emphasize the aesthetic and imaginative freedom of creators, the ‘entertainment’ industry is based upon commercial success. However, a small but vocal minority of auteurs practice cinema as an art form. Some of them work in avant-garde film. Others spend years constructing a couple minutes of animation. A precious few become renowned ‘cult’ directors. All of them feel compelled to pursue personal visions. But in order to produce work that goes against the grain, these filmmakers must take roads less traveled in their career path. How is that possible? This discussion explores how career artists survive in a system that does not favor the bold. If you are wondering how to pay your rent without selling out to the man, this panel may be for you. Daily Legal Clinics With Pierce Law Group Friday, January 19 – Monday, January 22 – 10am-11am Pierce Law Group will be providing an all-encompassing look at the process of funding, producing, and distributing films, television, and new media. Our team will offer in-depth looks at the many factors in getting an independent project off the ground, from script clearance and E & O insurance, to actor and writer agreements, to on-set safety, to finding distribution, as well as a look at the litigation side of the entertainment industry. We examine current legal trends from the perspective of the independent filmmaker, and create an open forum during which filmmakers can engage in a discussion about the perpetually changing legal landscape.
DIG LINEUP
(De)escalation Room Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab and School of Social Work’s SAFElab, and is led by storyteller, entrepreneur and Slamdance Alumnus Lance Weiler and Nick Fortugno. The goal of the (De)escalation Room project is to design a creative framework that will allow people to take the lead in creating their own experience. Within these experiences, they’ll be able to teach each other how to identify escalating situations and safely de-escalate them; change norms around escalation; and leave room for self and group reflection on the process BVOVB: Bruising Vengeance of the Vintage Boxer by Michal Rostocki Your glory days as a boxer are long gone. Once a champ, now a bum. All you care about is beer and your dog – Max the Rottweiler. Unfortunately your faithful dog has been stolen and you must get him back and punish the ones responsible. The game is inspired by classic arcade brawlers (Double Dragon, Final Fight) with many enemies, some boss fights and a simple storyline. All in the style of old silent movies with a ragtime themed soundtrack. Both characters and backgrounds are based on original black-and-white photos from the ‘20s and ‘30s. The Game: The Game by Angela Washko The Game: The Game is a video game presenting the practices of several prominent seduction coaches (aka pick-up artists) through the format of a dating simulator. In the game these pick-up gurus attempt to seduce the player using their signature techniques taken verbatim from their instructional books and video materials. The game sets up the opportunity for players to explore the complexity of the construction of social behaviors around dating as well as the experience of being a femme-presenting individual navigating this complicated terrain. Washko hopes to add levels of complexity to public conversations around both pick-up and feminism which have both found themselves most often presented in highly polarized, dichotomous positions in mainstream media.
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2018 Slamdance Film Festival Complete Beyond and Shorts Lineup

[caption id="attachment_26593" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Goodbye, Brooklyn[/caption] This year’s 2018 Slamdance Film Festival which kicks off on Friday January 19 thru 25 in Park City, Utah, will feature an impressive Beyond and Shorts programs for their 24th edition. The short film lineup showcases productions from 26 countries, with shorts in the Narrative, Documentary, Animation, Anarchy and Experimental sections all eligible for the 2018 Oscar® Qualifying Shorts competition. Several Slamdance Alumni return with highly anticipated presentations in the Beyond lineup. All films in this highly-selective program are made by emerging filmmakers working just beyond their first features.
“The films in the Beyond Program exhibit singular directorial vision while sharing a common commitment to challenge audiences to step outside their comfort zones,” says Beyond programmer, Josh Mandel. “These bold and adventurous filmmakers represent the most current voices in American independent film, and will continue to push boundaries in the years ahead.”Along with continued standout programming in every category, Anarchy Shorts promises another year of exuberantly subversive cinema. “The Department of Anarchy has curated a diverse program of sublime, dangerous, and deviant films that provide shock therapy to the soul.” says Anarchy Shorts programmer, Noel Lawrence. “We hope to provoke, challenge, and enlighten audiences by smashing the status quo on any and all levels.”
BEYOND PROGRAM
Back at the Staircase (USA) World Premiere Director: Drew Britton Five distinctive people, each with a flimsy coping strategy, find themselves stuck together after an accident. Cast: Jennifer Lafleur, Stephen Plunkett, Leonora Pitts, Mickey O’Hagan, Logan Lark, Heather LaVine Funny Story (USA) World Premiere Director: Michael Gallagher After years of being a neglectful father, a womanizing TV star decides to crash his estranged daughter’s vacation in Big Sur. Cast: Matthew Glave, Emily Bett Rickards, Jana Winternitz, Nikki Limo, Lily Holleman, Jessica Diggins, Pete Gardner, Reginald VelJohnson My Name is Myeisha (USA) World Premiere Director: Gus Krieger A beloved teenager crosses over into a hip-hop-musical dreamscape at the moment of her tragic death and contemplates her life; what it was and what it could have been. Cast: Rhaechyl Walker, John Merchant, Dominique Toney, Dee Dee Stephens, Yvette Cason, Gregg Daniel The Rainbow Experiment (USA) World Premiere Director: Christina Kallas An investigation uncovers more than just blame at a Manhattan high school when a science experiment permanently injures a student. Cast: Chris Beetem, Francis Benhamou, Christian Coulson, Kevin Kane, Nina Mehta, Laura Pruden, Connor Siemer, Lauren Sowa, Swann Gruen, Christine McLaughlin Savage Youth (USA) World Premiere Director: Michael Curtis Johnson The lives of six troubled teens in a racially-divided small town take a violent turn over drugs and broken hearts. Based on true events. Cast: Grace Victoria Cox, Tequan Richmond, Will Brittain, Chloe Levine, Mitchell Edwards, J. Michael Trautmann, Sasha Feldman, Tomas Pais
NARRATIVE SHORTS
The 99 Steps Left from the Square (Finland, Turkey) Director: Sevgi Eker The iron gate safeguarding an old man’s peace is opened. Cast: Sirin Erensoy, Yasemin Erensoy, Salih Kalafatoglu, Hasan Kurun Abbas Kiarostami; The Director (Iran) Director: Mohsen Khodabakhshi A boy wants to take a photo with Abbas Kiarostami… Cast: Mani Sherafat – Nazli Gorgani – Shahed Sherafat Audition (USA) Director: Richard Van Unable to find a sitter, an aspiring actress has no choice but to drag her 3-year old son to her audition. Cast: Shaquita Lopez, Nezih Lopez, Ernest Walker Jr, Laura Price Clean Blood (USA) World Premiere Director: Jordan Michael Blake A family drama about Christmas, The Apocalypse and an IMMACULATELY PREGNANT man. Cast: Jordan Michael Blake, Stephanie Allynne Falling (USA) World Premiere Director: Ewen Wright A potentially psychosomatic white man, a woman stuck in a vortex of “man-splaining,” and a young black man caught in a racially charged standoff are set on a collision course as society falls apart around them in this absurdist dark comedy. Cast: Sarah Hollis, Elijah Reed, Davey Johnson Flatbush Misdemeanors (USA) Director: Dan Perlman, Kevin Iso Longtime friends Dan and Kevin adjust to their evolving surroundings in the unforgiving environment of Flatbush, Brooklyn. A raw comedy of city life. Cast: Drew Dowdey, Kareem Green, Kevin Iso, Dan Perlman Goodbye, Brooklyn (USA) World Premiere Director: Daniel Jaffe Struggling with New York living, Dana Schapiro decides to move, saying goodbye to a neighborhood that can barely remember who she is… Cast: Michelle Uranowitz, Angela Pietropinto, Luke Marinkovich, Ione Saunders Hail Mary Country (USA) World Premiere Director: Tannaz Hazemi Macho grandmother Irene Dandy has to defend her family of football fanatics from a gang led by a cocky thief named Nora. Cast: Vera Cherny, Catherine Taber, Lori Jean Wilson, Alison Yates Iris (Canada) Director: Gabrielle Demers As the storm rages outside a special lust for Laura grows inside Emanuelle. Cast: Marie Babbini, Daphné Germain Katalysis (Sweden) World Premiere Director: Ashley Michael Briggs A doctor and an artist use Anna’s body as an tool to further their own professional progress. Cast: Moa Nilsson, Adam Stålhammar, Peter Hildén, Anna Ladegaard The Knits (Canada) US Premiere Director: Lisa Birke A sweater, lovingly and arduously knit by a mother, incrementally unravels as her daughter treks her way across Canada by foot. Cast: Barbara Birke; Lisa Birke Magic Bullet (USA) World Premiere Director: Amanda Lovejoy Street A psychologist combats grief with self-soothing rituals; a shopping network host obliterates hers in a self-destructive haze. They collide in a televised confrontation. Cast: Rosemarie DeWitt, Molly Parker Night on Floating Island (Australia) North American Premiere Director: Jack Atherton From a storm drain, a strange man watches a tourist rollerblading through an unfamiliar nightscape in search of his missing girlfriend or an anonymous sexual encounter in a park. Cast: Gavin Drumm, Annie Schofield, André Shannon, Kate Coates Ok, Call Me Back (USA) Director: Emily Ann Hoffman Craving companionship, a woman leaves a voicemail late at night. Cast: Emily Ann Hoffman Onikuma (Italy, USA) Director: Alessia Cecchet Surrounded by a foreign landscape, two women will understand that demons can come in different forms. Cast: Sandy Siquier, Sarineh Garapetian Parthenon (USA) Director: Frank Mosley A naked body moves a stranger to empathy. Cast: Lily Baldwin, Tallie Medel, Thiago Martins Reunion 1 (USA) World Premiere Director: Brock Neilson The artist re-enters a space from their childhood as an adult and is struck both by the haunting tone of the setting and an indelible memory from the past. Rupture (Jordan, Canada) US Premiere Director: Yassmina Karajah Rupture follows the journey of four Arab kids whose repressed traumas surface during their quest to find a public pool in their new city. Cast: Asaad Al Arid Salam Almarzouq Hussein Al Ahmad Wazira Al Ahmad Slap Happy (Canada) US Premiere Director: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli A dysfunctional couple with a penchant for twisted sexual fantasies fight to stay together as their relationship crumbles over the course of a day. Cast: Jesse LaVercombe, Madeleine Sims-Fewer That Thing (USA) World Premiere Director: Dan Roe Tabby is conflicted about Patrick’s sexual quirk. Cast: Claire Lucido, Sam Yarabek The Things You Think I’m Thinking (Canada) US Premiere Director: Sherren Lee A black male burn-survivor and amputee goes on a date with a regularly-abled man for the first time since his accident, ten years ago. Cast: Prince Amponsah, Jesse LaVercombe Transmission (USA) Director: Morgan McGlothan Father, daughter, and her 1999 Toyota Camry. Cast: Darrin McGlothan, Morgan McGlothan The Troubled Troubadour (South Korea) North American Premiere Director: Forest Ian Etsler & Sébastien Simon An embittered old musician embarks on a journey which becomes the outward manifestation of his inner landscape. Cast: Kasuga “Hachi” Hirofumi, Tetsu Kono, Lee Hwajin, Kang Saneh Welcome To Bushwick (USA) World Premiere Director: Henry Jinings On the heels of a successful first date, Evan and Marceline end up back at her place. Cast: Tim Platt, Liba Vaynberg Whales (Iran) North American Premiere Director: Behnam Abedi A police officer and a soldier are assigned to investigate a case wherein seven dead bodies are found on a beach. Cast: Majid Norouzi, Khosrow Shahraz, Majid Aghakarimi
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS PROGRAM
Big Surf (USA) Director: Brian Smee San Francisquito Cyn, March 12th, 1928: The sound a horse makes as it’s drowning. Do I Have Boobs Now? (Canada) Director: Milena Salazar, Joella Cabalu A trans activist’s journey to challenge Facebook and Instagram’s censorship policies. Ex Nihilo (Finland) World Premiere Director: Timo Wright Ex Nihilo is an experimental short documentary about a doomsday seed vault, an advanced robot and a cryonics facility. Homeland (Belgium) Director: Sam Peeters Homeland is a creative documentary about right-wing populism and narrow-mindedness in the Belgian suburbs. House (Iceland, USA) Director: Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson A meditation on emigration and immigration, house and home. Icon (Poland) US Premiere Director: Wojciech Kasperski An old doctor who has spent his life working at a psychiatric hospital in the Siberian countryside – The place, which was inaccessible for film crews, can be shown thanks to its residents, some of whom spent several decades at the hospital. The Last Man You Meet (USA) Director: Chris Bone Take an exclusive look inside the gritty business of death as a third-generation funeral director reflects on his life. Lorem Ipsum (pain itself) (USA) Director: Gabrielle Kash A handmade look at why artists hate making, and keep making art. Nueva Vida (USA) Director: Jonathan Seligson A ball, some brains, and a lot of fluids. A cautionary true tale on the dangers of playing soccer from my dear brother, Kenny. Phototaxis (USA) Director: Melissa Ferrari Rooted in nonfiction, “Phototaxis” connects Mothman, a prophetic demon in West Virginia folklore, and Narcotics Anonymous, the primary treatment program in West Virginia’s addiction epidemic. Pocket Sized Feminism (USA) Director: Valerie Schenkman “This house is for wallpaper women. What good is wallpaper that speaks?” Women speak out about women’s rights, or human rights. Quiet Hours (USA) Director: Paul Szynol Donald Hall, America’s Poet Laureate and winner of the National Medal of Arts, lives in the fragile space between loneliness and solitude. Taobao (USA) Director: Noah Sheldon Modelling for China’s largest online shopping site, Taobao. True Love in Pueblo Textil (Cuba, USA) US Premiere Director: Horatio Baltz Nine-year-old Maribel explains to us how it feels to be stricken with the world’s oldest infliction: love. Where Are You From (USA, China) Director: Xizi “Cecilia” Hua In a world where western values dominate, coming to America as a “Parachute Kid” makes the filmmaker feel ashamed of her “Chinese” and “foreign” identity.
ANIMATION SHORTS PROGRAM
Airport (Switzerland, Croatia) Director: Michaela Müller An exploration of the place in modern society where the limits of borders, security, and tolerance are constantly tested. Ascribed Achievements (Iran) Director: Samaneh Shojaei A man’s suicide attempt leads to the idea that fate is breakable. Black Dog (USA) Director: Joshua Dean Tuthill A dark family drama set during the space race of the 1960’s, utilizing stop-motion animation and archival footage to elucidate a time of heated social and political tension. Gusla ou les Malins (France) US Premiere Director: Adrienne Nowak Adrienne goes back to Poland to see her grandmother and ask her family about communism. In their cozy kitchen she will learn about the spirits that haunt the Polish imagination and the unexpected superstitions used to face them. Icebergs (USA, Greece) North American Premiere Director: Eirini Vianelli An existential, dark comedy of 14 stop-motion vignettes both mundane and absurd. Interstitial (Japan) North American Premiere Director: Shunsaku Hayashi A hybrid project of a painting and additive animation exploring a spacelessness of humanity in the defined space of a canvas of a continuous horizon. Mak (USA) Director: Natalya Serebrennikova Searching for opium, Big Macs, and cultural identity, a teenager visits her hometown in Russia and finds that her best friend has already grown up. Mountain Castle Mountain Flower Plastic (USA) Director: Annapurna Kumar The most efficient containers can store multiple pieces of information in the same location, intersecting from different angles. Railment (Japan) Director: Shunsaku Hayashi In the anonymous crowds of commuter rail lines, it’s possible to move at high speeds while remaining perfectly still. The Realm of Deepest Knowing (South Korea) Director: Kim Seung-hee A playful exploration of how knowing someone on the deepest level becomes a love that spans across objects. Red Fat Cat (Germany) Director: Klaus Hoefs A singer-songwriter animation confronting the dichotomy of drowned refugees washing up on a public beach while residents go about their settled, everyday lives filled with antique cars, dogs, and cats. Satellite Strangers (USA) World Premiere Director: James Bascara A zoom into a microscopic world reveals a strange cacophony.
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS PROGRAM
38 River Road (USA, Switzerland) Director: Josh Weissbach Fear resides in the gesture of a telling. Are you tired of forever? (USA) World Premiere Director: Caitlin Craggs A surreal meditation on the experience of self. Cloud Of Petals (USA) Director: Sarah Meyohas At the former Bell Labs, sixteen workers photograph 100,000 individual rose petals to map out an artificial intelligence algorithm that learns to generate new petals forever. I’m Not Sure (Germany) World Premiere Director: Gabriel Hensche By confronting an app with Surrealist paintings I’m Not Sure explores the psychology of artificial intelligence. No Stories Now (USA) Director: CT Bishop Hopefully, in moving toward weakness, there can be recognition of false relief. Silica (Australia, UK) Director: Pia Borg An unseen location scout explores an opal mining town in South Australia in this sci-fi-laced essay film, which finds in this semi-deserted region both the traces of indigenous culture and remnants of cinema history.
ANARCHY SHORTS PROGRAM
AniMal (Iran) Director: Bahram Ark, Bahman Ark A man disguises himself as a ram to cross a border into another land. Cast: Davoud Nourpour Breaker (Japan) Director: Philippe McKie In tomorrow’s Tokyo, the technologically-enhanced body of a young mercenary hacker is overrun by a sentient data weapon. Cast: Yuka Tomatsu / Arisa Hanzawa / Kazuya Shimizu Clipping. – “Back Up” (USA) US Premiere Director: Anna Zlokovic An unnamed filmmaker stumbles upon a horrifying discovery—an underground cult-like society where adults have baby faces and milk is the drug of choice. Cast: Daveed Diggs, Antwon, Signor Benedick The Moor Information Superhighway (USA) World Premiere Director: Mathew Nelson A man participates in an experiment to test artificial intelligence in driverless cars. Cast: Luke Banham, Elias Harger, Anna Faye Hunter , Michael Lee Little Wonder (USA) World Premiere Director: Jojo Carlman This refreshing tale of puppet sexuality follows Username: Stray_Cat as he trolls internet dating sites and vaguely meditates on the loneliness of death. Cast: Christine Moore, Daegan Palmero, Brisco Diggs, and David Breen III Love After TIme (Taiwan) Director: Tsai Tsung-han After a nuclear explosion, two mutant humans fall in love. Cast: Lee Hong chi, Nana Lee Manila Death Squad (Phillipines, USA) Director: Dean Colin Marcial An ambitious journalist challenges the leader of a violent vigilante group to a high-stakes drinking game. Its outcome may score her a scoop… or a bullet to the head. Cast: Sid Lucero, Annicka Dolonius The Order of the Orchid (USA) World Premiere Director: Alex Italics A lonely spinster’s failed attempt at arranging flowers summons an ominous shadowy figure that sends her into a psychedelic netherworld to confront her own mediocrity. Cast: Juliette James, Sean T. Randolph Santa Ana (Spain, USA) North American Premiere Director: César Pesquera Part art-film, part documentary, Santa Ana aims to elucidate the link between evil and the famed Santa Ana winds, extremely dry down-slope winds in Southern California supposedly responsible for a tense, uneasy, wrathful mood among the people of Los Angeles. Steve’s Kinkoes (USA) World Premiere Director: Emma Debany A man copies posters for his missing (and dead) cat at an otherworldly 24/7 photocopy shop. What will happen to him if he stays forever? Cast: Timmy Gibson, Chance Bartels, John Archer Lundgren
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Michael Curtis Johnson’s “Savage Youth” to World Premiere at Slamdance Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_26587" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Grace Victoria Cox in ‘Savage Youth’[/caption] “Savage Youth”, directed by Michael Curtis Johnson (“Hunky Dory“), and produced by Michael Peluso (Producer of TV’s “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent”) has been officially selected to premiere worldwide at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival. Savage Youth will be featured in the “Beyond” program. “The films in the Beyond Program exhibit singular directorial vision while sharing a common commitment to challenge audiences to step outside their comfort zones”, says Beyond programmer, Josh Mandel. “These bold and adventurous filmmakers represent the most current voices in American independent film, and will continue to push boundaries in the years ahead.” A brutal examination of doomed youth exiled to society’s edge, “Savage Youth” portrays the lives of six troubled teens in a racially-divided small town while events take a violent turn over drugs and broken hearts. The worldwide Premier will be on Monday the 22nd of January 2018 at 21:45 at the “Gallery”, Slamdance HQ, Screening Rooms and Filmmaker Lounge. Thomas Sanne, Director of Hiventure Media SA, has quoted: “We are thrilled to participate in such an exciting Festival with this amazing project and team behind it, in which we believe strongly. We are especially honoured as this is our first foray as Hiventure Media into Film, and are excited by what the future will bring.” Starring Grace Victoria Cox (“Heathers”, “Under the Dome”, “Twin Peaks”), Tequan Richmond (“General Hospital”, “The Shield”, “CSI”, “Everybody Hates Chris”), Will Brittain (“Kong: Skull Island”, “Everybody Wants Some!!”), Chloe Levine (“The OA”, “House of Cards”, “The Transfiguration”), it is based on true events. Steve Dollar, the “Wall Street Journal Online” and “Billboard” contributor, has quoted: “Savage Youth (…), is both stylized and understated in its slow-burn towards a brutal true-crime episode drawn from events in the filmmaker’s hometown of Joliet.”
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Toronto Black Film Festival to Open with Canadian Premiere of “The Rape of Recy Taylor”

The Toronto Black Film Festival – TBF will kick start it’s 6th edition with the Canadian Premiere of Nancy Buirski’s documentary feature The Rape of Recy Taylor on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at Isabel Bader Theatre. The film had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival and was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Special Prize for Human Rights in 2017 at the 74° Venice Biennale. As Oprah Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards, she invoked Taylor’s name in her speech that delved into racism and sexism. “She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up.” “We are deeply honored to open #TBFF18 with Nancy Buirski’s The Rape of Recy Taylor, a poignant film which has arrived at a very pivotal moment. It is important for us to shed the light on this part of history, the climate that we’re in and the unprecedented transformational #MeToo movement that is empowering more women to speak up.” declared Fabienne Colas, President and founder of TBFF. Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. This film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.
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