Short Narratives and Animated Stories
Canady Creative arts Center
Bloch Hall Theater
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
The Wallflower Pact
Rikki Stinnette
Year: 2022
Synopsis: A romantic comedy about the secrets introverts keep, the awkward world of low budget indie filmmaking, and love.
Bio: Rikki is a screenwriter and director based outside of Washington, D.C. With experience in journalism, theater marketing, and libraries, Rikki has always been drawn to stories based on real life. After developing a pilot under the mentorship of a Netflix showrunner, Rikki decided to pursue film more seriously, writing scripts that placed as a semifinalist at Scriptapalooza, a second-rounder at Austin Film Festival and in the top 15% at Nicholl. Her writer-director debut, Revenge of the Electric Cart, screened at festivals around the country and was nominated for best short at Richmond International Film Festival. Visit her on Twitter @REStinnette.
Run Time: 12:00
Country: USA
Charged
Richard Sperry, J.J. Handley
Year: 2022
Charged is a raw take of enjoying filmmaking. Done as part of a 72 hour film challenge, we were armed with two keywords, coffee, and a tight deadline. Collaborating over the last couple of years, our team of creative energy let us riff and have fun. Running to the finish line, we made a short film that reflects our affinity for the wry and kinetic.
Run Time: 6:55
Country: USA
Bio: Richard Sperry and JJ Handley started working together on student films while attending Marshall University in Huntington WV. JJ hails from the coal fields of Boone County and Richard a Huntington native. Both are avid fans of film, comedy, and the arts. Working in collaboration with other local creators brings both a sense of pride in what can be made in the mountain state.
The long rain
Cassandre Léonard
Year: 2023
Synopsis: A continual rain falls on the jungle of mold in which Mérove has crashed. In search of a shelter, waterspouts and increasingly intrusive mushrooms will put the endurance of the astronaut to the test.
Bio: Coming from Lyon, France, I’ve always been interested in anime, cartoon movies and comics and I’m attracted by very different aesthetics. Whether they are on the edge of softness or in sharper registers, they often oscillate between the two, combining the strange and dreamlike to create fascination.
Run Time: 5:08
Country: France
Back Again
Jeff Madzia
Year: 2020
Run Time: 13:28
Country: USA
Harry Andrews believes he is a time traveler. Every time he falls asleep, he wakes up ten years earlier. This wreaks havoc on his life so he seeks the help of a psychiatrist who was once kind to him forty years in his past, which, according to Harry, is forty years in her future.”
Distant Conscience
Sam Henselijn
Year: 2022
A military reservist on duty at the Israel - Syrian border is forced to withstand two refugees on his own.
Bio: Growing up, I was into everything but school. I liked the outdoors, sports, and friends. Because I grew up in a green neighborhood with a lot of open space, I loved going out and creating my own story for the world I lived in. Coming from a family of Holocaust survivors, as well as growing up in a Zionist household, I was very motivated to join the army. My goal was to get into the best unit possible, so I prepared by training myself both physically and mentally for a year and a half prior to service. I was accepted into the Israeli K9 Special Forces unit, "Oketz", where I served for three years. Those three years were full of adventures, and they shaped me in ways that nothing else could. After my army service, I needed to break free. I found a high-paying job as an undercover airport security guard, saving my money for one cause: to travel abroad and experience the world I knew only from television and books. Sitting on top of a mountain at 6,088 meters above sea level, I knew exactly what I wanted. I had known it all along, but this was the moment I decided I needed to do something about it. My passion is directing, both movies and commercials.
Run Time: 11:12
Country: Israel
Resurrection under the Ocean
Serkan Aktaş
Year: 2022
Run Time: 3:00
Country: Turkey
Synopsis: "Resurrection under the Ocean" is about the resurrection of a man who was helplessly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, after falling to the bottom of the ocean, with a symbolic narrative.
Bio: Name and Surname : Serkan AKTAŞ, Birth Date : 04.12.1989, Place of Birth : Istanbul/ Turkey. FILMOGRAPHY: Mirrorty (2017) (Short Film), Resurrection under the Ocean (2021) (Short Film), The Librarian (2022) (Short Film), The Death Ox (2022) (Short Film), Lucky Coin ! (2022) (Short Film).
THE SPRAYER
Farnoosh Abedi
Year: 2022
Synopsis: In the land occupied with the sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private.
So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how a plant grows or look like, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.
Bio: Farnoosh Abedi was born in 1985 in Isfahan/ Iran. He has made more than 20 short animated films and TV series, documentaries and one Feature Animated. His films was presented and screened in more than 200 domestic and international film festivals
Run Time: 8:45
Country: Iran
Landmark
Hunter La Salle
Year: 2023
Synopsis: After her mother's sudden passing, a young woman fixes up a 1960's VW that was left for her.
Bio: Hunter La Salle is an actor/singer/filmmaker based in New York City. His recent work on The Brothers Grahlman and Landmark were both shot back to back in the summer/fall in Virginia, USA. They are both on the festival circuit currently.
Run Time: 10:00
Country: USA
Back in the Saddle
Ronda Suder
Year: 2022
A relationship therapist turns to a dating app to end her two-year dry spell. “Back in the Saddle" is a slice-of-life wry comedy written and directed by Ronda Suder. The story takes an honest look at relationship¬†and sexuality through a modern-day encounter between Mally and Robbie.
Run Time: 10:28
Country: USA
Bio: With more than 20 years of experience both in front of and behind the camera, Ronda Suder chose to focus more on directing and attended graduate school in Los Angeles in 2015 to pursue an MA in Film and Media Production. At the onset of her coursework, she had no way to know that, nearing graduation, she would experience a significant health flare-up that would require her to take a leave of absence. With accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), she was able to complete her coursework with the exception of her thesis film, for which she received a medical extension to complete at a future date when she was released by her doctors to do so.
Little did Ronda realize that it would take her more than three years to recover to the point that she would be healthy enough to move forward with her thesis. She had had some significant health challenges due to a handful of diagnoses throughout much of her adult life, and it’s those challenges that came to a head and caused the flare-up in 2015. She was also diagnosed with C-PTSD and PTSD in 2017, which, in conjunction with her other chronic health conditions, significantly impacted her ability to function at a "normal" level. As it turns out, her C-PTSD/PTSD had gone undiagnosed for quite some time.
Between 2015 and 2020, Ronda would live some of the most challenging years of her life, and on many levels, had to learn to live and rebuild her life again. As life often has a way of teaching us, she had to learn to trust in the right timing of things and allow for the pause when required. With time and patience and a whole lot of love, grit, and prayers, she became well enough to move forward with the production of Back in the Saddle which was shot in Houston, TX and completed in her home state of West Virginia, where she currently resides.
KUUMBA UMBO / Birth of Form
Ekaterina Ogorodnikova
Year: 2022
The birth of form is the birth of the world. From our early childhood to our last breath, we as humans learn about the world around us and try to find our place in it. One African mask can reveal a whole spectrum of human culture, its origins and the transformation that takes place to produce the art that decorates the museums of the world.
Run Time: 6:39
Country: Belgium
Bio: Ekaterina is an artist and director of animation films based in Belgium. In her early twenties she studied monumental and fine art at the State Academy of Art and Design in St.-Petersburg. She created many monumental works: mosaics, stain glasses and frescoes in different countries. By the age thirties she studied animation art at the University of Film and Television in St.-Petersburg and she became a film-maker, she founded studio DAR, creating animation with children and for them. «The Dog Story» (2018) has won around 15 awards at the international youth film festivals. Her debut animated film "Love Pray Fight" (2016) for the exhibition of Indian art in Brussels, Belgium. Her first big animation film ''Kuumba Umbo '' was created for the large historic exhibition of African Art at the Hermitage museum.
YABÁ
Rodrigo Sena
Year: 2021
Synopsis: In a fishing village whose ancestors came from Africa, enslaved, ancient ancestral beliefs and cults remain. Neide (Jari Nass) is a former resident looking for ways to save her business, threatened by the decline of fish due to the oil spill in the region. The relations between the old forms of fishing work and their beliefs are contrasted with the need for collective work.
Run Time: 12:00
Country: Brazil
Bio: Photographer and audiovisual director, he remained in photojournalism for 10 years, participated in an artistic residency in Montevideo (URUGUAY) Iberescena in 2013, Artist Residency in Cochabamba (Bolivia) in 2014. He made award-winning short films such as O Menino do dente de Ouro (2015), film winner of the Gostoso Show, RN; Cuscuz Peitinho (2017), awarded at the Vitoria Film Festival, ES; The Traditional Brazilian Family Katu (2020), award-winning film at the Brasilia Film Festival. Rodrigo Sena is currently finalizing Encantarias, a TV series that portrays Afro-indigenous religions and is developing his first feature film. He began his research in the universe of Afro-indigenous religions in 2003 and maintains his approach and studies to this day. Having this object as a starting point for the execution of some of his films, Rodrigo Sena expands his work with the creation of Cine Terreiro, a film festival that addresses themes related to the sacred. He also develops projects through his production company Ori Audiovisual.
An Old Barn
Caleb Aaron
Year: 2023
Run Time: 5:21
Country: USA
She's Mine Now
Dalton Okolo
Year: 2022
An assassin takes in the dog of a couple she has recently murdered.
Bio: Dalton Okolo is a Virginia based filmmaker known for his short films She's Mine Now (2022) and Missing You (2021). His primary roles include Producer, Director, Writer, and Editor,. His production company, 1108, is focused on creating narrative media based around the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.
Run Time: 6:05
Country: USA
