Title: Are You Volleyball!?
Category: Short Film (Fiction)
Director: Mohammad Bakhshi
Origin: Iran
Session: Short Films Session 2 at Crescent Ballroom
Synopsis: A group of Arabian spoken asylum seekers arrive to an English spoken country border and can't keep going. They conflict with border soldiers everyday till a deaf-mute baby becomes a catalyst for better communication between two groups.
Title: Black Ballet
Category: Short Film (Documentary)
Director: Shaunte Glover
Origin: U.S.
Session: Short Films Session 2 at Crescent Ballroom
Synopsis: A documentary of a dancer
Title: Deep Cuts
Category: Short Film (Fiction)
Director: Grant McCord
Origin: U.S.
Session: Short Film Session 2 at Crescent Ballroom
Synopsis: Set in present day Los Angeles, 'DEEP CUTS' is a black comedy surrounding an average 20-something guy named, Sal, who's recently been diagnosed with cancer. In the midst of his treatment, losing his hair, chemotherapy, depression, loss, Sal realizes his time is limited and the opportunity to seize his moment is fleeting. Forgoing what the world may think, Sal follows the passion he's always had, of becoming a rapper. Under the alias 'Deep Cuts' and with the help of his therapist, Sal moves far beyond his comfort zone to find the guidance he needs. Reluctantly, he reaches out to an old acquaintance from high school who is now a professional rapper.
Their acquaintanceship slowly morphs into a mentorship as Deep Cuts is pushed more and more to live out what's in his heart and destroy the fear he carries with him. Through this experience Sal finds authenticity and joy regardless of the pain and torment his body feels, through this a new journey and a new life begins for Sal, the life, of DEEP CUTS.
Title: From the Water
Category: Short Film (Documentary)
Director: Greg Hemmings
Origin: Canada
Session: Short Films Session 1 at Crescent Ballroom
Synopsis: A new generation of surfers explores the once inaccessible Saint John Harbour, five years after a massive harbour cleanup initiative. This film follows the enthusiastic and eclectic surf community that has sprung up in Saint John since the cleanup.
Title: Hepwesa (Special Feature)
Category: Featured Filmmaker
Director: Jake Hoyungowa
Origin: Hopi Reservation
Session: Short Films Session 1 at Crescent Ballroom
BIO:
Jake Hoyungowa (HEPWESA) is a digital artist from Munqapi, Arizona a small village east of The Grand Canyon he is of Diné and Hopi descent. His work spans across the Southwest ranging from; documentaries, short films, music videos and activism video. Since 2009 he has captured life on Dinétah (Diné Land-Nation) and Hopitutskwa (Hopi Land-Nation) often videos that pertain to indigenous rights and community projects for Indigenous youth. His first experience with the film industry was in 2011 on the set of ‘Winter in the Blood’ as a production assistant, since then he has worked on projects such as ‘The Rocket Boy’, ‘Metal Road’ and ‘Universal VIP’ as a Cinematographer. Jake is currently developing projects that pertain to his roots and within the Northern Arizona region.
Title: Libertad Beirut
Category: Feature Film (Documentary)
Director: Gauthier Charbel-Raad
Session: Crescent Ballroom 6PM
Origin: Beirut, Lebanon
Synopsis: In the middle of chaotic Beirut, two gay men decide to live openly their sexuality. This is where the dilemma starts; lovers, sex, family, society, photoshoots...
Title: Man to Man
Category: Short Film (Fiction)
Director: Bo Gao
Session: Paz Cantina 6PM
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: A dominating father’s selfishness and expectation leads him to force his son to obsessed with something he doesn’t like, which result in the conflicts that contribute them to understand each other and leading to a positive consequence simultaneously.
Title: Master of Cuchillo
Category: Short Film (Fiction)
Director: Rodrigo Sebastian Gonzalez
Session: Short Film Session 1 at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: Mexico
Synopsis: Timoteo, a chef that knows perfectly what he doesn't wants to be, has an obsession for juggling knives. The loss of one of his fingers constantly reminds him how dangerous is his obsession. He is fully aware of his problem, he tries so hard to control himself all the time.
Her father suffers from the same obsession and together try to overcome it. But they are some detonators that exceed all forces.
Title: Me Too 3.769
Category: Short Film
Director: Elaine Del Valle
Session: Short Film Session at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: A Pubescent Latina looks forward to her maturing body, but must soon cope with the sexual misconduct of someone she trusts.
Title: No Gods Before Me
Category: Short Film
Director: Bren Anduze
Session: Short Film Session 2 at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: An old friend comes to visit.
Title: The Rainbow Effect
Category: Short Film (Documentary)
Director: Zoey Huang Vartola
Session: Short Film Session 1 at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: China
Synopsis: A documentary film that chronicles the experience of two homosexual couples in China as they cope with the pressure of starting a new family in an environment in which family values and duties are rooted in strong traditional beliefs.
Title: Rosalie
Category: Feature Film (Fiction)
Director: Moussa Djigo
Session: Film Bar 10PM
Origin: Canada
Synopsis: Rosalie’s door closes roughly. Her boyfriend Jimmy, a street musician, has just decided to break up with her. For an hour and a half, Rosalie will go through all kind of moods and sink into a destructive madness, while recalling the memorable moments of her story.
The film is a deconstruction of the romantic comedy genre and its way of portraying love.
Title: Spot
Category: Short Film
Director: Dinetta Williams-Trigg
Session: Short Film Session 2 at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: Family comes in all shapes and sizes, meet ours.
Title: Starvation
Category: Short Film (Animated Fiction)
Director: Zara Rostampour
Session: All three venues
Origin: IRAN
Synopsis: "Starvation" is a 7 minutes short animated film about stereotypes which cause misconceptions and shows the world leaders greed and corruption will bring nothing but poverty and starvation to the lower class of the society.
Title: Table Manners
Category: Feature Film (Fiction)
Director: Leli Maki
Session: Saturday at Filmbar 2PM
Origin: Africa
Synopsis: Megan’s idyllic life is thrown into turmoil, when it emerges that her husband, Lloyd, faces a heavy prison sentence for tax evasion. Megan, caught completely unawares is sent into a tailspin as she, not only loses her husband, her home and her comfortable suburban life, but also finds herself implicated in the tax fraud and facing jail time. Down on her luck and with nothing to her name Megan has to rediscover who she really is. With the help of her son and her best friend, Lindiwe, she finds solace and hope in her life-long love and affinity for cooking. She learns that the path back home begins with realizing that she is enough and all she needs is her family, food and love. Life’s 3 courses made easy.
Title: Yours are Mine
Category: Short Film (Fiction)
Director: Brooke Trantor
Session: Short Film Session 1 at Crescent Ballroom
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: Evin takes on a new high school student to tutor, Ally, and they quickly develop a close, sisterly relationship. After accidentally discovering Ally’s struggle with bulimia, Evin is quickly triggered by her own past battles with eating disorders. Evin tries to confront Ally to help her, and must decide to either fight through Ally’s defensive tactics to get the help she needs, or leave her to possibly fight this disease for years to come.
Title: Your Racist, sexist, Bigot.
Category: Feature Film (Documentary)
Director: Pita Juarez and Matty Steinkamp
Session: Friday at Film Bar 8PM
Origin: U.S.
Synopsis: As humans we all have opinions. Some are inherited by our culture and our family, some are learned throughout time, and some are forced due to reality of this unstable and ever changing world. Discrimination is rooted in everything we do and see. This film shares a rainbow of human discrimination, in order to allow our communities to see without walls and to hopefully chop away at the hate that has been created from discrimination.