REMEDY, 30min., USA
Directed by Pat Mitchell
An intelligence agent must relive his past to remedy a mistake he once made.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2147487/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
I love Sci-fi Films. Not just any sci-fi films but the surreal ones. The films that blur the lines of reality and fiction.

Films with heavy degrees of realism are my kind of films. Science fiction by definition is the belief that using science can explain what we can’t explain.

I have always been intrigued by how far reality can be pushed before becoming fantasy. Once you can’t explain your story grounded in science, your film is fantasy.

Don’t get me wrong. Fantasy can be intriguing but it comes at face value at times. Basically any existing nature leaves unexplained like fully industrialized extraterrestrial planets, Middle Earth, magical beings.
But nothing tops an imaginative story with its limits bound to what is right outside your window. Star Wars vs Star Trek debates always come to mind.

There is a major disconnect between the real world and Star Wars. As much as I love those movies, I prefer the rooted reality of Star Trek.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

I made this film almost a decade ago. I decided to remaster it based on the knowledge I have now.
It took me around a month or so to write it. If I can recall directly, It took me 2 weekends.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
Wholly original.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
I had made the film and at that time did not have a composer. I really wanted to upgrade and work with a composer and learn that whole process.

Andrew Scott Foust, my scorist for my films, contacted me about scoring Remedy after asking in a community page for filmmakers.

I really thought the film needed its own score and Andrew wanted to be that scorist. Much appreciation to this film. Its the first film I made with an original Score.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
I recalled a face from my Apples, Oranges, Lemons & Limes reaction video. I love the positivity and acceptance of the movie. I try to write these new found ideas optimistic it will work.
It’s always great to hear a compliment about your film and especially in detail.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
Early on… at 14 I took TV media classes. it was always in the back of my mind.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Forrest Gump, The Dark Knight,

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
Networking is always a huge plus. I think more can be done sometimes finding the filmmakers who did love your film.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
Really great so far.

10. What is your favorite meal?
Pasta is something I will never let go off. Everything else has its ups and downs.

11. What is next for you? A new film?
I am in development of a feature film called Lake O. I am currently seeking investors for it.
My Latest film “Apples, Oranges, Lemons & Limes” is now available with you guys as well as Fawesome & Tubi.

GROCERY SHOPPING, 38min., USA
Directed by Harry Roseman
I am at the grocery store three to five times a week. It has become a ritual, picking out the items, going over the shopping list, interacting with the same people year after year. It seems to me, an important aspect of my and many other people’s lives. Something utterly familiar. Though filmed it becomes somewhat mysterious, seen anew, to be rethought about.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

My work takes many forms. An aspect of some of my work in photography, installation, and film centers on my interactions with people in my community as I go about doing errands. I had done some shorter film focused on checking out at the register with my purchases. These interactions are important to me because of the frequent interactions I have with the same people over months and years. They are specific kinds of relationships, These exchanges have an aspect of friendship, though bracketed by the relatively brief interchanges but enlarged by time and repetition. This film stems from those interactions, but also a way of showing a frequent and mundane activity as being worthy and possibly interesting as art. Possibly giving the viewer a new take on their own regular day to day activities, In addition I found aspects of the visual possibilities rather beautiful, as still lives, such as piles of fruits and vegetables. The added addition of bits of conversation that either I had with people or overheard was also interesting to me.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

The film all took place on a single shopping trip. It was originally about twice as long and then edited. The editing took a few days, so the whole process wasn’t that long.

One though, might include the related films and some of my work leading up to this film as integral to making this work.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Casual and Thoughtful

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Having to do all the filming with one hand and the shopping with the other.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I was very curious to hear what viewers thought about this film.

Though straight forward, I felt I was asking a lot of the viewer to watch a film where on the surface it didn’t feel like much was happening. I got a kick out of the person who kept thinking they were missing something fundamental about the film and said at one point that they thought it felt like possibly I didn’t know the camera was running. It made me laugh and think about the lack of self-consciousness that the film has. Which strangely may not be the easiest thing to do.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

My work, as I previously mentioned, continues on a number of paths. Most children do draw, which I did. But I also took photographs continually since I was about ten years old. My first impulse to make a film was probably in 1968 on a trip to Europe, which would have been more like a GIF. But I have not made that work, but weirdly do have in mind to go back to those photographs and make a short animation. The first film I made was in 1963, which I had done when in art school and was a live action film. I have made a number of films in between then and now. I have been steadily making more films since 2013 both live action and animations.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Probably The Umbrellas of Cherboug.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Just being discerning audiences and helping more people see the films is always desired. I consider myself an artist in a general way and even though, like all of us, I like recognition for what I do, I don’t see the films I make as being particularly commercial. So, I don’t really know how to respond to the idea of a career as it is usually thought about.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Excellent

10. What is your favorite meal?

Do you mean breakfast, lunch or supper, or what foods?

I shop often and only cook sometimes. My wife is a great gook so I get to eat extroardinary meals frequently.

Not sure if this is relevant to the question, but I am crazy for custards.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

At this time I am in the midst of two films. One is also partly about shopping. It is a Thanksgiving film. That includes four days of shopping, more interaction with other people and the meal and guests as well. The other film is the 14th in a series of experimental animations that I have been working on since 2019 (the series, not number #14).

They are about a trip I took to China in 1987 and only use still photographs (about 3,500) I took on that trip and the sound tracks come only from recordings (about 30 hours) I also produced on that trip. I knew I was going to make something out of that body of work but it took me over thirty years to figure out what that consisted of.

I have been working on #14 for probably 6 months and it will probably be another 6 months before it is completed. I have the first 12 in this series on a website named – www.harryroseman-china1987.com.

Some of those have also been screened in film festivals, both in NYC and internationally.

STILL PUSHING: A SKATEBOARDERS PUSH THROUGH TIME, 17min., USA
Directed by Stan Nalewski
Still Pushing is a nostalgic skateboarding documentary that takes viewers on a thrilling ride through the lives of a tight-knit group of skaters who called Roselle Skatepark home for more than a decade. Blending the heartwarming camaraderie of “The Sandlot” with the wild antics of “Jackass,” this film revisits the golden days of youth filled with hijinks, fun, and unforgettable memories. Through a blend of old and new footage, “Still Pushing” explores Roselle Skatepark as a cherished third space where lifelong friendships were forged and adventures unfolded, capturing the essence of skate culture and the passage of time.

http://bettercheckyourtone.com/
https://instagram.com/bettercheckyourtone

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
Being in a new stage of life and looking back on the past really influenced the making of this film. Wanting to make a skateboarding film that not only skaters could relate to and enjoy was at the core of it all.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
About a year.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
Nostalgia + Heart

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
The two biggest obstacles were that the film couldn’t happen until enough time had passed to both see the evolution of these people and places. And the other obstacle was making a skateboarding film that people who never skateboarded before or had any interest in it could also appreciate and enjoy.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
It was really powerful to hear just how much it connected to them all. I could tell that everyone watched the film and had a critical eye to it. So hearing them all talk with such specificity to moments they loved or how the overarching themes resonated with them, or how they related it to something in their lives that hit close to home was truly special.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
The winter of 2023 I knew I wanted to make a film about skateboarding. Initially it was just going to be a short 1-2 minute video for the internet, but after looking through the archive of footage I still had I knew there was a much bigger story here.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Fittingly, I think skate videos growing up are some of my most watched films ever. Yeah Right! Pj Ladd’s Wonderful Horrible Life, Cliche Bon Appetit, Flip Sorry, too many to name.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
The only other thing I could think of would be to do some kind of physical premiere or Q+A with films and filmmakers.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
Great!

10. What is your favorite meal?
Girl and the Goat – Chicago

11. What is next for you? A new film?
Hopefully, a bit of the behind the scenes and exploring the cast of Still Pushing with a spinoff series. There were so many questions that people had after they watched. I think the best way to address alot of that is another video series with that cast of characters.

KITTY BRAVO IN FREEFALL FAILURE, 1min,. USA
Directed by Spencer Bryant, Gabrielle Chiong, Megan Hecklinger, Anthony Juarez, Corain Marneweck, Hannah Paul, Emma Peace, Ashley Smith, and Noel White.

This animated short film is an action-packed rollercoaster featuring daredevil cat Kitty Bravo!

https://www.instagram.com/kittybravo3d/

Get to know filmmaker Spencer Bryant:

1. What motivated you to make this film? This was my senior short film while at Texas A&M! I was on a team with two other seniors, three juniors, and three sophomores. We wanted to make something cartoony, comical, and iconic. Corain Marneweck pitched the story, Emma Peace wanted the character to be a cat, Hannah Paul drew our character in the Johnny Bravo pose, and Kitty Bravo was born! We all also wanted to further our skills of course! I had a wonderful experience leading the team as Production Manager, Megan Hecklinger excelled as the Prop Model and Motion Graphics Lead, Emma Peace expanded her skillset as a look development artist as the Groom FX Lead, Gabrielle Chiong added Unreal to her software tool belt as the Lighting Lead, Anthony Juarez studied new cloth simulation techniques as the FX Lead, Noel White deftly navigated between Maya and Unreal as the Layout and Set Dressing Lead, Corain Marneweck iterated quickly to deliver Kitty Bravo’s final model as the Character Model Lead, and Hannah Paul and Ashley Smith delivered a great final edit as the Compositing Lead and the Sound Lead. I’m proud of the whole team and I’m so glad the world is seeing our hard work!

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film? We made this short film in a single semester, from August to December.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!? Orange-cat behavior.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film? About halfway through the project we realized rendering with Pixar’s Renderman may be too long and risky of a move considering the number of effects in our short. We opted to render in Unreal Engine instead, which required transferring the entire layout into Unreal and performing rigging, animation, and effects tests. Ultimately it was the best decision for the short!

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video? I was so glad to see everyone’s positive reactions! It was especially nice to hear which aspects people liked most, like the art direction, sound design, and animation.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films? I realized I wanted to go into animation while watching The Good Dinosaur in theaters in 8th grade.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life? The Mitchells vs the Machines!

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career? As someone who could not attend in person, I would love if in-person festivals sent out screeners for accepted filmmakers.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site? Pretty good!

10. What is your favorite meal? Tacos!

11. What is next for you? A new film? For most of the team, they are completing their undergraduate degrees and have some more short films and their capstones in their futures. Keep an eye out for Gabrielle Chiong, Anthony Juarez, Corain Marneweck, Hannah Paul, Ashley Smith, and Noel White in the 3D animation industry! Megan Hecklinger is currently a graphic designer at HP, and myself and Emma Peace are currently on the job hunt, though we’re always working on some new project!