POTATO, 14min., Sweden
Directed by Birgitta Liljedahl
When Mother 1 (46) struggles with a tired body, a failed bun-baking project and hopeless over-aged children, Lisa (22) and Dennis (64), conflicts soon escalate beyond what’s accepted by The State of Sweden. The doorbell rings. And The Inspector enters, providing the States quality solution: a shining, new Mother 2 (27). A Mother that fulfills all criteria, not only for the children and the state, but that might even interest a most critical, new Father. Mother 1 fights for her life against the Inspector, the State and Mother 2’s tetra-organic cabbage from Peru, but soon finds herself deported to Svalbard, by the police. When Mother 1 strikes back, the children will meet a force they’ve never witnessed before. POTATO is an absurd, socially critical comedy that takes place in a future more close than we would like..
Get to know the filmmaker:
We are building a society where perfection is demanded. Always. It’s insane. And boring. And just bad business. The human as a species, is magic, where development comes from imperfection, failures and mistakes.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
WATER ALWAYS GOES WHERE IT WANTS TO GO, 5min., Romania
Media Artist Yiou Wang
“Water Always Goes Where It Wants to Go” is an ecoperformance CG art video of the body in synergy with the storied landscape of water. How can we go back to something we already have? We are born out of water, and water constitutes our body, our territories, and our myths. Mapping water through the body, in between transitory space for waters, the short film investigates the relationship between the self, its embodied and somatic dialogues, and these physical and symbolic waters, questioning how we can return to our first water, the common body.
Get to know the filmmaker:
This short film is the natural product of a very rich and interesting conversation Alina and I have. Many of our ideas clicked and crosspollinated. Alina is an actress and performance artist, who expresses through her body; I am a visual artist who expresses through image and form. We are both empaths who share an intuitive, embodied connection to a larger, more-than-human world. Alina has been introducing to the world the method of ecoperformance for many years, where she embodies a forest, a river, a crow, or an ancient mythic being and shapeshifts in synergy with the consciousness of the embodied. We began to focus on water, as water is our first body – the amniotic fluid is where we come from, and our common body. In many precolonial cultures and epistemologies, the land is often also corporeal. In Tuva, the mountain peak is the heart of mountain ranges, where rivers are the aortas, the soil’s blood vessels.
Alina and I wanted to create a branch of artworks embodying water combining her ecoperformance and my virtual filmmaking. She performs embodying water from our animistic perspective, and I do the motion capture, transferring her movement to the avatars of water. The scenography is designed with a root in theatre arts, where I put my 3D scanned natural environment pieces in the scene reminiscent of stage.
From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
It is hard to pinpoint the start of this project, since Alina and I have been communicating for a year and our minds grew into this rich constellation. Since the beginning, we agreed to draft some proposals to apply for certain live performance art grants. After that, we thought why not make a film to further illustrate our proposal? And the actual production and editing of this film was about three weeks. But it’s hard to say it’s only three weeks, because a lot of the models I put into the environment were from my longtime habit of 3D scanning in my forest hikes.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
ANDY KEYS CLARK – ‘SHE’S SO SPECTOR-ESQUE’, 4min., UK
Directed by Ignatius Rake
An animated tribute to legendary singer and 60s icon Ronnie Spector (1943-2022), this epic music video for UK soul and ska stalwart Andy Keys Clark (AKC) blasts Space-Race rocketry out to the furthest corners of the cosmos to help a lovestruck astronaut reconnect with his enigmatic lover.
I had worked with Andy Keys Clark before on a couple of video projects, including a short musical film about the COVID-19 lockdowns, or ‘bang-ups’, in our hometown in Cornwall, UK. He was looking for a video for his song ‘She’s So Spector-Esque’ and I jumped at the chance when he asked me.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
This film was based on a domestic argument I found recorded on my self tape camera. I lost the argument, I lost the boyfriend, but I won Best Story at TOFFF! After finding said video, I thought it would make for a great short film, where reality is blurred à la cinéma vérité style of the new wave films of the 1960s. I wanted to convey raw authenticity, the unsuccessful balance of career and relationship, and remove the line between fiction and fact. As an actress in LA, I wanted also to explore the audition method where we film so many self tapes using our own homes, our own equipment, and our own readers, in my case, an uncooperative boyfriend.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
CRISIS, 6min,. USA
Directed by Patrick Wei
Set against the backdrop of a drought-stricken New York City, this gripping short film delves into the harsh realities faced by its residents as the government imposes a stringent water rationing measure, limiting each individual to just 1 gallon and 3 ounces of water daily. As tensions rise and survival instincts kick in, “Crisis” paints a harrowing picture of the potential consequences of our environmental actions and the lengths to which people might go when faced with the direst of necessities. 1
The driving force behind this film was the realization of a widespread lack of awareness regarding sustainability. Many individuals tend to view sustainability solely through an environmental lens, overlooking its profound social dimensions. Sustainability is inherently intertwined with social behavior, and failing to grasp this concept could lead to potential crises.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
QUESTIONING THE WINDOW, 19min., Austria
Directed by Vulpecula Collective
In an intensive conversation in her old apartment in Vienna, the world-experienced artist Beta tries to take away young Gamma’s fears, among other things in connection with her native Burgenland-Croatian language – just as her mentor Alpha had once managed to do with her. But unlike Alpha, Beta doesn’t enjoy playing with her partner’s fears.
Get to know filmmakers Valentina Himmelbauer, Myriam Angela, Tess Hermann –
The desire to realize a film project arose in us at the beginning of 2021. As good friends and actresses, we simply wanted to shoot together once again. The coronavirus pandemic, which was still in full swing and had largely brought cultural life to a standstill, also played a role. As a result, there were even fewer offers for us as actresses than usual. So, without further ado, we decided to realize our own project. The shooting location we were given, an old Viennese apartment with a huge window, finally provided the breakthrough and the crucial idea for the script. Our lives between different cultures were another inspiration: Valentina had spent her childhood as a Burgenland-Croatian in south-eastern Austria; Myriam had also grown up bilingual (German/French) and lived in different places and Tess had moved to London for her Master’s degree, which meant that she has been moving between German and English ever since.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
TARARUA S-K, 22min., New Zealand
Directed by Andy Carruthers
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to push your limits in the wild, facing the ultimate physical challenge? The Tararua SK Traverse is waiting for you.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
MITTI (Discovering Ikigai), 30min., Canada
Directed by Sangita Iyer
Mitti (Discovering Ikigai) is a story of young woman of colour in Canada who chose organic farming as her career choice. Through her story the film highlights the Japanese concept of Ikigai to inspire others, especially youth, to find their passion and purpose in life. The film also highlights environmental and sustainability challenges the world is facing and how ancient cultures considered Mother Earth with gratitude instead of a commodity. The film also attempts to break stereotypes we have about how/what a farmer looks like. The film poster has been conceived and created by at 12 year art enthusiast who seems to have discovered her Ikigai.
This is one of the topics I am passionate about because culturally I was raised to have a sense of gratitude towards Mother Earth who is considered a life giver, the one who nourishes and sustains us and is worshipped as a Divine Mother. As a mother myself, I believe knowing where our food comes from, learning how to grow our own food and being connected to nature is really important for our future generations because as a society we seem to be getting more and more disconnected from nature. When I formed my production company Mettle Films, it was born with a vision of making films for a cause. Films that are simple, yet thought provoking stories of people, places and things which could also be utilized as a learning resource by schools and parents. I also decided to tell this story to support a local young female farmer, and by showcasing her journey, my hope is to empower others to discover their Ikigai.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
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A powerful documentary about a father and the resilience of his daughter Christine Ortoll as she confronts mental illness, addiction, and the transformative power of support. Through her personal journals and the unwavering dedication of her loved ones, witness a journey of hope and the creation of a meaningful legacy by her father.
Interview with Christine’s father and producer Michael Ortoll, & director Tim Searfoss
This is a film about family, about love, about wanting to escape your personal pain and finding yourself addicted to a substance that takes over your life. It’s a story about Christine Ortoll and the family and friends who love her.
This powerful film helps us understand why we fall for addiction, and hopes to humanize and de-stigmatize this powerful disease.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
A solitary figure at an empty bar, CIA clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr. John Flemington, is planning to visit his girlfriend in Mexico when he is pressured by mysterious underground operatives to join them on a secret mission. He really doesn’t have a choice.
I took 3 months off after graduating with my doctorate in clinical psychology in the summer of 2022. I was wanting to be creative again and challenged myself to direct a short film and do this as thoroughly and professionally as possible (i.e.., form a production company, pay everyone involved, produce, direct, have great sound, compose the music). Having appeared in many shorts as an actor prior to becoming a psychologist I felt both confident and intimated by the process. As a writer, I thought I had a good idea and knew that the difference between backing myself and making the short versus keeping the idea in my head was simply courage – couraage to exercise the confidence to put my idea out there into the world. I also love the spy genre and James Bond, in addition to the spin off creative series we have been seeing with the Mandalorian, Boba Fett. Inspired by Jon Favreau’s passion for alternate universes, I thought it would be fun to explore an alternate Bond Universe, combined with an X-Files style genre. Bonding was born.
You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at http://www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.
Festival Reviews 