AMERICANS SMELL GOOD, 66min,. USA
Directed by Emir Cakaroz
The film combines the filmmaker’s story in the U.S.A. with people from different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds that he wouldn’t have met if he hadn’t come to this country. It explores the experience of being in between many cultures when living in a foreign land.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
Immigration, a sense of belonging, connection, and isolation were always occurring themes in my films. However, I was mostly focusing on my family’s immigration from Bulgaria to Turkey and its long-term effects in my previous films. This time, I realized I had enough experience to make a film about my immigration from Turkey to the USA and I made it!

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

I would say I started at the beginning of 2020, but I had to take long breaks because
of Covid. I completed the film in March 2024, so around four years, I guess.

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

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
Covid! The world was in a big chaos in that period. We didn’t know what was going on and what would happen next. The fear was everywhere. Therefore, scheduling filming was very difficult.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
It was amazing! It was a great feeling to see people understand what you wanted to do, and they actually enjoyed the film. It was also great to see how the audience made personal connection with the film.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
I finished my short film, Dad’s Apple, in November 2019. It was about my memories of my Dad. As I mentioned above, I realized I had enough experience to make a film about my immigration from Turkey to the USA, and I made it.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Nanook of the North. I saw this film many times as a college student and now as a college instructor. I show it to my students every year, so I have been watching it. I love it. It’s a great film.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
When a festival selects your film and later wins an award, it’s very encouraging. As an independent filmmaker, that is a great motivation to continue making films. However, festival submissions are very costly, and reducing them would help many filmmakers like me.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
It makes film submission very easy, and it’s a very user-friendly website.

10. What is your favorite meal?
Lahmacun (Turkish Pizza)

11. What is next for you? A new film?
I have been teaching for 20 years now in different colleges. I want to find my former students and record them. I would like to see what their dreams were when they were in college and what they are doing now.

CARVED IN STONE, 30min., USA
Directed by Porter Justus
Cast out by the academic community at her college for her extreme beliefs that artifacts belong with their cultures, not locked up in some museum, young historical photographer AMELIA SLOANE is shocked to learn a former and beloved professor has bequeathed to her a collection of valuable and rare artifacts – including the legendary sword Excalibur – and a mysterious message “You’ll know what to do with this.”

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

There were a number of reasons for this film. I learned a long time ago that sometimes to com up with good story is turn one on its head, and so I wanted to explore a character who’s mission was the opposite to what is usually expected. In this case, what if Excalibur needed to be returned instead of claimed, so that just turned into a exploration into culture reclamation and restoring history to its rightful origins.

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

20 months.

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

Charming Adventure

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

How to achieve high end visuals with limited resources

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

I love the feedback video it felt very validating, and I’ve just overjoyed that people enjoy it.

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

2009 when I walked out of James Cameron’s AVATAR.

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

Oh wow! That’s a tough question. It definitely has to be AVATAR. I watch it at least once a year.

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

Provide more opportunities to connect filmmakers to film buyers, more pitch fests, and accommodating filmmakers who travel in especially if they are nominated for something.

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

I love FilmFreeway. Way better than Withoutabox was. Haha. Great platform, easy to use.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Breakfast food. Right now I’m really into steak, eggs, bisquit, and milk.

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

My next project I’m super excited about is a gritty, mystical Mormon thriller centered around Porter Rockwell.

WEASEL, 2min., Mexico
Directed by Hisham Iyad Hajir

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
I would like to get rid of a lot of the clutter in my house, but I don’t know how. The film peers into an alternate reality where technology provides a solution to this problem.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
About a year and a half. There were many empty periods of time where it wasn’t actively being worked on.

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

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
I initially had two producers for the project. I believed that only one was needed for this film, but two were chosen so that it was a less burdensome task for each. In the end, both dropped out at different times during pre-production due to mental health issues and I had to produce the rest of the project myself, which meant that I couldn’t focus on directing as much as I would’ve liked.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
I liked how they understood the film. Since it’s an extremely short film about an inexistent technological gadget, then the film didn’t only need to tell the story in its short runtime, but also establish and explain what the device is and how it works. I was happy that the audience wasn’t confused by the film.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
I would say around middle school. I wouldn’t always agree with some of the creative decisions made in the films that I saw, so I learned filmmaking to know how I could do things differently.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Toy Story 2 would always be playing in my house during the weekends for reasons unknown, so I believe it would win easily.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
Ways to connect with people in the industry that could help us further develop our current project, create our next project, or find a bigger project to collaborate on.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
It’s great. I just wish it had more filter options. Not all festivals are right for your project.

10. What is your favorite meal?
Fast-Food Hamburger Meals.

11. What is next for you? A new film?
I would like to rest for a bit and enjoy the festival circuit. The process took a toll on me since I performed many of the different roles. I would like some time to gather myself before deciding what to do.

KILLING R, 15min., Sweden
Directed by Irene Altagracia Perez Lopez
In a not-so-distant future where AI technology is part of everyday life, Rebecka (41), a successful architect and mother to Nonno (5), works from home with her sick daughter while her partner Carl (39) is away.

http://irenelopez.se/killing-r/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087540991321

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
A career and family place enormous demands on women, and no matter how hard they try, their time and efforts never seem enough. Add to this the pressure for perfection—complicating things rather than opting for simple solutions to achieve exactly what we want. The novel Clonemom and Killing R emerged from my fantasy: ‘What if I had a clone of myself?

The concept of a perfect society is on the line. Can we keep up? Do our actions as “perfect” parents impact our children? Are they already caught in this race to fit in? Killing R is inspired by my mother’s long visits from Costa Rica, which often left me exhausted. She helped me with everything—cooking, cleaning, and caring for the kids—yet her constant corrections and perfectionism wore me down. I realized I was doing the same to my husband. He calls it micromanaging. I had become a clone of my mother, unconsciously inheriting her way of managing everything, reflecting deeply ingrained patriarchal structures.

Killing R is a proof of concept to a feature in the making, made during my MA at SKH (UNIARTS) in Stockholm. I want both men and women to relate to the experience of being imperfect humans in an increasingly perfect world. Perhaps, we can start to accept our flawed, authentic selves.”

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

We started the process during summer of 2022 and finished the film May 2023.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
A Mini Black mirror (4 words)

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
We had a very low budget 12 000 EUR and with this we wanted to work with a lot of CGI and effects. This took time from me with the actors and the script- this I regret a lot.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
Wow! These women have looked at my film and understood my deepest inner thoughts about it! They understood everything! And made their own thoughts and connections about the topic. I thought this part to be the most interesting. I will take these thoughts with me to the next film witch is a feature with the same topic.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
My immigrant stepdad- Carlos wanted to be a filmmaker but instead he became a historian. We would watch everything from Godard to horror and Jackie Chan movies. He would explain the subtext of the film, symbolics and how all effects were made. In a way he was my first teacher. My mom didn’t want me to work with arts.. So it was a struggle. But one day my stepfather said to me that I should try my luck in Stockholm, and gave me 100 EUR. With this I slept on couches until I got in to the greatest film and art schools. Everything else is history.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Probably Frost ( I have three kids) but for me: Lite water to chocolate, 1992 and Dirty Dancing 1987, and Fynny games, 1997.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
Well, I need to find real good scriptwriters and coproducers to elevate my next feature film. For me it is important to be at the festival and make these connections.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
Easy but very hard to know what festovals are “real” or not.

10. What is your favorite meal?
Korean food..

11. What is next for you? A new film?
My next film is a feature that portrays the same there that is in this short. It is about a mother but this time we added three kids and a husband with mother to the story. And it will be more humouristic than the shortfilm. This film will deal more mirroring ourselves in the AI and why we strive for perfection when we in fact are imperfects as human beings.

PARALAND: THE PROLOGUE, 4min., USA
Directed by Patrick McCarthy
Paraland is the story of three heroes charged with rebuilding the realm following the reign of a hateful tyrant. As they struggle to unite the land and bring together the twelve races, they must also solve magical mysteries, defeat legendary foes, and endure the gods’ twisted sense of humor.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
I’ve been working towards having my own cartoon show for a long time. And, I had been tweaking this same idea for quite a few years. I tried to shape Paraland around my life, and it really became a good idea when I made two of the main characters myself and my best friend. However, something was still missing and I almost gave up on it. Then, I met my now wife, and I knew that was the dynamic it had been missing. So, I was very motivated by the fact that we became a trio that tease each other but always have a good time, and our lives felt very much like the show Seinfeld. So, I wanted to meld that with an engaging fantasy world for audiences to explore.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
I started working on this version of the pilot in 2020. And, I started animating the opening to the pilot (The Prologue) in 2021. I did all the animation myself, so it took a bit of time, and I finally finished it all in November 2023. And, the final product (music and SFX) was ready for viewing in January 2024. But, it was a great journey as making aesthetic decisions about the world and magic then inspired changes in the pilot and world building, which in turn created new ideas for the animation as I was making it.

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

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
Technology limitations. I learned 3D Animation and Blender specifically for this project, because I knew I wanted the backgrounds to feel more like video game levels. So, not only was it a challenge learning a whole new software, but my computer isn’t exactly the newest or most powerful. And that led to a lot of issues with files crashing. It got to a point where I would have nearly a dozen files of the same scene because they were all corrupted, but I had to keep them all because each piece that I needed to import to a new file was only salvageable in certain files. Long story short, every time I was dealing with the backgrounds I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn’t crash.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
Reassurance. I appreciated them taking the time to watch and give meaningful compliments. They were all very kind, and I know that given the context they wouldn’t say anything negative. However, within all the compliments I saw continuity, and their perceptions of my intentions aligned with what I truly hoped to deliver as a product. So, that was very encouraging to know that people are enjoying the trailer in the way that I hoped they would.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
Freshman year of highschool. We were all assigned Mac laptops (it was a new thing, and also a very good school – I was very lucky to be there). I constantly used my laptop to make fake movie trailers in iMovie and I knew eventually I wanted to move to LA and try to be a part of the industry.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
I almost hate to admit that it’s Shrek. It’s both technically sound yet strangely original. Having the odd couple with Shrek and Donkey worked so well, but how the heck did they think to pair an Ogre and a Donkey?!

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?
Not going to lie, when I first heard about the audience feedback films I thought it was going to be a video of people in the theater watching the video in real time. I would have loved that a lot. Having people take time to think about what to say and give heartfelt feedback is great, but there’s something special about seeing their initial reaction. It’s something you don’t get much in film/animation, and it’s part of the magic of live events like a festival.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
FilmFreeway makes it so easy to find so many different festivals and really helps streamline the submission process, which has been absolutely amazing. I have been a little sad to see how many different festivals will decide to change the notification deadlines without notifying people of a reason why, but that definitely hasn’t been the case with your festival. You guys were great and gave me an early acceptance and have been wonderful with communication!

10. What is your favorite meal?
Sushi is usually my go to, but on special occasions it’s American BBQ.

11. What is next for you? A new film?
Paraland: The Prologue was quite literally the beginning of the pilot and the beginning of my journey with trying to get the show made. The next steps have been to gather more people to the team and try to find a network/platform that wants to help see this world brought to life.

LOW DOWN LARRY CONQUERS THE MOON MEN, 4min., USA
Directed by Sammy Verni
At the height of the Space Race in July 1969, Larry Johnson and his trusty sidekick Spike, endeavor to be the first man (and dog) to set foot (and paw) on the Moon.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

Low Down Larry Conquers the Moon Men is the first in a series of shorts that I have made based on a comic book character I used to draw when I was about ten years old. I see it as a love letter to that time in my life, as well as an homage to sci fi b movies, classic stop motion and the Saturday morning cartoons that I grew up with.

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

About six years.

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

Poor Larry.

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

Starting a family during this time and working a full time job at an ad agency kept me very busy.

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

I was happy to see the reviewers understood the style, the inspiration and the humor of the film. They even made me aware of some plot points and themes I hadn’t even considered when I was creating the story!

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

There are pictures of me from when I was young with a camera in my hand, so I have always liked the idea of a creating a world that exists only within the confines of a camera lens, within the frame. My first real narrative was a short I made at around 13 with the family Super 8 camera.

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

Star Wars (the original).

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

I think so far yours is the best I have encountered in terms of promotional services available to the filmmaker. I will try and avail myself of as many of them as possible.

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

It has been a pretty good experience overall. No complaints really.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Alaskan King Crab Legs (with drawn butter of course).

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

I do plan on making at least one more installment of the Larry saga! I have the general outline already laid out and have spoken to my team of very talented artists. We are all looking forward to bringing Larry’s next trip to life. This next one will take place underwater. But that’s about all I can say at this time!

THE GIRL FROM THE VILLAGE: A STORY OF HOPE, 40min., USA
Directed by Billy Surges
Join us on a journey of educational hope for students in poverty-stricken Kenya. Surging Films teams up with The Weiss Scholarship Foundation to bring the stories of various Kenyan scholarship recipients, hopefuls, and alumni to the forefront. In particular, we follow Christine Akoth’s journey as she travels from Kenya to America in hopes to fulfill an educational journey at Elmhurst University. Getting their start in Dago, Kenya, The Weiss Scholarship Foundation’s mission is to empower children with the gift of education while working to build a world where every child gets a great education.

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?
My high school teacher, Brett Weiss, started this foundation when I was in his class. I had followed the mission for many years and when the opportunity arose to head to Kenya with him and tell this story, I had to jump on it. After meeting the people of Kenya and Christine, I realized that this story is a lot bigger than any of us could have first imagined. There are 100s of incredible stories over there waiting to be told.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?
It took 2 years from the time I took off for Kenya to the finished product.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?
Inspiring, yet eye-opening.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
Basically being a one-man crew traveling to Kenya and then editing together hundreds of hours of footage into a short doc.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
This was incredibly valuable! It really meant a lot that the audience feedback understood the filmmaking aspect of it as well as the content.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?
After I graduated high school, I was Zac Efron’s double in a movie and that sparked my passion.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
Probably Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, or Bad Boys II. Guilty pleasures.

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 podcast would be great!

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?
No issues!

10. What is your favorite meal?
Chicken Parm.

11. What is next for you? A new film?
We are actually creating our own film festival in Chicago called the Chicago Film Frenzy! As well as beginning pre production work on a tv/web series.

STAUNCH MODERATES EXPERIENCE, 39min.,
Directed by Gregory T Simmons
Welcome to the Staunch Moderates Experience, a story which takes us through the history & achievements of the Staunch Moderates movement through music. This film presents a unique experience with it’s multi-genre compilation of music videos from the three albums released by the movement.

http://staunchmoderates.org/
https://www.facebook.com/StaunchModerates
https://twitter.com/SModerates
https://www.instagram.com/staunch_moderates/

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

Our motivation came from having started the Staunch Moderates Movement four years ago, covering the 2020 Election Year, then forming a multi-genre hip hop band, dropping three albums in the following three years, making an 83 minute Documentary Film, “Mission Peace,” about our first year in operation including founding a Bigfoot mascot named Staunch, and then having all these assets including our many tracks & music videos which tells the Staunch Moderates Philosophy and story in an entertaining way. Our inspiration came from processing our Staunch Moderates Movement & Entertainment Studio.

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

I think I just answered this in the above answer.

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

“Staunch Moderates” or “Commons Sense”

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film? It’s an interesting question because it edited together quite naturally for us once we produced all our assets over the last four years. I will note that even though the hip hop industry has been good to us, it has been a challenging industry to navigate. Making each album is like being in a boxing ring!

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

When your audience reviews had come in two weeks ago, we had already received two great trade reviews, one from your festival and one from FilmThreat, so your audience reviews were a continuation of the very positive feedback of our film. All the above have been created an elated feeling of, “Yes, we are in the game, and this is fun!” It’s a good thing too, because we have a positive message that deserves to be heard. The more positives the response, the more it’s going to be heard.

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

It came out of wanting & trying to make a scripted comedy TV Show, “Aspen The Series®,” (www.AspenTheSeries.com) which was inspired from my being a patron at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival during the turn of the century. Since 2002. I spent two decades trying to get that show off the ground by moving to Hollywood, producing and distribution an interactive reality show about creating said show & doing everything I could to market, produce and distribute it for two decades, until I finally gave up in late 2019 and switched my efforts to creating and producing the Staunch Moderates® Intellectual Movement. Through the process we made a documentary about my “Aspen The Series” experience available via the home page of said website. With this background as soon as I started Staunch Moderates, I knew we were making a documentary film about it. It’s entitles Mission Peace and is available on Amazon Prime and will soon be on Apple TV. Our newest film, “The Staunch Moderates Experience,” the one this interview is about, is a result of us also being a multi genre hip hop band and then stitching together most of our music videos and MCing between them to tell our story and to echo what we feel are good values and should be considered by all as an effort to achieve peace.

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

Forest Gump or Point Break

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 I was saying, you at Toronto Docs Fest have already been absolutely terrific,” my first experience of being properly supported by a studio per my show biz career outlined above.” For me this has been a tremendous experience that I appreciate.

If you could do anymore, it would be to help us get into a major: TIFF (already passed), Berlin, Cannes, SXSW, or Sundance. Am I missing one, and/or help us get a distribution deal like we have for our Mission Peace.

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

FilmFreeway has been an excellent platform for us. No complaints here.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Wild Duck.

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

As I mentioned above, we are also a multi genre hip hop band (of course all clean rap). We are “DJ Staunch® & the Bigfoots,” (searchable by “DJ Staunch” or “Staunch Moderates” on all music platforms). We are looking to be booked as a live act which will include most of this movie as a backdrop on a jumbotron to our concert including: Bigfoot “DJ Staunch,” rap star – Kyle Knight, our dance troupe the “Staunchhettes, ” and myself, GTS, also MCing and rapping some tracks. This concert will boarder on being a play, by not only being good music but also very theatrical to tell a poignant story, “peace through moderation,” a current day Hamilton so to speak.

HOTPANTS, 15min., Sweden
Directed by Vera Berggren Wiklund
A story about finding your way back to volleyball where the dress code in the sport and self-hatred of the body stands in between. The film is Vera’s process (the director) of re-approaching the sport after a break caused by hotpants and body hate. By meeting other young people who have played and plays volleyball, Vera wants to explore how others think about hot pants. Emma, Vera´s friend, who also stopped playing volleyball in her teens follows her through the film and their joint goal is to start playing again, in the clothes they themselves want to wear.

https://www.mvuandafilmproduktion.se/hotpants/

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

Five years ago, I stopped playing volleyball. In connection with that, I got rid of my hotpants, those tight little shorts that we girls used to play in. Now, I want to play volleyball again but I don’t. I don’t want to wear hotpants, and I don’t want people to see me in them. That’s why I made this film: to approach the sport again after a break caused by hotpants and body hatred. By talking to my friend, who also quit playing volleyball in her teens, and meeting young volleyball players, I am reconnecting with the sport to find out what others think about the dress code and who it’s for.

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

I worked on the film for a total of two years.

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

Intimate, norm-critical.

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

The hardest part of making the film has been having the courage to trust that my own experience is valid and important. It has also been challenging to be in the film myself; initially, it was absolutely not an option, but with encouragement from people around me, it became so, which now feels essential to the film.

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

It’s very important to me that the topic is being talked about and that the film stimulates thoughts and emotions in people. It brings me joy, and I consider anyone who is brave enough to share their personal reflections on the subject to be truly courageous.

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

During high school, my friend Nina Winter and I created the short documentary Drivkraft, which focuses on young female gymnasts, their dreams, fears, and what drives them to continue with gymnastics. Creating a film that was deeply meaningful to me, and also impactful for other young people, was an incredible experience. The film became a way for me to, like the girls in the film, be fearless and pursue my own dreams. I realized that making films that are significant to me will likely resonate with others as well.

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

I believe it’s the film My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki. I appreciate the film’s universe: the endless imagination and playfulness of the environment. The film feels alive and magical, which really draws you into the story and makes you appreciate the creativity and joy that went into it.

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

I appreciate networking events, workshops, and screenings with Q&A sessions. Being able to ask questions and learn about the filmmaker’s creative process inspires me and makes me feel more connected, that makes me feel less alone in my own filmmaking journey.

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

Excellent! The website is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Right now, I’d say my favorites are dumplings or salmon sushi.

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

I’ve started a new project – a documentary film that, through the multi-sport athlete Meeri Bodelid, explores the Swedish sports world from a gender equality perspective.

WE’RE STILL BREATHING, AMHARA GENOCIDE IN ETHIOPIA, 23min., Ethiopia
Directed by Graham Peebles
We’re Still Breathing, Amhara Genocide in Ethiopia is a short documentary about the systemic silent genocide of the Amhara people in Ethiopia.

https://twitter.com/AAA_Amhara

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

A: The wish to bring the issue to the public attention and put pressure on decision makers

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

A: Eight months

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

A: Truthful. Emotional.

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

A: There were many obstacles. From the edit to the language, and working with a limited budget,

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

A: Pleased they were moved by the film

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

A: When writing human rights articles, it occurred to me that films may help spread the message.

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

A: No idea

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

A: Potentially project work in Sri Lanka & Gaza, and attempting to write fiction in addition to essays.