Farzaneh was a compassionate mother and a faithful wife. The life with love was going on, but unfortunately, her life was overshadowed by the shadow of darkness. While she was struggling with problems and circumstances, she accidentally found a secret that changed her life course completely….
Directed by Hamid Reza Mahmoudi Mehrizi
Cast: Elnaz Naghibi, Majid Norouzi
Director Statement I am trying to use more of the social realities in my filmmaking. I believe that creative filmmaking is not a place for repetition and regurgitation. I hope that I can have good relationships with all artists around the world in different fields of film and be able to produce up-to-date films with attractive creativity.
“Peace in my Night” is a compelling documentary that follows the extraordinary life of Elsie Mascher, a woman whose unwavering faith in God guided her through the darkest chapters of World War II.
As a young child, Elsie witnessed the horrors of war firsthand, enduring the unimaginable as her family were forced into labor on their own farm. Eventually taking the chance to flee, Elsie and her family embarked on a frightening journey to freedom.
Their arrival in Canada brought new opportunities and it was there that Elsie found love, meeting her husband and embarking on a new chapter of life to East Africa.
Featuring intimate interviews, archival footage, and glimpses of who she is today, “Peace in my Night” offers a deeply personal and moving portrait of a woman whose faith carried her through the darkest of times. As Elsie Mascher reflects on her experiences and shares the wisdom gained from a life lived with purpose and determination, her story serves as a testament to the enduring power of faith, resilience, and peace.
When a by -the-book lawyer allows a prank war to escalate and spiraling occur. The lines of law, ethics and office humor blur.
Directed by Mitra Goodwin
Director’s BIO:
Engineer, Business Analyst, Program Manager, Script Supervisor. Those were my titles before deciding to write and direct my short film, Prank’d.
Growing up an army brat, and as an only girl to 3 brothers, movies and books were my best and constant companions. When I realized some books were made into movies, a new hobby emerged, reading the book, and subsequently watching and critiquing the movie. “Devil in a Blue Dress” and “Harry Potter” are the favorites for the transition. However, my writing outlets at the time were journaling and poetry.
Fast forward and I graduated from the University of Louisville with a Master’s in Industrial Engineering and continued performing time studies at a parcel shipping company. As I moved into software development in the corporate realm and in location to Camden, South Carolina, I realized that I gained an ability. The ability to handle meeting overloads, personality conflicts and small talk fatigue by secretly giving spirit animal nick names to my colleagues and before you knew it, I had amassed mini stories for them as well.
Another fast forward, and a week before the pandemic shutdowns, in Atlanta, GA (where I currently reside) I attended BWFN (Black Women Film Network) and later uncovered the old writings. That creative experience and those memories pushed me to the next logical step in….a Script Supervisor for Film and TV. Not apparently logical but Mitra logic, I was able to observe and learn more behind the scenes production while I honed my storytelling confidence and abilities. As I continue to create content, I hope it brings joy to those reading and watching as it brought joy to me writing.
Tendon, 13min,. USA Directed by Jannik Ehret Recovering addict Rene sees a creature poison the city’s water supply and has to convince his skeptical sister and her no-nonsense boyfriend to stay away from the tap water.
A Little Western Story, 13min., Italy Directed by Francesco Maffei Two Cowboys walk under the sun, one of them holding a showel. When they get close to a cliff, they start digging a hole in the ground, but someone is lurking and watching them from above…
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In Between tells the story of Blake, who lives a happy heteronormative life with her long time partner, Eric. After some vivid unexpected dreams, she gets a visit from a love from her past life, Adeline, who shows up to her home from across the world. If your past showed up on your doorstep… what would you do?
Some stories in our lives don’t end the way we would like them to, but In Between takes you into a world where it can. We rewrite the story in our imagination, feel what could have been so we can move forward and allow ourselves to be vulnerable and love once again.
Sofia, the young owner of an important avant-garde farm in Salento, recalls during an interview how it all began with the scent of bread that her peasant grandparents made with their own hands and offered her when she went to visit them as a child. A simple gesture of love that remained in her heart and that changed her life forever.
Seth, a college senior, is home for winter break. He’s spending a day relaxing and shopping on Fairfax Avenue when he’s suddenly confronted by an Orthodox Jewish man asking Seth if he’s Jewish. Seth’s chance encounter leads to a profound spiritual experience with life-changing implications.
Director Statement ANTISEMITE is a film about self-discovery in a time of fear and violence. Fear of one’s heritage, and fear of exploring and expressing one’s identity. For the past two thousand years, Jewish people have been the victims of antisemitism, being forced to live at the margins of whatever society they happened to call home at the time. Sure, assimilation provided some cover, but the fact remained and still remains to this day, Jews have always been Other. ANTISEMITE explores the themes around a unique component of being Jewish in today’s world, the capacity to be Jewish without actually being Jewish. It’s a paradox that many modern Jews face, and it’s a sense of inner conflict that many seek to avoid. Following the uptick in violence against Jewish people in North America last year, our writer Etan Marciano channeled his anger, fear, confusion, and sense of ambiguity into a narrative that sought nuance in the face of an increasingly binary conversation about what it means to be Jewish in today’s world.
Seth, our film’s lead, is a version of a growing Jewish American archetype. His Judaism is only as deep as his vague awareness that he’s Jewish. He’s a born and raised Angeleno. He’s the son of an immigrant Israeli father who rejects his religious past, and an American-born mother who never cared to embrace her Judaism. His parents have offered him no sense of what it means to be Jewish, and in that void of his identity, Seth has naturally sought a sense of self in the secular culture around him. Instead of his faith or spirituality, he defines himself by his taste in fashion, music, the content that he consumes and the multicultural friends he surrounds himself with. But however much of an echo chamber Seth has created for himself, he still yearns for deeper meaning, purpose and connection. Seth’s chance encounter with an Orthodox Jewish man– similar to the type of encounter Etan experienced all the time as a teenager growing up in New York City — acts as a catalyst that changes Seth’s life. But the question remains, does Seth have the courage to pursue his Jewish identity knowing that it could alienate him from his family and friends? And if so, does he have the resolve to cope with the specter of hate and violence that awaits?
ANTISEMITE is a film that I believe will resonate with everyone who sees it, as the themes are universal. It’s a film about finding your place in the world and the consequences of that. I too have a father from another culture, who overcorrected and assimilated into American culture, erasing his ties to his native land. I have had to discover that for myself, in a journey similar to Seth’s, and have faced the repercussions of living between being Other and an American upbringing. This is a film that audiences will surely identify with, and garner some deeper understanding of themselves.
Romanian actress Sara and American director Andrew are perfect partners in life and art until Sara starts to see parallels between their love and their latest play: a stage adaptation of “The Evening Star” by Mihai Eminescu. As the two engage in a contest of creative wills, Sara is forced to reckon with the truth of their partnership — and what it would take to keep it alive. A feminist satire about love, art, power, and what happens when reality and imagination collide.
Directed by Catherine Andre
Director Statement Shape of Clay is a Fassbinder-inspired rom-com that uses the melodrama between two theater artist to critique the weirdness of heterosexual love in our world today. This cross-cultural film follows the disintegration of a romantic-creative relationship between a man and a woman – both artists – who are more comfortable playing in their roles and illusions than acknowledging the reality of the other person – or themselves.
The movie was written with a 20-year age difference between the pair. Andrew had all the power: he was 50, white, male, American while Sara was his aging starlet, moving towards thirty with a one-way ticket out of Romania (dependent upon Andrew). Originally, the film was meant to follow Sara waking up to the compromise required to maintain a partnership where the other person holds all the power. When sudden production challenges required recasting Andrew at the last moment, Jared Doreck brought new youthful, comedic energy to the character, rewriting the relationship dynamic. Andrew became a self-important, bumbling buffoon, as oblivious in his work as he is to his partner’s needs; the character had always been an emblem of the patriarchy, and now patriarchy was played in full absurdity. Yet Sara chooses to love this man and respect his authority; they are both made ridiculous through their adherence to this status quo – to their own corner of make-believe.
Ultimately, this is still a movie about Sara’s disillusionment as she finally stares down the man and role she has chosen for herself. Yet in the critical moment when the kettle boils over, the camera distances itself – and the audience – to ask: what are these two really fighting about? Perhaps the most revealing thing about Shape of Clay is the way that it has divided audiences. Some are disgusted by Andrew’s familiar misogyny or disgusted at me for “ramming feminism” down their throats. Some think that Sara is overreacting – that “it’s all fun and games with these young girls until they start to scream.” There is a third group, who sees these characters as two ridiculous people who, in some strange, disturbing way, deserve each other.
It’s my hope that this film is a mirror for our own perceptions of gender-power dynamics and what happens, even in the most intimate of relationships, when we see more truth in social roles than the human beings before us.
This thirteen minute film from Denmark is a heartbreaking and moving story about a man in the last moments of living a lie. After a weekend spent with his friend Jesper, our hero realizes he is in love, not with his live-in girlfriend, but with his best friend. His partner is loving and doting, which makes it harder for him to reveal to her that he is gay. When he is able to do so, the situation turns messy and he leaves the apartment- to make a phone call to Jesper.
Wonderfully edited, with a style that creates the rushed sense of panic that courses through our hero, THE LAST GIRL has a searing, red-hot intensity to it. It is a strong film, with wonderful performances and keen and emotionally intelligent score. There is smoldering suffocating feeling in certain scene that accurately portrays the hero’s feelings of being trapped in his world.
A film about what happens when take the plunge and answer the call of the question “what if..?” THE LAST GIRL is an excellent, gripping film.
Review by Kierston Drier
Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video of the Short Film:
THE LAST GIRL, 13min., Denmark, LGBT/Romance
Directed by Bjarke de Koning
Life is not the same after a holiday with Jesper and there is no avoiding the truth now.CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!
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