The Corner Room, 15min., USA Directed by Gita Farid An homage to the tragic ending of the Ann Frank story. It always saddened me that Ann Frank didn’t survive to see the Liberation although it was only months away. Two women hidden in an attic apartment in the Jewish Quarter in a town in Poland are joined by their younger brother, a fighter in the Resistance. There is a round-up…
The Corner Room, 15min., USA Directed by Gita Farid An homage to the tragic ending of the Ann Frank story. It always saddened me that Ann Frank didn’t survive to see the Liberation although it was only months away. Two women hidden in an attic apartment in the Jewish Quarter in a town in Poland are joined by their younger brother, a fighter in the Resistance. There is a round-up…
LEFT, 15min., Egypt Directed by Seif Abdel Raouf “Loay,” a young man invites his friend “Oday” over to help him move into a new house. As “Oday” finishes bringing in boxes, “Loay” asks him for one last favor: to take a specific box upstairs while warning him to avoid the mysterious room on the left. Curiosity gets the better of “Oday”, and he enters the forbidden room, initially finding it ordinary. However, he soon hears unsettling knocking from the room bathroom and discovers that each time he closes the door, the knocking resumes.
I wanted to be a poet and film director since I was a kid because I wanted to tell critical stories and be ultimately be bossy. I wanted to tell stories and hold an audience captive momentarily with something incredible, just for a moment. The way Free Willy held me captive as a child. I ended up spending 17 years in education because everything seemed to being going to shit and it felt like the easiest way to make an impact. What do all my students over the last 17 years all have in common? .. they all consume media.. and a lot of it. No better way to make an impact than through film, more specially short films and series so people can pace themselves or get the bite sized chunks our ADHD world facilitates.
Growing up, I was not exposed to much queer media other than the occasional episode of Will and Grace, but not for lack of trying. By the time I got to college, The L Word was the closest we got to relationships that resembled ours. Any queer films or shows I could get my hands on was about belonging riddled in trauma- important stories to tell but it was the only lens that was filtering. I longed for something that showed the nuance, universality, humor and most importantly joy in lesbian relationships.
As a poet, I believe in exploring identity and experience as the substance of my art. Fruit Loops is the extension of my own experience which in some ways is a very universal one. This is my first project as a screenwriter and also as a director and after several decades in a different field, I was finally able to begin my pathway in film. I intentionally cultivated a cast and crew of women, nonbinary and queer folks to work on this mockumentary style short film. Fruit Loops is a love letter to queer storytelling where the focal point isn’t trauma or fighting for acceptance. I seek to display raw, genuine intersectionality and raw, genuine human connections in all their beauty and ugliness with the queer community as the backdrop for these stories being told.
It is time that entertainment and media can relate and connect to all facets of the human condition and not just the most dominant narratives. In a country that moves deeper each day in seeking to destroy the trans community and working to erase LGBTQIA+ rights, it is a priority now more than ever to tell joyful and normalizing stories to connect all of our experiences and find the humor in our struggles to find love and belonging.
In war-torn 2062, a grounded fighter pilot agrees to raise a genetically-modified child, only to discover his precocious daughter’s DNA is designed for nefarious purposes.
Cast: Tasos Hernandez, Isabella Salazar, Steven Dudley, Jade Holman-Travis, Sami Martinez, Rhianna DeVries
Director Statement TEST DRIVE is a film about the lows to which those in power will stoop in order to maintain control.
On a personal note, TEST DRIVE borrows heavily from a time in my life when I was a single dad: all the good intentions, bad mistakes, and ugly things I’d do to keep my daughter safe.
A young adult (Brian) is visited by his brother, Jeremy, who needs a place to stay as he settles into his new city. The two polar opposite personalities begin to clash as Jeremy’s presence poses a threat to Brian’s way of life. Brian’s uptight personality and unreasonable living standards rub off on Jeremy, creating an incredible amount of tension. Bad blood, stemming from a traumatic past event reveals the shocking truth of the brothers’ current situations, as Brian struggles to differentiate between reality and his worst nightmares.
Director Statement I try to create powerful films that make the viewer feel a wide range of emotions and convey ideas that will linger in the viewers’ minds long after the credits roll.
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LILI, 15min., Puerto Rico, Drama/Thriller Directed by Brian Rios A father and daughter must cross the border in order to find a better life, but the daughter cannot speak.
PUMPKIN, 15min., USA, Romance/Drama
Directed by Paula Neves
Alice’s best friend, Dan, lives in another country. When he gives her the bad news about his disease, Alice faces the scary feeling of being away, distant and powerless. And she tries, the best way she can think of, to show him support and love. Even if that means pushing away those people that are physically close to her.
Review by Kierston Drier
his fifteen minute film from the US directed by Paula Neves is a piece to break your heart while it heals your soul. Pumpkin is a story about teenage photographer Alice and her long distance relationship with Dan, a charming and sweet boy from across the sea. Despite romantic interested right in front of her face, Alice only has eyes for Dan and he reciprocates her passion. Yet something is holding him back- that something is a terminal illness. Love knows no bounds it would seem, an Alice is unable to see the subtle hints that her love for Daniel may be ill-fated.
Some things are worth risking everything for, and Alice decides that, in order to see Daniel, she will give up the prom in her own high school, and the money in her new camera fund, to fly to see Daniel. The morning of the flight however, she gets a devastating call from Daniel’s’ mother.
Love makes us do crazy things. This is one of those stories that shows the drive of compassion from all angles. Daniel doesn’t leave Alice completely high and dry, his last ditch effort to contact her will reach her in the end. Alices’ best friend back home, won’t let her mourn Dan forever. From every angle love prevails, even when all seems lost.
Pumpkin has some notes in common with The Fault In Our Stars and with good reason- they are both stories that remind us how crazy love can make us, and the things we are willing to do to see it through. Pumpkin reminds us that a life cut short is still worth filling with love. The lives left behind are equally worthy of being loved.