BIIDAABAN (THE DAWN COMES) • DIRECTED BY AMANDA STRONG
Accompanied by a 10,000-year-old shape-shifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighbourhood in Ontario.
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Amanda Strong is an Michif interdisciplinary artist with a focus on filmmaking, stop motion animations and media art. Currently based on unceded Coast Salish territories also known as Vancouver, BC, Canada. Strong received a BAA in Interpretative Illustration and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Sheridan Institute. With a cross-discipline focus, common themes of her work are reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture. Strong is the Owner/Director/Producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc. (SFP). Under her direction, SFP utilizes a multi-layered approach and unconventional methods that are centered in collaboration on all aspects of their work.
THE TURK SHOP - TURKKIOSKEN • DIRECTED BY BAHAR PARS
A comedy about racism in an office place.
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Bahar Pars is an actor and director in both film and theatre. In 2015 she won the prestigious Medeaprize for her work as a theatre actor. The same year she also won several prizes for the short film “Rinkebysvenska” (“Ghetto Swedish”). She was nominated for the leading film prize in Sweden, a Guldbagge in the category best supporting actress in 2016 for her role in Academy Award nominated A Man Called Ove. She has directed “Turkkiosken” (“The Turk Shop”) at [sic] film, and is now finishing the film Bacha Posh.
RESPECT AND LOVE • DIRECTED BY ANGELIQUE WEBSTER
With the hope of attaining a four college degree, Gloria makes a decision to move from a sleepy country town to the city with her two young children. While attempting to build a solid foundation, her family is devastated when her 15 year old daughter shares that she has been sexually abused by their parish priest. Thirty years later, she sits with her daughter and examines how the abuse of her daughter at the hands of the local parish priest impacted her life. They discuss motherhood, decisions, life and spirituality. Through a frank conversation, a mother and daughter get to know each other and reimagine their relationship.
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Angelique Webster is a filmmaker and educator. She graduated from Lincoln University and received a MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Since 2003, she has worked with community members to use media as a tool to share their stories and the importance of media literacy. Angelique, recently finished her first short film entitled “Respect and Love”. The film has screened at over 20 film festivals worldwide. It won the Audience Award at The Smithsonian African American Film Festival, took home the Best Short Documentary at the Montreal Black Film Festival and received The Special HBO Recognition Award at The BlackStar Film Festival. She lives in Worcester, MA with her wife Isabel and 4 year old daughter Vivian.
RITUALS: THE 99 NAMES OF GOD • DIRECTED BY YUMNA AL-ARASHI
This poetic film sheds light on the mysticism and rituals that have been part of the Islamic tradition throughout the centuries.
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Yumna Al-Arashi is a London based photographer, filmmaker, writer, lecturer, and human being. Born in Washington, DC in 1988. BA from The New School NYC.
MUD (HASHTŁ'ISHNII) • DIRECTED BY SHAANDIIN TOME
On her last day, Ruby faces the inescapable remnants of alcoholism, family, and culture.
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Shaandiin Tome was put on the map as a writer/director with her breakout short film, “Mud (Hashtł’ishnii)”, which was selected and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Her film went worldwide.
Her unique perspective allows her to capture other trailblazers in the indigenous community. She lives in Albuquerque, aiming to bring resonating imagery in convergence with story, illustrating her perspective as a Diné woman.
GARFIELD • DIRECTED BY GEORGI BANKS-DAVIES
A young woman wakes up in a strange place, with a strange guy.
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Georgi Banks-Davies is a director of ads, films, images and stories. She possesses an incredible talent for capturing intimate human emotion and epic landscapes with award-winning cinematography and style throughout her commercials, short films and promos.
ZIGGY AND THE STARFISH • DIRECTED BY ANNE DUK HEE JORDAN
Ziggy and the Starfish looks at sexuality from the perspective of marine life. Hydrospheric climate change is the deciding factor in the changing sexuality of ocean inhabitants. The visualization of the sex life of sea slugs, octopuses and starfish, amongst others, and their vibrant and seductive performative play, draws the human spectator in an intimate and hallucinatory sexual world.
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Anne Duk Hee Jordan is an artist and filmmaker. Her work is like an interactive fantasy play with the knowledge and theories about the world and our souls. She asks questions about an agency and encourages a change of perspective. She shifts the focus away from humans towards the entire ecology.
FEMME QUEEN CHRONICLES - EPISODE ONE, THE CLOCK • DIRECTED BY AHYA SIMONE
An award-winning comedic webseries about the lives of four black trans women as they navigate through love, life, trade, and ki-king in the city of Detroit -- written, directed, and brought to life by black trans women themselves.
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Ahya Simone is a Detroit-based harpist, singer, artist, filmmaker, and organizer. She earned her degree from Wayne State University, where she was the principal harpist for the Wayne State University Wind Symphony in 2011. She has performed extensively in Detroit, and internationally in Scotland and Canada. Ahya’s versatile approach to harp and vocal artistry includes classical, jazz, and soul. She is also an emerging filmmaker, and was awarded a Knight Sundance Fellowhip in 2018 for the making of her web-series “Femme Queen Chronicles,” sponsored by the Trans Sistas of Color Project and the Detroit Narrative Agency 2.0.
LIQUOR STORE BABIES • DIRECTED BY SO YUN UM
Liquor Store Babies explores the intersecting lives of two friends and their fathers, each of whom own Liquor stores amidst the unpredictable backdrop of Los Angeles. Director and star So Yun Um pulls from true-life experience, contrasting two sides of the same coin. As the lives of So, Danny, and their parents begin to diverge, their differences only work to strengthen their bonds. What follows is a candid and real look at how the lives and dreams of liquor store owners and their children are cyclical and ever connected to one another.
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So Yun Um is a Korean American Filmmaker and Digital Content Producer born and based in Los Angeles. She explores the intimate stories of marginalized people through her poetic visual language and poignant editing style. She runs her film blog & YouTube channel, So’s Reel Thoughts, which highlights international, independent, and genre films.
EBB TIDE • DIRECTED BY VIVIAN RIVAS
Zee, an 86-year-old retired teacher decides to go back to the happiest time of her life in order to make peace with the path she has chosen and reconnect with her students from the early 90’s in East Harlem. Most of her students were non-readers, but through her non-traditional methods, they produced a pretty significant body of poetry, which she has kept all these years. Finding the kids will give Zee the closure she needs and also a sense of what her legacy is, as a teacher and as a human being.
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Guatemalan-born Vivian Rivas graduated as an Architect in 1990. In 1993 she worked as a prop-master for the award winning first Guatemalan feature film The Silence of Neto and moved to NYC to pursue her passion for filmmaking. At 52 years old, she decided to go back to school to get a Masters degree in documentary filmmaking. “Ebb Tide” is her thesis project. Her goal is to shoot and direct documentaries about regular people who go through unexpected journeys.
EPISODE III • DIRECTED BY LEAH R. BROWN
Episode III is a short experimental dance film with original soundtrack by composer Mary Sutton on synthesizer and costumes created by Sarah Baker and Julia Calabrese.
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Leah R. Brown directs, writes, and edits film and video. Her work experience includes: broadcast and web commercials, music videos, fashion campaigns and experimental films. Her films have screened all over the world at film, fashion, and design festivals and have been featured on thoughtfully curated film sites ( i.e Nowness, Boooooom, Vimeo Staff Picks, etc.. ) She enjoys collaborating with other artists and musicians on personal projects and often branded content which tend to be of the art house/avant-garde genre with recurring themes in fashion, sci-fi, the unknown and the weird. Leah is currently writing her first feature about a young detective who solves a gruesome murder, with the help of mysterious creatures from the underworld.
MADE PUBLIC • DIRECTED BY FOSTER WILSON
On the eve of his wedding day, Dave commits a cardinal sin: His doubts about tying the knot go viral. Alone at the altar, the groom must confront his own cold feet, a Greek chorus of bridesmaids, and the bride herself - all to save his marriage before it's even begun. Directed by Foster Wilson, Made Public explores the impulse to share our most intimate thoughts and sacred moments with the general public - and how much we're willing to lose to obtain the approval of strangers.
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Foster Wilson is an award-winning director, filmmaker, and Emergence Award Recipient. She earned her BFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied for 3 years with the Atlantic Theater Company under the tutelage of David Mamet, Chris Bauer, Scott Zigler, and Mary McCann, among others. Foster’s most notable directing work to date is the award-winning short film “Made Public” has received 13 nominations and 9 awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and the Audience Award at the Bentonville Film Festival. She’s a recipient of the Emergence Award for Female Filmmakers.
NONI & ELIZABETH • DIRECTED BY NANNA BLONDELL
Ten year old Noni lives half time with her mother in the city, and the other half with her father in the projects outside of Stockholm. During this weekend Noni and her stepsister Elizabeth sees the world for what it really is - upside down.
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Nanna Blondell is an actor who was educated at the acting bachelor programme at the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts. Since graduation in 2013 she has worked at the royal theatre. She has also been in several TV and film productions. “Noni & Elizabeth” is her debut film as a director.
FOR NONNA ANNA • DIRECTED BY LUIS DE FILIPPIS
As a young trans woman cares for her Italian grandmother, she discovers a tender bond in their shared vulnerability.
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Luis De Filippis is a Canadian-Italian trans femme filmmaker whose work celebrates otherness and employs a fierce female gaze. Their work has played at festivals such as TIFF, Rotterdam, and BFI Flare. Their most recent work, “For Nonna Anna” won the Best Short Narrative Award at the Atlanta International Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at Sundance.
A HARD DAY IN THE EMPIRE (İMPARATORLUKTA ZOR BIR GÜN) • DIRECTED BY SEZEN KAYHAN
Cansu works as a prop assistant on the set of an Ottoman period soap opera. On a difficult day, she cannot fulfill the extreme requests of the director. Challenging conditions and endless requests bring her to an irreversible moment.
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Sezen Kayhan was born in Ankara, Turkey. She participated in short term film programs held by National Film and Television School (NFTS), Venice International University, New York Film Academy and EIUC Human Rights and Cinema School in Venice. Also attended Sarajevo Talents as a screenwriter. Her first short film ‘Time of the Plums’ was premiered in Tribeca Film Festival, won several awards in national and international film festivals (including Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Rhode Island, Sofia IFF) and qualified for Academy Awards in 2013. Her second short, a Turkish-Georgian co-production “Elene” was premiered in BFI London Film Festival and awarded as the Best International Short in Montreal World Film Festival. Her last short “A Hard Day in the Empire” was recently premiered in the CINEMED International Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier and still continues its festival tour.
FALLING UP • DIRECTED BY CHELSIE PRESTON CRAYFORD
Falling Up unravels the exhaustion, grief and heartache of relationship breakdown while revealing the mundane joy, the unending love and the quiet triumph of young motherhood.
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Chelsie Preston Crayford is an acclaimed actress writer and director. She has won numerous international awards including a TV Week Logie for her portrayal of Tilly Devine in Australian Series “Underbelly: Razor” and a prestigious AACTA Award for her work in ABC's worldwide hit The Code. As an actor she has worked with many celebrated directors including Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jackie Van Beek , Shawn Seet Mark Joffe Robert Sarkies and her mother Dame Gaylene Preston. She most recently has appeared in Netflix's The Legends of Monkey, BBC's The Luminaries and Piki Films upcoming feature Baby Done. She made her filmmaking debut in 2013 with “Here Now” selected for competition in the NZIFF by Alison McLean and last year her short film “Falling Up” which she wrote directed and starred in won the Madman Entertainment Jury Prize for Best NZ Short at NZIFF. Chelsie was a 2018 participant of Script to Screen's competitive FilmUp mentorship programme and is still under the mentorship of Korean-American filmmaker So Yong Kim.
EGG • DIRECTED BY MARTINA SCARPELLI
A woman is locked in her home with an egg. She eats the egg, she repents. She kills it. She lets the egg die of hunger.
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Martina Scarpelli is an Italian film maker based in Denmark. She has a BA in Fine Art from “Accademy of Brera” in Milan, and a BA in Animation from “Experimental Center of Cinematography” in Turin. She is a former alumni of “ASF - Animation sans frontiers 2014/2015, Anidox:Lab, and Anidox:Residency. Her short “Egg” was awarded with a crystal for first film at Annecy, received a Golden Dove at Dok Leipzig, and the Golden Horseman at Filmfest Dresden, among many others. She was nominated for best short film at the 2018 European Animation Awards and shortlisted for the 2020 Cesar Award.
EVERLASTING MOM • DIRECTED BY ELINOR NECHEMYA
A daughter's fantasy of her mother, elusively portrayed at her own magical house and garden. The mother's image and voice are deconstructed and assembled again into an intergenerational sonnet, reflecting the everlasting experience of being a woman, in a world of constant feminine evolution.
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Elinor Nechemya is a filmmaker based in Tel-Aviv. Her 2017 short film Everlasting MOM premiered at TIFF and screened at major film festivals such as Locarno and Palm Springs. Her diploma film “Off Season” premiered at Slamdance. In 2020 two new short films she directed will premiere. These days Elinor is working on her debut feature film “ISLAND”.
THE ONLY SAD PERSON ON THE BEACH 海边唯一悲伤的人 • DIRECTED BY LILY JIACHENG XU
A short film set in Coney Island about a breakdown in communication at the intersections of personal and monumental history.
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Having grown up during a time of China’s rapid modernization, which continues to give rise to new cultural transformations, there are a few common threads that run through Lily Jiacheng Xu’s work. They are mostly questions surrounding diasporic experiences, the archive, and the ethics and ontology of cinematic representation. However, as a filmmaker, she attempts to ground these conceptual questions in an aesthetics of embodied, everyday practice.
FAST HORSE • DIRECTED BY ALEXANDRA LAZAROWICH
Welcome to the dangerous, high-stakes world of Indian Relay — North America’s original extreme sport, where jockeys ride horses bareback and jump from one horse to another in the middle of the race.
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Alexandra Lazarowich is a Cree Producer, Director and Screenwriter whose work has premiered at film festivals around the world. She is passionate about telling indigenous stories. Her most recent documentary FAST HORSE recently premiered and won the Special Jury Award for Directing at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
AFTER FALL • DIRECTED BY KELLY SEARS
A version of how the following year can unfold, put into motion before the confirmation vote occurs.
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Kelly Sears is an experimental animator that cuts up and collages imagery from American culture and politics to intervene with the history embedded in the frame. Working with appropriated images ranging from thrift store cast-offs to archival material, she uses animation to rebuild American histories that shift between the official and the uncanny while exploring contemporary narratives of power, such as manifest destiny, occupation and surveillance.
YOUTH • DIRECTED BY MAYA ARMON
A wrong decision changes the friendship between Anna and Linda.
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Maya Armon was born in London, and raised in Tel Aviv. She studied directing at FAMU in Prague and graduated from the MetFilm School (University of West London). For her graduation project, Maya wrote “Bechora”, her third short film. The script got a special mention from the UK Jewish film fund. Currently she's enrolled in the MFA program in Film and Television Studies at Tel Aviv University.
SPEAK EASY, B
During a therapy session, a young adult struggles to vocalize the source of their depression stemming from heartache. They embark on a tender journey inside their mind, with the desert serving as the stage for poetic confrontation. Through dream-like vignettes, the film weaves together their struggle to balance gender, sexuality, and identity.
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Becca Park is a queer Korean-American visionary. Playfully curious like mom. Introspectively aware like dad. Park DIY-ed the way to film at NYU’s Gallatin School Of Individualized Study. There, Park created a concentration on The Power of Self-Expression in Health: Exploring Personal Narrative in the Arts and in the Body (intersecting studies in mental health, anatomy/physiology, oral history, writing, narrative & documentary film, and visual arts). Embracing the nuance, duality, and elasticity in our identities is at the core of what Park is about. Wit, heart, and authenticity are the connective tissues in all Park’s work and interactions— whether behind the camera, in the office, or on the astral plane.
DECADELESS • DIRECTED BY AUBREY PEEPLES
A teenager late to bloom has a night of firsts with her best friend, their stoned waiter, and an aspirational DJ.
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Aubrey grew up in a small town in central Florida, working in professional theater beginning at age ten. After deferring Harvard to continue pursuing her film career, she portrayed the unhinged musician Layla Grant in ABC’s Nashville. During her time on the show, she was able to tour nationwide and play the Grand Ole Opry a dozen times, performing blues and soul music. Since her time in Nashville, she has shot several independent films, including her debut as a writer/director with her short film, Decadeless. Decadeless follows a teenager late-to-bloom having a night of firsts with her best friend, their stoned waiter, and an aspiring DJ. Currently, Aubrey is recording a jazz dream-pop album taking it’s sonic inspiration from Golden Age-era studio movie-musicals, while thematically exploring mental health.
ALL OVER THE PLACE (ANTES DE IRME) • DIRECTED BY
Jimena's ex-boyfriend now lives in their old place with his new girlfriend. She still has the keys and things to tell him. She goes in when no one is there because it just feels normal. Mariana Sanguinetti creates an ode to intimacy and closure, with humour and a big heart.
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Mariana Sanguinetti is a filmmaker from Argentina. She works as an actress and assistant director in different films. She has graduated in Film Direction at Universidad del Cine. Her film “Antes de irme" premiered in International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR) and toured many other festivals including New York Film Festival, Latin American Film Festival of Havana, Curacao IFFR, Tenerife Shorts, Glasgow Short Film Fest, among others. In 2019 she was selected to participate in the Young Art Biennial of Buenos Aires, in the Talents of the Berlin Festival in Buenos Aires as part of BAFICI and in the Cinema Program of the Torcuato Di Tella University. She is currently working on her first feature, “Estamos todos bien”, which was selected to participate in TyPA’s workshop in Mexico, and Raymundo Gleyzer (INCAA). She is also developing a documentary “Annemarie”, about the life of Annemarie Heinrich, a well known photographer and her great grandmother.
TSHIUETIN • DIRECTED BY CAROLINE MONNET
Take a ride through Nothern Quebec and Labrador on Canada’s first First Nations-owned railway. The Tshiuetin train line extends 132.5 miles from Emeril, Labrador to Schefferville, Quebec. The majority of passengers on the train travel regularly for work and family engagements, using the railroad because road and air transport isn’t possible in the region – a unique reality that highlights the challenges faced by so many northern communities today. The Tshiuetin line is a testament to the viability of a business run by First Nations; one that combines local economic benefits with respect for the cultural and linguistic heritage of those who routinely use this service.
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Caroline Monnet is an award winning filmmaker and visual artist working in film/video, installation and sculpture. Her work has been programmed internationally at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), TIFF (CAN), Sundance (US), Aesthetica (UK), Palm Springs (USA), Cannes Film Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art (Montréal), Arsenal Contemporary NY, Axenéo7 (Gatineau), Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), Division Gallery (Montréal) and the National Art Gallery (Ottawa). In 2016, she was selected for the prestigious Cinéfondation residency in Paris. Her work is included in numerous collections including Quebec Museum of Fine Arts, National Art Gallery, RBC Royal Bank, and Museum of Contemporary Art Montréal. Recent exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial and the Toronto Biennale of Art 2019. She is based in Montréal.
ADVENT CALENDAR • DIRECTED BY TAYLOR BAKKEN
Told in a darkly whimsical tone, a woman finds herself pushed away day-by-day, meal-by-meal, as her younger husband tries to reclaim his youth by turning to experimental cooking.
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Taylor Bakken is a born-and-bred Minnesotan living in Los Angeles with her cat Renfield. Film is not the only name of her game - at any given moment she’s either writing, painting, sculpting, or camping somewhere in the California redwoods. Absurdism became the obvious genre to reside in after a childhood of David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and staunch Jimmy Buffett fans for parents.
THE WAS • DIRECTED BY SODA_JERK
The Was is a sampladelic trip through the neighborhoods of collective memory. Part experimental film and part music video in collaboration with The Avalanches.
Soda_Jerk is a two-person art collective who work exclusively with sampled material and pirated cinema to make experimental documentary films. Following their acclaimed political revenge fable TERROR NULLIUS (2018), Soda_Jerk are currently working on a new feature Hello Dankness. Formed in Sydney in 2002, they’ve been based in NYC since 2012.
ALL MEN MUST DIE • DIRECTED BY KATE BEACOM
Prudence throws her best friend a nice birthday party but it's ruined by a dude, and Kyle learns just what Prudence meant when she said “ It's your birthday, I'd do anything for you. ”
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Kate Beacom and Lacey Jeka are best friends. "All Men Must Die" is their first collaboration as writers/producers. It is not based on true events. They are currently in post-production on “Rehab Cabin”, a feature film written/co-directed by Kate and starring Lacey.
HAUTE FLASH • DIRECTED BY MARNE LUCAS
Haute Flash is an experimental black & white infrared video depicting the hormonal transition of Menopause, as energy shifts away from reproduction to realization of new spiritual power. Shot with a military grade, heat-sensitive infrared rifle scope, the visible crosshairs reference the targeted feeling of shifting hormones and literal heat experienced throughout peri/menopause.
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Marne Lucas is a photographer and multi-disciplinary artist living and working in New York City and Portland, Oregon. Her investigations of nature, culture and the body frequently employ sensual metaphor with humor, and use photography, video and installation to present unique aesthetic or social philosophies.