Category: Films in Competition

A documentary short highlighting some interesting history and facts about the duPont family and the company they founded, beginning with the establishment of a colonial era gunpowder factory on the Brandywine River and the Irish, French and Italian immigrants who would help the duPonts become one of the richest and most powerful families in American corporate history. The duPont story is an immigration success story and could well be categorized as America’s version of Downton Abbey. This documentary has been produced to peak the interest of historians as well as Hollywood with the goal of producing a documentary drama series.
Directed by David D. Speace (USA)

Two men driving home from work miraculously hit every green light.
Directed by Jeremiah Milmine (Canada)

Towards the end of the Civil War, Penelope is faced with her future and her past.
Directed by Colin Henning (USA)

This is an VFX short film of a Queen suffering from trauma. It is made in rococo style, which I always said it is an elegant image above the dark era. This queen had seen her parent being killed by a treason and she lives in traumatic life, being afraid of her own kingdom’s symbol and a responsibility that she should be overcome by herself.

WHY PINK ROSE AND WHY DOES IT BREAKS? 
Pink rose means a poise and condelesense. She is the one who had to keep her royal status all by herself after her parents death. The breaking pink rose is to show her trauma and a whole mess of her poise.

WHY DID SHE USE CROWN TO KILL PAST ASSASSIN? 
Everything related to her trauma started from her royal status. It was one of the people in the kingdom, a treason. She was afraid but had to bear herself due to a responsibility as a future queen. Revenge of her parent, but also as her own relief of the hidden pressure and anger.
Directed by Jeeeun Lee (USA)

This is a video project consisting of hand drawn components, digitally rendered components, and appropriated footage. Sound is both appropriated and self-composed. Spoken-word is written by and spoken by the artist. 
I strive for destabilization, where a maximalist vocabulary aids in decentralizing the viewer as they optically navigate a schizophrenic environment that seems untethered from earth-bound gravity. This process illuminates the overlaps between reality and the imagined; how seeing, unseeing, or not seeing at all enables acts of remembering, forgetting, and rebuilding. 
Directed by Michael Covello (USA)

Old high school friend Heather demands straight-laced Sara come over and so she can wine-rant about her shitty boyfriend. As the talk deepens with each sip, the question of who needs who in the friendship surfaces.
Directed by Kay Tuxford (USA)

Kennedy Blythe is given the opportunity to interview for her dream college. The problem is, she’s mute. Not wanting to pass up her dream, she enlists the help from the most unlikely places.
Directed by Kevin M. Turner (USA)

After her only true love left, Clara, the protagonist of this honest arthouse project, lived the most devastating experience of her life. Even though she tried to find her own ways of dealing with loneliness, nothing felt the same as it used to be when her girlfriend was around. Through powerful imagery and strong metaphors of love and life, Clara navigates the different stages of a detoxification process. What is she detoxing from? Can she detox people out of her live? 
What if the most distressing aspect of dealing with emptiness is facing that time might not heal everything and, after all, we might not completely recover from the loss of our only true love.
Directed by Katherine Cattani (USA)

A young woman believes her money troubles are turning her into something not human.
Directed by Christopher Shields (USA)

Vonnegut’s story introduces the audience to a world in which society is overpopulated and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Termination (FBT) exists to aid suicide and infanticide in order to maintain population control. The system requires that a person must voluntarily die in order to enable another human to live if born. In particular, the title references Shakespeare’s famous phrase, although it is pronounced “2 B R naught 2 B,” and simultaneously references the assisted suicide hotline dial code linked to the FBT within the context of this story. 
We are introduced to characters in a Chicago hospital waiting room and tension is high. One waiting room holds the fate of both an expectant father and the staff awaiting calls from those who have exhausted the delights of this earth and are ready to make way for the next generation. Will the phone calls come before the babies arrive?
Directed by Lucy K Moroukian (USA)