Category: Films in Competition

A girl looks in the mirror and dreams… the reality is different.
Directed by Massimiliano Mauceri (Italy)

A film made by students at High School for Recording Arts in Saint Paul, MN, in partnership with Saint Paul Almanac and SPNN.

In the 1920s, Rondo, Saint Paul’s largest African American neighborhood, was flourishing. With music, theatre, African American newspapers, and businesses booming, the community was thriving—until September of 1956, when construction of Interstate 94 tore through the Rondo community. Rondo homeowners resisted the construction, and protests began. Residents were forcefully removed from their homes. Thousands of Rondo homeowners were displaced. Homes and successful businesses were demolished, and a community was torn apart. 
The construction of 94 shattered homes, businesses, and families. It did not shatter Rondo’s spirit.

These are the stories of “RONDO: Beyond the Pavement.”
Produced by Kimberly Knightingale and Bianca Rhodes (USA)

An inspiring small-town southern story of a hopeless and neglected boy, who forges an unlikely friendship with a famous rapper, through their mutual affinity for baseball.
Directed by Pamela Perrine (USA)

Through a vessel of absurdity Officer Cormack discovers that Alan Grantland, a well regarded motivational speaker, is killed because the perpetrator believed he was a cockroach.
Directed by David Herrera (USA)

“Just a Plastic Bottle” was conceived in Koh Phangan, Thailand, after seeing, and getting, a plastic bottle that was floating in the ocean. The tourist chose to channel her angry thoughts on plastic pollution into a poem. The short film “Just a Plastic Bottle” is based on that poem and reflects the inner turmoil of a depressed patient, and mother, dealing with the realities of plastic and her emotions as a consequence.
Directed by Marcia Thompson (UK)

Directed by Kevin Bible (USA)

After receiving her very first iPhone in the mail as what appears to be a birthday gift for herself, Barbara tries to figure out how to record a selfie style video diary. The fancy technology is all new to her and understanding how to use it causes her to experience a tremendous amount of frustration but she perseveres and comes up with a hysterically innovative solution to make things a bit easier. After spending all day galavanting around recording every detail and tiny minutiae of her little life in her home she loses track of time. She then rushes to make herself up nicely and heads out to her garden for a very special and emotional final goodbye.
Directed by Jes Macallan (USA)

Young girl seeks help after she lost her wallet & cell phone but nobody offers to help her.
Directed by Paint VK (USA)

María, an elderly woman, recalls the moments that most marked her life, linking them to Nature through the metaphor materialized in an orange tree, a parallelism by which she tries to bequeath a better world to her grandson by expressing poetically her experiences in his book: “Seeds”.
Directed by Javier Mondragón Cazorla (Spain)

On a return trip home, Tom and Jake make a discovery that forces them to face their morality and changes their lives forever.
Directed by Sean George (USA)