Category: Films in Competition

A ghost tries desperately to make friends despite being different.
Directed by Jacqueline Kerr (USA)

One of my constant endeavors in my Art Practice revolves around interpreting man’s multiple theories on Creationism. I believe Vishnu’s Cosmic Dream Sleep, Anantashayanam, corresponds to the most widely accepted scientific theory of Creation, the Big Bang and the Big Contraction…creation and destruction.
Hindu creation myths say this is not the first universe. After each old universe is destroyed nothing is left but a vast ocean. Floating on this ocean, resting on the great snake Ananta, is Lord Vishnu. A lotus flower springs from his navel and from this comes Lord Brahma. And from Lord Brahma comes all creation. It’s a story of ceaseless, continuous creation, of the incredibly Big Bang of Creation. This Art Video project attempts to represent this cosmology myth, its striking focus on (a) the endlessly recycling periods of time, and (b) the notion of continuing decline.
The cosmic sleep of Vishnu invites us to consider creation from the perspective of time, the unfolding of the past into the present and the present into the future. The cosmos may have been created and destroyed, but it represents only one turn in the perpetual “wheel of time”. After a 100 years in the life of Brahma, (= just over 311 trillion human years), the entire process repeats itself, endlessly.
Conclusion: The very idea of a sudden expansion out of nothingness into an ever-growing space and mass is proof of the vastness of knowledge left to be discovered.

The film is a live-action animated film shot on blue screen, with my own illustrations animated onto the live one-shot action. It starts with the toes and feet of Lord Vishnu, pans up, and reveals his consort Lakshmi, and how a lotus flower grows out of his navel, to bloom; and the appearance of Lord Brahma. The cosmic egg of creation appears and all the universe is created with a sudden Big Bang. Cosmoses move around and evil forces appear, Madhu & Kaitabha. Lakshmi warns Vishnu of this. He has all along been blissfully sleeping on the gently rocking multi-coiled serpent Ananta. Vishnu destroys the demons, and resumes his sleep; the universe is peaceful. Then the great Crunch happens and after another implosion, nothingness remains. Text explains this concept briefly. Then out of this nothingness, the cycle starts again, with Vishnu’s toes appearing again.
Directed by Murali Raman (India)

A rich player emotionally abuses his girlfriend until she discovers the bond of multiple past lives that ties them into present day. She in turn is empowered to cut the cord.
Directed by Michelle Arthur (USA)

This video is about my brother’s family memories in the form of animation, and extend from these memories to two criminal cases that took place in the surrounding area: one teenager was murdered, which happened at an Internet café where my brother often used to go to in his adolescent years, and this event was made into an illustration on the news. Another event also happened in my hometown; someone witnessed a dog wandering on the street, with a female’s head too rotten to be identified in its mouth. A police imagined and portrayed the female’s face before her death according to the shape of the skull. 
　 
The two events were separately made into portraitures on public media—a manga illustration made with 3D software by news media, and the portrait of the victim drawn with pencil by the police. I visited the police who produced the head profile of the female, as well as the storyboard director who made the news animation. By exploring their graphic techniques, I attempt to construct the images of my brother’s memories in my work.
Directed by HSU Che-Yu (Taiwan)

A guy in a hurry to play in the tennis championships, must first wrangle two sneaky cats that escaped through the front window.
Directed by Blake Stowe (USA)

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)