INDIE SHORT FEST

“Standing Up, Moments From a Movement”, chronicles the 2016 Native American-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline from its epicenter, the Oceti Sakowin protest camp at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

Through the images and sounds recorded by photojournalist Mark Manley, the film takes the viewer into the camps to meet the self-proclaimed “Water Protectors” devoted to protecting the water and land.

The Native Americans we encounter at Standing Rock came together from numerous tribes around the country, forming one of the largest gatherings of indigenous peoples in modern history. This gathering grew into a community united in a commitment to environmental justice and a deeply spiritual love of the Earth itself — in the process gaining an affirmation of their own empowerment as caretakers and protectors of Mother Earth. Ultimately this community sparked national and global awareness of critical environmental issues and their influence continues to be felt, and valued, today.
Directed by Mark Manley (USA)

Inside a Waiting room, where people choose to be born or be deleted forever, a little girl tries to drive people who have chosen not to exist into the row of birth.
Directed by Andrea Cecconati (Italy)

Megan and Alex were best friends. From the moment they met, the two have been inseparable. They ate snacks on the beach, finished each other sentences, and filled the sad lonely holes in each other’s hearts. That is… until the day that Alex dumped Megan.

Tiny Earthquakes is a whimsical, wacky story about whimsical, wacky heartbreak. The friendship kind! Our film centers on a young woman named, Megan, who post-breakup with her one true BFF, deep dives into an absurd emotional spiral. Full of colorful characters and an embarrassing amount of banana jokes, Tiny Earthquakes follows Megan as she learns to cope, or rather not cope, with the loss of her other half.
Directed by Mary Sette (USA)

Kendra, a college undergrad, investigates whether or not someone tried to roofie her. Meanwhile, Peter, a fellow classmate, faces an onslaught of crass masculine rhetoric.
Directed by Mattan Cohen (USA)

Journey through space and the process of creation with animated discordant, combine with abstract imagery with symbolism storytelling.
Directed by Kun Xia (USA)

A young woman discovers a girl locked in her father’s panic room — his personal vault. But as three masked intruders break into the home to retrieve the girl, things take an unexpected turn for the worse.
Directed by Tim Earnheart (USA)

Music video and original song about friendship, love and heartbreak.
Directed by Evangeline Lindes (USA)

A cloudberry picker is hunted by a wounded brown bear on an endless wetland.
Directed by Tuomas Anttonen (Finland)

A girl takes care of her father for a long time. She brings her dog to accompany him. However, her father suddenly passes away. Weird phenomenons begin to happen at home. She then feels confused. Are they pranks or her father’s spirit coming back to see her?
Directed by Yung-Shin Chao (Taiwan)

Two businessmen, Tomothy and Fronkus, working for an ambiguous corporation that runs on seemingly random sequences of numbers, pull off a dangerous heist, stealing a massive stash of the company’s most valuable numbers to use them to start a new, revolutionary business. The CEO of the company, Brett, finds out, however, and sends Special Agent Chick Nugs and his team to track them down and put an end to their scheme.
The businessmen face the Agents in a shootout. Realizing that they would both not make it out alive, Tomothy stays back to fight the Agents, giving Fronkus time to escape with the precious numbers.
Tomothy is finally taken down by a final shot from Nugs himself.
However, although Tomothy is dead, his plan is still alive, as Fronkus escapes with the numbers, finalizing only the first step in their plan to get rich…
Directed by Austinn Harris (Australia)