A Glimpse of Reality: Soul Biographies |
Nic Askew |
0:08:00 |
SHORT |
Guatemala,U S A,United Kingdom |
nic@soulbiographies.com |
Nic Askew is an artist, filmmaker, storyteller, composer, and a musician, and has now discovered a way to interview and film subjects that gives the viewer an experience of the subject's essential humanity. These brief films will touch the viewers hearts, bring them to tears, make them smile and laugh, and move them to feel better about life as well as themselves. Viewers will delve deeply into their own experiences of what it means to be human. Nic gives us a different view of the same world in his Soul Biographies. |
Baby Dino |
Adam Pray |
0:14:45 |
SHORT |
New York |
adam.pray@gmail.com |
In Baby Dino, Catherine signs up for a private dance class to try to incorporate some fun into her fitness. The dance instructor and the other student draw her deep into a surreal and hilarious world that she cannot escape. |
Beautiful |
John Gallagher |
0:07:30 |
SHORT |
New York |
jgmovie@gmail.com |
Beauty, vanity, narcissism: These are the crimes of gorgeous young Lauren in the film Beautiful. Boyfriends, her father, strangers both male and female constantly remind her how beautiful she is. That is, until she finds herself on trialÖ in Beauty Court. |
Border Stories |
Florian Wyss, Ren_© |
0:07:40 |
SHORT |
Mexico |
info@asvefilms.ch |
Hannibal & Manuel, two Mexicans desperate for a better life, cross the US Border illegally from Mexico through the desert. They encounter the dangerous situation of running out of food and water in the middle of the desert. But their salvation is in sight: they find a lonely trailer with supplies. However, they also find John, an old man who has suffered a stroke. Hannibal wants to get help for John, but Manuel doesn't want to risk getting caught by Border Patrol and being deported back to Mexico. Border Stories is a dramatic short story about dreams, goals, choices, and friendship. |
But Some Are Brave |
Grace Channer |
0:05:21 |
SHORT |
Canada |
bathariproductions@gmail.com |
But Some are Brave is an innovative, multilayered poetic chronicle. It introduces iconic characters and historic events in a flurry of emotional and psychological rhythms. Based on a 500-year chronology of struggles for global peace and equality, it interjects the unrecorded contributions of women throughout history. Using the metaphor and symbolic structural device of weaving, this film whirls us through a visual poem like a spindle flying through layers of thread, telling us something of the cultural and political histories of communities under attack. But Some are Brave is a tribute to the old and earthly connections we have to those who have gone before us, as well as the determination to continue to dream and envision bravely. |
Closed Zone |
Yoni Goodman |
0:03:00 |
SHORT |
Israel |
keren@gisha.org |
Despite declarations that it has "disengaged" from the Gaza Strip, Israel maintains control of the Strip’s overland border crossings, territorial waters, and air space. This includes substantial, albeit indirect, control of the Rafah Crossing. |
Crescendo |
Pierre Terrade |
0:14:00 |
SHORT |
France |
association.regardailleurs@gmail.com |
During the past 18 months, Israel tightened its closure of Gaza, almost completely restricting the passage of goods and people both to and from the Strip. |
Dolly Belle |
Tajna Tanovic |
0:05:16 |
SHORT |
New York |
mail@tajnatanovic.com |
Dolly Belle is about a girl with an unusual job in an extreme situation. This movie follows a day in the life of Kate, a girl in her early twenties. Kate gets into a confrontation with her boss, and once again Kate freezes. The film maker poses the questions: Will Kate be stuck standing still for the rest of the day, or the rest of her life? |
Help |
Val Lauren |
0:38:00 |
SHORT |
New Jersey |
festivals@helpthemovie.com |
In Help, the audience follows Roman on the night that he embarks on a desperate mission to save his dying mother's life. |
Her Special Day |
Casey Moore |
0:16:05 |
SHORT |
Arizona |
stephen@synthetichuman.com |
Her Special Day,a film set in the 70's, is a story about a young child who enjoys a sunny, summer picnic thrown in her honor by her parents new, affluent friends. But night is waiting, and within its darkness, unimaginable horror. |
Le Chat Noir |
Tristan Convert |
0:14:00 |
SHORT |
France |
le_rlu@hotmail.fr |
And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of perversness. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart ǃÓone of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself, to offer violence to its own nature to do wrong for the wrong's sake only that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute.' Edgar Allan POE |
Letters in the Sand |
Jeremy Sarka |
0:08:46 |
SHORT |
Los Angeles |
sarkasoft@earthlink.net |
Letters in the Sane explores a young man's journey through society in search of understanding and companionship. In an homage to Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, the film uses evocative language and images from Southern California and the Pacific Northwest to examine themes of solitude, alienation, and uniqueness. This film paints a picture of the struggle for individuality in the face of a hostile world. |
On a Clear Day |
Nelson Vasquez |
0:11:30 |
SHORT |
New York |
panyvinoproductions@yahoo.com |
On a Clear Day is about a man who loses his job and his livelihood in New York City. He attempts to revive what was lost. |
Pause Replay |
Chan-Chia Chang |
0:05:38 |
SHORT |
Japan |
rio.ch3@gmail.com |
Pause Replay is a love story between a camera and a camcorder. The film is about watching, memory, love and death. |
Pechatnik off Alley, 3 |
Yevgeniy Vaskevich |
0:39:23 |
SHORT |
Russian Federation |
zheka@mac.com |
Over the last fifteen years, more historically significant buildings were destroyed in Moscow than during the time of the Soviet regime since Stalin's grand reconstruction project of 1934. One of the last streets to stand this 'reconstruction' was Pechatnikoff Lane. It contains a courtyard which was believed by many to be the Heart of Moscow, a place so beautiful and tender that it could have easily housed a door to Heaven. That door that was set for demolition. According to the Christian tradition, people who die on the Easter day go straight to Heaven. But where do the buildings go? Pechatnik off Alley, 3 is about one of the last streets of old Moscow which is about to be destroyed by urban overdevelopment in this country. One man tries to document the street's last days, but finds himself having to face the issues of his own life and death. This dark comedy contrasts the remnants of the old-fashioned Moscow aura with the corrupt spirit of contemporary Russia. Humorous and provocative, and contains explicit language. |
Postcards |
Sonia Megerdichian |
0:14:45 |
SHORT |
Bosnia |
soniameg@ucla.edu |
During the Bosnian War, fifteen-year-old Alma is forced to leave her home, after her parents pay a smuggler to take her out of the country. Caught up in an Austrian refugee camp she struggles to prove her identity as a Bosnian to avoid deportation. Alma's quest intertwines with diverse characters who bring her hopes and disappointments. Her Serbian translator takes Alma's fate into his hands. Postcards is based on true stories of refugees from the Bosnian war, and refugees of other conflicts around the world. |
Red Ink |
Devansh Mathur |
0:08:01 |
SHORT |
India |
nhunt1778@aol.com |
In Red Ink, a high school boy feels oppressed by the unrelenting demands of the education system and parental expectations that don't pay any heed to his innate talents. Will he succumb to the pressure or fight back? |
Roue |
Taili Wu |
0:05:13 |
SHORT |
Asian |
taili.wu@gmail.com |
Roue is a self-portrait project. This piece is composed by fragments of the film maker's dreams, childhood memories and emotions. By producing this short film, the film maker explore the unconscious, record thoughts as a track, and creates a way to heal. |
The Farm |
Romaine Moreton |
0:11:00 |
SHORT |
Australia |
john@browncabs.com |
The Farm pays homage to an indigenous workforce essential to the agricultural wealth of NSW and Victoria dating back to the 1930's, and is told through the eyes of a young girl who is a part of this labour force. The Farm is a story that confronts transience, depicting how folk who are always on the move create a sense of belonging and home. The Farm is about the living voice of country, and how a young girl in her uninformed heroism becomes an advocate for the voiceless and the formless, giving us the opportunity to see our place through fresh eyes, while rejuvenating and celebrating our connection with the past. |
The Riddle of Here: Soul Biographies |
Nic Askew |
0:07:11 |
SHORT |
Anywhere |
nic@soulbiographies.com |
What life is about? |
Topi |
Arjun Rihan |
0:06:17 |
SHORT |
Middle East |
arjunrihan@gmail.com |
The Indian Empire was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947 by the fading British Raj. The division was based on religious majorities and triggered one of the largest population migrations in history, displacing ten million people. Fearing persecution, Hindus and Sikhs fled to India, and Muslims to Pakistan. Communal clashes at the border resulted in the deaths of one million people. Inspired by a true story, Topi depicts an encounter between two strangers during this turbulent time. Bir, a Hindu boy, is waiting to board a train from Pakistan to India with his mother, when a violent turn of events separates them. Lost in the middle of a communal riot, he must find her before it is too late... |
Umbrella |
Catherine Tyc |
0:09:41 |
SHORT |
USA |
cat_tyc@hotmail.com |
Umbrella is a story about a woman who is about to have an abortion. The film is explores a deep symbolism, and is an adaptation of Fernando Sorrentino's short story There's A Man in the Habit of Hitting Me Over the Head with an Umbrella. The film maker draws off her friends' and her own experiences with wanting pregnancy, avoiding pregnancy, as well as her own feelings about pregnancy and children in general. The film maker hopes to explore the subject of how an abortion affects two people through this film. The umbrella is a metaphor, not only for what an individual has to deal with when the prospect of parenthood arises but also for the hits that society deals to those who have abortions and to those who perform them. This film is less about how and why they should be safe and legal and more an attempt to explore how the current state of the economy as well as contemporary gender politics, adding even more complexity to an already complex situation heavily laden with the most deepest of intimacy, hormones and intense spiritual questioning. |