Chris Hansen’s SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE Opens Deep in the Heart Film Festival 2020; film lineup and some twists on the virtual approach
Chris Hansen’s SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE Opens Deep in the Heart Film Festival 2020; film lineup and some twists on the virtual approach
The Deep in the Heart Film Festival announced the film lineup for its 4th edition, to be held on consecutive weekends September 25-27 and October 2-4.
Deep in the Heart FF will open with local filmmaker Chris Hansen’s festival-favorite SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE, and screen an ambitious lineup of themed short film programs, featuring multiple first-time team ups with local arts organizations, and more innovations within the virtual space and filmmaker hospitality from afar.
The popular Waco-based film festival will be screening 123 films (7 features, 116 shorts and music videos).
Deep in the Heart FF co-founders and directors Samuel Thomas and Louis Hunter, said, “In our 4th year, it was important to everyone involved with the film festival that we not take a step back due to the pandemic, but instead to continue growing as a film festival in every way we could, innovating, expanding our footprint in the city, and forging that connection between our filmmakers and audiences. Most importantly, this year is not just about maintaining the sense of fun and love of cinema that our fest is already known for here in Waco, but doubling down on that inspiration and looking beyond to try things we hadn’t even envisioned prior to this year.”
Prior to the film festival’s pivot, Hansen’s romantic drama, SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE, which has established itself as an audience favorite and award-winner at film festivals across the country, had been targeted as a “homecoming” screening since the film was shot in and around Waco. However, the film, which follows the ups and downs of an interracial marriage between an aspiring filmmaker and a dancer in seven vignettes, telling a story of turmoil and tenderness as two people try to make their relationship last, will now be the subject of a special “Conversation on the making of…” Q&A including Hansen, the film’s stars Drez Ryan and Chynna Walker, DP Aaron Youngblood, and producer Dan Beard.
Other feature films on the schedule include Michael Erger’s PESCADOR which will make its world premiere at Deep in the Heart FF. The serio-comic film follows a recently divorced biochemistry professor’s efforts to obtain her pot smoking boyfriend’s “lazy sperm” during a fraught evening. O. Corbin Saleken’s THE DUMMY FACTOR is an entertaining Canadian thriller about a 12-year-old who recruits his friends to help him solve the mystery of a couple missing children with a host of suspects in their town to choose from. Jonathan Seaborn’s documentary DREAM WITH ME focuses on a “Dreamer” who took advantage of DACA, the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. When the Trump administration rescinded the program, her life is immediately thrown into a state of limbo. The screening of the film will mark Deep in the Heart FF’s first film presentation partnership with Waco Immigrants Alliance.
Other films featuring first-time partnerships with Waco-based organizations include; Jordan Bunch’s LOVES GOD, LIKES GIRLS. Co-presented with Waco Pride Network along with a LGBTQIA+ shorts program entitled “Hearts and Minds,” the film tells the story of a gay woman growing up in a small town in West Texas in the 60-70s in a conservative local church. The Waco Cultural Arts Festival will partner with Deep in the Heart FF for the first time for two screenings; Aaron and Amanda Kopp’s animated film LIYANA features the executive producing debut by actor Thandie Newton. The film looks at the imaginations of five children in Swaziland as they create an original African tale about a girl on a dangerous quest. Jude Fokwang’s documentary SOMETHING NEW IN OLD TOWN looks the lives and activities of young people in Cameroon, who strive to change their community, notably as “searchers” of locally adapted solutions. Through their charitable acts, hygiene campaigns, women-centered schemes and commitment to grassroots development, they build and impart hope in a community that continues to struggle with redefining how outsiders see them.
Since it’s inception, Deep in the Heart FF has had a strong focus on programming short films and curating themed programs that go far beyond basic “drama” or “comedy” programs. This year doubles down on that trend, led by a horror and oddity-themed block of shorts entitled “Friday Night Frights,” which includes a mini-shorts combo from women directors entitled FATALE COLLECTIVE: BLEED, and launches the second weekend of programming on October 2. Other programs include the appropriately themed “2020 in a Nutshell,” a Texas film and filmmaker focused “5 Star, Lone Star,” a family-friendly program entitled, “Saturday Family Matinee,” and another disturbing collection of short film curiosities entitled, “wtf?!?”
Adding to the film festival experience beyond the screenings and Q&As for film fans, the Deep in the Heart Film Festival will feature access to a virtual Red Carpet on Opening Night, script readings, filmmaker panels, and an interactive scavenger hunt.
The scavenger hunt will challenge audience members to pay attention and find “easter eggs” in the background of film scenes or recurring themes and items. Wacoans and Texans who find the items and targeted themes will be entered into a drawing for a Waco-based prize pack (including restaurant gift cards, Dr Pepper Museum passes, and a Magnolia Market T-Shirt). Deep in the Heart FF Filmmakers who find all the items will be entered into a drawing for a filmmaker prize pack including a One-on-One consultation with film veterans and consultants including production vets, publicists, crowdfunding experts, and more.
For filmmakers, Deep in the Heart FF will be adding another couple of wrinkles to the virtual experience. A mid-fest film trivia Game Night will invite Deep in the Heart filmmakers from around the world to test their cinema knowledge and get to know their filmmaking colleagues virtually. Deep in the Heart Film Festival will also be creating special filmmaker swag bags to deliver Waco to the front door of the people that, in any other year, would be able to discover and enjoy the city personally. The bags will include Waco-centric and highlighted products like; Coffee from Apex Coffee; Goat Milk Soap from TLC Farms; Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly Jelly Beans from the Dr. Pepper Museum; Deep in the Heart Popcorn and logo-rific items; and more from Creative Waco, the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau, etc.
Two filmmaker panels will include Inclusivity and diversity in Screenwriting – “Write What You Don’t Know”. As opposed to the adage, “Write what you know,” this panel will discuss creating well rounded, authentic characters that do not share the same live experience as their authors. Panelists will include Marisela Campos (Producer, THE 11TH ORDER), Ya’Ke Smith (Writer/Director, BROTHER, Associate Professor of Radio, Television and Film at the University of Texas at Austin), Cedric Thomas Smith (Co-Writer/Director/Producer, RETIREMENT DAY, shorts programmer, San Antonio Film Festival), Bears Rebecca Fonte (Writer/Director, CONVERSION THERAPIST, Founder, Other Worlds Austin Film Festival). Moderated by Script Shop Show hosts Allyson West and Jack Crumley. The second panel, Filmmaking and COVIDwill address how filmmakers go forward making their films working within a new pandemic reality. The panel will examine the protocols and best practices on set, and discuss how the filmmaking world has changed from story concepts all the way to playing the festival circuit. Panelists will include: Angela Gulner (Actor, Glow, Writer, BINGE), Emma Campbell (Founder, Pink Mist FX), Hailey Oltman (Assistant Director, The Fugitive), Luisa Mendoza (Director of Photography, RACE CAR DRIVER), John Wildman (Co-Writer/Director/Producer, THE LADIES OF THE HOUSE, film industry publicist), Yuri Baranovsky (Founder, HLG Studios). Moderated by Dan Beard (Producer, SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE, Digital Media lecturer, Baylor University).
For passes, tickets and more information on the Deep in the Heart Film festival, please go to: https://www.deepintheheartff.com/.
2020 Deep in the Heart Film Festival Official Selections
Feature Films
DREAM WITH ME
Director: Jonathan Seaborn
Country: USA, Running Time: 64 min
Saba is one of the more than 800,000 “Dreamers” who took advantage of the DACA program in 2012. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama era program, provided some temporary protections to undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children. In 2017, the Trump administration made the decision to rescind DACA. With her immigration status once again in limbo, Saba must now face a new set of challenges.
Preceded by
ALL GÜT THINGS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF TEXAS GERMAN
Director: Chase Honaker
Country: USA, Running Time: 35 min
Texas German is a unique dialect that was once the first language of over 120,000 people. Today it’s on the verge of extinction. We look at the Life and Death of the language and culture through the eyes of the last generation of native speakers and those trying to save it.
Also preceded by
PLANE PRETEND
Director: Sharon Arteaga
Country: USA, Running Time: 18 min
Pilar and her brothers are ecstatic to take their first flight, but they must hide their excitement or risk everything.
THE DUMMY FACTOR
Director: O. Corbin Saleken
Country: Canada, Running Time: 81 min
After two children go missing and another is followed home by a strange man, 12-year-old Noel (Will Saleken) and his friends launch an investigation. Some believe the Supermarket Psycho is to blame. Noel’s brother Jason (Rhys Saleken) thinks it could be the murderous groundskeeper from his summer camp. Noel’s best friend Oscar (Jaime Naranjo) says it’s the weird guy who lives nearby, and that the abducted kids might be locked in his basement. It’s a big mystery, one that’s equal parts exciting and frightening, and Noel might just be in the middle of it all.
LIYANA
Directors: Aaron Kopp. Amanda Kopp
Country: USA, Running Time: 77 min
Five children in Swaziland dive into their imaginations to create an original African tale about a girl on a dangerous quest. Part documentary, part animation, and pure magic.
LOVES GOD, LIKES GIRLS
Director: Jordan Bunch
Country: USA, Running Time: 50 min
LOVES GOD, LIKES GIRLS tells the story of a gay woman growing up in a small town in West Texas in the 60-70s in a conservative local church. Where arguments and discourse fail, stories move people’s hearts. This film changes the conversation about LGBTQ+ people and the church, by telling a story of heartache and pain, hope and healing.”
PESCADOR World Premiere
Director: Michael Erger
Country: USA, Running Time: 91 min
Sara, a biochemistry professor, is recovering from divorce and slight nervous breakdown. Her boyfriend is fun, smokes a little pot, drives an ice cream truck but has a condition called ‘lazy sperm.’ She has invited over graduate student, Wren, and her fiancé, Mark, in a quest to get his sperm. Each of these flawed characters is trying to get what they want and maintain both their fragile love and tenuous sanity. It is both funny and sad at the same time.
SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE
Director: Chris Hansen
Country: USA, Running Time: 99 min
A tempestuous romantic drama in seven vignettes that chronicles an interracial marriage, telling a story of turmoil and tenderness as two people try to make their relationship last.
SOMETHING NEW IN OLD TOWN (2016)
Director: Jude Fokwang
Country: USA, Running Time: 47 min
SOMETHING NEW IN OLD TOWN explores the efforts of dozens of young women and men in the sprawling community of Old Town in Bamenda, Cameroon, in part to make sense of the ways in which communities “forgotten” by the state are grappling with development challenges in the neoliberal era. Filmed over three years in the homes, streets and work places of Old Town, the documentary examines the lives and activities of these young people who strive to change their community, notably as “searchers” of locally adapted solutions. Through their charitable acts, hygiene campaigns, women-centered schemes and commitment to grassroots development, they build and impart hope in a community that continues to struggle with redefining how outsiders see them.
SHORT FILMS AND MUSIC VIDEOS
2020 in a Nutshell
BROCCOLI
Director: Ivan Sainz-Pardo
Country: Germany, Running Time: 3:30 min
Si la vida te da brócoli, pide una pizza. (If life bring you broccoli, order a pizza!)
GASOLINE
Director: Zack Morris
Artist: Whiskey Myers
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:44 min
Rise above a world that’s trying to bring you down — even if it means burning it to the ground first.
THE GRANDPA DIARIES
Directors: Michael Afendakis, Jonathan Leveck
Country: USA, Running Time: 29:48 min
A 40-something’s circuitous search for meaning.
LOCKDOWN
Directors: Logan George, Celine Held
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:10 min
Struggling with feelings for her best friend, 14 year-old Marie stages an almost perfect plan.
MADE IN CHINA: REFORMING CHINA’S SUPPLY CHAIN
Directors: Gabriel Diamond, Matthew Beighley
Country: China, Running Time: 9:21 min
For years, China has valued aggressive growth at the cost of environmental protection. Ma Jun emerged as a bold and singular voice, willing to stand up to powerful political and economic interests. His groundbreaking use of data and transparency holds industry accountable and makes clear the costs of toxic pollution.
REHEARSAL
Director: Courtney Hope Therond
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:06 min
A film crew for an upcoming feature film pushes the boundaries of consent during a courtesy rehearsal for its female lead.
OUT OF STOCK
Director: Bryan Taira
Country: USA, Running Time: 17:48 min
In 1973, the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, made a joke that toilet paper was going out of stock. By the next day, stores across the country were completely sold out. This is the story of the first day of the toilet paper crisis.
WAR PAINT
Directors: Joseph Colby Doler, Taylor Bracewell
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:57 min
A soldier fights through the heat and hell of the Vietnam War in the early 1960’s.
UNGUBANI (WHO ARE YOU?)
Director: Booker T. Mattison
Country: USA, Running Time: 15:49 min
UNGUBAMI (Who Are You?) is the story of a young black man who puts himself at risk to save a young white woman in distress. A powerful tale of identity, perception, and race with a literary leitmotif.
Five Star, Lone Star
ADNAN FAR FROM HOME
Director: J Matt Wallace
Country: Turkey, Running Time: 8:55 min
A Syrian refugee navigates the streets of his new home, Istanbul. His simple generosity stands in contrast to the universal story of displaced people dealing with daily exploitation and struggles.
BROTHER
Director: Ya’Ke
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
Jason and Caleb have been friends for the better part of a decade, but then Casey comes home.
FLOUNDERING
Director: Garrett Williams
Country: USA, Running Time: 6:48 min
Mackenzie finds herself a fish-out-of-water at the homeschool Under the Sea dance.
LUPE
Director: Marisela Campos
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:30 min
A Mexican-American Woman struggles to come to terms with her husband’s new job at an Immigration Detention Center.
THE METHOD OF PLACES
Director: Aman Johnson
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:02 min
A girl uses a mind palace to keep the memories of her father, but discovers the method has its limits.
MOTHER’S DAY
Director: Elizabeth Tabish
Country: USA, Running Time: 22:13 min
California, 1968. Jane has the perfect life. A loving husband, a darling daughter and -hands down- the grooviest home in the neighborhood. But all that is no match for the painful memories of Jane’s childhood as they emerge on the eve of Mother’s Day.
PANTHER BRANCH ROAD
Director: Ryan Schorman
Artist: Zack Pack
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:13 min
A video highlighting the song Panther Branch by Zach Pack
SWEETIE
Director: Riley Cusick
Country: USA, Running Time: 9:35 min
A young actress goes undercover to help catch a predator.
SWITCH
Director: Natasha Straley
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:05 min
A child challenges his parent with their own tactics.
THE TRAVELING HATTER
Director: Alejandro Salcido
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
After an unfortunate football injury and eighteen surgeries later, Logan began to see his future in a wheelchair. He had no other option but to trade in his football pads for a brand new and unknown future. The only thing he had left was his faith and an idea of starting his own business.
YOU’RE THE PUPPET
Director: Michael Charron
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:15 min
Laramie and Leonard are the hottest comedy duo in the local scene. Tired of Leonard getting all the credit, Laramie considers branching out on his own.
Friday Night Frights
A BEDTIME STORY
Director: Mark Blitch
Country: USA, Running Time 5:59
A father spins a storybook romance, but will it have a fairy tale ending?
CAPROCK
James Fite
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:58 min
Two sisters traveling West take a detour to a small motel with plans to explore a serial killer’s old dumping ground.
CONVERSION THERAPIST
Director: Bears Rebecca Fonte
Country: USA, Running Time: 19:58 min
A pansexual, polyamorous trio kidnap a ‘pray-the-gay-away’ evangelical conversion therapist and torture him until he sees the light.
FATALE COLLECTIVE: BLEED
Directors: Megan Rosati, Lola Blanc, Francesca Maldonado, Danin Jacquay, Linda Chen, Natasha Halevi
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:24 min
In this brisk six-shooter anthology, an ensemble of women share entertainingly twisted tales that span disturbing subjects and sick styles through decidedly feminist lenses. Get ready to bleed.
GO BACK
Directors: Matthew Barber, Nathaniel Barber
Country: USA, Running Time: 6:28 min
In the fall of 1978, a distraught commuter travels down a haunted country road only to discover that its inhabitants have other plans.
THE HELPING HAND
Director: Brenden Hubbard
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
From the Academy Award winning team behind CURFEW, THE HELPING HAND explores the ties between technology and a growing family. With a new baby at home, young parents adopt a hi-tech monitoring system. Will it be an answer to their woes or have they invited a monster into their home?
KILLING TIME
Director: Cody Lovorn
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min
To some people, having a phone that duplicates whatever it takes a picture of might seem like a super power. But for one troubled young man, this power becomes the ultimate weapon to keep his inner demons at bay.
THE LESSER KNOWN RULES OF WEREWOLVES
Director: Don Vanderslice
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:24 min
A chain smoking werewolf accepts the sunset of his glory days and inevitable dawning of a domesticated life.
MARE
Director: Tristan Sparks-McMahon
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:53 min
Snow and Fern are madly in love and are excited to open their rustic wedding venue. However, not all is well when Fern discovers that Snow is attempting to hide something from her past that has returned to take its pound of flesh and Snow’s sanity.
MURDER BY THE SLICE
Director: Jordan Gracey
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:45 min
A pizza delivery person stumbles upon an unexpected party.
WE DIE ALONE
Director: Marc Cartwright
Country: USA, Running Time: 23:41
A chance encounter dangerously intertwines the lives of three people with differing perspectives on love.
WE GOT A MONKEY’S PAW
Director: Aaron Pagniano
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:32 min
Zack and Jakki are you typical “odd couple” roommates. Jakki likes staying in, reading a good book now and again; while Zack has other hobbies like waking the dead. Things get hairy when Zack convinces Jakki to spend the day making wishes on a Monkey’s Paw. Soon the two find themselves doing backflips trying to undo the cataclysmic series of events they’ve set off. Ghost brides, demon boxes, dead-y bears, oh my! This paw is definitely in the wrong hands.
Hearts and Minds (Screens with LOVES GOD, LIKES GIRLS)
BABY
Director: Paulina Manseau
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:58 min
A couple deals with the loss of a child in an unexpected heartbreaking way.
BLISS
Directors: Sam Rankin, Ace Cowan
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:10 min
BLISS is an oddly relatable, non-linear, short film about a mother and her two daughters coping with the traumatic realities of genetic cancer. The events of this film take place over one night as Linda Reynolds (52) informs her two daughters Kat (25) and Jaime (20) that they each have a 50/50 chance of having a genetic mutation, known as BRCA 1.
INVITATION
Director: Chad Hill
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:26 min
Pastor Paul is trying to save Ambrose’s soul. It’s not going well.
LINE DRY
Director: Anna Elizabeth Baumgarten
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:43 min
Julie has an anxiety attack when she discovers all of her building’s laundry machines are broken and reluctantly accepts help from her neighbor Kris.
OUTSIDE
Director: Jeffrey Palmer
Artist: Daniel Laurent
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:30 min
Touching on salient themes of gun violence, psychological trauma, and racial identity, OUTSIDE is a “nightmarish mirror reflecting our troubled times.” Fueled by powerful lyrics, provocative imagery, a meaningful message, and a hopeful ending, OUTSIDE will stir emotions and light a fire within. We must break the seemingly endless cycle of gun violence in our society.
THE STAND-IN
Director: Yousef Kazemi
Country: USA, Running Time: 18:02 min
Inspired by true events, THE STAND-IN tells the story of Bryan, whose wedding to his partner Jack doesn’t go as planned when his biological mother refuses to attend.”
Home
ALLERGIES
Director: Ali Alkhafaji
Country: USA, Running Time: 10:17 min
In a world where people can be allergic to race, a mother struggles with the possibility that her bi-racial son may be developing an allergy.
DAKOTA
Director: Chris Joslin
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:33 min
A young widow, still mourning the death of her husband, decides to brave the uncharted waters of online dating.
ESPERANÇA
Director: Cécile Rousset, Jeanne Paturle, Benjamin Serero
Country: France, Running Time: 5:26 min
Esperança, 15, has just arrived in France from Angola with her mother. At Amiens station, they don’t know where to sleep and look for someone who can help them.
FLICKER
Director: Julia Barnett
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 min
A young girl and her puritanical parents are wary of the evils outside their door, but it’s what’s inside that is truly terrifying.
MAMIE
Director: Benoît Monney
Country: Switzerland, Running Time: 10 min
Worried about the health of his grandmother who doesn’t recognize him anymore, Antoine pays her a visit to attempt to bring her memory back.
MY DAUGHTER YOSHIKO
Director: Brian Blum
Country: USA, Running Time: 15 min
With her daughter Yoshiko diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and her husband overseas serving in the military, Saki Omura is finding it harder and harder to cope. Too ashamed to burden others and too proud to ask for help, Saki faces the now-daunting task of giving her daughter the best life possible.
MY HERO
Director: Logan Jackson
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:49 min
As last-minute plans for a babysitter fall apart, eight-year-old Brandon is left alone to oversee his younger brother Mason.
OUR HOME HERE
Director: Angela Chen
Country: USA, Running Time: 16:27 min
Parallel stories of broken relationships between parents and their children striving for the American Dream all revolving around one explosive night at a fast food joint in Texas.
POSTCARD TO NEW ORLEANS
Director: Anders Helde
Artist: Nina Massara
Country: Denmark, Running Time: 3:23 min
In the dying echo of an intimate performance, a young artist sings a yearning love song to her boyfriend who is far away.
RECLAMATION: THE RISE AT STANDING ROCK
Director: Michele Noble
Country: USA, Running Time: 22:57 min
In 2016 from the summer through the harsh winter at Standing Rock, North Dakota, the youth of many tribes unite the Native Nations for the first time in 150 years and rise up in spiritual solidarity to non-violently fight for Unci Maka (Mother Earth) against the 3.8 billion dollar Dakota Access Oil Pipeline (DAPL).
Make or Break
ALINA
Director: Rami Kodeih
Country: USA, Running Time: 24:51
As Nazis separate children from their parents in the Warsaw Ghetto, a gang of women risks everything to smuggle their friend’s three-month-old baby to safety. Inspired by true events.
CASH STASH
Directors: Martin Darondeau, Enya Baroux
Country: France, Running Time: 14:59 min
Jacques, 58, has had a stroke. When he wakes up at the hospital, two men claim to be his longtime friends, to have robbed a tobacco bar with him, and to be there to recover their share of the loot. According to them, Jacques is the only one who knows where the money is. However, Jacques does not remember anything. Is Jacques bluffing? Are these two men really his friends?
CHILD EATER
Director: Mohammad Kart
Country: Iran, Running Time: 18:18 min
A young boy alone with no parents who makes a living by vending falls in love with a young girl in a casino. For the dangerous men in the casino no pray is more delicious and tempting than that little girl. The boy with his lean and weak little body has to enter an unfair fight against a giant and cruel world to save and help the girl run away. But their strength to run away from the sewer that they were stuck in it was as much as their little and lean body, fragile ,innocently and heroic.
CRAZY
Director: Holt Boggs
Country: USA, Running Time: 9:47 min
An insecure and apparently ill-equipped mob boss enlists the help of an eccentric hit man to ‘take out’ his girlfriend’s lover who he presumes to have a significantly larger penis, but something is a little off.
ÉCHAPPÉ
Director: Allison Mattox
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:45 min
While on tour in New York, a Soviet ballerina learns of her brother’s plan to defect.
THE FISHERMAN
Directors: Ben Richardson, Adrian Contreras
Country: Mexico, United States, Running Time: 14:32 min
After his mother’s death, James travels to Mexico in search of the father he’s never known, armed only with his father’s last known whereabouts and his mother’s ring.
FLUX
Director: Spencer Mead
Country: USA, Running Time: 16:55 min
Two time travelers crash land in an abandoned parking lot and quickly realize that something has gone wrong with their routine test. When first timer Colin’s flux orb goes haywire sending him bouncing around in time, it up to veteran James to put together what’s happening and stop it him before too late!
HUNG UP
Director: Damon O’Steen
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:45 min
HUNG UP updates the modern-day cowboy mythology to a cowgirl mythology, telling the story of the injured-but-indomitable Patty “Duke,” played by Ecuadorian-American actress Melissa Jackson.
STRUT – 1980S
Director: Tim Cash
Artist: Penna Brae
Country: BC, Running Time: 5:55 min
Pierre’s prized pink flamingo has been brazenly pickpocketed! The shocking crime has led to a phone call to the FBI (Flamingo Bureau of Investigation) & the search is on. The situation grows so dire that the Pink Ninja is called to duty! ‘Strut – 1980s’, directed by Tim Cash, is the lead single off Pennan Brae’s 5th release, ‘Gravity – The Astronot’.
Saturday Family Matinee
A CAT CALLED JAM
Director: Lorraine Lordan
Country: Ireland, Running Time 8:10 min
A cat from out of town tries to befriend three dogs as they wait for the butcher to throw out scraps of meat. When they chase a cat, Jam meets Treacle who makes him question how he views himself.
CAN I PLAY NOW?
Director: Kyle Marra
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:16 min
A young boy wrestles with the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” when his art teacher gives him an assignment to illustrate his dream job.
GABRIELLE
Director: Nicola Rose
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:31 min
When 13-year-old Gabrielle signs up for ballet, she encounters bullying from her teacher — and true friendship where she least expects it. A story about overcoming bullying, body image, friendship and knowing your worth.
GILTRUDE’S DWELLING
Director: Jeremy Lutter
Country: Canada, Running Time: 14:30
Orphaned at the age of eleven, Giltrude, an interdimensional shut-in, has waited fifteen years for her parents to come home. When a life or death dilemma comes knocking, Giltrude must look beyond her front door and learn to face the outside universe.
LAURIE’S POEM: A TRUE STORY
Director: Peggy Schott
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:10 min
An old woman vividly recalls a day from her adolescence. Featuring an autobiographical poem from the book “That Little Coker Boy,” narrated by the author Laurie Coker.
LUKE, DREW & LUBBOCK
Director: Louis Ojeda Jr.
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:31 min
Luke Siegel, a young sports fan and athlete, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2015. His hometown of Lubbock, Texas has rallied around him, and Luke’s strength has reached far beyond the community in West Texas. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has been inspired by Luke’s strength, as well as some of the world’s top athletes and coaches.
ONE, YELLOW, YOU WILL MARRY A HANDSOME FELLOW
Director: Ted Fisher
Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 10:25 min
What if you could pull your long-forgotten memories from the hazy past — and hold them again in your hands? Director Ted Fisher asks three adults to play a childhood game and remember their early dreams and desires. As they step into the past, they look again at their hopes for the future.
POP’S CULTURE
Directors: Ilana Marks, Kevin Beltz
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:28 min
A comedy puppet series that addresses that thing no one wants to talk about–the San Antonio Spurs.
SATURDAY NIGHT PERSONALITY, SUNDAY MORNING HEART
Directors: Justin Derington, Clarence One mind media, Terry Bluez, Pete Derington
Artist: JLD
Country: USA, Running Time: 3:30 min
Today is the day when he will ask her to marry him, if he doesn’t chicken out.
SHAHOLLY
Director: Wojciech Lorenc
Country: USA, Running Time: 3:25 min
Shaholly Ayers, a congenital amputee, was once told that she could never become a model. This emotional film talks about her struggles, and eventual big break that allowed her to live her dream, and change the way people perceive disability. With her unbridled spirit and tenacious attitude, there is no telling what amazing things she may accomplish.
Someone I Used to Know
BACK FROM THE BRINK
Directors: Dustin Jones, Emma Pettinga
Country: USA, Running Time: 32:58 min
Marine Corps veteran and filmmaker Dustin Jones sets out to understand the suicide epidemic among veterans through the lens of his former comrade, Bill Kirner. Bill’s marriage and life are threatened by PTSD. After intensive treatment, he and his wife Ashley are starting over and sharing their story with Dustin.
CHROME GIRLS
Director: Zane Ennis
Artist: Hannah Who
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:39 min
Official music video for Hannah Who’s song “Chrome Girls”
CON ALMA
Director: Sam Henderson
Country: USA, Running Time: 6 min
Before the last performance of his career, a celebrated jazz guitarist has an unexpected visitor who will change his tune.
DINNER WITH THE WOLFFS
Director: Jordan Ochel
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:26 min
While Hannah and Michael celebrate their engagement over dinner at his parents’ house, Hannah meets his grandmother who mysteriously antagonizes her throughout an increasingly disastrous evening.
THE DRESS YOU HAVE ON
Director: Courtney Hope Therond
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:30 min
A surprising find challenges a couple to question the foundation of their relationship.
HOME MOVIES
Director: Keagan Karnes
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:45 min
While packing up the belongings of their deceased father, a brother and sister discover hidden truths on an old VHS.
MINOR KEY
Director: Ivan Sainz-Pardo
Country: Spain, Running Time: 11:49 min
The moving story about a man locked in a Portuguese Fado.
PORTRAITIST
Director: Cyrus Neshvad
Country: Luxembourg, Running Time: 15:42 min
A suicidal grandfather kindles a relationship with his dying granddaughter through art.
SUNRISE
Director: Sean Patrick Leonard
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:00 min
Kim and Brendan have just come home from a night out when things get a bit out of hand. Kim is left to pick the pieces and find strength during a very fragile time.
What Are We Fighting For?
THE 11TH ORDER
Director: Joshua DeFour
Country: USA, Running Time: 25 min
The true story of two U.S. Marines who, in a span of six seconds, must stand their ground to stop a suicide truck bomb and protect the lives of the 150 Marines and Iraqi Police behind them.
A MATTER OF MINUTES
Director: Justin Sweidel, Christopher Shepherd
Country: USA, Running Time: 9:44 min
On February 27, 2018 Yves Bail had a stroke. At the age of 18, that is extremely uncommon. Thanks to the quick actions of the medical professionals at HCA Houston Healthcare, they were able to save Yves’s life and prevent severe brain damage. This is a short documentary telling the story of this life changing event.
IN THE PINES
Director: Harrison Tanner
Country: Canada, Running Time: 10:40 min
While living in a van with her dog and partner, a young transient woman deals with the toxic reality of her deteriorating relationship while navigating life on the fringes of society.
PAPER STAINS
Director: Beau Green
Artist: Dirty Echoes
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:24 min
A young couple’s love is put to the test when he enlists in the Navy. Song by Waco Texas based Power Pop band Dirty Echoes
RETIREMENT DAY
Director: Cedric Thomas Smith
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:05 min
After 30 years of employment, Joe retires from his job so that he can spend the rest of his time with the love of his life, Eva.
UNDER DARKNESS
Director: Caroline Friend
Country: USA, Running Time: 20 min
Based on a true story in World War II Poland, a young Jewish woman struggles to survive after her family is murdered. Refusing to give up, she joins the Soviet resistance, and realizes that through photography she can remember the past while documenting for the future.
WHEN YOU KNOW YOU KNOW: A BRIEF AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION INTO MYSTERIOUS SOURCES OF GLITTER
Directors: Gregory Kasunich, Jerry Spears
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:15 min
When Dan, Anna’s boyfriend of 5 years, comes home late with glitter on his face, an explosive argument erupts between the couple calling into question their entire relationship as they travel to their friends’ engagement party.
WHITE GUYS SOLVE SEXISM
Director: Christopher Guerrero
Country: USA, Running Time: 7 min
Because of the Harvey Weinstein scandal two men realize that all of their favorite movies are now sexist leading them down a dark path of discovery.
What Must Be Done
AYSAN
Director: Mehrshad Kheradmandi
Country: Iran, Running Time: 20 min
A man in an unofficial organization rebuilds people for those who lost their loved ones and want to have their loved ones back for a few days. A man goes to the organization to rent his nephew.
COFFEE SHOP NAMES
Director: Deepak Sethi
Country: USA, Running Time: 8 min
Three Indian people imagine their personas as the names they give baristas, because their real names are hard to pronounce.
DEEP CREAK
Directors: John Knipp, Joel Flora
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:29 min
Noah, a disgruntled writer, searches for creative seclusion at an old waterfront cabin. After a power outage leads him to the basement, Noah discovers the identity of a previous tenant. His search for answers takes an interesting turn, leading him towards a disturbing conflict with his own reality.
ESMERALDA
Directors: Paul T Petersen, Rachel Emerson
Country: USA, Running Time: 13:34 min
ESMERALDA is about Patty Yates who chronicles the romantic quest of the quirky Wilbur Goodnight on his mission to profess his adoration for his grade school crush at a local poetry slam.
JELLYFISH
Director: Alonso J. Luján
Artist: Galapaghost
Country: USA, Running Time: 03:30 min
A visual meditation on the feeling of watching life pass you by through moving portraits.
MIRACLE BABY
Director: Michelle Bossy
Country: USA, Running Time: 18:41 min
Miracle Baby is a psychological thriller about a congressman’s wife who discovers that her husband has been cheating on her. The film follows her glorious and chilling revenge as she reveals herself as the true power-partner. By night’s end, the only question left is whether she’s lost more than she gained.
MY DINNER WITH WERNER
Director: Maverick Moore
Country: USA, Running Time: 17 min
Inspired by real people and events, MY DINNER WITH WERNER is a wildly bizarre and wacky farce about a 1987 dinner date with an unsuspecting murder plot as the main dish.
TUNKAPASULA
Director: Jack Saxon
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:39 min
Three friends are stranded on a road trip and discover untold secrets about one another.
WHY HAVEN’T THEY FIXED THE CAMERAS YET?
Director: Travis White
Country: USA, Running Time: 4:40 min
Late at night, a woman leaves her holiday work party to discover the security cameras are still broken.
Who I Am
ALONE
Director: Fabian Arnold
Artist: Sijrus Nor
Country: Switzerland, Running Time: 3:03 min
A stop motion music video was realized for the song “Alone” by the singer / songwriter band “Sijrus Nor” as part of the bachelor thesis. The story was developed for the three-minute music clip, and stages and puppets were built. The protagonists finally come to life in over 2500 individual images.
COMPARTMENTALIZATION STORAGE FACILITY
Director: Eliaz Rodriguez
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:24 min
A skeptical woman checks out an extraordinary storage facility where customers can, quite literally, compartmentalize their issues. A cowboy-salesman haphazardly tries to get her to commit to a unit, but she is hesitant. Her walk down suppressed-memory lane leaves her unaffected until the last locker reveals a crossroads where there’s no turning back.
CUDDLE
Director: John Helde
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:50 min
A quirky, young cuddle therapist sets out to change the world with the power of touch – but the hardest person to hug might just be herself.
FOREVER RED
Director: Garrett Adams
Country: USA, Running Time: 15:26 min
FOREVER RED is a film about two American ex-spies who have left their past experiences during the cold war in an effort to resume some sort of normality in life. However, when one of the ex-spies unexpectedly finds the other more than 40 years later, past feelings resurface and a dark secret from their past is brought to light.
HOPE UNCLOAKED
Director: Andrew Q Holzschuh
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:05 min
A story about a man rediscovering a moment in his past where he came close to being murdered, had a divine force not intervened. We follow him back to the actual location where it happened all those years ago, as he reconciles with the young man he once was.
MY HOME, THE PROMISED LAND
Director: Ben Evory
Country: USA, Running Time: 11:22 min
In the foothills of Appalachia, a woman detaches from her home with the help of a one-way ticket to California.
THE WAY THAT I TAKE
Director: Chris Hartwell
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:52 min
Consumed by his job as a home health nurse, Sam Watson is burned out and frayed. When a simple mistake turns into a fatal error for one of his patients, Sam tries to bury the truth under a facade of perfection, knowing that a lifetime of deceit is about to be exposed.
LADY PARTS
Directors: Erin Rye, Jessica Sherif
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
LADY PARTS follows Liz, a struggling actor who goes from playing a dancing tampon to her first real break, playing a meaty role in a financial drama by an acclaimed up-and-coming director…only to discover that things aren’t what they seem. She experiences a series of funny-because-they’re-true setbacks and putdowns as she barrels toward her breaking point and has to decide what is more important: her dignity or her career.
OH, SORRY
Directors: Justin Giddings & Ryan Welsh
Country: USA, Running Time: 14:56 min
A grieving young woman leans on her younger brother for emotional support until a spontaneous night out forces her to confront her denial.
wtf?!?
AMERICAN UGLY
Director: John Matthew Gillen
Country: USA, Running Time: 10:30 min
A dramatic comedy depicting a heated argument between a couple about whether or not it is still okay to watch American Beauty after finding out about Kevin Spacey’s history of sexual assault.
AMPHIBIANS
Director: Drake Howard, Devin Finn
Country: USA, Running Time: 12:27 min
AMPHIBIANS confronts two universal issues, race and gender. Myster must face the reality of his own dreams or be subjected to a never ending cycle of inauthentic truth.
CLICKBAIT
Director: Charles Olsen
Country: Australia, Running Time: 4:45 min
When a stalker handcuffs himself to YouTuber Hailey, she faces life or death decisions…if he is for real.
CUDDLE
Director: John Helde
Country: USA, Running Time: 7:50 min
A quirky, young cuddle therapist sets out to change the world with the power of touch – but the hardest person to hug might just be herself.
DEUX OISEAUX
Director: Antoine Robert
Country: France, Running Time: 11:34 min
1967. Jean spends his holidays at his grandparents’ farm. He gives in candid yet cruel games on the surrounding animals.
JUST KILL IT
Director: Wayne Pombert II
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:25 min
A gamer encounters his worse nightmare while spending his day on the couch, ignoring his responsibilities at home.
KISS ME MALIBU
Director: Mikel Arraiz
Artist: Valle Del Cielo
Country: Spain, Running Time 4:18 min
Horror-comedy film about the insecurities and overthinking that TV shows, religion, culture and belief systems create in us during male-female relationships and in courtship. It makes fun of us and the roles we take in that process, without making any moral judgments.
LITANY FOR MISTER PRESIDENT
Director: Christopher Meyers
Country: USA, Running Time: 20 min
Dom Copley becomes unhinged with grief and anger after the most precious thing in the world is taken from him – His beloved cat, Mister President.
MILK TOAST
Director: Will Berry
Country: USA, Running Time: 6:11 min
A man faces an existential crisis over toast.
SILENT PARTNER
Director: Issa Currie
Country: USA, Running Time: 10 min
Hank’s Family is missing and he’s not talking. Two detectives are hot on the case but have nothing to go with. Can they solve the case before it goes cold?
SPACE
Director: Mike Hamilton
Country: USA, Running Time: 1:31 min
Good versus evil goes too far.
SUBJECT SIX-ALPHA TWO
Director: Mark Borison
Country: USA, Running Time: 16:00 min
A divorcing couple find themselves caught in a quarantine that isn’t quite what it seems.
TAIPEI JESUS
Director: John Redlinger
Country: USA, Running Time: 8:10 min
Washed-up writer Roy Frankel sees his dreams dashed when three boneheaded Hollywood executives hijack his biblical adaptation, “The Gospel of Matthew,” and turn it into an ‘edgier’ holy reboot called “Taipei Jesus.” Notions of religion, race, gender, and art all collide in a blistering not-so-satire that culminates in the trailer for “Taipei Jesus.”
THERMOSTRATA
Director: Ian Kastner
Country: USA, Running Time: 5:00 min
Roommates’ rage runs red amidst tension over who touched the thermostat. The age old battle of aggression and neutrality points to conflict that is greater than humanity itself.
Chris Hansen’s SEVEN SHORT FILMS ABOUT (OUR) MARRIAGE Opens Deep in the Heart Film Festival 2020; film lineup and some twists on the virtual approach