2010 Films

A Puppet Intervention
Director: Mark Barroso
Documentary Feature (USA)
Synopsis: Building with debris scavenged from an industrial age, the radical puppeteers known as Paperhand Puppet Intervention near Chapel Hill, NC perform an annual show featuring giant puppets, poignant stories and original music.

Banana Bread
Director: Barton Landsman
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: Matt Meyerson has a worried Jewish mother. As it turns out, she actually has good reason to worry.

Black Rose
Director: David Ricci
Narrative Short (Canada)
Synopsis: A dark drama about a girl being haunted, who later realizes maybe these dark encounters might come with intention of saving her life.

Brothers Incorporated
Director: Michael Johnson
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A young man has to choose between his father's dream of power and control of Philadelphia or his own dreams of music and love.

Chance of a Lifetime - Karearea: The Pine Falcon
Director: Sandy Crichton
Documentary Short (New Zealand)
Synopsis: Wildlife photographer George Chance spent the 1970s studying the New Zealand Falcon; now some thirty years later he is suffering from ill health and going blind. Filmmaker Sandy Crichton attempts to realize George's dream by adding movement to his photographs.

 'Credits'
Director: Hugh Schulze
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A man, a woman, and a movie theater -- a tale of love and grace.

Crossing Borders
Director: Arnd Wächter
Documentary Feature (Morocco)
Synopsis: At a time of world tensions four American and four Moroccan students will travel and live together. Sharing experiences - Encountering the 'Other' and discovering themselves.

Cuba 1961: A Love Story
Director: Anthony Pombo
Student Film (USA)
Synopsis: In the early years of the Castro Regime, an idealistic poet is betrayed by his best friend, ripped away from his wife, and must confront his prosecutors in order to achieve salvation.

Dawning
Director: Gregg Holtgrewe
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: A brother and sister visit their father and step-mom at a Northern Minnesota lake cabin. As the first night unfolds with uncomfortable small-talk and tension, tragedy strikes as the beloved family dog is found mortally wounded. Almost immediately a stranger, potentially under the spell of some un-seen 'presence', appears in the cabin and tells the family that he has come to save them… but from what?

Desert in the Coffeehouse
Director: Pamela Nice
Documentary Short (USA)
Synopsis: This film asks two basic questions: what do Americans think about the Middle East, and do they see America as an empire? Over 100 Minnesotans, interviewed in coffeehouses across the Twin Cities, reflect on these questions and on our relationship with people in the Middle East.

earthwork
Director: Chris Ordal
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: In 1994, real-life crop artist Stan Herd travelled from Kansas to New York City to create a massive environmental artwork on land owned by Donald Trump. The multi-acre piece was made from soil, rock, plants and vegetation near an underground railway tunnel. Stan recruited a number of homeless individuals living in the tunnel as his crew. Over the months it took to complete the earthwork, Stan dealt with the difficulties of bringing his unique, rural art form to an urban canvas and the many costs exacted upon his life. In an effort to show his unique perspective to a larger audience, Stan unexpectedly encountered the true meaning of his art and it's ultimate, lasting rewards.

Failing Better Now
Director: Keren Atzmon
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: Mia’s wish for her 30th birthday is to get a new lease on life. It’s about time. Her sassy mouth and outrageous lies just got her fired and kicked out of her apartment. Mia convinces her perfect sister Anna to let her babysit her beloved cat Bernard while Anna goes away with her perfect boyfriend. When Mia loses Bernard she begins her search in the East Village where she meets and falls for an aspiring rock star.

Fanny, Annie & Danny
Director: Chris Brown
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: Fanny is a developmentally disabled 39-year-old living in a home for dependent adults. Her world starts to implode when the candy factory where she works goes bankrupt. The oldest of three children, Fanny has long been a source of strain and resentment within her family. Her jittery sister Annie has spent her life taking care of her, while their successful but elusive brother Danny has thus far escaped responsibility. When the three siblings are forced by their powerful mother to reunite for a holiday dinner, everyone's worst fears are realized.

Flat Love
Director: Andres Sanz
Narrative Short (Spain)
Synopsis: A man, convinced that the world is actually flat, falls in love with a two-dimensional woman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A unique, funny tale of love and obsession narrated by acclaimed actress Isabella Rossellini."

Free Lunch
Director: Rick Curnutt
Student Film (USA)
Synopsis: Walter Tanner Jr. is done with handouts, he’s done with his privileged past, and he’s done with having to answer to people. Realizing the value of hard work, Walter sets off on the road to the American dream...in a lunch truck. Together, Walter and his friend Casey serve the working people of LA, while Walter struggles with the realities of business and being a fish out of water. Will the struggle prove to be too much?

Grace
Director: Steven Mondesir
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A man struggles to keep his present life intact after an unwelcome visit from his past.

Harvest
Director: Marc Meyers
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: Three generations of a family come together one summer, around the eventual passing of the patriarch of the family, a WWII veteran. Gathered at the family home and in and around their beautiful shoreline town, years of resentment and betrayal within the family surface, and the grandson, a college student, does his part to hold them all together, growing up in the process.

How To Wash a Dog Who Barks for No Man
Director: Ross Thomas
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: After watching his mother and her boyfriend in bed, Cass convinces his best friend to lock himself in a dog cage.

I Am Bish
Director: David Bishop
Narrative Feature (Australia)
Synopsis: Perth, Western Australia is the most isolated capital city in the world. Dave 'Bish' Bishop is a multi-award nominated yet massively unsuccessful screenwriter and indie filmmaker who moves back to Perth (his hometown). While in Perth he enrolls in film school and is assigned to keep a video diary. Everything starts out normal enough until it is discovered that Perth is actually the site of a secret joint U.S. - Australian defense project that goes massively wrong and produces a neutron wave that eliminates all but 0.001% of the population (within the blast radius) and turns everyone outside the blast radius into zombies. What I am Legend would have been if the last man on Earth was fatter, whiter, stupider, and lived in Perth.

I WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH YOU
Directors: Eduardo Moisés Escribano Solera, Manuela B Moreno
Narrative Short (Spain)
Synopsis: While a young woman is waiting at a stoplight, a young man pulls up next to her. After a few glances, she jumps out of her car and into his to say one thing "I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Imbalance
Director: R.B. Ripley
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: An ex-con trying to stay legit and a mysterious woman play a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals a haunted past.

Ivory
Director: Andrew Chan
Narrative Feature (USA)
Synopsis: - Andreas Goodman & Jake Solocheck are two young classical pianists at a major American conservatory where they must confront personal and professional rivalries during the rigors of training for the International Liszt Competition in Budapest, Hungary - the competition that launches careers.

Kilo
Directors: Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A female officer loses a kilo of cocaine during a foot chase. Desperate not to go back empty-handed, she enlists her arrestee to buy her a second one. But when the buy goes sideways, she's forced to choose between becoming the laughing-stock and doing the right thing.

Low Tide
Director: Roberto De Paolis
Narrative Short (Italy)
Synopsis: A lonely man in a strange town on winter afternoon. A journey to the sea brings changes of direction, of random encounters, of sudden choice.

Martha
Director: Katja Straub
Student Film (USA)
Synopsis: Eleven year old Martha has the most embarrassing family in the world. Did she maybe really fall off a gypsy wagon as a baby?

Mildred Richards
Director: Marc Kess Narrative
Short (USA)
Synopsis: Mildred, an egomaniacal, nearly bankrupt actress, enlists the assistance of her reluctant brother, Gerald, to wrest away the fortune of their ailing elderly aunt. Mildred has nothing short of murder on her mind, as she and her brother drive to their aunt's country estate. But things get complicated by the aunt's doctor, lawyer and maid!

My Happy Faces
Director: Marie Argeris
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A plastic surgeon's assistant becomes a guinea pig in a new procedure she hopes will change the world.

No Asians...it's just not my thing
Director: Scott Eriksson
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: Two men explore the world of love, sex, race, and culture.

Nourishing The Kids Of Katrina - The Edible Schoolyard
Director: Robert Grant
Documentary Short (USA)
Synopsis: Renowned chef/educator Alice Waters' Berkeley 'edible schoolyard' program is replicated with the assistance of citizens in New Orleans to improve the emotional and physical health of Afro-American adolescents at a Hurricane Katrina ravaged grammar school.

Quietly
Director: Cole Wiley
Student Film (USA)
Synopsis: With his world crashing down around him, a desperate teenager must resort to dangerous measures to save the mother that he loves.

Registered
Director: Mark McLain
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: The story of a registered sex offender who moves into a new neighborhood and is required by law to inform all of his neighbors that he's a sex offender.

Reverie
Director: Chris Dawson
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: Struggling with his grasp on reality, Ray finds himself seeking help for his reoccurring nightmares.

Saving Lieb House
Directors: James Venturi, John Halpern
Documentary Short (USA)
Synopsis: When world-renowned architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown discover that their iconic pop-art creation will be demolished in ten days, they scramble to save the house as the city of New York cheers them on.

Shooting
Beauty Director: George Kachadorian
Documentary Feature (USA)
Synopsis: The story of an aspiring fashion photographer whose life is changed when she discovers true beauty hidden inside a facility for people living with extreme disabilities.

Take My Wife
Directors: Brett Carlson, Sherry Mason
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A married couple intending to hire a gigolo to save their stale sex life mistakenly hires a hitman in this dangerous comedy of errors.

The Acorn Penny
Director: Tiffany Ann Laufer
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: When four magical acorns fall at her feet, Kinshasa's dream of the future unfolds into an adventure she never imagined she could call her own.

The Antagonist
Director: Jessie McCormack
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: When a woman who refuses to grow up is forced to attend a children's birthday party, her antagonistic behavior alienates everyone around her, including the person she holds most dear.

The Art of Courage
Director: Kate Amesbury
Documentary Short (USA)
Synopsis: Once upon a time a small band of artists, activists, and cancer survivors believed they could change the world. Together, they created the art exhibition, 'Survivors In Search of a Voice: The Art of Courage'. For more than 3 years, the exhibit toured North America where it became known as the Cancer Monument.

The Finding
Director: Alonso Alvarez Barreda
Narrative Short (Mexico)
Synopsis: A young boy and his abusive father try to cope with the absence of a mother.

THE KISS
Director: Carey Williams
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A misunderstanding between a man and a woman will either mean the end of a friendship or the beginning of something more.

The Macabre World of Lavender Williams
Director: Nicolas Delgado
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: Eight year-old Lavender Williams, who recently lost her mother to cancer, sets off on an epic journey to find her Dad, whom she's never met. Her only companion is Lester, her late pet who’s returned from the grave to help her. But the journey won’t be easy for the girl and her zombie dog, for the evil presence of Sheriff Murdstone stalks them at every turn…

The Mountain Music Project: A Musical Odyssey from Appalachia to Himalaya
Director: Jacob Penchansky
Documentary Feature (USA)
Synopsis: Follow two Virginian musicians, who travel to Nepal to explore the extraordinary connections between Appalachian and Himalayan folk music.

The Nature of Fall
Director: Tomer Stolz
Student Film (USA)
Synopsis: An eleven year-old boy has one last day to save his older brother from deploying back to war.

The Tell Tale Heart
Director: Lynne Cohen
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A visually stimulating adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The 'Tell-Tale Heart'; explored through the art of puppetry.

This Must Be the Place
Director: Jonathan Hausfater
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: Henry is a small-town factory-worker whose routine day is brought to life when his bike is stolen by a beautiful young drifter named Sophie. The search for the stolen bike turns into a day of adventure as Henry and Sophie seek to discover something new in their daily lives.

Toxic Oranges - A Wall Street Fairy Tale
Director: Stephan Littger
Narrative Short (USA)
Synopsis: A homeless orange seller on Wall Street obtains short-lived success and fame after inventing a clever credit system for his clients - until the system collapses because of an unfortunate problem with his orange supply.

VOICES UNBOUND: The Story of the Freedom Writers
Director: Daniel Anker
Documentary Feature (USA)
Synopsis: A story that recounts the journey of a group of 150 at-risk youths from Long Beach California, who, in the mid-1990s, with the help of their teacher, learned to rise above their circumstances through the power of writing their stories.