Slamdance Special Screenings and Shorts Program 2012
Last week we brought you the Competition Lineup for this year's Slamdance Film Fest. Today we've got the 8 Special Screening features and 75 Shorts that round out the Park City program.
"We're thrilled about this year's short film slate, which represents a dynamic mix of films from across the world. Our focus is on finding the most essential films from among the over 3000 submissions we received, with an eye toward potentially divisive and provocative films that may not have found a showcase elsewhere. If there's a common thread among these films, it's a shared boldness of vision on the part of the filmmakers that spans all genres, from comedy to experimental," said Joel Garber, Co-Captain of the Shorts Programming Committee.
A jury will present awards to short films in competition in the following categories: Narrative, Animation, and Documentary. Competition shorts are also eligible for the Spirit of Slamdance Award.
Out of competition shorts and programs include: $99 Special Short Harold's Bad Day, a winner of the 2011 Slamdance Short Screenplay Competition, directed by Slamdance alum Jordan Brady. The $99 Special Program presentation is the culmination of an annual tradition in which filmmakers are challenged to make a short film in 99 days with a budget of $99 dollars.
Made In Iran: 7 Short Premieres, an out of competition shorts program, is a world premiere collection of recent Iranian shorts never seen outside the country, curated by Iranian-American filmmaker Ehsan Ghoreishi, featuring the work of emerging talents from across Iran.
Anarchy Shorts is a curated, non-competitive spotlight on unique and provocative filmmakers who have made visionary, experimental, cult, and underground films.
The full Special Screenings and Shorts Program follows:
SPECIAL
SCREENINGS - NARRATIVE:
Holiday
Road - Directors/Screenwriters: Todd Berger, Bill Palmer, Bobby Miller,
Daron Nefcy, Benny Grinnell, Ian Eastin, Marcy McIlwain, Aaron Arendt, Michael
Suter, Dee Robertson, Doug Manley, Helena Wei, Andrew Putschoegl. (USA) World
Premiere
A feature length comedic
anthology celebrating the hilarious, poignant, and absurd aspects of America's
twelve most recognized holidays. Cast: Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jerry Trainor,
Thomas Lenk, Blaise Miller, James Carpinello, Jeff Grace, Kent Osborne,
Christing Ulloa
Old
Dog - Director/Screenwriter: Pema Tseden. (China) US Premiere
On the high Tibetan
plains, an old shepherd will do anything to prevent his Tibetan Mastiff from being sold to an urban Chinese dealer. Cast:
Yanbum Gyal, Drolma Kyab, Lochey, Tamdrin Tso
Unconditional
- Director: Bryn Higgins, Screenwriter: Jo Fisher. (UK) World Premiere
The psycho-love story of
two teenage twins who fall under the spell of a charismatic man offering love
on one condition: the boy becomes his own sister. Cast: Christian Cooke,
Melanie Hill, Harry McEntire, Madleine Clark
SPECIAL
SCREENINGS - DOCUMENTARY:
Neil
Young Journeys - Director: Jonathan Demme. (USA) US Premiere
A personal, retrospective
look into the heart and soul of iconoclast Neil Young - as told through intimate
performances from Young's 2011 summer solo shows in Toronto's iconic Massey
Hall, and insightful, wistful stories from his life while driving from his
idyllic Canadian hometown.
No
Room for Rockstars - Director: Parris Patton. (USA) World Premiere
Through the experiences of
four musicians on The Vans Warped Tour, No Room For Rockstars takes you on an
emotional journey of hope and determination, and documents the extreme highs
and lows that occur in the pursuit of success in today's era of rock and roll.
Terra
Blight - Director: Isaac Brown. (USA) World Premiere
A global examination of
the unseen life cycle of computer consumption, from manufacturing to disposal,
that has created one of the largest, most common toxic wastes on our planet.
Wild
in the Streets - Director: Peter Baxter, Screenwriters: Peter
Baxter, Jay Nelson. (UK/USA) World Premiere
Every year, thousands of
locals from rival sides of a rugged English town brutally compete in an ancient
sports game that is the lifeblood of the community - and the origin of soccer,
rugby, and football. Narrator: Sean Bean
With
Great Power: The Stan Lee Story - Directors: Will Hess, Nikki Frakes, Terry
Dougas,
Screenwriters: Will Hess,
Nikki Frakes. (USA)
The story of maverick pop
culture icon Stan Lee - one man's journey of perseverance, and how by sticking
to what he loved, he became an internationally influential and successful
artist. Cast: Stan Lee, Nicolas Cage, Michael Chiklis, Roger Corman, Kirsten
Dunst, Danny Elfman,
James Franco, Samuel
Jackson, Tobey Maguire, Eva Mendes, Frank Miller, Seth Rogen, Bryan
Singer, Kevin Smith, Ringo
Starr
SPECIAL
SCREENINGS - SHORTS:
Ed
Wood's Lost Film Final Curtain - Director/Screenwriter: Edward D. Wood, Jr.
(USA) World
Premiere
In a never before seen Ed
Wood television pilot, a weary actor prowling a darkened theater at night
searches anxiously for meaning which leads him to a surprising end. Cast: James
"Duke" Moore, Dudley Manlove, Jenny Stevens
Franchi
is Back - Director/Screenwriter: Alexandre Franchi. (Canada) World Premiere
A Filmmaker talks about
his bout with cancer in a self-promo film in order to avoid repeating his damn
story 1000 times to people because it's a pain in the ass. Cast: Alexandre
Franchi
SPECIAL
SCREENING - $99 SPECIAL:
Filmmakers
are challenged to make a short film in 99 days with $99
Harold's
Bad Day - Director: Jordan Brady, Screenwriter: R.J. Buckley. (USA) World
Premiere
A wry, dark comedy about a
well-intentioned teacher with a gambling debt. Cast: Doug Benson, Nicholas
Sadler, Zack Pearlman, Curtiss Frisle
SPECIAL
SCREENING - MADE IN IRAN: 7 SHORT PREMIERES:
Dances
With The Armchair - Director/Writer: Dariush Nehdaran. (Iran) US
Premiere
As an armchair burns down
to the ground, all the faces and memories embedded inside it dance away from
its body through the flames.
Far
From Him, Towards Him - Director/Screenwriter: Javad Rezaei Monfared.
(Iran) World
Premiere
An atheist with a terminal
disease goes on a journey to find and reconnect with his father whom he
believes is a servant in a holy shrine.
Room
No. 8 - Director/Screenwriter: Zohreh Keshavarz Motlagh Shirazi. (Iran)
World Premiere
A story about a group of
people trapped in various social and psychological confines who yearn to break
free.
Pondering
- Director/Screenwriter: Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz Motlagh Shirazi
(Iran)
World Premiere
On a crisp night, under
the blue moonlight, a man explores his inner child as he strangely interacts
with the streetlights hovering above him.
A
Pore As Big As a Knuckle - Director/Screenwriter: Ali Ahmadi. (Iran) World
Premiere
A story about a family
that has to face the consequences of a painfully unusual rape incident committed
by one of their own.
The
Tree - Director/Screenwriter: Hamed Siami. (Iran) World Premiere
A studio photographer
loses the ability to associate people with their pictures.
When
The Kid Was a Kid - Director/Screenwriter: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh.
(Iran) World
Premiere
A ten-year-old girl
strives to understand her divorced mother's world, while preparing for a play in
which children imitate their parents.
SPECIAL
SCREENING - ANARCHY SHORTS PROGRAM:
At
The Formal - Director/Screenwriter: Andrew Kavanagh.
(Australia). US Premiere
Modern and ancient rituals
collide in this macabre depiction of a high school formal.
The
Dude - Director: Jeff Feuerzeig. (USA) Documentary
As the inspiration for the
beloved central character in the Coen Brothers' cult-favorite film The Big
Lebowski, Jeff Dowd has become a popular figure at Lebowski Fests around the
country.
The
Fritzl Effect - Director/Screenwriter: Stefanos Sitaras.
(Greece)
A musician keeps a young
woman in his basement for inspiration. As she tries to escape, she only falls
deeper into his trap.
I
Saw Your Sister Yesterday - Director: Mina Park. (USA)
Experimental animation
about a woman's inner pain due to societal restrictions.
The
Magic Man - Director/Screenwriter: DC Kasundra. (USA)
Hoping to secure fame and
fortune, a struggling vaudeville magician turns to the dark arts, but the power
unleashed could cost him the one thing he truly loves.
Mahahula
The Giant Rodent of Happiness - Director/Screenwriter: Nomint Motion Design.
(Greece)
An animated short film
about happiness.
The
Severe Psychosis of a Musicless Man - Director: Ian McClerin, Screenwriter: Matt
Gomez. (USA) World
Premiere.
A cartoonish journey into
the mundane life of Preston: a middle-aged family man who begins hearing music
in his head, fusing with his eccentric family, that plummets him into insanity.
Stihl
- Directors/Screenwriters: James Benning, James Raymond (USA) World
Premiere
Experimental filmmaker
James Benning and video artist James Raymond collaborate to create a world
founded on modern day fears: darker images of chainsaws, teddy bears, porno and
masked men that question whether we are the monsters we envision and perhaps
want to be.
Stokje
- Director/Screenwriter: Léonie de Boer. (Netherlands)
A tale of two boys at the
playground, and their descent from child's play to immorality.
We'll
Become Oil - Director/Screenwriter: Mihai Grecu.
(Romania/Hungary) World Premiere
The story of oil taking
over history.
LIVE
ACTION COMPETITION SHORTS:
33
Teeth - Director/Screenwriter: Evan Roberts. (USA)
A 14 year-old boy has a
heightened fascination with the comb of his attractive neighbor, Chad.
The
Agony and Sweat of the Human Spirit - Directors/Screenwriters: D. Jesse Damazo, Joe
Bookman (USA)
Two cowboys on a hunt.
What are they hunting? Triumph.
Angelito
- Director: Paula Lima, Screenwriter: Vitor Coral. (USA/Brazil)
Luisa the nanny tries to
find peace taking care of a defiant young boy.
Another
Bullet Dodged - Director: Landon Zakheim, Screenwriters: Landon
Zakheim, Todd
Luoto. (USA)
A wolf in sheep's clothing
who thinks he is a sheep.
The
Centrifuge Brain Project - Director/Screenwriter: Till Nowak. (Germany)
Portrait of a group of
American scientists who in the 1970s conducted bizarre experiments involving
amusement park rides.
Codes
of Honor - Director/Screenwriter: Jon Rafman. (Canada)
A pro arcade gamer relives
his triumphs, defeats and fading legacy.
Cold
Blood - Director/Screenwriters: Martin Thibaudeau. (Canada)
An exhausted mother brings
her terrified son to the hospital.
Crown
- Director/Screenwriter: AG Rojas. (USA) World Premiere
A middle-aged junkie
experiences a surreal high.
DeafBlind
- Director/Screenwriter: Ewan Bailey. (UK) World Premiere
A deaf and blind woman and
a young man share a spiritual and disturbing connection.
Eat
- Director/Screenwriter: Janicza Bravo. (USA)
After locking herself out
of her apartment, a young woman finds herself in the company of a reluctant
neighbor.
Eileen
Pratt - Director/Screenwriter: Michael Kratochvil. (Austrailia) World
Premiere
A socially awkward bus
driver seeks to return to the only place she feels she belongs.
February
- Director/Screenwriter: Nick Singer. (USA) World Premiere
A young plumber has a
series of abbreviated encounters.
The
Good Person - Director: Yukihiro Katô. (Japan) US Premiere
A housewife with a missing
husband has a bizarre encounter with mysterious visitors.
Hope.
You Like Crap. - Director/Screenwriter: Shaun Parker. (USA)
World Premiere
Me, looking back and
painfully deconstructing my stupid, insipid student film 20 years later.
I
Am John Wayne - Director/Screenwriter: Christina Choe. (USA)
World Premiere
A young black cowboy
struggles with the death of his best friend.
I'm
Coming Over - Director/Screenwriter: Sam Handel. (USA)
In an eccentric mountain
town, a borderline neo-luddite struggles to maintain and share a fragile state
of enlightenment.
Cast: Lauren Ambrose
The
Kook - Directors/Screenwriters: Nat Livingston Johnson, Gregory Mitnick.
(USA)
A gentle and unassuming
member of an eccentric religious sect in the Catskill Mountains experiences a
crisis in faith.
Lin
- Director/Screenwriter: Piers Thompson. (UK/Bulgaria/Turkey)
A woman appears to be
running away from her past.
Little
Horses - Director/Screenwriter: Levi Abrino. (USA)
A divorced small town
postal worker tries to use a pony to win his family back.
Memory
by Design - Director/Screenwriter: Nathan Punwar. (USA)
The objects that three
young women use to mark their past take on memories of their own.
New
Skin - Director/Screenwriter: Vladimir de Fontenay. (USA)
Helen spends New Year's
Eve working at a gas station, where she meets an intriguing young man just
before midnight.
Park
- Director/Screenwriter: Liz Cambron. (USA)
An unnamed girl living in
a trailer park, drifting through life, beginning sexual explorations, and stealing
her dad's Vicodin.
People
Parade - Director: John Wilson, Screenwriters: John Wilson, Chris Maggio.
(USA)
World Premiere
After the star of a
long-running variety show passes away, his son is obligated to reunite a weathered
cast of television performers and host the final episode.
Reinaldo
Arenas - Director/Screenwriter: Lucas Leyva. (USA)
Told from the point of
view of a dying shark, the film captures the last moments in the life of an unintentional
immigrant in downtown Miami.
Rose
and Sophia - Director/Screenwriter: Natalie Neal. (USA)
World Premiere
A childhood interest in
spying is rekindled among two teenage girls stuck between adolescence and
adulthood.
A
Scene at the Sea - Director/Screenwriter: Jaehee Lee. (South
Korea)
A father and son, roles
now reversed as one becomes the caretaker of the other, execute a delicate
dance at the edge of the sea.
A
Short Film About Ice Fishing - Director/Screenwriter: Jason Shahinfar. (USA)
In rural South Dakota, two
friends go out for an explosive day of ice fishing.
Silent
River - Director/Screenwriter: Anca Miruna Lazarescu. (Germany) US Premiere
Gregor and Vali want to
get away from Romania and the Ceausescu regime in 1986.
Solipsist
- Director/Screenwriter: Andrew Huang. (USA) World Premiere
A three part psychedelic
fantasy film about otherworldly beings whose minds and bodies converge into one
entity.
Soy
Tan Feliz - Director/Screenwriter: Vladimir Duran.
(Argentina/Colombia) US Premiere
Fragments of a Saturday
winter day with the Vittenzein brothers, who find themselves in a strange
intimacy on a stop during a drive to their mother's house.
TMI
- Director: Jeff Tomsic, Screenwriters: Jordan Klepper, Laura Grey.
(USA) World Premiere
Obnoxiousness begins at
conception.
When
Rabbits Fly - Director: Helgi Jóhannsson, Screenwriters:
Helgi Jóhannsson, Halldor Ragnar Halldorsson. (Iceland) North American Premiere
A family of three living
with a rabbit in a cardboard box seeks six strangers to get their old life back.
ANIMATED
COMPETITION SHORTS:
Birdboy
- Directors/Screenwriters: Alberto Vázquez, Pedro Rivero. (Spain)
A terrible industrial
accident changes little Dinky's life forever.
Follow the Sun! - Director/Screenwriter: MK12. (USA)
An homage and/or affront
to a Great American Tradition: the drive-in intermission snack reel.
Hietsuki
Bushi - Director/Screenwriter: Ryo Hirano. (Japan)
A seamless mixture of
traditional Japanese song, blip music, universe, and agriculture.
Hollow
- Director/Screenwriter: Oliver Anderson. (USA)
Two young brothers stumble
across a disturbing secret in the fleeting light of a Midwestern summer.
The
House - Director/Screenwriter: David Buob. (Germany)
A family story in a
revolving house.
The
Observer - Director/Screenwriter: Abbey Luck. (USA) World Premiere
A disenchanted citizen
learns how to free his village from a tyrant king by observing patterns in nature.
Peekaboo
- Director/Screenwriter: Cecilia Fletcher. (USA)
A woman must decide
between reporting a crime and going on vacation.
Soil
- Director/Screenwriter: Meejin Hong. (USA)
As imagery transforms between
figures and abstraction, the life cycle of an organism and dualities within
human nature are explored.
Thumb
Snatchers from the Moon Cocoon - Director/Screenwriter: Bradley Schaffer. (USA)
A short tempered Texas
sheriff uses his cowboy logic to recklessly defeat a race of condescending,
cocoon dwelling critters.
Venus
- Director: Tor Fruergaard, Screenwriter: Sissel D. Thomsen. (Denmark)
An erotic comedy in
claymation.
DOCUMENTARY
COMPETITION SHORTS:
Ben
Franklin Blowing Bubbles at a Sword: The Journeys of a Mental Athlete -
Director:
Jonathan Napolitano. (USA)
World Premiere
Three mental athletes
stretch the limits of their minds as they train for and compete in the 2011 USA
Memory Championship.
The
Devotion Project: More Than Ever - Director: Antony Osso. (USA)
The inspiring true story
of two men who forged a 54-year love story despite the odds.
I'm
Never Afraid! - Director: Willem Baptist. (The Netherlands)
Eight-year-old Mack 'the
motor midget' should be dead but nothing is stopping him.
Kiss
the Paper - Director: Fiona Otway. (USA)
A poetic documentary
contemplating the revival of the nearly obsolete, centuries-old craft of letterpress
printing.
Kudzu
Vine - Director: Josh Gibson. (USA)
This ode to the climbing,
trailing, and coiling species Pueraria lobata evokes the agricultural history
and mythic textures of the American South.
The
Lookout - Director: Brian Bolster. (USA) World Premiere
Watching over some of the
most fire-prone landscape in North America, a Fire Lookout reflects upon his
work.
Murder
Mouth - Director: Madeleine Parry. (Australia)
Could you kill what you
had for dinner? Maddie, a 21 year-old meat eater, decides to take the question
into her own hands.
No
Relation - Director: Kieran Dick. (Canada)
What is real and how do
you capture it?
No
Wine Left Behind - Director: Kevin Gordon. (USA)
An Iraq War hero leads a
ragtag group of veterans as they try to conquer the wine industry.
On
Tender Hooks - Director: Kate Shenton. (UK)
Freak show magician Damien
Lloyd-Davies pierces his flesh with meat hooks and performs a "suicide
suspension."
The
Professional- Director: Skylar Nielsen. (USA)
Metal-fabricator Neil
Youngberg never planned on taking over his grandfather's business and is now
faced with passing on his legacy.
We
Win or We Die - Director: Matthew Millan. (Libya, USA) World
Premiere
The inspiring story of one
man's heroic sacrifice that liberated a city from the yoke of oppression.
You
Can't Win - Director: Jorge Torres-Torres (Puerto Rico/USA)
World Premiere
A typical night at the cockfights in the island of Puerto Rico.