(Opening Night)

THE MULBERRY BUSH

(Narrative) USA, 2016, 17:27 MIN

directed by NEIL LABUTE

cast VICTOR SLEZAK, J.J. KANDEL

Two men sit next to each other on an autumn day in Central Park. They make small talk about the weather and the joys of summer. When the conversation turns personal, however, it becomes clear that this is no random encounter, and they are headed toward a startling confrontation.

GOOD LUCK (IN FARSI)

(Narrative) USA, 2017, 18:12 MIN

directed by JESSICA CUMMINGS

cast GIA CROVATIN, ELIZABETH MASUCCI

A comic tale of two actresses vying for the same role on a television show. They sit in a casting office waiting their respective turns while looking for ways to psych each other out before their auditions. A humorous glimpse at the small, bitter rivalries we all share in life.

SPARRING PARTNER

(Narrative) USA, 2022, 19:35 MIN

directed by J.J. KANDEL

cast CECILY STRONG, KEILYN DURREL JONES

When a long flirtation between two co-workers comes to a head durning a revealing lunch break in the park, who gets to walk away with their head held high?

*This screening will be followed by a Q&A discussion about the "stage to screen" process with: NEIL LABUTE (In The Company of Men), VICTOR SLEZAK (The Bridges of Madison County), J.J. KANDEL (Zero Dark Thirty), GIA CROVATIN (Dirty Weekend), ELIZABETH MASUCCI (Public Morals) and KEILYN DURREL JONES (How To Die Alone). 

MIKE & FRANK

(Documentary, Local) USA, 2016, 11:39 MIN

directed by KYLIE CONNER-SAX

cast MIKE DELLOSSO

Brooklyn-based antique furniture vendor Mike Dellosso provides an inside look at the business he runs with his partner, Frank, during a turbulent time in their lives.

SWIMMING

(Animation, Local) USA, 2023, 2:23 MIN

directed by TONA WILSON

A swimmer made of film clips swims through water made of film clips. Both water and swimmer are in constant flux, eventually dissolving into one. This is a very short animation that uses cropped and keyed 8 and super-8 films from the 1960's and '70' to form a moving collage that fits into a 16:9 format.

PING PONG PARKINSONS

(Documentary, Local) USA, 2022, 3:17 MIN

directed by DAVID STECK

cast NENAD BACH

Nenad Bach had been a globally acclaimed musician for almost forty years when his performing career was abruptly cut short by the onset of Parkinson's Disease. Nenad was determined to perform in front of audiences again, so he took up ping pong as a form of therapy.

BAGGY SUIT

(Narrative, Local) USA, 2022, 7:44 MIN

directed by MYLES FLUSSER

cast JAMES HYLAND

THE DARK ODYSSEY 2 - ICE NEXUS

(Animation, Local) USA, 2022, 11:17 MIN

directed by MICHAEL LEVINE

A skeptical astronaut discovers a lost spaceship and gets tangled up in a dangerous journey to a mythical space-time portal, the Ice Nexus, in search of the Inventory of the Mind, essential knowledge for ending the Eternal War.

LITTLE LEAF

(Documentary, Local) USA, 2023, 2:17 MIN

directed by MHAYA POLACO

cast KATE CLOUD, LITTLE LEAF

A short documentary following Kate and her pygmy goat Little Leaf and their sweet, storybook life.

A TENNIS FRIEND

(Narrative, Local) USA, 2023, 21:56 MIN

directed by BRIAN HERRERA GLADSTONE

cast MIKE HAHALYAK, ALLEN TEDDER, KACEY COCKETT

Phillip & Marshall – 2 former college tennis teammates – have a reunion over a friendly, yet competitive set of tennis…

PROOF OF CONCEPT

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 11:39 MIN

directed by ELLIE SACHS & MAX COHN

cast WILL JANOWITZ, RICHARD KIND, ELLIE SACHS

An aspiring auteur tries to make her dad and uncle finance her first short film but winds up raising more questions than dollars.

NOTICE OF REJECTION

(Animation) USA, 2022, 13:03 MIN

directed by STEVEN VANDER MEER

cast STEVEN VANDER MEER

Unmoved by societal injustices, the protagonist takes great offense when he himself is rejected. His reaction leads eventually to obsession with being acknowledged and finally letting go. Having shed the burden, our protagonist turns a new leaf. Can rejection be turned around and grow into something that changes his life?

SHORTLIST

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 0:17 MIN

directed by AARON BOURGET

CAMILLE IN COLOR

(Documentary) USA, 2023, 8:38 MIN

directed by DAVID WILD

cast: CAMILLE PATHA

Filmed over four months in Fall 2022 — this documentary was commissioned by the Tacoma Art Museum and will accompany the exhibition CAMILLE PATHA: PASSION PLEASURE POWER which runs from March 3rd 2023 through September 2023.

WRITE A SONG ABOUT HEARTACHE (Narrative) USA, 2023, 13:00 MIN

directed by JONNY LOOK

cast: MAC DEMARCO, STEVE HERNANDEZ, WHITMER THOMAS

A new film about writing a sad song...when you're not necessarily a sad person.

I’M USUALLY PRETTY GOOD AT NAMING THINGS

(Documentary) USA, 2023, 4:50 MIN

directed by MAC PREMO

cast: MAC PREMO

Joe Strummer of The Clash said it best: “All we’re doing is trying to communicate something. Sometimes we don't know what it is, sometimes we do."

LE BALLET DU POMMES DE MERDE (THE NUTCRACKER)

(Narrative) USA, 2021, 3:45 MIN

directed by THE WESTERN CUCK EXCHANGE

cast: MAX BAUMGARTEN, JOE MITCHELL, JACK DANIEL BOGER

The Western Cuck Exchange is a premiere comedic sketch group in Los Angeles. Art is dance. Dance is art. Just make out.

BODY LANGUAGE

(Documentary) USA, 2022, 4:34 MIN

directed by LEO PFEIFER

cast: LEO PFEIFER

A gravity-defying display of dance with crutches.

NEVER FUGGEDABOUTIT

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 11:33 MIN

directed by DUSTIN WALDMAN

cast NICHOLAS NAZMI, TARA BOPP, JONATHAN DAUERMANN

Amid the high anxiety of post-9/11 NYC, a struggling post-production house is hired to remove a shot of the Twin Towers from the intro to a hit TV show.

CHASIN’ BUTTERFLIES

(Documentary) USA, 2022, 19:03 MIN

directed by MATT KLUG, ADAM HOBBS, JOSH HARDING

cast BUTCH ANTHONY

As a self-taught artist from a one-horse town in rural Alabama, Butch Anthony can’t be easily categorized; nor can his art. In this layered portrait, we meet the eccentric, playful, authentic, charming, and provocative man behind the drive-thru museum, trophy-covered Cadillac, and pontoon pirate ship known as Llatikcuf (read it backwards).

ANDY “A DOG’S TALE”

(Animation) USA, 2022, 7:30 MIN

directed by JAMY WHELESS

An adorable puppy named Andy is capturing hearts in a new film, “Andy: A Dog’s Tale.” It’s impossible to avoid falling in love with the inquisitive, fluffy, yellow Labrador puppy in the first seconds of the film as his story unfolds.

BARRY THE BEARABLE BEAR

(Animation) USA, 2021, 2:10 MIN

directed by JOHN OSEBOLD

Barry gets lost in the woods and meets some new friends.

HAM

(Animation) USA, 2022, 8:11 MIN

directed by RUDY MARTINEZ

The year is 1961 and Ham, a chimpanzee, has been chosen to represent earth as the first ape in space, but a malfunction aboard his ship threatens his return home. Inspired by true events.

BENTO LOVE

(Animation) USA, 2022, 4:50 MIN

directed by ELISA TAYLOR

After being teased for her Japanese lunch at school, Rina rediscovers the importance of her cultural traditions.

THE LAZY BEAR

(Animation) USA, 2021, 1:30 MIN

directed by JOHN OSEBOLD

GENEVIEVE THE DRAGON RACER

(Animation) USA, 2022, 5:22 MIN

directed by MIA BLISSETT

This mockumentary follows a young girl, Genevieve, as she tries to train to be a dragon racer. The only problem?

OF WOOD

(Animation) USA, 2022, 7:00 MIN

directed by OWEN KLATTE

This is an experimental stop-motion film made with an original technique of progressively carving images into a large round of wood, enhanced with wooden objects coming out of the wood.

MIDNIGHT SUSHI

(Animation) USA, 2022, 6:18 MIN

directed by JOHN OSEBOLD

RUN TOTTI RUN

(Animation) USA, 2022, 17:34 MIN

directed by SHAD LEE BRADBURY

cast BRANDON SOO HOO

A love story about a boy and his dog

THE SOCIAL CHAMELEON

(Animation) USA, 2022, 9:19 MIN

directed by ALEX ROSS

Cosmo the Chameleon doesn't fit in with the other animals. No matter how hard he tries, he just can't seem to find his place in the jungle. Then, everything changes when he meets another chameleon who shows him how to live by his own true colors!

A conversation with NEIL LABUTE and NITZA WILON

Filmmaker Neil LaBute and Nitza Wilon (Co-Founder of The Writers Lab), join SUMMER SHORTS FILM FEST Lead Programmer Warren Etheredge in a conversation about cinematic narrative and power, authenticity and vulnerability, all through thru the lens of gender as it translates first to the page and then to film.

Neil LaBute began working in film in 1997 with his feature debut, In the Company of Men, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to win the Filmmaker Trophy as well as the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Feature. Following In the Company of Men, LaBute established himself as a playwright and film & television writer/director. Among his films are Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty, The Shape of Things, Lakeview Terrace, Some Velvet Morning, Dirty Weekend . In television, he has created two series for DirecTV, ten x ten (a collection of filmed monologues) and Billy & Billie (a half-hour comedy starring Adam Brody). LaBute also served as showrunner on the series Van Helsing, which ran for five seasons on SYFY.

Nitza Wilon co-founded The Writers Lab with Elizabeth Kaiden and Kyle Ann Stokes in 2015 and is a founding Partner of Women in the Script Trade (WIST) with Elizabeth. WIST runs the script development labs for the Athena Film Festival (NY and LA) and The Writers Lab with NYWIFT, and provides individual support for exceptional women screenwriters. Prior to committing to script development for women, Nitza was an actor, journalist, and magazine and book editor. She earned her BA from the Annenberg School of Communications at Penn.

TROY

(Narrative) USA, 2022, 16:00 MIN

directed by MIKE DONAHUE

cast DYLAN BAKER, HANS BERLIN, PHILLIP JAMES BRANNON, MICHAEL BRAUN, DANA DELANY

Follows a darkly comedic tale about the unexpected consequences of unasked-for intimacy.

REALLY GOOD FRIENDS

(Documentary) USA, 2022, 10:00 MIN

directed by ADAM SEKULER

cast STEVEN VANDER MEER

A woman in her 60's cultivates an unusual friendship with a mysterious man she meets online. Sometimes it's what you don't see that cuts the deepest.

I AM WHOLE

(Narrative) USA, 2022, 2:59 MIN

directed by BIANCA POLETTI

cast REINA HARDESTY

This is story about girlhood, and the pressure to grow up too quickly.

MY YEAR OF DICKS

(Documentary, Animation) USA, 2022, 25:27 MIN

directed by SARA GUNNARSDÓTTIR

cast: BRIE TILTON, JACKSON KELLY, KLARISSA HERNANDEZ

Pam tries very hard to lose her virginity and always searches for "the one." She's not alone; her best friends are with her.

I STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 8:26 MIN

directed by STEVE COLLINS

A U2 themed proposal at Joshua Tree goes awry when Paul realizes his wife to be is not a fan.

FUCK ME, RICHARD

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 14:59 MIN

directed by LUCY MCKENDRICK, CHARLIE POLINGER

cast: LUCY MCKENDRICK, KAM METCALF, NATHAN WALLACE

Recovering from a broken leg, a romance-obsessed loner finds herself swept up in a passionate long-distance love affair. Richard is perfect in every way, except that he may be a scammer.

HATING BECKETT

(Narrative) USA, 2022, 17:28 MIN

directed by MATTHEW GOSSIN

cast: JOHN PIRRUCCELLO, MARK BOYETT, JULIE MILLETT

A couple’s post-theater dinner date turns confrontational as the pair discuss the merits of Samuel Beckett’s Rough for Theatre II. Things escalate to the point of disclosed trauma, bitter recriminations and hurled bread rolls — and it becomes clear they have a few issues to work out.

IN THIS, OUR TIME

(Narrative) USA, 2020, 34:32 MIN

directed by ALEXANDER DINELARIS

cast STEVEN PASQUALE, OLIVIA NIKKANEN, NATALIE GOLD, MATTHEW RAUCH

Dealing with compromise, loneliness, and the unmet expectations of the American Dream, a middle-class family grapples with the distance between the lives they imagined and the lives they are living.

About the Filmmaker

Alex Dinelaris is an Academy Award® and Golden Globe® winning screenwriter for Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), a co-producer on the three time Academy Award® winning film The Revenant, as well as the screenwriter for Entering Hades and Jekyll & Hyde, both in development. He is also the book writer for the Broadway musical On Your Feet!, and the West End musical of The Bodyguard. He started his career as a theatre director and playwright in New York, where his plays Still Life and Red Dog Howls were produced by Manhattan Class Company and New York Theater Workshop respectively. In This, Our Time marks Alexander’s debut as a film director.

Filmmaker’s Note

IN THIS, OUR TIME is an intensely personal story for me; that's why I wrote it, and was compelled to direct it as my first film. To me, it is a story about the terrible, destructive nature of abuse, and how it threatens to overwhelm those in its wake. Maggie, a mother who, because of unspoken trauma is most comfortable in the dark, dehumanizing spaces that have come to define her self-worth. Billy, an imperfect savior, doing everything he can to preserve the idea of a perfect family. And Jules, an intelligent though fragile teen on the verge of womanhood, who is petrified of losing the only stabilizing presence she has ever known, just when she needs him most.

*This screening will be followed by a Q&A discussion with: ALEXANDER DINELARIS, NATALIE GOLD (Succession), STEVEN PASQUALE (Rescue Me), OLIVIA NIKKANEN (The Americans) and MATTHEW RAUCH (Banshee).

THE OLD YOUNG CROW

(Animation, Narrative, Local) USA, 2023, 11:52 MIN

directed by LIAM LOPINTO

cast NAOTO SHIBATA, HASSAN SHAHBAZI, KEIKO YAMASHITA, HITOSHI HINOMIZU

An Iranian boy befriends an old Japanese woman at a graveyard in Tokyo.

EAT FLOWERS

(Documentary) USA, 2022, 15:02 MIN

directed by RIVER FINLAY

When photographer and writer Cig Harvey discovers her best friend is diagnosed with Leukemia, she sets out to fill her world with color and light.

DEADMAN DEADMAN DEADMAN

(Music Video) USA, 2023, 3:28 MIN

directed by DYLAN FRIESE-GREENE

Dylan Friese-Greene riffs on the mortal thoughts of Skinny Pelembe - with the help of AI. The video features over 500 AI-generated faces.

TAKE ME HOME

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 15:49 MIN

directed by LIZ SARGENT

cast: ANNA SARGENT, JEENA YI, JOAN SARGENT

After their mother's death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward.

THE BOY AND THE MOON

(Animation) USA, 2022, 3:31 MIN

directed by CHRISTOPHER JAMES CUTHRELL

Before the boy's mother dies, she tells her son that she won't truly be gone -- that she will watch over him like the moon. The boy determines the only watch to stay with his mother is to catch the moon itself.

EXISTENTIAL

(Animation) USA, 2022, 5:00 MIN

directed by KAIYA MCMURDO

Existential, highlights a fourth grader named apple attempting to deal with an existential crisis spurred by the death of her pet fish.

CHORUS

(Narrative) USA, 2022, 20:03 MIN

directed by DANIEL EGBERT

cast CHARLIE SHOTWELL, TATE ELLINGTON, JOSEPH LOPEZ

After missing his wife's phone call goodbye on the morning of September 11th, a now listless and brokenhearted music teacher must harmonize with his increasingly reckless fifteen-year-old son.

(Closing Night)

DEMON BOX

(Narrative) CANADA, 2023, 14:00 MIN

directed by SEAN WAINSTEIM

cast LIAM HILL, MICHAEL JORDAN, JJ GREENBERG, RICHARD COLE

After festival rejections, a director revises his intensely personal short film about trauma, suicide, and the Holocaust, and transforms it into a painful, blunt and funny dissection of the film and his life. Ten years in the making.

VIEWFINDER

(Animation) USA, 2022, 2:40 MIN

directed by NATE MILTON

TUNING RENÉ MARIE

(Documentary) USA, 2022, 13:38 MIN

directed by RACHEL KESSLER

René Marie - a twice-nominated jazz vocalist with eleven albums under her belt. Told through a series of vignettes animated over 16mm plates, TUNING RENÉ MARIE is a short mixed media documentary about René's extraordinary and often difficult path in life up to that point, and the saving grace of music at every turn.

AMPERS&ND

(Experimental) USA, 2022, 2:48 MIN

directed by SADE ABIODUN

AMPERS&ND is the first component of a multimodal experimental project examining the collective synthesis of knowledge and art. this immersive piece illustrates the duality and tension between analysis and expression in the process of ‘active metacognition.’

EBULLIENT

(Documentary) USA, 2023, 19:23 MIN

directed by AUTIE CARLISLE

Ebullient is a short documentary about a broken bull-rider from West Texas who must find sobriety to save himself and his son.

MEN GRIEVING

(Narrative) USA, 2023, 13:02 MIN

directed by ADAM PELTIER

cast: LUCAS BRAHME, AMANDA MONTELL, ADAM PELTIER

Sitting in a waiting room, Harrison and Percy confront their emotions and each other as they attempt to fill out paperwork for an experimental drug that might have the power to take their grief away...forever.

THE FUTURE’S PAST

(Animation) USA, 2023, 5:44 MIN

directed by CHRIS W. SMITH, JACK DE SENA

An Earthling from the far-future explains the history of the universe, but his son gets caught up asking about those things once called "humans".

WHAT I HAD TO LEAVE BEHIND

(Documentary) USA, 2021, 9:58 MIN

directed by SEAN DAVID CHRISTENSEN

In this stylized personal essay, a renter says goodbye to their apartment.

Congratulations to all of our Nominees and Winners! Awards provided courtesy of Cronin Gallery in Water Street Market:

BEST DIRECTOR

RIVER FINLAY - EAT FLOWERS

MAC PREMO - I’M USUALLY PRETTY GOOD AT NAMING THINGS 

* LIAM LOPINTO - THE OLD YOUNG CROW - WINNER

LIZ SARGENT - TAKE ME HOME

MIKE DONAHUE - TROY

(Jurors: NANCY DRAGUN, AMBER FINLAYSON (aka Bert), DINH THAI)

BEST PERFORMANCE

* LUCY MCKENDRICK as “Sally” in FUCK ME, RICHARD - WINNER

WILL JANOWITZ as “Eddie” in PROOF OF CONCEPT

RICHARD KIND as “Robert” in PROOF OF CONCEPT

ELLIE SACHS as “Chloe” in PROOF OF CONCEPT

JOHN PIRRUCCELLO as “Robert” in HATING BECKETT

JULIE MILLETT as “Sarah” in HATING BECKETT

ADAM PELTIER as “Harrison” in MEN GRIEVING

(Jurors: CYNTHIA GEARY, KEILYN DURRELL JONES, PATRICK NOTH)

BEST SCREENPLAY

DANIEL J. EGBERT - CHORUS

LUCY MCKENDIRCK & CHARLIE POLINGER - FUCK ME, RICHARD

MATTHEW GOSSIN - HATING BECKETT

DUSTIN WALDMAN  - NEVER FUGGEDABOUTIT

* MAX COHN & ELLIE SACHS - PROOF OF CONCEPT - WINNER

(Jurors:  HARRIS GOLDBERG, LINDSAY STIDHAM, NITZA WILON)

BEST NARRATIVE

* DEMON BOX  - dir. SEAN WAINSTEIM - WINNER

FUCK ME, RICHARD - dir. LUCY MCKENDRICK & CHARLIE POLINGER

HATING BECKETT - dir. MATTHEW GOSSIN

THE OLD YOUNG CROW - dir. LIAM LOPINTO

PROOF OF CONCEPT - dir. ELLIE SACHS & MAX COHN

(Jurors: ANDREW CARLBERG, ALEXANDER DINELARIS, NEIL LABUTE)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

* CHASIN’ BUTTERFLIES - dir. MATT KLUG, JOSHUA HARDING & ADAM HOBBS - WINNER

EAT FLOWERS - dir. RIVER FINLAY

I’M USUALLY PRETTY GOOD AT NAMING THINGS - dir. MAC PREMO

REALLY GOOD FRIENDS - dir. ADAM SEKULER

TUNING RENÉ MARIE - dir. RACHEL KESSLER

(Jurors: SADE ABIODUN, JOANNE FEINBERG, MARK SHAPIRO)

BEST ANIMATION

THE FUTURE’S PAST - dir. CHRIS SMITH, JACK DE SENA

* MY YEAR OF DICKS - dir. SARA GUNDARSDÖTTIR - WINNER

NOTICE OF REJECTION - dir. STEVEN VANDER MEER

THE OLD YOUNG CROW - dir. LIAM LOPINTO

BOY AND THE MOON - dir. CHRIS CUTHBERT

(Jurors: WALLY CHUNG, GODFREY HIBBERT, LYDIA RICCI)

BEST LOCAL SHORT

LITTLE LEAF - dir. MHAYA POLACO

THE DARK ODYSSEY II - ICE NEXUS - dir. MICHAEL LEVINE

PING PONG PARKINSONS - dir. DAVID STECK

* BAGGYSUIT - dir. MYLES FLUSSER - WINNER

MIKE & FRANK - dir. KYLIE CONNER-SAX

SWIMMING - dir. TONA WILSON

A TENNIS FRIEND  - dir. BRIAN HERRERA GLADSTONE

(Jurors: TIM ROGERS, MELANIE CRONIN, WENDY LIPSTEIN)