37th Annual VIRGINIA FILM FESTIVAL Oct 30-Nov 3, 2024

37th Annual VIRGINIA FILM FESTIVAL October 30-November 3, 2024

Short Films: Block C

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This assemblage of intensely experimental film art is stylistically dynamic and aesthetically adventurous, ranging from found footage to tone poem, observational docu-essay to musical animation, and in-camera editing to avant-garde narrative.

101

2016. USA. 8 min. Director: Jason Robinson.

101 is an experimental documentary that follows the path of a single car on a sweaty Saturday night through the crashes, mud, and smoke at the Madison County Fair Demolition Derby.

The American Dream

2016. USA. 1 min. Director: Kristen Duvall.

Through the use of found footage, the centuries-old issue of women exemplifying a hard work ethic while men receive wrongful glory is addressed and critiqued.

Cup of Stars

2016. USA. 4 min. Directors: Ryan Betschart, Tyler Betschart.

Two brothers under a cool night sky are fishing for stars and supernovas. Using dream logic under their own bizarre terms, The Betschart Bros. subtly express, through a smearing of light and the telling of folk tales, ideas of growing up as siblings in Southern California.

Femme Enfant

2016. Australia. 4 min. Director: Bonnie Forsyth.

Frida, a barren artist, experiences the joys and fears of pregnancy through her surrealistic paintings. Inspired by the story of Frida Kahlo and the female surrealists of the early 20th century.

Forged from the Love of Liberty

2016. USA/Trinidad and Tobago. 5 min. Director: Vashti Harrison.

A visual poem about a family’s curse that began around the time of independence in Trinidad and Tobago.

Good Girls Sweat

2016. USA. 3 min. Director: Michele Rose Seippel. Featuring: Jenna Spagnolo.

Our collective past is not without strong women; it’s without space for these women to thrive. This video pays homage to the women who sweated through their limitations, who sweated through the male gaze, and who sweated without pay.

The Hole

2014. Republic of Korea. 6 min. Director: Bongsu Choi.

A scared man sees a monster in the darkness. The man tries to escape from inscrutable space, but he inexplicably comes back again and again. Finally, only the monster and the man are left. And then…nobody knows who ate who.

News from the Sun

2016. USA. 4 min. Directors: Brendan Smyth, Jeremy Smyth.

An apocalyptic narrative unfolds through the words of The Sun, a British tabloid created by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. 4000 single frames were exposed and accompanied with the pulsing rhythms of the sun collected by NASA, resembling the Buddhist “Om,” the sound of our universe.

Second Skin

2016. UK. 20 min. Director: Charlie Manton. Featuring: Lauren McCrostie, Louis Partridge, Miranda Wilson.

The story of a girl in a cardboard box.

Sisters

2016. USA. 4 min. Director: David Chontos.

Part exercise of passion, and part love letter, Sisters is a fragment of some lost, tragic opera. Trapped in the ruins of their former glory, a pair of performers bound together and abandoned by time rise up to sing once more. A confluence of abstract concepts, from the fragility of modern technology, to the cruelty of the passage of time, this films is derived and set to the music of Karen Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray).

Sixteen

2015. USA/Trinidad and Tobago. 7 min. Director: Vashti Harrison. Featuring: Chandra Harrison.

A camera-less film composed with family photos and text, Sixteen explores the coming of age of director Vashti Harrison’s mother. In a family with a history of Alzheimer’s, it is an exploration in memory and what time can change.

Date

Sunday, November 6

Time

11:30 AM

Location

Downtown Mall : Violet Crown A

Film Info

Runtime: 67 min.

Genre: Shorts