Virginia Film Festival

Program followed by Q&A with filmmakers from Home of the Brave (Ian Michael Welfley), Father Figure (Benjamin Willis-Teff), and Tug (Mia Gualtieri), and Me + Lee (Claire Ozah).

Me + Lee
2021. USA. 15 min. Director: Giorgio Miraflor. Featuring: Giorgio Miraflor, Johnny Manibusan, Nick Alexander Payne

Current recluse Theo strikes up a conversation that he didn’t realize he needed with his pizza delivery guy.

Tug
2022. USA. 10 min. Director: Mia Gualtieri. Featuring: Boomie Pedersen, Dinah Pehrson

When Jenny and Victoria meet outside of their apartment building, they find out they have more in common than a street address. Their budding relationship is challenged after the discovery of a missing package.

Home of the Brave
2021. USA. 20 min. Director: Ian Michael Welfley. Featuring: Isaac Nevria, James Edward Becton

In a quiet bar on a late summer’s eve, a chess match ensues between Liam Walker and Omar Richardson; two scarred veterans of America’s foreign wars.

Deerwoods Deathtrap
2022. USA. 9 min. Director: James Gannon. Featuring: John W. Gannon, Elizabeth Gannon

50 years ago Jack and Betty were hit by a train and survived. This is their story.

Father Figure
2022. USA. 9 min. Director: Benjamin Willis-Teff. Featuring: Phillip Andre Botello, Bryan Patrick McCulley, Jude Friedman, Melissa Drew

Left alone with his stepfather on the Fourth of July, a reluctant boy awaits his father’s return in hopes of watching fireworks together.

Ousname
2022. USA. 25 min. Director: Jorge Camarotti. Featuring: Kloë-Cassandre Bell, Issaka Sawadogo, Nadine Jean, Paul Batah, Marie-Ginette Guay, Rahul Gandhi, Marie-Louise Bell

Feeling uprooted and looking for a purpose, Ousmane, a newly arrived Burkinabé immigrant living in Montreal, has his life take a turn when he meets an elderly, disoriented lady, Edith, at the end of a long workday.