Get yourself a ticket to the all digital film festival Filmocracy Fest
The first annual Filmocracy Film Festival is set to take place next month in Los Angeles, California. The festival will occur between December 3-6 and feature a robust slate of 44 films from over a dozen countries. In an effort to combat COVID-19, the festival will be presenting these films as both “scheduled virtual screenings and as on-demand viewing.”
Filmocracy is the world’s premiere digital screening and distribution platform, and they have organized the festival as a means of giving filmmakers an outlet during the COVID pandemic. Seminal film festivals like Sundance and/or SXSW have either delayed their usual dates or canceled outright, meaning there are dozens of unknown gems waiting to be discovered.
Here are some of the exciting events and screenings that people can look forward to participating in if they choose to attend the Filmocracy Film Festival.
Panels with industry professionals
The Filmocracy Film Festival will feature panels with industry professionals, as well as a mentorship program from 25 festival ambassadors. These ambassadors include Jasper Grey, Dan Harlow, Brian Newman, Mark Litwak, and Nick Reed. They will give lectures and provide critical insight into the filmmaking process.
In addition to appearances by festival ambassadors, the Filmocracy Film Festival will feature virtual conversations with Hollywood insiders and educators. Those seeking a more grounded perspective will also be treated to Q&A sessions with directors following select screenings.
Festival lineup
The Filmocracy Film Festival will screen five juried narratives and fifteen documentary features, which include award winners from other festivals. Furthermore, there will be four special presentations and sneak previews for the music documentaries José Feliciano: Behind This Guitar & Rock Camp.
Behind This Guitar is directed by Frank Licari & Helen Murphy, while Rock Camp is helmed by Douglas Blush. The former will feature a special musical performance by Feliciano himself. The narrative films that receive special presentation treatment are Izzy Lion, The Unspun Truth by Dan Lanigan and Mehran C. Torgoley; & When Today Ends by Michael Leoni. The latter will be premiering at the festival.
In addition to the feature length films, the Filmocracy Film Festival will screen five shorts: Futuristic Societies; Broken Pieces; Youth and Consequences; Diversity and Inclusion; and Inner Demons. You can view the rest of the festival lineup in the chart below.
| Section | Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREENING TIME | |
| Special Presentation | Izzy Lyon: The Unspun Truth (World Premiere) | Narrative | 2020 | Dan Lanigan, Mehran C. Torgoley | Dan Lanigan is a producer and writer, known for Prop Culture (2020), Fan-O-Rama (2016) and West Texas Investors Club (2015). Mehran C. Torgoley is known for his work on Committed (2014), Izzy Lyon: The Unspun Truth and Run (2013). | Llana Barron and Kody Frederick | Mehran C. Torgoley … (story by) (as Mehran Torgoley) and Llana Barron … (story by) and Dan Lanigan … (story by)Mehran C. Torgoley … (screenplay by) (as Mehran Torgoley) and Llana Barron … (screenplay by) and Dan Lanigan … (screenplay by) and Andy Klimczak |
USA | Izzy Lyon: The Unspun Truth recounts the murky life and loves of famed sign spinner, Izzy Lyon. It’s been twenty years since Izzy disappeared and only his most fervent fans have kept faith. A ragtag team of true believers are reuniting in order to uncover the truth of Izzy’s disappearance and the conspiracy to erase him from history.
They’ll investigate Izzy’s life in detail, from his meteoric early 80’s rise to his late 90’s downfall as they come to grips with the man behind the sign. What emerges is a relatively compelling portrait of a flawed human being Walter Cronkite once drunkenly referred to as “the Picasso of Sign Spinning.” It’s a story of greed, sex, and attempted murder. When you flaunt your wealth, run your mouth off, and defy physics, you’re going to make a few enemies. Anti-Izzy adversaries are still holding grudges and doing all they can to exclude Izzy Lyon from the Spinternational Hall of Fame. Armed with a hand puppet, flip-phone, and moxie, our Izzy fanatics have once again heroically banded together to restore the legacy and unravel the mysteries surrounding the legendary sign spinner. |
Phil LaMarr | 01:36;00 | English |
Live virtual screening on Friday, Dec. 4th @ 7:00pm PST with filmmaker Q&A to follow.
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| Special Presentation | Rock Camp | Documentary | 2020 | Douglas Blush | Douglas Blush and Jeff Rowe | Renee Barron | Douglas Blush | Kimberley Furst | USA | Summer camp meets Spinal Tap as we journey to Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp, in this documentary where dreamers from across America and around the world gather to shred with their heroes – and learn to rock like the legends. Featuring KISS singer Paul Stanley, Roger Daltrey of The Who, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, as well as Alice Cooper, Brian Wilson, Gene Simmons, Nancy Wilson, Sammy Hagar, Jeff Beck, Slash and countless other rock legends. | Meat Loaf, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, Roger Daltrey, Nancy Wilson, Paul Stanley | 1:27:00 | English |
Live virtual screening on Saturday, Dec. 5th @ 7:00pm PST with filmmaker Q&A to follow.
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| Special Presentation | When Today Ends | Narrative | 2020 | Michael Leoni | Michael Leoni is a writer/director known for American Street Kid, #WhenTodayEnds, Spare Some Change and Someplace in Between, which is the inspiration for his critically acclaimed play, “Elevator” that ran successfully in Los Angeles for a year and is now back up at The Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood – for more info & tickets please visit the website. Michael is the owner of his production company, An 11:11 Experience, which focuses on developing powerful stories and compelling characters that encourage people to see the world from a different point of view. Michael comes from the belief that art has the capacity to create connection, encourage compassion, engage audiences and inspire social change. His new book, Dare to Be Bad is a handbook for artists and for anyone wanting to be creative and is currently available on Amazon. | Michelle Kaufer and Michael Leoni | Michael Leoni | USA | When four teenagers post their personal stories online using the hashtag, #WhenTodayEnds, they have no idea the extent of their impact or how their stories will intersect. With no filter and complete abandon, Jenna, Nick, Megan and James all share their deepest, darkest secrets only to fall eerily down the same path. Collapsing under the pressures of bullying, depression, and self-identity, their lives slowly unravel, revealing the tragic connection that binds them all together. | Gavin Leatherwood, Kenny Johnston, Decker Sadowski | 01:37;00 | English | Live virtual screening on Thursday, Dec. 3rd @ 6:00pm PST with filmmaker Q&A to follow. | |
| Special Presentation | Jose Feliciano: Behind This Guitar | Documentary | 2020 | Frank Licari & Helen Murphy | Frank Licari (Story by) Helen Murphy (Story by) | USA | “José Feliciano: Behind This Guitar” chronicles the life and continuing career of nine-time GRAMMY/Latin GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement recipient, singer/guitarist José Feliciano. Revered as one the world’s greatest guitarists, Feliciano is the first Latin American to win Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Pop Vocal GRAMMY Awards and is the first global Latin crossover artist. He is a pioneer in successfully blending genres as well as being a masterful musical interpreter. His is the story of one of the greatest and arguably most underrated superstar artists of all time. His journey is a story about the quest of an American immigrant in pursuit of his dream to one day perform on the world stage. | José Feliciano, Emilio Estefan Jr. , Gloria Estefan, Rick Jarrard, Frank Licari, Rudy Pérez, Carlos Santana | 100 mins | English |
Live virtual screening on Sunday Dec. 6th @ 8:00pm PST with filmmaker Q&A to follow.
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| Section | Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREENING TIME | |
| Docs | Shadow Flowers | Documentary | 2019 | Seung-jun Yi | Born in 1971, YI Seung-jun is the multi-awards-winning director of Planet of Snail (Best Feature Documentary Award, IDFA 2011) and Wind on the Moon (IDFA 2014). His film Crossing Beyond (the Official 2018 Winter Olympics Film) was invited to the BIFF and the Tokyo Int’l Film Festival. He is also the director of In the Absence was invited to the DOC NYC 2018, Short Documentary Competition. |
Gary Byung-Seok Kam
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Korea, Republic of | A North Korean woman struggles to go back to her family in Pyongyang, North, Korea, but the political absurdity hinders her journey back to her loved ones. | Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean housewife, was forced to come to South Korea and became its citizen against her will. She tried to smuggle herself out and even sought political asylum at the Vietnamese Embassy but all in vain. As her political absurdity hinders her journey back to her loved ones. The life of her family in the North goes on in emptiness, and she fears that she might become someone, like a shadow, who exists only in the fading memory of her family. | 1:49:00 | Korean | Sunday, December 6th @ 1:30pm PST | ||
| Docs | 9/11 Kids | Documentary | 2020 | Elizabeth St. Philip | a |
Steve Gamester and Elizabeth St. Philip
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Canada | 1:28:00 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 4:00pm PST | ||||
| Docs | Things We Dare Not Do | Documentary | 2020 | Bruno Santamaría Razo | Bruno Santamaría (Mexico, 1986) is a cinematographer and documentary director from Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). Margarita was his directorial debut, but he has also worked in Ai WeiWei’s Vivos, The best thing you can do with your life by Zita Erffa and Artemio by Sandra Luz López, among others. Things we dare not do is his second film as a director. His work has been shown at festivals such as Berlinale, Hot Docs, FIPA, Sheffield Doc Fest, Camerimage, FICG and FICM. |
Abril López Carrillo
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Mexico |
Arturo is a teenager who plays with the free spirit of the younger kids he hangs around in his small coast village. When a violent situation disrupts the seemingly idyllic atmosphere, with its suggestion of corrosive machismo, Arturo bravely takes the bold step of coming out to his parents.
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1:11:00 | Spanish | Saturday, December 5th @ 9:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Babenco: Tell Me When I Die | Documentary, Biography | 2019 | Bárabara Paz | Barbara Paz is a Brazilian actress, director and producer. She graduated from the Macunaíma Theatre School and from the Antunes Centre for Theatre Research (CPT) and is a long-standing member of TAPA, a São Paulo based performing arts group. She has performed in over 25 plays by a wide range of playwrights from Oscar Wilde to Tennessee Williams. In 2013, in recognition of her distinguished acting career, the Ministry of Culture awarded her the Medalha Cavaleiro (Knight’s Medal). Barbara is also under permanent contract to TV Globo and has played in many of their soap operas and mini-series. She is the presenter of the Canal Brasil TV show ”A Arte do Encontro” (The Art of the Interview) in which she talks to well-known figures in Brazilian culture. She has performed in various feature length and short films, including Hector Babenco’s final film ‘My Hindu Friend’ in which she played opposite Willem Dafoe. She has also ventured into the area of shorts, producing and directing television shows and other films. The documentary ‘Babenco – Tell Me When I Die’ is her first feature-length film. Its première was at the Venice Film Festival 2019 where it won Best Documentary in the official Venice Classics competition, and also the Independent Critics Prize – Bisato D’oro. |
Myra Babenco and Bárbara Paz
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Brazil–Oscar Foreign Language submission |
“I have already lived my death and now all that is left is to make a film about it”. So said the filmmaker Hector Babenco to Bárbara Paz when he realized he did not have much time left. She accepted the challenge to fulfill the last wish of her late partner: to be the main protagonist in his own death.In this tender immersion into the life of one of the greatest filmmakers from South America, Babenco himself consciously bares his soul in intimate and painful situations. He expresses fears and anxieties, and also memories, reflections, and fantasies, in this face-off between his intellectual vigor and physical frailty, which were the hallmarks of his career.
From the onset of cancer at the age of 38 until his death at 70, Babenco made of the cinema his medicine and the nourishment that kept him alive. Babenco – Alguém tem que ouvir o coração e dizer: Parou is Bárbara Paz’s first feature film, but is also in a way Hector’s last work: a film about filming so never to die. |
1:15:00 | English, French, Portuguese, Spanish | Friday, December 4th @ 7:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Alice Street | Documentary | 2020 | Spencer Wilkinson | Spencer Wilkinson is a director and cinematographer, known for Alice Street (2020), Alice Street Short (2016) and One Voice: The Story of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (2018). |
Spencer Wilkinson
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USA |
Two artists form an unlikely partnership to paint their most ambitious mural to date in Oakland’s downtown, ground zero for gentrification. The mural is dedicated to the diverse cultural artists that intersect on the corner, who are threatened by displacement. As the mural paint dries, a luxury condo is planned that will obstruct the art and cultural history. The community decides to fight back.
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1:15:00 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 2:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Wall of Shadows | Documentary | 2020 | Eliza Kubarska | “Eliza is an award winning film director, producer, editor and… mom. Graduate of Academy of Fine Arts (sculpture, video arts) and Wajda School of Film Directing in Warsaw (Poland). Scholar of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art. Documentary filmmaker focused on human stories with enviromental background.Filmography: “What happened on Pam Island” (aka “ Mountain Love Story”, 63’, 2010/11, Grand Prix winner of Teplice n. Mentuji Mountain Film Festival and “Mario Bello” award at Trento FF) “Walking Under Water” (76’, 2014, winner of multiple awards including Hot Docs Jury Prize, Palm Springs Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival) “K2 Touching the Sky” (72’, 2015, HBO, premiered at Locarno FF, screened at IDFA, Best Feature Film in BANFF, Grand Prix winner of Kendal Mountain Festival, Best Director award at Bilbao Mendi Festival (Spain), Alpine Camera in Gold in Graz) |
Monika Braid | Poland/Nepal |
A Sherpa family breaks a taboo and climbs the most holy of mountains to earn money for their son’s education. They accompany a western expedition on East Wall of the Khumbakarna Mountain, a wall that has never been climbed before. ‘The Wall of Shadows’ tells the story of an encounter between a young Sherpa boy and an experienced western mountaineer at the foot of the sacred mountain. Will they face the wrath of mountain Gods?
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1:32:00 | English, Russian, Tibetan | Thursday, December 3rd @ 2:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | The Dilemma of Desire | Documentary | 2020 | Maria Finitzo | Maria Finitzo is a two-time Peabody Award-winning social issue documentary filmmaker whose 30 years as a filmmaker has resulted in a body of work that has won every major broadcast award including most recently the Alfred E. duPont Award and has been screened in festivals and theaters around the world. |
Maria Finitzo, Cynthia Kane and Diane Moy Quon
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USA |
Setting out to shatter the myths and outright lies women have been taught about their sexual desire and their bodies, THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE follows four compelling women as they intimately explore what it means for them to find their voice and the courage needed to own their sexuality. Committed to the truth – call it “Cliteracy,” the acknowledgement and understanding that the clitoris is fundamental to the female orgasm – these women (a conceptual artist, two scientists, and an industrial designer) are out to change our culture.
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1:48:00 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 7:30pm PST | |||
| Docs | Women in Blue | Documentary | 2020 | Deirdre Fishel | Deirdre Fishel is a teacher and independent filmmaker of both documentaries and dramas. Her films have premiered in competition at Sundance and SXSW and been broadcast in thirty-five countries worldwide. |
Deirdre Fishel, Aideen Kane and Beth Levison
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USA |
Women in Blue follows the stories of the women police officers in Minneapolis who try to reform the department and restore trust in the community after a high-profile police shooting forces its first female chief to resign.
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01:22;00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | The Euphoria of Being | Documentary | 2019 | Réka Szabó | Réka Szabó is a director and producer, known for The Euphoria of Being (2019) and Gyászfilm (2014). |
Marcell Gerö, Sára László and Réka Szabó
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Hungary |
Alone, Eva Fahidi returned home to Hungary after WWII. At 20 years of age, she had survived Auschwitz Birkenau, while 49 members of her family were murdered, including her mother, father, and little sister. Today, at age 90, Eva is asked to participate in a dance theatre performance about her life’s journey.
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01:23;00 | Hungarian | Sunday, December 6th @ 1:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Cured | Documentary | 2020 | Bennett Singer and Patrick Sammon | Bennett Singer is an award-winning New York-based filmmaker/writer with 20 years of experience. His feature-length film Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin premiered at Sundance, was broadcast nationally on PBS, and is currently airing on Logo/MTV. Patrick Sammon has a mix of experience in filmmaking, broadcast journalism, and LGBT political advocacy. He is President of Story Center Productions, LLC, a film production company based in Washington, DC. He is the Creator and Executive Producer of CODEBREAKER. |
Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer
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USA |
Five years in the making, CURED illuminates a pivotal yet largely unknown chapter in the struggle for LGBTQ equality: the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses.
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01:20;00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 2:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | My Darling Vivian | Documentary | 2020 | Matt Riddlehoover | Matt Riddlehoover is an award-winning, Nashville-based producer, director, and editor. His latest documentary, the SXSW/Amazon Prime premiere My Darling Vivian, was chosen by The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times as a “must-see” critics’ pick. Praised by Variety and Rolling Stone for “deftly illustrating” his “thoroughly engrossing” work, he recently received Special Jury Recognition from the 2020 Bentonville Film Festival for Excellence in Editing. |
Matt Riddlehoover and Dustin Tittle
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USA |
In 1951, Catholic schoolgirl Vivian Liberto meets handsome Air Force cadet Johnny Cash at her local San Antonio, Texas skating rink. Their whirlwind summer romance lays the foundation for a feverish three-year-long correspondence while Johnny is stationed in Germany. Thousands of letters later, the two marry upon his return in 1954.Within a year, a career blossoms and a family is started. By 1961, Johnny Cash is a household name, number one on the music charts, and perpetually on tour. Meanwhile, only two weeks postpartum, Vivian settles into their custom-built home in Casitas Springs, California with their four young daughters. Plagued by bobcats, rattlesnakes, all-hours visits from fans, and a growing resentment toward her husband’s absence, Vivian is pushed to a near breaking point when she and her daughters are targeted by hate groups over her perceived race.
In MY DARLING VIVIAN, we will meet the first Mrs. Cash as her daughters, Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy, and Tara, share with us first hand, for the first time, the entire story of love, isolation, fear, heartbreak, and survival. |
1:30 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 1:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Through the Night | Documentary | 2020 | Loira Limbal | Loira Limbal currently serves as the Senior Vice President for Programs for Firelight Media. Limbal is an Afro-Latinx filmmaker and DJ interested in the creation of art that is nuanced, revelatory and affirming for communities of color. |
Jameka Autry and Loira Limbal
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USA |
To make ends meet, people in the U.S. are working longer hours across multiple jobs. This modern reality of non-stop work has resulted in an unexpected phenomenon: the flourishing of 24-hour daycare centers. Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider – whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.
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01:12;00 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 5:30pm PST | |||
| Docs | Piano to Zanska | Documentary | 2018 | Michał Sulima | Michał Sulima is a Warsaw-born film director and a graduate of Photography from University of the Arts London. Piano to Zanskar is his independent debut, marking an entrance into feature-length and documentary formats. | Jarek Kotomski | UK |
Facing future in retirement, a 65-year old piano tuner, Desmond O’Keeffe, decides instead to take on the most challenging delivery of
his career: transporting a 100-year old Broadwood & Sons piano from London to a primary school in a faraway Buddhist village, some 14,000 feet above sea level, deep in the Indian Himalayas. The expedition will take him through a world on a brink of change, filled with equal measure serenity and hardship. What may end up being the highest piano delivery in history, may also become the ultimate gesture of music’s universal power: bridging cultures, inspiring strength and bringing joy. |
01:26;00 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 700pm PST | |||
| Docs | Op. Cope (An Algorithmic Opera) | Documentary | 2020 | Jae Shim | Jae is an independent filmmaker with roots in film photography and documentary production. He gravitates towards other people, places, and times, mining for poetry in the natural world. Jae has been featured on ‘SoCal Connected’ and is a Warner Bros. Emerging Film Directors Workshop finalist. |
Alex Tao and Jae Shim
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USA |
David Cope was commissioned to write an opera in the 80’s when he suffered a major composer’s block, sparking interest in a cybernetic partner. After years of programming, he produced an algorithm named EMI, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, that could generate compelling works in the style of western classical music composers. Widely recognized as a champion of artificial creativity, he wields a body of work that spans art, astronomy, and literature, in addition to music. In his latest book, David explores what it means to be creative from human and machine perspectives while sharing past, present, and future inventions.
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01;12:00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 8:00pm PST | |||
| Docs | Landfall | Documentary | 2020 | Cecilia Aldarondo | Cecilia Aldarondo is an award-winning documentary director-producer whose work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, Field of Vision, IFP, the Jerome Foundation, and many others. |
Ines Hofmann Kanna
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USA |
This visually striking, kaleidoscopic portrait of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria criss-crosses the island to document the resilience of a community banding together to rebuild. A compassionate and stirring cinematic essay, LANDFALL examines the dual environmental and economic crises of not only a natural disaster, but the disaster of American colonialism and its economic legacies. Directed by Cecilia Aldarondo (Memories of A Penitent Heart, Tribeca 2016). |
01:31;00 | English, Spanish | Sunday, December 6th @ 5:00pm PST | |||
| Section | Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREENING TIME | |
| Narratives | Touch | Romance, Thriller | 2020 | Aleksandra Szczepanowska | Aleksandra SZCZEPANOWSKA is a New York-based writer/director/producer. Prior to TOUCH, her first narrative feature, she wrote/directed/produced short films including LET IT RING, which she co-wrote and co-directed with her artistic partner Jean Luc Ormieres, and which premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2013. Together they also made NAKED SOLES, a mystery drama shot in Paris, sponsored by UniFrance, which won Best Short Film on Polish FilmWeb in 2012. Previous to her work as a filmmaker and performer, Aleksandra worked in environment and energy in Africa, China, Europe and the US. She holds a BA from Columbia College and an MA from Columbia University. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Polish, French and English. |
Aleksandra Szczepanowska | Aleksandra Szczepanowska | USA | Fei Fei, a married Caucasian western woman living in a small town in China with her family, meets a Chinese blind masseur. The two are powerfully drawn to one another and against all odds, they come together in an intense love affair — a turning point in both their lives from which there is no return. | Aleksandra Szczepanowska, Jun Yang, Jiangwei Yuan, Beckhan | 1:36:00 | Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, English | Sunday, December 6th @ 8:00pm PST | |
| Narratives | The Wishing Tree (World Premiere) | Drama | 2020 | Laura Adamo | Pasha Patriki | Laura Adamo, Dominic Auld and Stephen Chambers | Canada | The Wishing Tree is the story of one woman’s hiking expedition initiated as a quest for perspective, peace, answers and ultimately a way to heal from personal tragedy. While hiking, Julia, runs into Caleb and Ryan, two guys who are also dealing with their own demons. An unexpected journey of self-discovery and transformation that illustrates, sometimes hope can be discovered in the most unlikely ways. The film is set against the most stunning backdrop of the Northern Ontario hiking trails. | Laura Adamo, Sebastien Roberts, Altair Vincent, Jake Michaels | 1:25:00 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 7:30pm PST | ||
| Narratives | Her Name Was Jo | Adventure | 2020 | Joe Duca | Award-winning indie writer-director Joe Duca is currently touring with his debut feature-length film, Evergreen (2019), winner of the Houston Broadcast Critics Association’s Best Picture, Best Actress, & Best Supporting Actress Awards, Hunter Mountain Film Festival’s Best Director, and the Fort Worth Indie Film Showcases Audience Choice Award, among others. Next he’s gearing up to unveil his second full-length feature film, Her Name Was Jo, in 2020. Joe Duca moved to Los Angeles from Northern Virginia a little over five years ago after graduating with a degree in Philosophy from Christendom College, a distinguished liberal arts school in the Shenandoah Valley. Once in L.A. he studied acting at the prestigious Stella Adler Academy and screenwriting through the Act One Program, which has trained over 900 industry professionals, in addition to receiving mentorship from Joe Aaron, co-creator of Disney’s Doug, and the award-winning playwright and screenwriter Corey Mandell, who has written projects for Ridley Scott, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, John Travolta, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and Walt Disney Pictures. In addition to a bevy of shorts, music videos, and testimonials, Joe’s completed three screenplays, produced and directed two features, and is committed to creating thoughtful, inclusive, and compassionate cinema for years to come. |
Fred Duca, Joe Duca, Jasper Granderath and Liza Mann | Joe Duca | USA | Ten year old Jo spends her days along the Shenandoah River with her best friend Selma, fishing, scrapping for metal-surviving. But when her abusive junkie stepdad dies, Jo decides, Selma in tow, to dump the body, steal the car, and set off across the country in search of her real dad, a legendary folk singer in Los Angeles. | Jim Constable, Daniel Duca, Elisa Duca | 01:43;00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:30pm PST | |
| Narratives | In Action | Action, Comedy | 2020 | Eric Silvera and Sean Kenealy | Sean Kenealy (Writer/Actor) – Sean is an actor and writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York. His plays have been staged in New York and Chicago at 13th Street Repertory, Gorilla Tango Theater, Brooklyn’s Impact Festival, Frigid Festival, and with The 52nd Street Project. His fiction has been published with Scapegoat Journal and The Promethean. Favorite action movie: The Rock. Eric Silvera (Writer/Actor) – Eric is a New York-based writer and comedian. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Nerve, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Underground Voices, and HYPERtext Magazine, won Slice Magazine’s “Bridging the Gap” prize, and was shortlisted for Matrix Magazine’s 2010 Lit POP award. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. Additionally, he performs stand-up throughout New York, has opened for Jeff Garlin, Dave Attell, and Judah Friedlander, and appeared in the Boston Comedy Festival’s New York extension several times. Favorite action movie: Die Hard. Favorite Seagal Flick: Out For Justice (but sometimes Marked For Death). |
Alex Nordenson and Eli Samuel | Eric Silvera and Sean Kenealy | USA | Sean and Eric are just two bumbling screenwriters drafting the “next big action flick”, utterly oblivious to the insanity that awaits when the government intercepts their script, believing it to be a veritable terrorist plot. | Eric Silvera, Sean Kenealy | 01:19;00 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 7:00pm PST | |
| Narratives | The Brain That Wouldn’t Die | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi | 2020 | Derek Carl | Derek Carl is a director and producer based out of New York, NY. He was born in Seattle, Washington, and studied Civil Engineering at Gonzaga University. But after graduating, Derek couldn’t help but pursue his passion for film, and later moved to Portland, Oregon where he began his filmmaking career. | Derek Carl, Hank Huffman, Molly Preston, and Daniel Timothy Treacy | Rex Carlton , Joseph Green, Hank Huffman | USA | After a fateful car accident, a gifted surgeon revives his fiancée’s severed head in hopes of finding her a new body. | Rachael Perrell Fosket, Patrick D. Green, David Withers, Jason Reynolds | 01:22;00 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 9:30pm PST | |
| Section | Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREENING TIME | |
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Shorts Program I – Futuristic Societies
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| Everything I Learned Came from the Television | Sci-Fi | Jeremy Stewart | N/A | Jeremy Stewart | Jeremy Stewart | USA | In the start of a dystopian future, televisions have started to enslave humans. The TV’s have had one successful test subject, Protector, and now that they have their first real subject in front of them, they need to keep testing their powers through Hannah. Will she escape? Or will she fall victim to their will? | Josh Wingate, Brittany Lynn Blanchard, Kristen Vaganos, Stephanie Drak, Mayank Bhatte | 14:54 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 9:00pm PST | |||
| It’s Okay | Sci-Fi | Justin Giddings & Ryan Partrick Welsh | N/A | Audrey Flegel & Stephen Laferriere | USA | In the style of Black Mirror, It’s Okay follows a couple as their circumstances take an unexpected turn, in this futuristic, Sci-Fi short. Cam and Alex are living a simple, un-extraordinary life, when strange things suddenly start happening. Will they uncover the truth before they lose one another? | Audrey Flegel, Stephen Laferriere, Rebekah Walendzak, Heather Ensley | 9:02 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 9:00pm PST | ||||
| Alice | Sci-Fi | Andrew Ramirez | Writer, producer, director, author Andrew Ramirez, born near Detroit MI 1986, began his film career in advertising producing TV broadcast spots for local small businesses via his agency business, RezSocial. Andrew has produced countless video adverts for many clients across the US in several states. Ramirez enjoys creating entertaining content for viewers and providing a working platform for other local creatives to thrive. ALICE is Andrew Ramirez’s first short film venture. | Andrew Ramirez | Andrew Ramirez | USA | A new proprietary smart home device, ALICE, is always listening to make life easier. When a naive Annabelle searches for romance via a new dating app, she finds an unearthly attractive and peculiar lover. Is luck the matchmaker or is ALICE? | Maeyson Menzel | 10:00 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 9:00pm PST | |||
| Slice of Life | Sci-Fi | Dino Julius and Luka Hrgović | Dino Julius is known for his work on Slice of Life (2019), The Egg (2019) and Berlin Sci-fi Presents (2020). | Dino Julius, Luka Hrgović, and Rachele Wiggins | Dino Julius, Luka Hrgović, Anton Svetić | Croatia | A low-life drug dealer tries to turn his life around, but finds himself at the mercy of fate when he encounters a cop with an agenda of his own. | Anton Svetić, Ivica Pustički | 19:55 | English | Thursday, December 3rd @ 9:00pm PST | |||
| Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREEN TIME | ||
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Shorts Program III – Broken Pieces
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| I am Normal | Narrative Short | Olia Oparina | Anya Bay and Olia Oparina | Anya Bay | USA | A sane woman fakes the symptoms of a mentally unstable patient in order to be admitted into a mental institution for a secret psychiatric experiment. Inspired by the Rosenhan Experiment of 1973. | Nora-Jane Noone, Saul Rubinek, Susan Moore Harmon, Anya Bay, Chopper Bernet, Alexander Karavay, David Figlioli | 19:40 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 4:00 pm PST | ||||
| Pizza Party |
Drama, Dark Comedy
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Tessa Hope Slovis | Tessa Slovis is a first time director based in Los Angeles. She began her career as an actor at age 9, and has appeared in 20+ musicals and plays in NYC, LA and regionally, and can be seen on screen in Law and Order SVU, The Affair, Indie Film “Actor Seeks Role” (alongside Pizza Party producer Dylan Baker) and SXSW 2020 Grand Jury Prize Film Shithouse. As a writer, her solo play “The Question Of My Virginity” was an official selection of the NYC Flying Solo Festival. She is the co-writer/ performer of the cabaret series, “Swipe Right/Swipe Left: Love in The Age of Tinder” which has headlined at NYC’s Don’t Tell Mama and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Her short stories and personal essays have been featured in Bustle.com and the Huffington Post blog.
She holds a BA in Anthropology from Barnard College and an MFA in acting from the University of Southern California. She is a proud Latina Merit Scholar and the recipient of the 2019 USC Marshall School Of Business Performance Science Scholarship for her novel “Steep” which is currently in process. |
Gene Gallerano, Kyrha Lever, Tessa Hope Slovis | Tessa Hope Slovis | USA | “We are not broken, we are a million shattered pieces glued into something strong and solid” Based on a true event preceding the Larry Nassar trials, an unlikely pair come together at a dystopian pizza party for sexual assault survivors. #42; A quiet high schooler meets #1; A quick-witted litigator due with her first child any day now- flanked lovingly by her husband Max. Their relationship blooms and #42 becomes #1’s greatest teacher. Through solidarity, #42, #1 and every woman in the room begin to reconcile with and acknowledge the innocence that was taken away from them. Opening a portal into a dream-like world of leotards and little girl cries, of strength, joy and unrelenting fury. | Margot Bingham, Jen Ponton, Catherine Elvir, Gene Gallerano | 12:20 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 4:00 pm PST | |||
| Girl in the Hallway |
True Crime, Horror, Film Noir, Documentary
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Valerie Barnhart | VALERIE BARNHART is an independent animator and visual artist based out of Ottawa, Canada. Her interdisciplinary practice is exploratory in nature but revolves specifically around the dynamics of silence and inaction as a form of violence.
Valerie earned her BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design as a Visual Arts Major: with a studio specialty in Printmaking, Drawing, and an academic emphasis in Decolonization Politics and Non Western Art. |
Valerie Barnhart | Jamie Dewolf | Canada | Why does ‘Little Red Riding hood’ give Jamie nightmares? It’s been 15 years, and the girl in the hallway haunts him still. This is a testament to locked doors. A lullaby sung by wolves with duct tape and polaroids. Not all children make it out of the forest. Some stories children shouldn’t hear. | Jamie Dewolf | 10:12 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 4:00 pm PST | |||
| Vertical: The Future of Farming |
Documenary Short
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Scott Morris and Jay Windland |
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Scott Morris has produced and directed a number of documentary films including White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in America. He is the Creative Director at Waka Waka Studios, where he’s directed commercials and web videos garnering a global audience of more than 25 million viewers. Jay is a Seattle-based documentary filmmaker and photographer. Starting from a background in broadcast news, he went on to contribute cinematography to documentary films including: When I Walk and On a Scale of 1 to 10, in addition to creating branded content for companies like SpaceX and Redfin. Over the last few years, Jay has had the opportunity to capture stories for media outlets like Money Magazine and Discovery Science, as well as direct live broadcasts for major recording artists at the Sasquatch! and Upstream Music Festivals. |
USA |
Vertical: The Future of Farming follows a new generation of urban, indoor farmers, whose approach to food production offers the potential to combat climate change while feeding hundreds of millions. From New York City, to Portland, Oregon to Singapore, these farmers are turning agricultural conventions on their head by utilizing vertical space in cities, rather than expansive rural fields. The result, according to retired Columbia Professor Dickson Despommier, represents the “next evolutionary jump in humanity’s quest for a reliable, sustainable food supply.”
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15:39 | English | Saturday, December 5th @ 4:00 pm PST | ||||||
| Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREEN TIME | ||
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Shorts Program II – Youth and Consequences
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| Popper Fly |
Drama, Fashion, Environment
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Douglas Bensadoun | Douglas Bensadoun is an award-winning filmmaker and entrepreneur from Montreal, Canada. He studied film theory at the Paris-Sorbonne University, and has produced and directed numerous films including At The Quinte Hotel (2002), a short film that garnered critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, Au Suivant (2005) and the upcoming short Popper Fly (2019). An accomplished Creative Director, he is also the co-founder of Studio Bonafide, a New York City-based brand development agency specializing in arts and culture, fashion and non-profit organizations. | Douglas Bensadoun and Charlie Hicks | Douglas Bensadoun | Canada | Set in a frozen landscape on the day of her grandfather’s funeral, Popper Fly tells the story of a young girl coming to terms with love and loss. Having refused to attend the funeral with her mother and father, Cameron sets out on a perilous and secret mission to recover an object of great affection. What is it that she seeks? Will she make it safely back home? Will her parents discover the truth? | Sloan Bensadoun, Liane Balaban, Patrick John Costello, Roland Tremble | 13:41 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:30 pm PST | |||
| Haengsyo | Narrative Short | Aaron Field |
Aaron Field is a filmmaker currently residing in Burbank, California. Aaron was turned onto filmmaking at a young age and started pursuing the field seriously in high school in Olympia, WA. Before graduating, Aaron’s films had received multiple accolades, including local, regional and national festivals and placing as a finalist in the Young Filmmaker category of the My Rode Reel competition, the largest online short film competition in the world. Aaron loves music films, comedies and action, and dabbles in fight choreography and video essays on his YouTube channel. He recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from The New York Film Academy with a BFA in Film.
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USA |
Stuck in standstill traffic, a young boy tries to spark a connection with a girl in the next lane over.
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6:23 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:30 pm PST | ||||||
| Sticky | Comedy, Drama | Cameron Johanning | The son of a painter and potter, Johanning began his film career as a camera assistant at National Geographic. Inspired by stories he encountered on assignment, he began to write his own. Eventually, with New York Fringe Festival winner Sean Peter Drohan, he co-wrote the script for “Sticky”. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, receiving the most prestigious creative arts award, the Alex Adam Scholarship. | Brent Bettes | Cameron Johanning and Sean Peter Drohan | USA | A boarding school student is whisked home to Chappaqua, NY to find out that her favorite bakery has been baking more than just sticky buns. | Daniel Cosgrove (Billions, You) , Katie Balen (The Interestings) | 10:55 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:30 pm PST | |||
| 1,2,3 All Eyes On Me | Narrative Short | Emil Gallardo | In June of 2020, Emil was selected by HBO as a fellow in their Directing Fellowship. He is a Mexican American writer/director from Los Angeles who started his career in the AD department. After working on a variety of productions from commercials to independent features to studio TV shows, Emil left ADing to focus on writing and directing. Emil’s stories usually deal with difficult topics and are motivated by building empathy for the characters and the worlds they live in. 1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me, his current film, is no exception. 1, 2, 3 is just beginning its festival run and has been an official selection of four Oscar-qualifying festivals, nominated for the John Singleton Impact Award, won Best of Fest, Best Short, Best Performance and Best Director, and been nominated for several other awards. | Emil Gallardo and My-Hanh Lac | Emil Gallardo and Derek Ho | USA | When a crisis suddenly engulfs an elementary school campus, Ms. Leena, a determined art teacher, tries everything she can to save her frightened class. | Farelle Walker, Blanca Ordaz, Armand Munoz | 15:00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 5:30 pm PST | |||
| Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREEN TIME | ||
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Shorts Program IV- Diversity and Inclusion
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| Freezerburn |
Dark Comedy, Absurdist, Surrealist, Dramedy, Goofy, Queer
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Sarah Rattay-Maloney | Ben Lorenz and Sonia Mena and Rasquache Productions | Sonia Mena and Ben Lorenz | USA | Lou loves Sam and Sam loves Lou and it’s all going swimmingly until one night Lou’s secret, followed by a magical cat, breaks their whole world apart. An absurdist comedy about queerness, finding yourself, a cat who’s sometimes a cat and sometimes a person dressed like a cat….also a guy named Ray?!? | Sonia Mena, Ben Lorenz, Julius Powell, John Wollman | 0:12:00 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 9:00 pm PST | ||||
| Landline |
Documentary, Experimental, Short
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Matt Houghton | Matt Houghton is an award-winning filmmaker who has had short films screened at festivals around the world. His film Dear Araucaria, made in partnership with the Guardian, was released in 2015 to much acclaim, winning the Audience Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest. In 2015 he worked as the second unit director on documentary feature Notes On Blindness before being selected to be part of the class of ‘16 on the BFI’s NET.WORK@LFF professional development programme late last year. Matt is represented by Pulse Films. |
Rupert Williams and Alistair Payne-James
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United Kingdom | Landline is a short documentary about the only helpline in the UK for gay farmers. Through a series of recorded telephone conversations and reconstructive visuals, the film uses the helpline as a lens through which to view the experiences of LGBTQ people in the British farming community. In a world that prizes traditional masculinity and in which ideas of ancestry are fundamental, being gay can be isolating. Candid, intimate and shocking, Landline is a snapshot of a group of people bound together by circumstance but so often disconnected from each other. | Jem Dobbs, Jonathan Blake, Richard Price, Alex Thompson, Niamh Blackshaw, Bradley Johnson, Valerie Bundy, Elise Cummings, Alex Noblett, Daniel Breeze, Conor Patterson, Oliver Devoti, Simon Manley, Sam Ma, Milan Ng, Ken Ng, Frank Lum, Keiko Sudo, Jyh Cheong | 0:12:07 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 9:00 pm PST | ||||
| Crush | Narrative Short | Leela Varghese | Leela Varghese | Leela Varghese | Australia | It appears Lizzy has an obsession with novelty candles. But the truth is her “burning” desire isn’t for candles, it’s for the girl selling them. Will she work up the courage to ask her out or will she just buy out the whole store? | Shabana Azeez , Erin Paterson, Leela Varghese | 0:06:37 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 9:00 pm PST | ||||
| Coronation | Short, Student | Dhruv Sud | Dhruv Sud is a Writer / Director currently completing his MFA at Columbia University. | Grace Merriman | Dhruv Sud | USA | In this rhinestone encrusted fable, a young boy sneaks out from his parents’ home in New Jersey to see his drag queen friends in New York City. While there, he is encouraged to try drag for the first time and he is crowned queen for a night. | Dash Katz, Yuhua Hamasaki (RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 10) , Zenobia Teague (Pose, Fran This Summer, Broadly), Bambina, The Blair Bitch | 0:12:58 | English | Friday, December 4th @ 9:00 pm PST | |||
| Title | Genre | Year | Director | Director Bio | Producer | Screenwriter (if Narrative) | Country | Synopsis | Cast/ Featuring | Run Time | Language | SCREEN TIME | ||
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Shorts Program V – Inner Demons
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| Malakout |
Animation, Short
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Farnoosh Abedi | Farnoosh Abedi was born in 1985 in Isfahan. He has made more than 20 short animated films and TV series and documentaries. His films was presented and screened in more than 100 domestic and international film festivals. | Ali Gholami | Farnoosh Abedi | Iran |
A Piano player, tries to give his wife’s life back with trading his hands. But the new hands awaken the devil’s forces inside him.
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11:24 | English | Sunday, December 6th @ 5:00pm PST | ||||
| Midnight Movie : Magnum Opus | Horror, Thriller | Myriam Khammassi | After starting a career in communication and webmarketing, I decided to follow my dreams and become a filmmaker. Writing and directing movies is like giving birth, it’s all about magic ! | Higher School of Audiovisual and Cinema | Myriam Khammassi | Tunisia | In his quest for the perfect sculpture, aiming to reproduce the human body and especially the flesh, Slim, a sculptor, will go as far as kill to create the perfect exposure, the perfect mix between pulp and clay. | Aymen Ben Hamida | 12:48 | Arabic | Sunday, December 6th @ 5:00pm PST | |||
| Guard |
Action, Drama, Thriller
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Jose Escorcia | Filmmaker from San Francisco California. Moved to Los Angeles to pursue film and hopefully achieve the goal of making feature films as a long term career. | Maria Ezobi | Jose Escorcia | USA | In a world where crime rules the streets, two brothers try to get a debt off with the mob the only way they know how, BOXING! | Hayden Wood, Kirk Lacy, Josh Brooks, Scott Gold | 21:18 | English | Sunday, December 6th @ 5:00pm PST | |||
| The Lonely Duck | Narrative Short | Kexin Gao | Kexin Gao (Kaia Gao) is a filmmaker trained both in China and the United States. Currently she is studying film directing in Columbia University. Her works focus on people who aren’t meant to be tamed. She used to work as a documentary director in Beijing before, and her works has been shortlisted for the Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Imagine This Women’s Film Festival, Pune Short Film Festival, the 7th China Academy Awards of Documentary Film, the 15th Vision Youth Awards etc. | Ziheng He | Kexin Gao | China | As the drought approaches in Qing River, Cheng is struggling to make ends meet, as his daughter needs money for school. His wife expects him to leave the river and work on the land. Cheng keeps trying to gather money but without any success. One day, an unforseen stranger came on the boat, requesting Cheng with stacks of money to look for a corpse… | Hu Zhang | 15:00 | Chinese | Sunday, December 6th @ 5:00pm PST |
Virtual access
The virtual aspect of the festival was masterminded by Filmocracy cofounder & CEO Paul Jun and veteran festival programmer Jon Fitzgerald. They made a platform that allows filmmakers and students to have a three-dimensional digital experience with “carefully curated film programming and interactive conversations with filmmakers, industry leaders, educators, and more.”
Because the festival is virtual, passholders can visit Filmocracy Fest at any time they choose. There will be films on demand, as well as happy hours in the virtual “saloon” and an “Impact Expo” where passholders and filmmakers alike can discuss the impact that the medium has had on their lives.
Fitzgerald believes the Filmocracy Film Festival will point toward the future of festival programming as a whole. “We will combine online screenings and Q&As with unique digital experiences, script readings, and networking opportunities,” he explained. “As the modern film festival experience is being reinvented, Filmocracy Fest endeavors to create an exciting and productive experience for filmmakers, industry, and audiences alike.”
How to attend
Tickets for the Filmocracy Film Festival go on sale Thursday, November 19th. There are multiple options, namely the All-Access VIP Pass, which costs $99.00 and allows entry to all festival screenings, events, panels and mentorship. Other ticketing options include the Industry Pass for $45 and the Day Pass, which costs $25 per day.
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