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Congrats to Award Winners at DCIFF 2024

DC Independent Film Festival

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February 28, 2024

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Best in Fest eVil Sublet dir. by Allan Piper (USA) Feature – Documentary Feast Your Ears dir. by Jay Schlossberg (USA) Feature – …

Award Winners for the 2024 DCIFF High School Film Competition

DC Independent Film Festival

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February 24, 2024

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Animation: Honorable mentions 2nd place 1st place Live action – Honorable mentions 2nd place 1st place Audience award

THE 2024 DC INDEPENDENT FILM FORUM

Wednesday, February 21st – February, 25th

Run Raven Run

Wolfpack

directed by Cédric Peyster – Le Roux; Lead Cast: Damas Roy, Romain Léon, David Lancelin Guerrero, Solène Guittenit, Luna Ribeiro, Dionéa Daboville.
(France/ 2023/ 52mins)

In a not too distant future, the youth have decided to get back at the older generations and start hunting them at night. Matthieu, 50 years old, will have to survive the pack that is chasing him.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Student at the International Film School of Paris (EICAR) between 2007 and 2010, working at Robin&Co for the post-production department for 2 years then TV broadcasting for 5 years at Ericsson Broadcast System (Canal+, TF6, TV5, RMC Découverte). Wolfpack (2023) is his first non student film and was produced by Lux Obscura Productions, a french non profit association.
Other projects are in development.

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When Adam Changes

directed by Joël Vaudreuil
(Canada/2023/ 1.33mins/animation)

Adam is a 15-year-old teenager whose body changes according to the mockery and negative comments he receives from those around him. This only adds a layer of complexity to those already present in his life.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market
Time: Saturday, Feb 24th (2:15pm-3:50pm)

About the Director

When Adam changes, which will be released in 2023, is the first feature film written and directed by Joël Vaudreuil.

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The Needle and the Damage Done

directed by Kevin Molony; Key Cast: Garry Stewart, Floss Ross, Finlay McLean and Charles Donnel.
(UK/2024/67mins)

The mundane life of a Glaswegian middle aged couple is disrupted by on the one hand a recurring dream of a life changing meeting and on the other celebrity status as a champion knitter. The consequences play out in a way no-one could have imagined.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Kevin Molony graduated in 1982 with a First Class Honours Degree in Film &TV. He has directed pop promos for the likes of CHAKA KHAN, A-HA and SWING OUT SISTER , as well as title sequences for BBC programmes ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘The Lenny Henry Show’. From 1989 he concentrated on commercials and has won numerous awards (Clios/One Show/ London International Advertising awards/ BTAA/D&AD/Epica/etc. ) in the UK , US and Europe. Major jobs include The UK National Lottery launch, Nike, BMW, Heineken, Toyota, Lion Bar, Sony Playstation, Michelin, Heineken, O2.

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For ALL HAVE SINNED

directed by John Sellman; Key Cast: Devon Floyd, Victoria Laurey, Lisa Anderson, Michael O’Neal.
(France/ 2023/ 52mins)

Trying to find direction and peace after the unexpected death of his mother, Mano embarks on a destructive path living by the scripture “for all have sinned and fallen short of His glory” (Romans 3:23) to justify his rage.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Energy, excitement, and creativity are just a few words to describe what John Sellman, Jr. delivers through his abilities as a creative. As a writer, director, singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor and even radio host, John continues to wear many hats in the arts. His presence in society is represented by his passion and drive to create great works.

John began his journey in film as a music producer and actor in 2017 for the stage play, turned movie, “What If", produced by a Baltimore based production company lead by Sharee Harris. In that production, he assumed partial responsibility as the Second Assistant Director. He would continue to solidify those roles for the movie "Broken", 2019 and various on screen projects. In 2020 John took on a new challenge as a screen writer, and also making his directorial debut for the highly anticipated movie “For All Have Sinned”. “We all have a story, put a beat behind it and share your song with the world.” -John Sellman, Jr.

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eVil Sublet

directed by Allan Piper; Key Cast: Jennifer Leigh Houston, Sally Struthers, Charley Tucker, Pat Dwyer, Stephen Mosher, Leanne Borghesi, Patrick Wang, Helen Hong.
(USA/2023/1:45mins)

A couple finds their dream apartment in New York’s East Village (AKA the eVil). Who cares if it’s haunted by a horde of murderous ghosts if the rent is cheap and it’s got an eat-in kitchen, right?

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Allan Piper may be best known to some viewers for his live fact-checks of the former president. Allan was NowThis' supervising politics producer throughout the Trump presidency, which was a different kind of horror story.

eVil Sublet is Allan's third feature film. He produced and directed the George-Takei-narrated documentary, Married and Counting, which tells the story of two men in pre-marriage-equality America who celebrated 25 years together by traveling the country to get married in every state that would let them. Huffington Post called it “one of the most relevant, heartfelt, and timely documentaries of the year… a brilliant gem.” Allan’s first feature was the cult comedy, Starving Artists, which the Boston Globe called one of “the best films you’ve probably never seen.”

Having worked as a filmmaker for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Allan is the only person ever to do online video rapid response for multiple presidential nominees. Allan also has produced and/or edited TV shows for networks including ABC, CNN, Bravo, MTV, TLC, Discovery, Food Network, History Channel, Travel Channel, Animal Planet, and PBS.

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No Right Way

directed by Chelsea Bo. Key Cast: Chelsea Bo, Ava Acres, Eliza Coupe.
(USA/2023/1:43mins)

Georgie, a brazen tween, is thrust into the guardianship of her half-sister Harper whose attempts to parent only lead to exposing their paralleled childhood wounds.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Chelsea Bo is a writer/director with a theater and improv background. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & Television and was selected for both Film Independent’s Incubator Lab and Village Roadshow’s Emerging Talent Program. Chelsea co-founded the production company Paxeros with her husband/producing partner Sean Drummond, and together they have produced three feature films, including Joshua Leonard’s Fully Realized Humans (Tribeca, 2020) and Sarah Adina Smith’s The Drop (Tribeca, 2022). No Right Way is her feature directorial debut.

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The Concierge

directed by Yoshimi Itazu
(USA/2023/1:10mins)

Akino is a trainee concierge at the Hokkyoku Department Store, an unusual department store that caters exclusively to animals. Under the watchful eyes of the floor manager and senior concierges, Akino runs around to fulfill the wishes of customers with a myriad of needs and problems in her pursuit to become a full-fledged concierge.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Born in 1980, Itazu started working in the anime industry at the age of 18. He worked as an animator for "KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops" series (2004), "Paprika" (2006), and "The Wind Rises" (2013). He served as the character designer, animation director, and an animator for "MISS HOKUSAI" (2015), and he was the co-assistant animation director for "The Deer King" (2022). He made his TV series directorial debut with "Welcome to the Ballroom" (MBS/2017), and "The Concierge" is his anime film directorial debut.

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No One Asked You

directed by Ruth Leitman
(USA/2023/100mins)

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.
Times: February 24th (6:00pm - 8:30pm) -SOLD OUT!

Attend 2nd Screening: February 25th (3:00pm - 5:30pm)
Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Comedian, disruptor-extraordinaire Lizz Winstead (co-creator The Daily Show) and her team Abortion Access Front crisscross the U.S. to support abortion clinic staff and bust stigma. Pop culture icons and next-gen comics fuel this six-year road film activating small-town folks to rebuild vandalized clinics, exposing wrongdoer politicians, domestic terrorists, and media neglect as the race to the bottom ensues. A bold call to action reminds us that when the patriarchy burns down, joy will prevail.

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An Open Door

directed by John Alexander Barnhardt and presented by Colorado State University
(USA / 2023. 59.30mins)

A close up and personal look at the influential life and work of the renowned Dr. Temple Grandin, champion of the humane treatment of livestock, autism rights, and inclusive neurodiversity.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

As an adolescent, John Barnhardt devoured every film in every genre he could get his hands on, as a film student he would stay late in college and take on extra projects, who’s dreamed of a film career since age nine, when he watched The Road Warrior with his father. “I want to make movies,” Barnhardt announced to his father as they walked out of the theater. “Good,” his dad replied. An engineer by trade and avid photographer, Barnhardt’s father put a camera in his son’s hands and from that moment on fueled his hunger. “My dad was a true forward thinker, an artist; he saturated me with movies. We’d watch The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now; my dad never filtered what I saw. He loved the classics, too. We’d watch everything then talk about it.”
After graduating from Colorado State, with a degree in English and Poetry, Barnhardt followed his heart to Charleston, South Carolina, where he began the slow crawl up the film ladder, starting at the bottom working in the Channel Four Newsroom; where he ran the teleprompter, working for peanuts. While he was working his way up the ranks at Channel Four, Barnhardt was taking college classes from Professor Russell Schaaf at Trident Technical College; filming anything and everything he could, including gore-drenched, god-awful (but well-shot) horror flicks, many staged in his Park Circle home. By doing this John founded his Barnfly Productions company as well as slowly expanded his portfolio. When Schaaf, his Trident professor and mentor, mentioned that they needed someone to teach a 16mm film class, Barnhardt jumped at the opportunity and spent the next eight years teaching first as an adjunct, then full-time faculty member, amassing an entourage of appreciative students, while honing his own technical expertise. After Trident, Barnhardt went out to build his portfolio even more. As Director/Cinematographer for Born to Explore with Richard Wiese—part of Charleston-based Litton Entertainments Saturday “Weekend Adventure” block on ABC—Barnhardt has traveled the globe, filming thrilling footage nearly face-to-face with gorillas in the Ugandan Jungle; slogging through pools of pigeon poo in Morocco; photographing crocodiles, elephants, you name it. And since winning the Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Photography Emmy for it. Barnhardt’s no-holds-barred approach, his relentless push back against mediocrity and complacency, and his deep gratitude to his father and his friends shows, is felt and experienced in all his work.

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Feast Your Ears

directed by Jay Schlossberg
(USA/2023/ 1:36mins)

The story of WHFS based in Bethesda, Maryland. How one of the most beloved & legendary commercial “free form” FM stations ever to grace airwaves came into being in the late 1960s amid cultural, social and political changes.

Location: Avalon Theater, Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase

About the Director

Run Raven Run

District of Second Chances

directed by Wynette Yao and Travis Allan Edwards
(USA/2024/1.16mins))

A quest for redemption is unfolding in Washington, D.C. Thanks to forward-looking “second chance” legislation, three men who were sentenced in their youth to life in prison have the chance to plead for release. The film captures their journeys as they unfold: Anthony “Pete” Petty, who has just won his freedom and must rebuild his life after three decades in prison; Gene Downing, who awaits his second chance hearing after two decades behind bars and hopes to reunite with a daughter born after his incarceration; and Colie Levar Long, who is mentoring youth incarcerated with him at D.C. Jail. He longs to finish college as a free man after a 26-year interruption. D.C. is leading the way with second chance reform, a transformational criminal justice movement spreading across the country. But, as the film shows, a second chance is never guaranteed.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.
Time: February 23rd at 6:20 pm

*Screening will follow Q&A with the filmmakers, film subjects and local experts.

About the Director

Wynette Yao is an award-winning filmmaker who has produced, directed and written films on subjects as wide-ranging as Egypt, tornadoes, bees and bog mummies. She relishes image-making and storytelling that brings alive the human experience behind history, science, and modern life.

In 2018, Yao joined FAMM Foundation, a non-profit that advocates for criminal justice reform. She has been grateful to make videos, spots and long-form documentaries aimed at fighting for a more fair and effective justice system, including the award-winning “Half of Us,” “The Vanishing Trial” (Bronx Social Justice Matters Festival, 1st Place, Documentary Shorts) and the newly-released feature documentary, “District of Second Chances.”

Yao’s previous work includes “Oceans at the Tipping Point” (Winner of the Innovation Award, Blue Ocean Film Festival), “Who Betrayed Anne Frank?” (Winner of the Gold Remi Award, Worldfest Houston Film Festival), and “All Quiet on the Western Front’ (Nominated for a National Emmy Award, Historical Documentaries).

BIOGRAPHY FOR TRAVIS EDWARDS

Ever since creating his first films as a kid with nothing more than a Betamax camera and a little ambition, Travis’s film career has spanned everything from stop-motion animation to both fiction and narrative features.

He primarily lives behind the camera and in front of the edit screen, finding ways to creatively tell stories that can impact people’s hearts and minds.

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TENS Across the Board

directed by Bobby “Broady” Best
(USA/2023/42.40mins )

Not to be confused with waltzing, swinging or doing the two-step, ballroom culture has become a global phenomena. An in- depth look at the lives of those in the Saint Louis ballroom community spearheaded by Maven Logic Lee championing Black and brown LGBTQ artists in dance, music and fashion.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Bobby "Broady" Best is a self-taught filmmaker, editor, and director based in St. Louis, MO. His company, Broadys Work Productions, LLC produces dynamic content that both delivers the clients’ desired messaging as well as engages the viewer with amazing imagery.

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The Way It Was: Paris Restaurants in the 1970s

directed by Stephen Karl Scher
(USA/2023/44mins)

Using unseen footage filmed in the 1970s, the director revisits the vibrant restaurant scene in Paris at that time. With visits to markets, interviews with food writers, chefs, and restaurant owners, and intriguing behind the scenes insights, we see the way it was during a famous period of French cuisine.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.
February 25th at 4:00pm & February 25th at 5:45pm

*4:00pm Screening followed by a conversation with the director, Anina Belle Giannini and Le Chef Sébastien Giannini

Anina Belle Giannini is a Canadian American hotelier, writer, and passionate home cook. She and her husband, Chef Sébastien Giannini, lived on the French Riviera for 8 years together before they moved to Montreal Canada and settled in D.C.

Anina Belle started Le Chef's Wife (blog) in 2018 to document the recipes and cooking tips she learned from cooking with her French chef husband. "I consider myself a translator of French cuisine," says Anina Belle, "I write our recipes so that busy people with no culinary training, like me, can find success and enjoyment in the kitchen." The blog has become a leading resource in modern French cooking with a thriving Instagram community and was recently featured on The Today Show and in The Washington Post. Anina Belle is a member of Les Dames D'Escoffier DC and an active mentor of women in food & beverage and hospitality.

Le Chef Sébastien Giannini

Originally from Toulon in the South of France, Sebastien made a career for himself as Executive Chef of some of the most prestigious hotels in France, Canada, and the United States before becoming a private chef for an esteemed family in 2021. In addition to competing in numerous cooking competitions, Sebastien coached team Canada for the Bocuse D'Or world culinary finals in Lyon, France, in 2015 and is a member of Les Disciples D'Escoffier and L'Academie Culinaire. He and his wife, Anina Belle Gianniini, regularly offer cooking classes with Alliance Française, Washington, D.C. They live in D.C., with their 6-year-old daughter, Valentina, and 3-year-old son, Pierre. Sébastien joined L'Avant-Garde DC as Partner Chef in January of 2023 and is looking forward to serving his generous French cuisine, sun-kissed by his native French Riviera, with patrons of the restaurant.

*5:45pm Screening followed by a discussion with director Stephen Scher and Isabel Rivero-Vilá (Professor of French at American University (Washington, D.C) and an independent filmmaker. She has been recently named Chevalier de l’ordre des Palmes Académiques by the Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale in France for her work promoting the French language and the Francophone cultures).

WINE TASTING is included for both screenings!
-After the 4pm screening and starting at 5.15pm before the 5.45pm screening.

Details provided to ticket holders.

About the Director

Dr. Scher was awarded a B.A. from Yale University in 1956, a M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University in 1961, and a Ph.D. in art history from Yale in 1966. He taught at Brown University in the Art Department from 1961 to 1974, becoming chair of the department in 1972. In 1969 he organized the exhibition, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, at the museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, with an accompanying catalogue. In 1974 he left Brown to become President and CEO of Scher Chemicals, Inc., a manufacturer of specialty organic chemicals. He held this position until he retired in 2004. During this period Dr. Scher also continued his activities as an art historian and guest curator, organizing, in 1994, the exhibition The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance, at The Frick Collection, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, accompanied by a major catalogue. In 1997, he organized a second exhibition at the Frick: The Proud Republic: Dutch Medals of the Golden Age, also accompanied by a catalogue. In addition, he has participated in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, both as a lender and a contributor to catalogues: (2004) Byzantium: Faith and Power; (2006) Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture; (2010) The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry; (2011) The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini.
Dr. Scher is a member of four departmental visiting committees at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Medieval; European Sculpture and Decorative Arts; Paper Conservation; and Object Conservation. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee for Collections at The Frick Collection. He is on the Council of the Yale Club of New York City and a member of its Library, House, and Art Sub-Committees, being chair of the latter. Dr. Scher is a member of the Yale Library Associate Trustees. He is also on the Board of Visitors of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Dr. Scher has lectured and published extensively on medieval and Renaissance art. His own collecting activities have focused on commemorative, especially Renaissance, portrait medals. He is donating the bulk of this collection to the Frick Collection, where he helped organize an exhibition of highlights from the collection, entitled The Pursuit of Immortality: Masterpieces from The Scher Collection of Portrait Medals. In 2019, The Frick published The Scher Collection of Commemorative Medals, a catalogue of the entire collection.
Dr. Scher received the Yale Medal in November 2015 and the British Art Medal Society’s President’s Medal in October 2018.

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Our Males and Females

directed by Ahmad Alyaseer, Key Cast: Kamel El Basha, Shafiqa Al Tal
(Jordan/2023/11 mins.)

A father and mother are faced with the painful task of washing and shrouding their deceased transgender daughter. How far is the father willing to go to make sure his “son” is washed?

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Ahmad Alyaseer is a Jordanian director, producer and writer. He recently directed his short film "Our Males and Females" which was eligible for the Oscar and won 111 awards across 38 countries through 130 international film festivals. He also directed the Emmy Award nominated kids show (Ahlan Simsim - Sesame Workshop). His Sci-Fi experimental feature (When Time Becomes a Woman, 2012) was screened at various film festivals including Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival. Ahmad is developing his feature (To Him We Return) which received development support and has been selected at several labs and workshops. Additionally,Ahmad has more than nine years of experience directing and producing TV series for regional platforms including Shahid,VIU and MBC.

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The Third Defector

directed by John Gray, Key Cast: Margot Luciarte, Lassana, Dee Lay Cherod, Cédric Weber
(USA/2023/16.53mins)

What seems like a simple assignment for a spy to keep tabs on an Iranian defector becomes a more complicated game of cat and mouse in the streets of Paris.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

John Gray is a New York based writer-director-producer. He created the long running hit CBS series GHOST WHISPERER, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, as well as writing and directing many award winning and critically acclaimed movies for television, such as MARTIN AND LEWIS, starring Sean Hayes and Jeremy Northam, the Emmy nominated A PLACE FOR ANNIE with Sissy Spacek, the Emmy nominated mini-series HAVEN with Natasha Richardson and Anne Bancroft, HELTER SKELTER with Bruno Kirby, and many others. He has directed dozens of episodes of series across the broadcast and cable spectrum, and was also the producing director of the CBS series RECKLESS. He has written and directed several studio and independent feature films, including the award winning WHITE IRISH DRINKERS, starring Stephen Lang and Karen Allen, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. His acclaimed short films have played and are playing in film festivals all over the world. His short film FRENCH KISS has notched 6.3 million views to date on YouTube.

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Involuntary

directed Dana E White, Christopher Knoblock, Key Cast: Jack McGee, Faith Taylor
(USA/2023/12.58mins)

Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Dana and Chris are award-winning filmmakers. Dana is a proud Film Fatales and NY Women in Film & Television member. Dana and Chris' work has been screened all over the world. Their last short film, Turning Blue premiered at The Cleveland International Film Festival and has screened internationally and nationally at numerous festivals including the 2022 Manchester Film Festival (UK), the 2022 Toronto International Women Film Festival, the 2022 Sonoma International Film Festival, the 2022 Beaufort International Film Festival, the 2022 Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, the 2021 Cordillera International Film Festival, the 2021 Buffalo International Film Festival, and the 2021 Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival. It also won Best Short Film at the Indie Shorts Awards NYC. Their feature film, In the Orchard, won the Jury Award for Best Feature Film at the 2018 Sonoma Int Film Festival, 2018 Culver City Film Festival, and the 2019 Beaufort Int Film Festival where it won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Actor. It also screened at numerous other festivals across the country. Their new film, Involuntary, is the recipient of the prestigious RACAF grant at Kent State University, where Dana and Chris teach film. Involuntary is the first film of a four part anthology of stories about moral responsibility through the lens of elder abuse and patient dumping. The second film is currently in pre production.

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Barely Breathing

directed by Derek Evans Key Cast: Neal Reddy, Anil Bajaj, Lindsay Marie Byto, Gunner Willis, Vas Sanchez
(USA/2023/20 mins)

A dark comedy about Sai, who is guilted into moving in with his Father and Step Mother after nearly dying in an embarrassing accident.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Evans has had a diverse career from Acting to Directing and Editing. As an actor, he can be seen recurring in shows like Queen of The South (USA), National Treasure (Disney+), and Being Mary Jane (BET). He directed/edited the independent feature film, The King of Bloody Fookin' Britain, and several short films including the award-winning, Swiped.

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The Wait

directed by Imran Hamdulay, Key Cast: Siya Mayola, Cedwyn JoelKey Cast, Ayden Croy, Natasha Magengelele
(South Africa/2023/14.55 )

At a Cape Town police station to report a crime, Mzu finds an elderly man has been waiting longer than those ahead of him. The station is busy and chaotic and the old man is confused with no one to help him.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Imran Hamdulay is a writer & director based in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni, Film Independent fellow (Los Angeles) and was the recipient of the Robert Bosch Stiftung award.

Imran was featured in CNN Inside Africa as one of Africa’s directors to watch and attended Cannes Film Festival’s Marche Du Film as part of the Talentueuses Caméras d’Afrique program. His screenplays have won numerous awards and featured in various markets including EAVE (Luxembourg), IFFR Cinemart Lab (Netherlands), Gotham Film Week (NYC) and Durban Filmmart amongst others. He also serves as a jury member for the South African Film & Television (SAFTAS) awards. He was most recently co-writer and producer of the SAFTA-nominated crime thriller SONS OF THE SEA, which premiered at Cinequest USA. The film has played at numerous festivals around the world and went on to win Best Feature Film at the 43rd Durban International Film Festival.

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Lumbeeland

directed by Montana Cypress. Starring Billy Oxendine
(USA /2023/ 29.45 mins)

To gain his independence, a quick-tempered drug dealer must escape the shadow of his kingpin grandfather in a devout Native community.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Montana Cypress (director) is a citizen of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians. He currently lives in Los Angeles, where he writes stageplays and produces, directs, and acts in short and feature-length films. His most recent film, “Red Orchid,” was written and acted in Miccosukee and is currently showing at film festivals.

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The Woman from Hamburg

directed by Michael Jacob Masarof. Key Cast: Jenette Goldstein, Einat Holland, Casey Killoran, Timothy Sekh, Samantha Sherman, Pearl Scarlett Gold
(USA/2023/28:33 mins)

A Jewish woman takes shelter in the closet of a Polish couple in 1943. A child is soon born and their lives are irrevocably changed.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Michael Masarof is a writer and director whose debut feature film First Love was called “intimate in both shooting style and script” by the LA Times. Michael received his MFA in Film Directing from New York University’s Graduate film program at the Tisch School of The Arts, where he was the recipient of the Jane Rosenthal Scholarship and the Warner Bros. Production Grant. Michael finished his BA in 2001 at American University. During his BA studies he also attended the prestigious FAMU film school in Prague, completing the Czech Language short film Vytah. After university Michael spent two years in film production, working under such industry luminaries as Al Maysles, Steven Daldry, Walter Salles, and Sydney Pollack, on his last narrative film The Interpreter. Michael’s 2007 short film You Should Have The Body won the first place prize at the International Munich Festival of Film Schools and screened as a special presentation at the 2008 Berlinale. In 2008 Michael was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus of Scarsdale High School. He has worked at Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox film studios and in 2019 his first feature film First Love was released on Amazon and other streaming platforms.

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Infraction

directed by Timothy Blackwood. Key Cast: Percy Daggs III, Kevin Oestenstad, Preston Christopher Lawrence
(USA/2023/21:10mins)

Based on the real life story of Philadelphia native Terrance Lewis. who served 21 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Timothy Blackwood is a multi-award winning film director. His film "The Conqueror" won "Best Documentary Short" at The Oxford International Film Festival, "Best Documentary Short" at The Munich Film Awards, and "Best International Short" at The British Documentary Film Festival. He is a recipient of grants from Canada Council for The Arts and The Moving Picture Institute. Timothy was born in Prince Edward Island Canada and educated at the University of King's College and the European Film College in Denmark.

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Black Silk

directed by Patrick Michael. Key Cast: Marcus Henderson, Jay Amir and Taylor Leigh Edwards
(USA/2023/6:02)

A young, meek black boy is thrust into darkness when a violent revelation from his estranged father sets him on a course of self-discovery, forcing him to confront family, identity, and forgiveness.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Patrick Michael is a Los Angeles-based writer and director from Seattle, WA. He has earned an MFA in Film & TV Production from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. He is the founder of PEACE LOVE DOPE FILMS, a production company whose mission aims to amplify underrepresented voices through visual storytelling, and to explore the boundaries of filmmaking through the communal strength of artistic collaboration. His filmmaking interests include dramatic narratives and experimental documentaries; passionately inspired by the far-ranging works of filmmakers by the likes of Charles Burnett, Mike Leigh, and Hollis Frampton. When not in production he can be found re-reading James Baldwin, coaching middle school girls basketball, and obsessively cataloging his movie-watching habits on Letterboxd.

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Music for a While

directed by Kelvin Phillips, Starring Grinell-Skot Gilmore
(USA /2023/9.05mins)

Wandering through busy New York City streets, a solitary figure’s quiet desolation is lifted by the serenade of a saxophonist’s solo. Answering its call, he transforms the urban scene into a beautiful street performance…if only for a while.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Kelvin Z. Phillips, a multi-award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer, has had films showcased at numerous festivals and on platforms such as HBO, Prime, and Tubi. His creativity has earned him grants from notable organizations, including the Jerome Foundation, Art Matters, Inc., the Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association, and Apparatus Productions, co-founded by renowned figures Christine Vachon and Todd Haynes. In addition to securing various filmmaking grants, Kelvin has garnered numerous awards for his work in documentary filmmaking and screenwriting. He is a distinguished alumnus of the esteemed Guy Hanks/Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship. Kelvin holds a BA in film directing from Howard University, where he was mentored by the renowned Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima. He also earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Outside the sphere of creative arts, Kelvin applies his project management and executive leadership skills as a director of program management, creative operations, and executive producer within the digital media and advertising industry.

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Serving the Lord

directed by Ryan Kennedy Key Cast: Russ Russo and Jacopo Rampini
(USA/2024/14.17mins),

A guilt ridden man receives a visit from a young door-to-door evangelist claiming to have been sent there by God to offer him a way out of his grief.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Ryan M. Kennedy is an American screenwriter and film director. His feature film debut An Act of War was released on March 31, 2015 in North America by Revolver Entertainment and was available to stream on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and countless other platforms. His award winning short film CLONE was accepted into over 30 film festivals. Ryan is a graduate of Montclair State University & is currently a graduate student at Georgetown University.

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Vasectomy

directed Dana E White, Christopher Knoblock, Key Cast: Jack McGee, Faith Taylor
(USA/2023/12.58mins)

Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

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Manus

directed by Win Brooks
(USA/2023/2.57mins)

A lethal “handjob” from outer-space threatens a surfer on a lonely beach.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Raised near Washington DC, and currently traveling indefinitely. Win applies his unique aesthetic to commercials, fashion film, narratives and music videos. Alongside commissions, he is currently producing his next film, writing his fourth feature script and running a boutique menswear brand.

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Post Infest

directed by Justin Van Voorhis, Key Cast: Mary Linehan, Joshua Michael Payne, Justin Bennett, Keaton Weiss, Nick Butler
(USA/2023/15.55mins)

Two friends try to find love during a murder hornet infestation.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Raised on popcorn and Steven Spielberg, Justin has been living and breathing movies since he was a small boy. Going to the movies religiously made Justin an advent film devotee and he knew from a very early age he wanted to make movies and storytelling his life.
Since High School, Justin has made shorts and even took the leap and made two feature films. With one, “Slate Yourself,” currently on Amazon Prime. Addicted to storytelling, Justin is always writing and thinking of the next great story to make us laugh, think, dream and believe.
With “Post Infest,” Justin was inspired by the devastating effects of the Pandemic and how we move forward in the face of change and past the trauma induced by a surreal world. Using humor, Justin hopes to provide a catharsis for those like him who were traumatized by the terrible events of 2020. Beyond that, Justin hopes to expand the short into a feature film that Steven Spielberg would be proud of.

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Don’t Neg Meg

directed Dana E White, Christopher Knoblock, Key Cast: Jack McGee, Faith Taylor
(USA/2023/12.58mins)

Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

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Inner Demons

directed by Jasmine Johnson, Key Cast:Ariel Brown, Tamiah Bantum, Jasmine Ashanti
(USA/2023/10:54)

Mya’s forced to confront the darkness lurking within.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Jasmine J. Johnson (“Triple J”) is a director, writer and producer who originally hails from Bowie, Maryland. She developed a love of character-based storytelling by overdosing on dramatic (albeit emotionally compelling) YA novels in her youth. She attended Temple University, where she received her B.A. in Film and Media Arts. After graduation, Johnson moved to Los Angeles where she cut her teeth in talent management, working at Anonymous Content before transitioning to development. She most recently was an Executive Producer on The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster, which had its world premiere at SXSW (2023) and was named by USA Today and Esquire Magazine as one of the “Top 10 Horror Movies of 2023 Thus Far,” (August, 2023). She was a Co-Executive Producer on Peacock's The Girl In The Woods and Facebook Watch’s Mira Mira, the latter seen by over 80 million viewers. As a director, Johnson explores the intersectionality within the minority experience through immersive storytelling techniques. Using heightened elements like magical realism, surrealism, genre and a pinch of humor, her work focuses on themes of grief, discovery and those seemingly modest moments that epitomize human resilience. Collectively her projects have garnered over hundreds of million of views across platforms.

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Spellbound

directed by Robin Rippmann, Key Cast; Nikolas Salmon, Liza Callinicos
(Switzerland/2023/10.48)

James’ dull daily routine is disrupted by a strange apparition that begins to haunt him in his waking moments and dreams alike.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

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And Yet They Speak

directed by Windy Marshall, Key Cast: Hannah McCloud, Matthew Erick, Windy Marshall, Jennifer Marshall
(USA/2023/35.16mins)

Plagued since her childhood by disturbing sounds, a young girl learns what’s dead isn’t always gone.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

I'm a multi-hyphenate. I started as an actor - you can see me in episode 5 of HBO's WESTWORLD co-starring opposite Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris & James Marsden; in the series finale of BET Networks THE GAME opposite Tia Mowry & Pooch Hall; as well as YouTube Red's ME AND MY GRANDMA opposite Rhea Perlman and Shelby Rabara. I will be playing the other lead role of Alex, as an adult, in And Yet They Speak!

A few years ago I decided to start making my own content, so I wrote, produced, directed and starred in my award winning short film, Go out in Violet Waters. I also directed a scene from my feature screenplay, Madison Manor, which was a Semi-Finalist of the WOMAS film festival in 2019.

I have written two features since completing Go Out in Violet Waters:
Madison Manor, which was a Quarterfinalist in ScreenCraft's 2016 Horror Screenplay Competition, and Momlife Crisis, which was an official selection of Beverly Hill's 2018 Film Festival!
Now that And Yet They Speak is complete, I will be working to get my next feature into pre-production!

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Cold

directed by Kim Machado , Key Cast: Dave Gamble, Chara Bauer, Prethi John
(USA/2023/16:05mins)

When Rosamund interviews famous DC philanthropist, Jasper, for her blog, she discovers the cost is more than what she bargained for.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Kim Machado is a licensed Psychotherapist, and she treats Trauma Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, and Eating Disorders. Member of The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) trained, Ms. Machado counsels her patients by day and enjoys writing at night. Ms. Machado has been writing all her life but enrolled at the Player’s Conservatory founded by Sean Maguire in 2021. Ms. Machado is currently the mentee of Dan Hoffman for screenwriting.

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Golden Shopping Arcade

directed by Francesco Ricci Lotteringi, Key Cast: Marco Sincini, Nina Torresi, Diego Maiello, Rosa Diletta Rossi, Gianni Lillo
(Italy/2023/29 mins)

In a dystopian – yet eerily familiar – setting hospital patients are typically refused the health care they need.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Born in Dublin, Francesco "Skino" Ricci Lotteringi is mostly a photographer who loves depicting beauty through his lens. Also a videomaker mostly for fashion and music videos. His directorial debut happened in 2013 with short-movie "Halina" winner of the 2013 Washington DC Indipendent Film Festival.

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More than Brothers

directed by Andrea von Siebenthal
(USA/2023/22:30mins)

The personal sacrifices of two Green Berets in a race against time to save the Afghans who kept them safe during their deployments and whose lives have been completely uprooted since the chaotic withdrawal.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Andrea is a former broadcasting journalist, spokesperson and communicator in the humanitarian realm.
She holds a Master’s degree in International Conflict Journalism as well as a Certificate in Documentary Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy. Previous productions of hers have won gold awards at both the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards and the Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage.
Born and raised in Switzerland, she has worked extensively in post-conflict areas. The topics of war and its consequences on civilians have always been at the heart of her work. Her desire to shed a light on forgotten conflicts and the human cost of geopolitical decisions continues to inform her documentary projects.

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1001cuts

directed by Sarah M Temkin
(USA/2023/24.35 mins)

The careers of women surgeons who are the children of Title IX address the pervasive stereotypes and gender-based discrimination that persist within workplaces designed for and by men.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Dr. Sarah Temkin is a first time film maker inspired to make a film about women by her lived experience as a surgeon.

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Lengua de diamante

directed by Victoria Barbarito. The past, present, and future life of Elsa Riveros, Colombia’s First Lady of Rock
(USA/2023/13.09 mins)

Long after her iconic career as a fierce 80s rock singer, Elsa now seeks to reinvent herself as a political painter in northern Virginia, where she raises her son.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Victoria Barbarito is a documentary filmmaker and DTI-certified postpartum doula based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2022, she graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and Television. Her film work circulates around parenthood, transformation, and reproductive justice.

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The Vanishing Kindergarten

directed by Jian Liu
(China/2023/5.40mins)

Zhang Yiqun, the head of Jinhua New Century Kindergarten, receives the notice to close the kindergarten. The number of kindergartens in China decreased by more than 5600 in 2022.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Liu Jian, graduated with a bachelor's degree in Radio and Television Directing from Communication University of ZheJiang, and he is pursuing a Master's degree in Visual Media jointly run by Communication University of Zhejiang and Bolton University of UK. “Love Can Pour Both Ways”won the Beijing International Film Festival award,“IAM A BLIND MAN”“Undefinded Blue”won the Shanghai TV Artist Award. works have won many awards including provincial, national, and international film festival .

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Little Sahara

directed by Emilio Martí López
(Spain/2023/30 mins)

Those who do not know the Sahara think that in the desert there is only sand. But here there are children, who play and draw and make movies, and who would like not to have to think about war. In Western Sahara, thousands of Sahrawi refugees live in exile.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

milio Martí (Valencia, 1978) is a producer, director and animator of films that often mix animation and real image and that aim for social change. Among these are UNANIMATED (2011) —comedy about the fear of being “real”—, and the animated documentaries MARHABA (2016) —shot with Syrian refugee children at a camp in Greece—; MAKUN - Drawings in an immigrants Detention Center (2019) —that animates the walls in one of these centers—; and LITTLE SÁHARA (2023), that tells the story of the last European colony in Africa (Western Sahara, which is still part of Spain but is occupied by Morocco) through the testimony and drawings of the Pioneers School in the refugee camps in Algeria.
In addition to producing his own films, Emilio Martí often accompanies other people in the process of artistic and cinematographic creation, with his educational work and as an Art Therapist. Emilio Martí is currently producing the animated short film ANETTA and the series ANIMATED RIGHTS.

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Hindsight

directed by Max Ryko
(Ukraine / 2023 /18mins)

A look at the fragility of our roots, the impermanence of our cultures, and the transience of our freedoms through the lens of a traveling VHS camera in the late 1990s. The memories of two young Ukrainians emerging from the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Max has a background in video and multimedia production. He graduated from Florida State University with a BS in Digital Media Production and worked with world renowned digital artists as Head Video Producer at Artechouse, where his work was featured by United Nations Foundation, Pantone Color Institute, Forbes, New York Times, and other platforms. Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he has refocused on impact driven storytelling. He went on to produce two independent documentaries in Poland focusing on displaced people of Ukraine, where he is originally from.

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The Test

directed by Claudia Myers, Laura Waters Hinson
(USA/2023/15.43 mins)

A Ghanaian maintenance worker at a Virginia retirement community dreams of becoming an American citizen to provide a better life for his family. He enlists the help of two elderly residents to prepare for the biggest test of his life: the US Citizenship exam.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

Named one of "10 Filmmakers to Watch" by Independent Magazine in 2015, Claudia most recently wrote and directed ABOVE THE SHADOWS, a fantasy action drama starring Olivia Thirlby, Alan Ritchson, Jim Gaffigan and Megan Fox. The film opened the 2019 Brooklyn Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature; it was subsequently acquired by Hulu. Prior to this, Claudia wrote, directed, and produced the drama FORT BLISS starring Michelle Monaghan, Ron Livingston & Pablo Schreiber. The film won several festival awards and top critics for The Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer both cited Fort Bliss among the best films of 2014. As a screenwriter, Claudia has won numerous awards, was twice a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and is an alumna of the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab. Outside of fiction, Claudia produced and directed two award-winning TV documentaries THE LONG ROAD BACK, about soldiers who were severely injured in Iraq, and WOMEN AT WAR about the evolution of women’s roles in the military. Claudia also produced and edited the first two short documentaries in the 2016 series ISIS DEFECTORS SPEAK, which provides a counter-narrative about violent extremism with firsthand accounts of ISIS defectors. The films have screened for The White House, U.S. Congress, State Department and Department of Homeland Security; Internationally, they were presented at numerous conferences and to government and counterterrorism officials. They have been subtitled into over a dozen languages. Claudia teaches in the film division at American University’s School of Communication. She is currently in development on her next feature, the true crime drama OUT OF DARKNESS.

LAURA WATERS HINSON BIO:
An award-winning filmmaker and assistant professor of film at American University, Laura’s films have screened at the U.S. Congress, United Nations, Smithsonian National Gallery of Art and premiered at numerous global film festivals with broadcasts on PBS, WORLD, ShortsTV and Curiosity Stream. Laura’s film about reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda, AS WE FORGIVE, was narrated by Mia Farrow and won the 2008 Student Academy Award for Best Documentary. Her follow-up documentary, MAMA RWANDA, about women entrepreneurs, won the Jury Prize at the Manchester International Film Festival and screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, among others. In 2017, Laura wrote and directed the dark comedy MOVING VIOLATION, starring Milana Vayntrub, which won Best Narrative Short at the DC Independent Film Festival. In 2019, she served as a director’s shadow on the final season of Showtime’s HOMELAND. Her documentary, STREET REPORTER, was qualified for the 2022 Academy Awards and won Best Short Documentary at the 2022 Annapolis Film Festival, the Social Impact Media Award and Audience Awards at the Austin Film Festival and Indy Shorts Film Festival. Her latest feature doc, PROJECT HOME, about housing advocates on a journey to prove 3D printing can solve the global housing crisis, will be released by 1091 Pictures and Espresso Media in the Fall 2023.

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That is the Silence

directed Dana E White, Christopher Knoblock, Key Cast: Jack McGee, Faith Taylor
(USA/2023/12.58mins)

Carlton, a man in his 70s suffering from Dementia, is moved from a nursing home in the middle of the night.

Location: Regal Gallery Place, Washington D.C.

About the Director

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The Sprayer

directed by Farnoosh Abedi
(Iran/2022/8.45 mins)

In the land occupied with the sprayer’s army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants in public or in private.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Farnoosh Abedi was born in 1985 in Isfahan/ Iran. He has made more than 20 short animated films and TV series, documentaries and one Feature Animated. His films was presented and screened in more than 200 domestic and international film festivals.

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From one painting… to another

directed by Georges Schwizgebel
(Switzerland/ 2023 /3:10 mins)

An immersion in art through two paintings on the same subject created half a century apart.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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The Bear in the Shower

directed by Tom Schroeder
(USA/2023/4mins)

Trapped in a shower in Amsterdam for six hours.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Tom has completed sixteen animated films since 1990. His films have been broadcast on Independent Lens, the Sundance Channel, Canal + France and Spain, SBS in Australia, CBC in Canada and Pacific Voice in Japan. The films have also played widely on the international festival circuit, including multiple screenings at Annecy, Rotterdam, Sundance, Ottawa and South by Southwest, and have won over forty festival awards. Retrospective programs of Tom’s animated shorts have screened recently in Seoul, Minneapolis and Melbourne. Tom received Minnesota State Arts Board Grants in 1991, 1999, 2006, 2014 and 2019, Jerome Film and Video Grants in 2000 and 2004, McKnight Fellowships in Media Arts in 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2022, Bush Fellowships in 1997 and 2008 and a Rooftop Filmmakers Grant in 2013. He has directed commercials for Kashi, Samsung and Hertz Car Rental and is currently represented as a director by Global Mechanic, Vancouver, Canada. Tom is also Professor Emeritus at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where he taught for 25 years.

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Electra

directed Daria Kashcheeva
(Czech Republic / 2023 / 26.23)

Blending live action and animation, the film portrays the experiences of a woman who is recalling her strained and distant relationship with her father

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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Silhouette

directed by Alexis La Fuente
(France/ 2023 / 5:02)

Claire, a young woman who has just moved to a big city, soon finds her body gradually disappearing.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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Games People Play

directed by Jim Hall
(USA /2023/ 3mins)

One person witnessing the horror of war has to make a split decision to stop the madness before getting off the Paris Metro…

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Jim Hall is a 2-time Peabody Award winner for his work as part of an investigative team in television. After a long career in TV News, Hall became a documentary filmmaker and this year co-produced the first ever film on a Jazz guitar legend-Wes Bound:The Genius of Wes Montgomery. His side hustle is producing the Paris based podcast: Muffy Drake Muffy Drake Media also produces short films on timely social issues like gun control.

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Redemption

directed by Zakkee Kashif Hendricks
(USA /2023 / 3:45mins)

A cinematic symphony of despair, supernatural pacts, and a brooding protagonist’s journey.In the hauntingly beautiful realm of an 80’s anime-inspired neon-lit cityscape.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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No Ink

The Magic Shoe – Episode 4 directed by Florian Guillaume
(UK/ 2022/ 4:13 mins)

While sailing away on its umbrella boat, the Magic Shoe gets swallowed by the unpredictable tide of Venice!

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Short movie Director and Producer based in London, UK, Florian likes to push the boundaries with different animation techniques and the thought-provoking content of his films. Florian directed The Magic Shoe 3 that went to 13 international festivals.

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The Great Arc

directed by Camille Authouart
(France / 2022 /11.58)

With nearly 70 monumental works of art scattered throughout the district, La Défense, Paris, is Europe’s largest open-air museum.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

In 2013, Camille graduated from the Animation Film section of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, with honors. Since her graduation, Camille has been exploring the profession of filmmaker, from animated shorts for children (Les Oiseaux du souci, Au dodo les crocodiles!), to feature-length documentaries (Médiums), to music videos and experimental cinema (Mélodie pour Agnès, Mort à l'Aveugle) . The particularity of Camille's work stems from her attraction to novelty, experimentation and the search for transversality. Thus, each film of the director is imagined in a different technique and with its own aesthetic, developed according to each project, with the aim of always being at the service of the story told. Here, for La Grande Arche, the film was born from a sketchbook, so traditional animation and pastel scenery were a natural choice, in order to offer the viewer an experience as close as possible to the story told by the narrator.

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The Nectar Instead

directed by Yoo Lee.
(USA/2023/4:12mins)

A young fly gets trapped in the fly trap in the stop-motion studio only to have the existential realization that it spent its entire life chasing after the wrong thing.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Yoo Lee is a filmmaker who loves stop-motion animation. After achieving some success as a fashion designer in New York City, she decided to challenge herself creatively by switching to the animation industry. She enrolled in the USC MFA program majoring in animation, and The Nectar Instead is her thesis film, for which she will obtain her degree in May 2023.

In 2022, she was accepted into the HBO Max | WarnerMedia Access Animated Short Program and completed her fourth animated short, Welcome to 8th Street, which aired on HBO Max in March 2023.

Furthermore, as a Project Involve Fellow and recipient of the Laika animation grant in 2021, she wrote and directed an animated short, 7LBS 8OZ, which won the Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short at the 30th annual Florida Film Festival in 2022, qualifying the film for eligibility for the 2023 Academy Awards. It’s being distributed through the New Yorker Screening Room.

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The Swineherd

directed by Magnus Igland Moller, Peter Smith
(Denmark/2023/6:24 mins)

A goofy version of H.C. Andersen’s famous fairy tale “The Swineherd”

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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I Heard the Bells

directed by Jeremiah Morrison
(USA/2023/14.55 mins)

December 1944. A homesick soldier in the besieged city of Bastogne shares his thoughts with his wife in a letter seconds before the Germans attack his position.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Jeremiah Morrison is a filmmaker and director based in Northern Virginia. After getting interested in film through making clunky stop motion animations with his brothers, he got into the wedding video business for several years, and then began working at Distant Moon as an editor. His brother Jonathan had the idea for "I Heard the Bells" in 2020, and the three Morrison Brothers decided it was a story that needed to be told. Armed with a firm resolve to create something truly cinematic and unique with stop motion, the three brothers set out to create the film, and three years later the film was completed after much blood, sweat, and tears. Jeremiah and his brothers, Daniel and Jonathan, continue to work towards creating beautiful, heart-felt films that will impact the next generation for good.

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As The Sun Goes Down

directed by Laurine Bocquet, Ilona Caucal, Inès Fechner, Jahnice Laurent, Sarah Robert, Emma Roussel, Kevin Vandenbeuck
(France/ 2023 / 5:58mins)

Thrown into the night, a rabbit scared of the dark has to face his fears to get his light back.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

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One Minute Mistake

directed by Jim Blashfield, Chel White, Martin Cooper, Marilyn Zornado, Janet Perlman, Diane Obomsawin, Chris Hinton, and Joan Gratz
(USA / 2023 / 14:32)

A collection of eight short animations based on the theme error; be it in science, taste, decisions or personal choice.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Joan Gratz is an Academy Award winning director of animated short films and commercials. Her films range in content through painterly expressions of poetry, improvised abstraction, and animated social documentary.
The technique she pioneered is “Claypainting.” Working directly before the camera, she applies bits of clay, blends colors and etches fine lines to create a seamless flow of images. Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase won the Oscar in 1992 for Best Animated Short Film.
In addition to claypainting, she works with high-relief clay images filmed directly under the camera. These metamophising images have the appearance of sculpted wood and shifting sand.
Her most recent work will premiere at Cinema 21 on August 20th at 4:00. The program includes a feature documentary for which she was executive producer
and a short animated film produced and directed by Gratz. In addition to film making, Joan has become an avid maker of dynamic ceramics.

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Lack

directed by Patel Prewencki
(Poland/2023/10:45mins)

A story of loneliness, anger and grief experienced by parents who lose a child.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Director, graphic artist, and animator. He graduated Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. Since 2013, he has been teaching at his alma mater as an Assistant in the Studio of Animation of the University of Fine Arts in Poznań.

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Dragonfly

directed by Julia Morizawa
(USA /2023/13:33 mins)

A young girl learns of her mother’s survival of the Tokyo Firebombing on March 9-10, 1945 through the eyes of her brother’s spirit.

Location: Angelika Pop-Up, 550 Penn St NE, Washington, DC 20002

About the Director

Julia Morizawa is a writer/producer/actor with over 20 years of experience in film, television, new media, theater, and fiction podcasting. Credits include the improvised feature film “JesusCat (or How I Accidentally Joined a Cult),” which was awarded Best Comedy Feature at the Asians on Film Festival in 2014 and the Movie Heroes Rising Star Award at the Action On Film Festival in 2013; the short film “Sin & Lyle,” which earned her a Best Female Filmmaker nomination at the Action On Film Festival in 2007; the play “Twenty-Two,” which premiered in Los Angeles in 2010; the audio drama “American Comedy Horror Story: Orphanage,” available worldwide on most podcast apps; and the sci-fi/adventure digital series, “Pure,” currently in post-production.

Julia’s current project, “Dragonfly,” is an animated short film about the Tokyo Firebombing of March 9-10, 1945. The script was awarded Best Short Screenplay by Scriptation Showcase and Screenwriting Master in 2019, and was a semifinalist or quarterfinalist in several other competitions including the Austin Film Festival, Slamdance, and WeScreenplay Diverse Voices. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in May 2023. Most recently, her feature screenplay, "Something About the Tide," placed as a Finalist in the 2023 WeScreenplay Feature Screenwriting Lab and in the Top 5 Finalists in Roadmap Writers' 2022 Jumpstart Competition, and her limited series TV pilot, “Where We Came From” was a finalist in the 2021 Screencraft True Story and Public Domain Competition. Additionally, her first book, “Memoirs of a Wannabe Sex Addict” was published by Fanny Press in 2010 and is available in paperback and ebook.

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