Travel around the world with seven short but powerful films that each have characters at a crossroads in life and the sense of place is much more than a plot point. We start our journey with a Maori woman’s day at the Whakatiki River, which unexpectedly awakens the spirit of a woman held captive by years of broken promises in Louise Leitch’s Whakatiki (13 min. New Zealand). Laura Emel Yilmaz’s animated short Places Other People Have Lived (6 min., USA) is a mixed media exploration of the relationship between memory and place, as examined through the sale of a childhood home. Christin Freitag’s Tourist (19 min, Germany) shows how going home is never the same. Sabine returns to her hometown near the Baltic Sea – and to her old circle of friends who seem to have an intimacy she can’t access anymore. Emma Burch’s award-winning animated short Being Bradford Dillman (10 min., UK) introduces us to bullied Molly Flowers. Molly declares her dislike of boys, and her boozy and self-medicated mother invents a story to shock her into a more sympathetic view. Christina Choe’s I Am John Wayne (18 min, USA) is about a young urban cowbo, who takes his horse to the streets in the wake of his friend’s death. Meghna Gupta’s documentary Unravel (14 min, India) follows an Indian woman in the sleepy northern town of Panipat, pondering the ways of the world as she unravels unwanted clothes from the West – recycling them back into yarn. The program also ends at a river with Hannah Fidell’s The Gathering Squall (13 min), based on a the short story by Joyce Carol Oats. On the precipice of adulthood, fourteen-year-old Lisellen is without a man in her life; her father is distant and boys in school ignore her. When Duncan Baits invites her to hang out with his friends, everything changes, and in an instant everything goes drastically wrong.
Being Bradford Dillman (10 min)
When bullied Molly Flowers declares her dislike of boys, her boozy and self medicated mother invents a story to shock her into a more sympathetic view. The tale of how Molly had actually been born a boy called Bradford Dillman but, because of Mum’s want for a little girl, she asked the doctors to chop her willy off. The offending item has been kept for Molly in a shoebox on top of her wardrobe which now looms over everything she does. Molly’s over active imagination manifests itself into the arrival of Bradford Dillman. When Mum denies all knowledge of the tale, who will Molly choose to believe in?
Filmmaker:
Emma Burch
Emma Burch is an experienced Animation Producer with over 10 years in the industry. She started at Loose Moose as a runner after graduating from Westminster university and quickly worked her way up. Being Bradford Dillman has been an obsession for her the last few years, now it’s finished she’s seeking new challenges and experiences to fill the void.
what she provided: Emma Burch studied Contemporary Media Practice at Westminster University, London. After graduating in 2001, she started at Loose Moose, London as a runner and quickly worked her way up to Producer. It was there she found her passion for animation and teamed up with Pete Williamson to develop ‘Being Bradford Dillman’ based on a story from her childhood and is her first short film.
Emma currently works as an Animation Producer in London and alongside her day job, continues to develop short animated film ideas and loves to collaborate with other film makers.”
I am John Wayne (18 min)
Struggling to cope with the death of his best friend, Taco takes his friend’s foster horse on a fateful ride through the streets of Brooklyn. Naturalistic performances and understated direction create an atmospheric portrait of the young man as urban cowboy.
Filmmaker:
Christina Choe
Christina Choe is an award winning filmmaker. She has received funding from New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Jerome Foundation, Brooklyn and Canada Arts Council for her projects. Her narrative shorts, “The Queen”, “FLOW”, and “I am John Wayne”, have been selected for Telluride, SXSW, Slamdance (Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short), Los Angeles Film Festival, Aspen Shorts Fest, Seattle, Palm Springs Shorts Fest, and Rooftop Films. In 2012, she was invited to the Berlinale Talent Campus and is currently in development for her first feature.
Places Other People Have Lived (7 min)
An autobiographical exploration of the relationship between memory and place, as told through the sale of a childhood home.
Filmmaker:
Laura Yilmaz
The Gathering Squall (13 min)
On the precipice of adulthood, fourteen-year-old Lisellen Uhlmann is without a man in her life; her father is distant and boys in school ignore her. When Duncan Baits invites her to hang out with his friends, everything changes, and in an instant everything goes drastically wrong. The viewer is left to wonder in the end whether justice has been served or misplaced passion has created still another victim. The film is based on Joyce Carol Oates’s short story of the same name, with the author’s permission.
Filmmaker:
Hannah Fidell
Hannah Fidell is a director/writer/producer based in Brooklyn, NY. Recently named to Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film” list, Hannah had two short films, The Gathering Squall and Man & Gun play at SXSW in 2012. She is currently in post production on the feature film A Teacher, which she co-produced with 2010-2011 Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Fellow, Kim Sherman (Columbia native and also at CJFF with Sun Don’t Shine). In May, Hannah attended the Champs-Elysees where A Teacher was awarded the US In-Progress Grand Jury Prize.
Tourist (19 min)
After several years of absence, Sabine returns to her home town near the Baltic Sea – and to her old circle of friends. Though they do much of what they’ve always done together – spend days at the beach, camp out in the woods, and party – Sabine can’t help but feel the group has grown closer and more intimate than ever in the time she has been.
Filmmaker:
Christin Freitag
Unravel (14 min)
Unravel follows the Western worlds least wanted clothes, on a journey across Northern India, from sea to industrial interior. They get sent to Panipat, a sleepy town and the only place in the world that wants them, recycling them back into yarn.
Reshma is a bright, inquisitive woman working in a textile recycling factory in small time India, who dreams of travelling the vast distances the clothes she handles have. While Reshma shows us how these garments get transformed, she and other women workers reflect on these clothes. Despite limited exposure to western culture, they construct a picture of how the West is, using both their imagination and the rumours that travel with the cast-offs.
Filmmaker:
Meghna Gupta
