Wilmington
North Carolina
Cucalorus Film Festival 2023
Arts and Entertainment
October 12, 2023
From: Cucalorus Film FestivalCucalorus was founded in 1994 by the underground filmmaking collective Twinkle Doon. At the inaugural event, crowds wrapped around the block to see 16 local films screening at Water Street restaurant by the Cape Fear River.
These days Cucalorus takes place every November, celebrating independent and international film for five days in historic downtown Wilmington, NC. MovieMaker Magazine has recognized it as “One of the Coolest Film Festivals in the World” & "50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee 2023"
Schedule :
November 15, 2023
1:15 PM : Monkey Puzzle Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Incident 4
Strange circumstances pull an unseen protagonist into a strange, sterile maze of hallways. As he explores, our protagonist quickly discovers he is not alone in these halls.
Director: Zac Ivey
Runtime: 7:20
Living Lessons in the Museum of Order
Alcatraz is part of a larger industry of prison tourism that treats prisons and jails as real-life haunted houses. In contrast to the empty prison cells, SeaWorld is full of marine life in above ground tanks with see-through walls. Juxtaposing original footage, promotional VHS and analog video feedback, explore the tensions between public fantasies and exploitative practices, as well as between rhetorical and cultural changes, within the two California entertainment empires.
Runtime: 20:00
Director: Malic Amalya
The Voice in Isabel Fleiss's Office
A woman with an unusual malady--cobweb buildup in the throat--receives an even more unusual treatment in this adaptation of a surreal poem by North Carolina writer Virgil Renfroe. One of the key figures in the early indie film movement in North Carolina, Jim Haverkamp
Runtime: 6:24
Director: Jim Haverkamp
Voicemail
Using voicemails from the deceased, this experimental short examines our finite human existence through fleeting moments and an appreciation for our limited time.
Runtime: 6:00
Director: Kiersten Houser
Three Stories From Southern Appalachia
Autoethnographic experimental documentary triptych that explores Appalachian folklore, history and myth-making.
Runtime: 11:48
Director: Jonathan Furnell
Welcome to the Enclave
The Enclave is a virtual neighborhood for 'like-minded women’ created by Moni Calivione during the Covid pandemic. At the moment, she’s under attack from Reddit trolls who are changing her road signs to potty humor and splattering her walls with sexually explicit imagery. Together with her sister Blair, she desperately looks for a way to save her patch of e-serenity by raising money online.
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Sarah Lasley
What I Saw in the Rye Grass
Inspired by images seen in flames, this collaboration between painter Lydia Freier and experimental filmmaker Tristan Turner features layered imagery of rye grass, direct animation, and footage of loved ones.
Runtime: 7:51
Director: Tristan Turner, Lydia Freier
Flare
Watercolor Abstract No. 1. When disability traps you inside due to heat and health, sometimes it’s the art that saves you.
Runtime: 4:30
Director: Shannon Silva
A Part of You / Made Me Whole Again
Two Lives. One Gift. A post-kidney transplant memoir, told as a dream-like prayer to Mom.
Runtime: 5:00
Director: Destyn Fuller-Hope
OURIKA!
After being dead for over 200 years, Ourika’s soul is awoken inside of a barren purgatory while her body incubates in a fleshy blob. In the void, she encounters ghosts from her past life and depictions of her likeness that taunt her. Two sister scientists, Velinda and Ronnell, twin spirits, have been searching for all the pieces of her soul in hopes that they can bring her back to life.
Runtime: 17:00
Director: Xenia Matthews
4:00 PM : Lost Soulz - Thalian Black
Lost Soulz
Sol (Sauve Sidle) is an aspiring young rapper living with his best friend Wesley (Siyanda Stillwell), whose family has embraced him as a brother. After a raucous night causes Wesley to overdose, Sol abandons him at a house party, and eventually chooses to leave home for good and join a touring group of hip-hop artists. As they travel across Texas creating and performing, he discovers who he is as an artist and person.
Runtime: 97:00
Director: Katherine Propper
Madd-Cat + Young Newtron - Way 2 Sexy (4 Fast Fashion)
In their debut music video, the visionary minds behind the renowned brand Equal Rights Apparel seamlessly merge their talents into the realm of music, delivering a powerful anthem that champions the concept of slow fashion and condemns the detrimental impacts of fast fashion.
Runtime: 3:30
Director: Alec Gessert
4:15 PM : For Nick, From Dad - Jengo's Playhouse
For Nick, From Dad
Leo Damore was a New York Times best-selling investigative journalist who killed himself on October 2, 1995 when his son, Nick, was only 10 years old. Leo specialized in stories about the Kennedy family and true-crime investigations; most notably, his success breaking open Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident. Told through interviews with family and friends, this exploration into truth, memory, and fatherhood explores Nick’s vulnerable look at a father he barely knew. His life’s work was to seek the truth, though ironically, in death Leo Damore had become a mystery himself.
Runtime: 00:42:27
Director: Nick Damore
Marie. Eduardo. Sophie.
A mesmerizing contemplation of moving bodies and painting, with three magnificent performers of contemporary dance from Montreal: Marie Mougeolle, Eduardo Ruiz Vergara and Sophie Corriveau.
Runtime: 3:15
Director: Thomas Corriveau
6:45 PM : Black Barbie: A Documentary - Thalian Black
Love her or hate her, almost everyone has a Barbie story. Even if they don’t have a story, there’s a story as to why they don’t have a story. Director Lagueria Davis (Cucalorus Works-in-Progress alumni) tells the story behind the first Black Barbie, because yes, she has a story too. It started with the filmmaker’s 83-year-old aunt, Beulah Mae Mitchell, and a seemingly simple question: “Why not make a Barbie that looks like me?”
Runtime: 100:00
Director: Lagueria Davis
7:00 PM : Sneezewort Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
ROAD HEAD
Stuck on the side of the road on their way to a social distance party in the ‘burbs, two contact-starved millennials process loneliness, grief, and political anxiety while trying not to connect on an intimate level in this dark, absurd, sex-positive comedy about loss, changing plans, and the lengths we'll go not to communicate directly with the people we love.
Runtime: 16:00
Director: Allison Torem
EITR
We follow Mohamed on a day when an unexpected charming customer enters his shop. Mohamed shares a connection with this beautiful stranger who truly sees him underneath the many layers of Polo Sport adjacent cologne. Mohamed’s fear of his true desires will be tested as he is caught off guard by the power of being seen. Can this connection break him out of his performative shell?
Runtime: 14:40
Director: Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller
Murder Camp
Two slasher serial killers make the shameful error of serial killing at the same summer camp on the same night, challenging the very fabric of their friendship... and identities.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Clara I Aranovich
FISHMONGER
In this supernatural dark comedy, a pathetic Irish fishmonger must survive a sex pact with an ancient fish creature in order to save his mother's soul from burning in hell.
Runtime:25:30
Director: Neil Ferron
Jelqing for Gains
This is how you get big. A gender-bending exploration of penile enhancement rituals from the award-winning director of “Pornagraphic Apathetic” and “Filthy Food.”
Runtime: 6:24
Director: T. Arthur Cottam
Suspicious Minds
A romance at a trippy Halloween rave goes wrong. Lola's public breakup is disrupted when an Elvis impersonator comes to the rescue. Sharing confidences and ghosts from their past, they reminisce about their homeland and discover meaning in their newly shared bond.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Imelda O'Reilly
Stuck
Wanda, an introverted stoner, is roped into her roommates’ music video shoot, when she finds a kindred spirit in a mouse stuck to a sticky pad.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Brittany Reeber
7:30 PM : A Song For Imogene - Thalian Main
A sudden death and unexpected pregnancy force an impoverished woman to decide between freeing herself or remaining a relic of her drive-by Southern town. This gritty, female-driven independent drama is set against the grueling landscape of the American rural South that explores issues around abuse, pregnancy trauma, and the female bid for independence. A poignant exploration of life off Highway 74, it tackles grief and the complexities one woman faces while settling her mother’s shabby estate, reuniting with an estranged relative while wrestling with the notion to break free from a toxic trauma bond with her live-in boyfriend.
Runtime: 103:54
Director: Erika Arlee
10:00 PM : With Love and a Major Organ - Jengo's Playhouse
In a world where human hearts are made of inanimate objects, everyone seems detached from their feelings and addicted to their technological devices–but not Anabel. When she meets George, a kind but mild-mannered man, she feels a rare bond with another human being. After a series of painful rejections, Anabel vows to forgo the perils of living a life too full of feeling. She rips out her heart and sends it to George. Unable to offer anything in return, George disappears on a joy ride while Anabel's world starts to fade. Will she summon the courage to get her own heart back?
Runtime: 100:00
Director: Kim Albright
November 16, 2023
10:00 AM : Windflower Shorts - Thalian Main
Becoming Yamazushi
A son honoring family legacy discovers how art can be a champion for healing, lost history, and cultural liberation, as he takes us on the poetic journey of Japanese restaurant, Yamazushi. In his directorial debut, hip-hop artist G Yamazawa reveals the essence of his family’s story, the source of his own courage, and the art of being unapologetically authentic.
Runtime: 14:00
Director: George Yamazawa
BLACK STRINGS
The Black String Triage Ensemble, an all-African American string orchestra in Milwaukee, performs on the scene in the immediate aftermath of incidents of gun violence, altering the notion of “first responders.” In a city with such a troubled relationship with violence, can this ensemble transform the traumatized public space into a place of recovery, healing and hope?
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Marquise Mays
Fitting
What does it mean to create an extension to someone else’s body, and what’s the impact this has on both the maker and amputee? The relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist is thoughtfully conveyed by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg.
Runtime: 10:51
Director: Caitlin McMullan
MISTER NEAL
Neal Thomas, of Wendell, N.C. has been making white oak baskets for more than half a century. He's not getting any younger and with the rapid growth of urban sprawl. Mister Neal is slowly watching his way of life disappear before his eyes.
Runtime: 6:20
Director: Rodrigo dorfman
Matriarch
Matriarch is an experimental short documentary celebrating the legacy of elderly motherhood from the perspective of the filmmaker's grandmothers, two Southern Black women hoping to maintain their independence during what could potentially be the final year of their lives.
Runtime: 29:10
Director: Donald Conley
The Elwell Ferry
The patterns and rhythms of a workday with Betty Rose Dolce, the operator of a small ferry carrying locals across the Cape Fear River in rural North Carolina.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Dave Monahan
10:30 AM : Rissi Palmer: Still Here - Thalian Main
Rissi Palmer: Still Here
Grammy–nominated country artist and radio host, Rissi Palmer redefines success as she works on her latest album while uplifting other artists of color in the Americana genres. As only one of four African American female artists to ever hit the billboards in the history of country music, Rissi Palmer challenges the current status quo, amplifying the voices of other Black, Brown and Indigenous female country music artists.
Runtime: 43:54
Director: Dilsey Davis
Cubicle(s)
Two complete strangers, Eve and Catherine, find themselves locked in a shopping mall’s restroom together in an unexpected and unavoidable encounter. They need to support each other before they are freed. Will they succeed in becoming united or will they grow apart in their individual loneliness?
Runtime: 6:37
Director: Sali Yang
1:00 PM : Thimbleweed Shorts - Thalian Main
Mad Man
A grieving rapper blindsides his manager with plans to perform a vengeful song for an important audition, potentially jeopardizing the opportunity.
Runtime: 13:02
Director: La-Rel Easter
Take Me Home
Anna is an adult with a cognitive disability, living with her mother in Midland, Florida. When her mother is unresponsive, she calls her sister for help, but is brushed aside. Emily returns home and is immediately engulfed in a struggle for medical information. In this sadness, Anna holds her own. The uncertainty for the sisters’ independence remains but they are now a team against all odds.
Runtime: 15:49
Director: Liz Sargent
Shoebox
Trey Malloy is a 12-year-old boy who works part-time at his neighborhood barbershop. As Trey sweeps hair and runs delivery errands, he is encouraged by local patrons to use his first paycheck on an array of ideas. Coping with the loss of his mother, Latoya Malloy, Trey decides to buy a flower garden in her honor.
Runtime: 14:48
Director: David Fortune
Blue Hour
Two personal journeys intersect when a struggling young photographer is hired for a cheap last minute portrait gig. The unfolding photo session, while transient, leaves an indelible mark on both women.
Runtime: 15:45
Director: J.D Shields
Four Nights and a Fire
Robert prepares for a sacred Ojibwe fire ceremony in the woods, desperate to feel close to his father one last time. Meanwhile, the spirit of his father finds the flame and seeks to console his son. As Robert fights to keep the flame alive, the spirit fights his fear of the inevitable transition to the afterlife.
Runtime: 12:38
Director: Alex Nystrom
Mandarins
Emotional and compulsive black sheep Olivia Chu reunites with her estranged family by crashing her mother's funeral. Determined to say something, Olivia unintentionally delivers an offbeat eulogy. Competing eulogies ensue, painting a larger picture of each of the siblings and the complex woman they've come together to honor.
Runtime: 14:13
Director: Chelsie Pennello
Millstone
Featuring an entirely deaf cast and shot exclusively in American Sign Language, this is the story of a married couple who - after having tragically lost a child - seeks out a new, experimental therapy. They have found the only therapist who might be able to help them - but his process could be worse than anyone imagined.
Runtime: 16:00
Director: Peter Hoffman Kimball
1:45 PM : Playland - Jengo's Playhouse
Taking on queer history, this hybrid of performance art and documentary depicts the “ghosts” of Boston’s most notorious gay bar, Playland Café. It’s a boundary-pushing, transdisciplinary film told with a combination of archival interviews and footage, contemporary vignettes of musical and drag performances, and extended takes with little to no dialogue or movement.
It strives to be a semi-surreal meditation on the haunted past of a now-demolished space for “generations of drag queens, disco DJs, leatherdykes, and sissies.”
Runtime: 72:00
Director: Georden West
3:45 PM : How to Have an American Baby
Behind the closed doors of the Southern California suburbs there is a flourishing shadow economy—a patchwork industry catering to pregnant Chinese tourists who travel to the U.S. to give birth on American soil in order to obtain citizenship for their babies.
Told through a series of interwoven storylines, the film traces the human supply chain of clients and birth tourism workers from Shanghai to Los Angeles—weaving private moments into a kaleidoscopic look at the lives, dreams, and dilemmas of specific individuals caught up in this global phenomenon.
Runtime: 113:00
Director: Leslie Tai
4:15 PM : One With The Whale - Jengo's Playhouse
One With The Whale
Chris, Nalu, and their family face multiple challenges. Caught in the crosshairs of climate change, food security, social media and centuries of racially motivated attacks from outsiders, the Apassingoks and their entire village are on the cusp of losing everything. That is, unless they can find a way to navigate these precarious times and strike a balance between being modern Americans and prehistoric hunter-gatherers. It’s a heartwarming, yet thrilling tale, of a family's struggle to recover from animal activists' online assaults against their teenage son, the youngest person to ever harpoon a whale for his village.
Runtime: 80:00
Director: Pete Chelkowski, Jim Wickens
Little Things are Scary
A mother, voiced by Emmy and Tony nominated Carrie Coon, sits in a rocking chair with her infant child late at night. As she rocks away, she attempts to soothe her baby with a soliloquy of whatever words come to mind. A short film that toys with what we instill in our children and the hollow comforts of thinking small.
Runtime: 4:42
Director: Sean Pierce
7:00 PM : Summer Solstice - Thalian Black
Summer Solstice
Leo, a trans man, and his cisgender, straight friend Eleanor go on an impromptu weekend trip, during which they uncover some old secrets, some new challenges, and find the answer to the age-old question: can bad sex and good friends mix? Noah Schamus’s funny, melancholic feature debut celebrates and tests Leo and Eleanor’s bond in equal measure. Rising stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez (Adam) and Marianne Rendón (Mapplethorpe) give carefully calibrated performances that illustrate both the lasting love and growing frustration at the heart of the pair’s changing relationship.
Runtime: 80:48
Director: Noah Schamus
Intake It or Leave It
Rachel thought breaking her arm was excruciating. Just wait ‘til she meets her doctor!
Runtime: 4:12
Director: Jesslyn Virginia Wilson, Meghan Cook
7:15 PM : Corpse Flower Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Tight Pants Ultra Bold
Georgie discusses a bubble font he designed and released himself -- to no acclaim.
Runtime: 2:00
Director: Dave Merson Hess, Justin Taber
***** Love
Cool Cat invites you! Enjoy a show of lust and laziness! Let’s have fun with **** and dicks. The claws are sharp, the soda is sparkling and the fur is getting wet. Romance is kitsch. But even the most jaded cat can still be lost for love.
Runtime: 4:00
Director: Linda Krauss
Cristina's Dad Pitches Us A Short Film
Listen and watch Cristina's dad pitch us his idea of an “original” short film he would love to make.
Runtime: 1:30
Director: leah short
Daddy's Got The Gun
Daddy’s got the gun and he’s looking at me!
Runtime: 1:13
Director: Owen Flaherty
Bent Antenna
A work-in-progress. A fallen robot angel emerges from the void to encounter a city it no longer remembers. A stop-motion short set to the music of Justin Lacy's "Bent Antenna."
Runtime: 7:00
Director: Justin N Lacy
Las Nogas
Five hundred years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain - the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness.
Runtime: 00:19:32
Director: Catya Plate
Sammy, Without Strings
When a black puppet named Sammy, performing at the hands of his malevolent puppeteer, falls in love with a beautiful woman in his audience, he sets his sights on freedom from his strings to live a life of dignity and humanity with her.
Runtime: 15:59
Director: Ralph Parker, III
The Dumpster Dive
Set inside a dumpster television studio, is a talk show in which a pair of cockroach news anchors report on the latest exploits of the human infestation. In the pilot episode of the series, hosts Howard Scourge and Madison Von Vermin investigate microplastics. By getting up close and personal with real life scientists and plastic experts, the roaches revel in their findings that microplastics may just have dire consequences for their species’ biggest nuisance.
Runtime: 17:35
Director: Laura Asherman
Roped
Mother and daughter are roped for life by an eternal bond that heals and hurts, and that is perpetuated when the daughter becomes a mother.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Carmen Córdoba González
The Old Young Crow
Mehrdad, now an old man, reflects on his time in Tokyo as a boy through the help of his old sketchbook. He recalls his encounter with an old woman named Chiyo whom he met at a graveyard near his elementary school. He investigates her sudden disappearance the following day.
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Liam LoPinto
7:30 PM : Dance-a-lorus - Thalian Main
A festival tradition, Dance-a-lorus pushes boundaries by pairing filmmakers and choreographers for an exploration of film and dance. This live stage event encourages collaboration as a fundamental form of creative expression. From abstraction to documentary, film and choreography come together in an experimental showcase of the region’s most talented artists.
Proudly sponsored by The Wilson Center.
Runtime: 90:00
8:00 PM : Party Robot - Filmmakers Lounge
Real Life Party masquerades as a multi-level marketing convention or a budget TED Talk, showcasing the cutting-edge innovation in party tech: Party Robot 3.0 (PR 30). Powered by the revolutionary AMSH algorithm (Absorb-Mirror-Support-Heighten), PR 30 aims to be the ultimate party companion.
Throughout the demonstration, conflicting needs arise as PR 30 strives to prove its value while authentically connecting with its evolving identity shaped by the audience's influence. Embracing the passage of time, PR 30 rebels against its predefined role and embarks on a quest for its own purpose in the world.
By prioritizing its self-fulfillment, PR 30 aspires to create the most memorable party experience not only for itself but also for everyone involved. This thought-provoking exploration invites audiences to contemplate the complexities of personal growth and genuine connection in an ever-evolving technological landscape.
Runtime: 60:00
Director: Patrick Basquill
9:00 PM : 10x10 Challenge - Bowstring
9:45 PM : Lost Soulz - Jengo's Playhouse
Lost Soulz
Sol (Sauve Sidle) is an aspiring young rapper living with his best friend Wesley (Siyanda Stillwell), whose family has embraced him as a brother. After a raucous night causes Wesley to overdose, Sol abandons him at a house party, and eventually chooses to leave home for good and join a touring group of hip-hop artists. As they travel across Texas creating and performing, he discovers who he is as an artist and person.
Runtime: 97:00
Director: Katherine Propper
Madd-Cat + Young Newtron - Way 2 Sexy (4 Fast Fashion)
In their debut music video, the visionary minds behind the renowned brand Equal Rights Apparel seamlessly merge their talents into the realm of music, delivering a powerful anthem that champions the concept of slow fashion and condemns the detrimental impacts of fast fashion.
Runtime: 3:30
Director: Alec Gessert
10:00 PM : RATS! - Thalian Black
It’s 2007 in Fresno, Texas. Raphael is in county jail following an arrest for graffiti. He’s a good kid. He's not responsible for the sting operation, the suicide, Flophouse's new mixtape, Officer Williams and her delusional suspicions, the meth pipes, the FBI, the rich kids with nothing to lose, Mateo, Larry the pig, all the knives, the local aspiring TV newswoman, the plutonium deal gone wrong, or anyone who may or may not die due to that deal turning sour.
The moment Raphael walks out of that cell, he'll be stuck on this f’d-up emo rollercoaster of politically incorrect chaos — a joy to watch in motion, as long as you’re not the one riding it.
Runtime: 93:27
Director: Maxwell Nalenvansky, Carl Fry
November 17, 2023
10:00 AM : Cheeseweed Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
The Line Jumper
BlockView all films tagged "Shorts Block"
Would YOU jump the line?
Runtime: 6:10
Director: Rob Underhill, Hugh Oyake
The Dishwasher
Overlooked by customers and coworkers, Arthur sees it all — particularly the loneliness in Molly, the café’s sole server. His concern for her grows as he sees how vulnerable she is to the surly serial-dating, app-surfing café owner, Billy, whom Arthur deems a **** and not good enough for Molly. When he meets the new owner of the wine shop next door, a shy, intellectual nerd named James, inspiration strikes!
Runtime: 14:39
Director: Sydney Penny
Serious Play
Life is a non-stop hustle for juggler and comedian Payel Gupta until a one-night stand with a mime leads to an unexpected pregnancy.
Runtime: 13:27
Director: Kate Mason
The Favor
"Death doesn't become her." When the Angel of Death comes to collect a woman who is just not ready to go, things take a surprising turn.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Wanjiru Njendu
Unemployees
Two recent college grads enter the workfield seeking gainful unemployment. Potrykus is a Cucalorus alum and his film BUZZARD won the Audience Awards in the Visions category in 2014.
Runtime: 26:00
Director: Joel Potrykus
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
A U-2 themed proposal at Joshua Tree goes awry when Paul realizes his wife-to-be is not a fan.
Runtime: 8:34
Director: Steve Collins
Black Santa
Henry makes an annual tradition of working as a mall Santa Claus with his son Otis as an elf sidekick. Now in his self-conscious middle school years, Otis is embarrassed by the charade until he learns that his father has a noble ulterior motive: to help teach him how to upend stereotypes and increase positive Black representation.
Runtime: 10:03
Director: Travis Wood
10:15 AM : Skunk Cabbage Shorts - Thalian Main
One Buck Won't Hurt
Four Black teenagers from New Orleans support themselves by tap dancing for tips in the French Quarter. Following them from adolescence to adulthood, this coming-of-age story explores the reckless joys of youth and the bitter realities of growing up fast in the incarceration capital of the world.
Runtime: 15:39
Director: Christopher Stoudt
Compton's 22
On an unknown date in 1966, trans women in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district rioted against police violence at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria. Decades later, trans historian Susan Stryker unearthed the history of the riot and interviewed the surviving “Compton’s queens.” Powerful implications of intergenerational solidarity are revealed in this ongoing struggle for queer liberation.
Runtime: 17:30
Director: Drew de Pinto
Chronicle of a Summer Day
A community bouquet of remembrance and celebration, loosely documenting John Caleb Pendleton's (Planks & Pistils) 2021 Juneteenth floral installation. The film ends where it begins and begins where it ends, for future conversations around Juneteenth-- another effort to prop up future generations.
Runtime: 16:03
Section 59
Forty years after the funeral, a family decides to relocate their father's grave. This transfer is not a simple displacement. Instead, it becomes a poignant act of perpetuating love through the exhumation and rearrangement of a puzzle. The journey unfolds between the realms of the deceased and the living, intertwined with rituals and personal stories.
Runtime: 14:26
Director: Yasaman Baghban
SLICE
Black folks and water don’t mix, right? Rico Golden and his homeboys from Memphis submerge themselves in an original swimming art form of athleticism, creativity, and joy called slicing while refusing to drown in a pool of low life expectancy.
Runtime: 16:30
Director: Zaire Love
Olive
Olive Hagemeier is an energetic older woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste” across Atlanta, GA. This ethnographic work places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.
Runtime: 13:28
Director: Lev Omelchenko
10:30 AM : King Coal - Thalian Black
King Coal
Coal has reigned as king in the Appalachian Mountains for most of the 20th century. Through a deep exploration of the coal industry’s past and future, filmmaker Elaine Sheldon dives deep into the communities shaped by the coal industry and the myths it has created. Emerging from the long shadows of the coal mines, pain and beauty are untangled, illuminating the innately human capacity for change. This artfully ambivalent film sets the weighty pull of coal’s kingly past against the region’s hopes for a freer, more sustainable future.
Runtime: 01:19:00
Director: Elaine Sheldon
"Wild Dream" by Eugenia Riot
Eugenia Riot performs for a small, detached crowd. But in her wild dream, she imagines a sparkling room alive with a mesmerized audience.
Runtime: 3:27
Director: Darryl Jones
1:00 PM : With Love and a Major Organ - Thalian Main
In a world where human hearts are made of inanimate objects, everyone seems detached from their feelings and addicted to their technological devices–but not Anabel. When she meets George, a kind but mild-mannered man, she feels a rare bond with another human being. After a series of painful rejections, Anabel vows to forgo the perils of living a life too full of feeling.
She rips out her heart and sends it to George. Unable to offer anything in return, George disappears on a joy ride while Anabel's world starts to fade. Will she summon the courage to get her own heart back?
Runtime: 100:00
Director: Kim Albright
1:15 PM : O Pioneer - Thalian Black
O Pioneer
Three Appalachians from West Virginia embark upon an important journey—a journey that unfolds in the midst of a pandemic and personal heartache. Weaving narration with archival pioneer footage, candid moments from each subject, poetic vignettes, and dream-like animation, this heartfelt documentary redefines what it means to be a pioneer and asks viewers to courageously champion the pioneer within.
Runtime: 73:00
Director: Clara Lehmann, Jonathan Lacocque
Resistance Rockers
Experimental animation music video for Hurray for the Riff Raff’s track "Resistance Rockers."
Runtime: 3:58
Director: Kelly Gallagher
1:30 PM : Cobra Lilly Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Ahead, Behind
A surreal dance short. Two strangers find themselves waiting in an infinite queue. Dance duo JA Collective and director Ben Kadie collaborate to create a trippy piece that uses impossible 3D space in a unique way.
Runtime: 2:38
Director: Ben V Kadie
Lost Eden
Increasingly, the question is not whether we will become post-human, for post-humanity is already here. Rather, the question is what sort of post-humans will we be? Invited by The APENFT Foundation to make a creative short that imagines the status quo of post-human condition, Wenkai creates a dance video that encapsulates the inevitable alienation that humanity is marching toward.
Runtime: 1:22
Director: Wenkai Wang
Round of Applause
A reclamation of gaze fueled by the supernatural powers of the curvilinear, this demonstrates the dimensionality of Black dance and its historical journey from past to future.
Runtime: 4:41
Director: Irishia Hubbard
Due North
An artistic and expressive dance film about life and embodiment of the wild.
Runtime: 23:10
Director: Chantal Caron
Opting To Be Pulled
Inspired by Alex Katz's five-panel painting "Pas de Deux", this film explores the push, pulls, and patterns of the five posed couples featured in the Katz source material, interpreted and expanded upon by the choreography of Colby College's Annie Kloppenberg.
Runtime: 5:26
Director: Emilie Silvestri
Bull Rider
This experimental documentary short merges meditations on dance from choreographer Martha Graham with music by composer Philip Glass and video featuring professional bull rider/modern dancer Ouncie Mitchell, at the 2022 Oakley Rodeo in Oakley, UT.
Runtime: 2:00
Director: Alexia Olden, Steven Gray
Black Butterfly
Eighteen-year-old Apollo is betting on a dance scholarship to help him escape his encumbering surroundings. When his dance instructor requires movements that don’t resonate with him, he has to decide which is more important. Does he execute the moves or forfeit the opportunity of a lifetime?
Runtime: 6:58
Director: Chrisshea Owens
The Dance After the Last Dance
One night during the pandemic, the director was dancing blindfolded with her partner and had a vision that she was dancing with his ghost. Emerging from that vision, the director explores the healing power of movement, darkness, and private grief witnessed collectively.
Runtime: 8:48
Director: Candice Holdorf
ESCAPE
Escape from life, escape from death, escape from danger, escape from fear, escape from growing up.
Runtime: 6:10
Director: Joseph P. King
Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film
Polyrhythmic movement comes together with an original score to look at the (ongoing) years of systemic exploitation of labor while highlighting the power and joy of collective resistance. This excerpt honors the sacred hands that feed us and was filmed on a farm with support from Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS), a non-profit advocacy organization for farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, CA.
Runtime: 13:12
Director: John Jota Leaños, Vanessa Sanchez
2:00 PM : Plant-a-lorus - Filmmakers Lounge
Runtime: 01:00:00
Director: Emily Gold
3:45 PM : The Secret Art of Human Flight - Thalian Main
After the sudden and tragic loss of his wife, Ben (Grant Rosenmeyer) turns to a mysterious self-help book that will train him to learn how to fly–or at least he hopes. He turns his life upside down under the advice of an eccentric spiritual guide (Paul Raci) who may very well be a con artist. Fending off his worried sister and an ambitious detective who is convinced he killed his wife, Ben risks it all to fly in an effort to get through his grief. It’s an endearing story with the perfect dose of melancholy, poignancy and a ton of laughs.
Runtime: 107:00
Director: H.P. Mendoza
4:00 PM : SCALA!!! - Jengo's Playhouse
During Britain’s post-punk Thatcher years, London’s legendary Scala cinema offered community refuge with a programme ranging from established classics and offbeat cult hits to sexploitation, horror, Kung Fu and LGBTQIA+ titles. Nudging the boundaries of convention, the cavernous picture palace acted as a source of inspiration for movie lovers and creatives. Featuring a cornucopia of interviews, archive and film clips, this is an engrossing tribute to an indelible legacy.
4:00 PM : Swamp Lousewort Shorts - Thalian Black
Bird's Nest
A young girl, Léna, is mocked at school for her hair. With the help of her sister, she gives herself a makeover. How far is one willing to go to be considered beautiful in a society whose standards only apply to a portion of the population, while excluding racialized bodies?
Runtime: 9:00
Director: Nadia Louis-Desmarchais
An Interior Body
In the midst of political turmoil, Gabrielle undergoes a miscarriage in her Beirut apartment. As her despair and pain grow overwhelming, she enters a surreal realm that allows her to accept what her body could not carry and regain hope in nature's cyclical ways.
Runtime: 3:30
Director: Liz Charky, Gus Reed
Born Again
A boy confronts his religious mother with his questions and concerns about God and the church on the day of his baptism.
Runtime : 12:16
Director : Will Henderson III
Fireflies Save the Night
Hiding in a bedroom closet, an embattled teenager comforts his younger sister and discusses the purpose of fireflies before finding a solution to his family's misery.
Runtime: 9:20
Director: A.J. Riggins
Getaway
On the backdrop of civil unrest in the United States, a Jamaican immigrant gives her and her troubled pre-teen a reprieve with his first trip to her homeland. As they ease into the change of pace, Mom gets shocking news that forces her to make a life-changing decision.
Runtime: 20:49
Director: Stephanie Malson
Stay Here With Me
In this magical realism short film, a distressed young woman escapes her house to meet the love of her life in an enchanted garden despite her mom’s objections.
Runtime: 17:00
Director: Thato Rantao Mwosa
Shadow Brother Sunday
A down-on-his-luck musician returns home on the day of his younger brother’s movie premiere to steal his computer and sell it to the paparazzi.
Runtime: 14:30
Director: Alden Ehrenreich
The Time Before
In search of missing memories, Sophie embarks in new technology that could help solve the mystery of her childhood.
Runtime: 9:21
Director: Dustin Abernathy
Palm Sunday
A southern gothic drama about a young Black Caribbean Immigrant who attempts to assimilate into an all-white church in 1970s Raleigh, North Carolina.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Wes Andre Goodrich
7:15 PM : Monkey Puzzle Shorts - Thalian Black
Incident 4
Strange circumstances pull an unseen protagonist into a strange, sterile maze of hallways. As he explores, our protagonist quickly discovers he is not alone in these halls.
Director: Zac Ivey
Runtime: 7:20
Living Lessons in the Museum of Order
Alcatraz is part of a larger industry of prison tourism that treats prisons and jails as real-life haunted houses. In contrast to the empty prison cells, SeaWorld is full of marine life in above ground tanks with see-through walls. Juxtaposing original footage, promotional VHS and analog video feedback, explore the tensions between public fantasies and exploitative practices, as well as between rhetorical and cultural changes, within the two California entertainment empires.
Runtime: 20:00
Director: Malic Amalya
The Voice in Isabel Fleiss's Office
A woman with an unusual malady--cobweb buildup in the throat--receives an even more unusual treatment in this adaptation of a surreal poem by North Carolina writer Virgil Renfroe. One of the key figures in the early indie film movement in North Carolina, Jim Haverkamp
Runtime: 6:24
Director: Jim Haverkamp
Voicemail
Using voicemails from the deceased, this experimental short examines our finite human existence through fleeting moments and an appreciation for our limited time.
Runtime: 6:00
Director: Kiersten Houser
Three Stories From Southern Appalachia
Autoethnographic experimental documentary triptych that explores Appalachian folklore, history and myth-making.
Runtime: 11:48
Director: Jonathan Furnell
Welcome to the Enclave
The Enclave is a virtual neighborhood for 'like-minded women’ created by Moni Calivione during the Covid pandemic. At the moment, she’s under attack from Reddit trolls who are changing her road signs to potty humor and splattering her walls with sexually explicit imagery. Together with her sister Blair, she desperately looks for a way to save her patch of e-serenity by raising money online.
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Sarah Lasley
What I Saw in the Rye Grass
Inspired by images seen in flames, this collaboration between painter Lydia Freier and experimental filmmaker Tristan Turner features layered imagery of rye grass, direct animation, and footage of loved ones.
Runtime: 7:51
Director: Tristan Turner, Lydia Freier
Flare
Watercolor Abstract No. 1. When disability traps you inside due to heat and health, sometimes it’s the art that saves you.
Runtime: 4:30
Director: Shannon Silva
A Part of You / Made Me Whole Again
Two Lives. One Gift. A post-kidney transplant memoir, told as a dream-like prayer to Mom.
Runtime: 5:00
Director: Destyn Fuller-Hope
OURIKA!
After being dead for over 200 years, Ourika’s soul is awoken inside of a barren purgatory while her body incubates in a fleshy blob. In the void, she encounters ghosts from her past life and depictions of her likeness that taunt her. Two sister scientists, Velinda and Ronnell, twin spirits, have been searching for all the pieces of her soul in hopes that they can bring her back to life.
Runtime: 17:00
Director: Xenia Matthews
7:30 PM : Kim's Video - Jengo's Playhouse
For two decades, New York City cinephiles had access to a treasure trove of rare and esoteric films through Kim's Video. Originally run by Yongman Kim out of his dry cleaning business, his franchise eventually amassed 55,000 rental titles. In 2008, Mr. Kim offered to give away his collection, provided that it stayed intact.
In a bid to revitalize tourism, the small village of Salemi, Sicily became home to the archive. But after the initial publicity faded, so did any sign of the collection. Filmmaker David Redmon embarks on a quest to track down what happened to the legendary collection and to free it from purgatory.
Runtime: 01:24:00
Director: Ashley Sabin, David Redmon
7:45 PM : Sisters - Thalian Main
With their lives unraveling around them, three Mexican American sisters reunite, after years of estrangement, to complete their beloved grandmother’s pilgrimage through rural Mexico. With no hiking experience, little reception, and an old map, the sisters walk the sacred trail to Talpa de Allende and find help along the way from Kin (Fernández), a local with a dark past. They must work together through their differences in order to reach the end and find their miracle.
Runtime: 80:00
Director: Mar Novo
8:00 PM : GutterBliss Light Show - Filmmakers Lounge
A human falls into the magical underground realm known as the gutter. They meet a wise goblin who helps them navigate this new world and reach their home on the surface. Along the way they meet all kinds of fantastic creatures who are living under the harsh rule of a mad king. Together, the human and the goblin manage to dethrone the mad king and restore the previous ruler, who is revealed to be the goblin.
Liquid light backgrounds, puppets, live musical effects and rear projection mapping combine to create an immersive journey into a strange and fantastical world where gender is fluid and fascists don't fare so well.
Runtime: 00:45:00
Director: August Schaller
10:00 PM : Stinky Willy Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Northside Alley
A young black man witnesses his mother being beaten by her drug dealer/pimp in 1988 Wilmington, NC.
Runtime: 3:41
Director: Alicia Inshiradu
In Wonderland
Nina is granted asylum in the U.S. and forced to stay in the custody of her estranged aunt, Carmen. Inside the fantasy world of her book, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” her imagination brings to life a magical rabbit hole. Will Nina come to terms with the truth of her past and embrace the adventure of a new home?
Runtime: 13:48
Director: Andrea Camacho McCracken
Pillow Fortress
When Lana takes her new boyfriend, Bart, on a visit to Tommy’s house, it doesn’t take long for the two men to realize that they knew each other as young children. Soon though, they disagree about their memories of a specific, trivial event. As the disagreement lingers, some of Bart’s other resentments surface.
Runtime: 19:00
Director: Zander Coté
Immutable
A woman free associates memories, free falling through her past experiences with her partner.
Runtime: 7:44
Director: Kelley Van Dilla
Magic Socket
Urges that are awakened by a woman's encounter with a compelling stranger lead her down the path of a bizarre affair.
Runtime: 8:30
Director: Harrison Atkins
Good Condition
Barry's starting over with the help of a used coffee table.
Runtime: 9:35
Director: Frank Mosley
Angels
With a sick mother at home and medical bills piling up, Beulah is almost ready to give up. But when a meteor falls from the sky and lands in her family’s field, Beulah discovers a strange, otherworldly creature. Does this being have the power to heal her sick mother?
Runtime: 7:18
Director: Samantha Aldana
Eyes
An obsessive lover’s mental state unravels as his relationship crumbles, leading him to act on his obsession with his partner’s eyes.
Runtime: 12:08
Director: Adrian Kader
ZIP
On her 16th birthday, singer-songwriter Melody awakens with a zipper sewn to her mouth. A story about the voiceless, who must fight to be heard.
Runtime: 15:40
Director: Ava Maria Safai
10:00 PM : The Becomers - Thalian Black
Part science-fiction, part road movie — and undeniably a love story — this uniquely perverse genre-bender tells the story of two body-swapping aliens trying to find their place on this big, dumb planet. With inventive lo-fi effects and a singular strangeness, the film mines an American landscape increasingly fraught with uncertainty and violence.
You'll simultaneously laugh, cringe and yearn as it captures the unease and dread bubbling up under the surface of all our lives! Narrated by Sparks legend Russell Mael, White Reindeer writer-director Zach Clark's triumphant return to Cucalorus is from the furthest planet yet (and we screened Vacation!).
Runtime: 86:00
Director: Zach Clark
November 18, 2023
10:00 AM : Sneezewort Shorts - Thalian Black
ROAD HEAD
Stuck on the side of the road on their way to a social distance party in the ‘burbs, two contact-starved millennials process loneliness, grief, and political anxiety while trying not to connect on an intimate level in this dark, absurd, sex-positive comedy about loss, changing plans, and the lengths we'll go not to communicate directly with the people we love.
Runtime: 16:00
Director: Allison Torem
EITR
We follow Mohamed on a day when an unexpected charming customer enters his shop. Mohamed shares a connection with this beautiful stranger who truly sees him underneath the many layers of Polo Sport adjacent cologne. Mohamed’s fear of his true desires will be tested as he is caught off guard by the power of being seen. Can this connection break him out of his performative shell?
Runtime: 14:40
Director: Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller
Murder Camp
Two slasher serial killers make the shameful error of serial killing at the same summer camp on the same night, challenging the very fabric of their friendship... and identities.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Clara I Aranovich
FISHMONGER
In this supernatural dark comedy, a pathetic Irish fishmonger must survive a sex pact with an ancient fish creature in order to save his mother's soul from burning in hell.
Runtime:25:30
Director: Neil Ferron
Jelqing for Gains
This is how you get big. A gender-bending exploration of penile enhancement rituals from the award-winning director of “Pornagraphic Apathetic” and “Filthy Food.”
Runtime: 6:24
Director: T. Arthur Cottam
Suspicious Minds
A romance at a trippy Halloween rave goes wrong. Lola's public breakup is disrupted when an Elvis impersonator comes to the rescue. Sharing confidences and ghosts from their past, they reminisce about their homeland and discover meaning in their newly shared bond.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Imelda O'Reilly
Stuck
Wanda, an introverted stoner, is roped into her roommates’ music video shoot, when she finds a kindred spirit in a mouse stuck to a sticky pad.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Brittany Reeber
10:15 AM : One With The Whale - Jengo's Playhouse
One With The Whale
Chris, Nalu, and their family face multiple challenges. Caught in the crosshairs of climate change, food security, social media and centuries of racially motivated attacks from outsiders, the Apassingoks and their entire village are on the cusp of losing everything. That is, unless they can find a way to navigate these precarious times and strike a balance between being modern Americans and prehistoric hunter-gatherers. It’s a heartwarming, yet thrilling tale, of a family's struggle to recover from animal activists' online assaults against their teenage son, the youngest person to ever harpoon a whale for his village.
Runtime: 80:00
Director: Pete Chelkowski, Jim Wickens
Little Things are Scary
A mother, voiced by Emmy and Tony nominated Carrie Coon, sits in a rocking chair with her infant child late at night. As she rocks away, she attempts to soothe her baby with a soliloquy of whatever words come to mind. A short film that toys with what we instill in our children and the hollow comforts of thinking small.
Runtime: 4:42
Director: Sean Pierce
10:30 AM : O Pioneer - Thalian Black
O Pioneer
Three Appalachians from West Virginia embark upon an important journey—a journey that unfolds in the midst of a pandemic and personal heartache. Weaving narration with archival pioneer footage, candid moments from each subject, poetic vignettes, and dream-like animation, this heartfelt documentary redefines what it means to be a pioneer and asks viewers to courageously champion the pioneer within.
Runtime: 73:00
Director: Clara Lehmann, Jonathan Lacocque
Resistance Rockers
Experimental animation music video for Hurray for the Riff Raff’s track "Resistance Rockers."
Runtime: 3:58
Director: Kelly Gallagher
1:00 PM : Swamp Lousewort Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Bird's Nest
A young girl, Léna, is mocked at school for her hair. With the help of her sister, she gives herself a makeover. How far is one willing to go to be considered beautiful in a society whose standards only apply to a portion of the population, while excluding racialized bodies?
Runtime: 9:00
Director: Nadia Louis-Desmarchais
An Interior Body
In the midst of political turmoil, Gabrielle undergoes a miscarriage in her Beirut apartment. As her despair and pain grow overwhelming, she enters a surreal realm that allows her to accept what her body could not carry and regain hope in nature's cyclical ways.
Runtime: 3:30
Director: Liz Charky, Gus Reed
Born Again
A boy confronts his religious mother with his questions and concerns about God and the church on the day of his baptism.
Runtime : 12:16
Director : Will Henderson III
Fireflies Save the Night
Hiding in a bedroom closet, an embattled teenager comforts his younger sister and discusses the purpose of fireflies before finding a solution to his family's misery.
Runtime: 9:20
Director: A.J. Riggins
Getaway
On the backdrop of civil unrest in the United States, a Jamaican immigrant gives her and her troubled pre-teen a reprieve with his first trip to her homeland. As they ease into the change of pace, Mom gets shocking news that forces her to make a life-changing decision.
Runtime: 20:49
Director: Stephanie Malson
Stay Here With Me
In this magical realism short film, a distressed young woman escapes her house to meet the love of her life in an enchanted garden despite her mom’s objections.
Runtime: 17:00
Director: Thato Rantao Mwosa
Shadow Brother Sunday
A down-on-his-luck musician returns home on the day of his younger brother’s movie premiere to steal his computer and sell it to the paparazzi.
Runtime: 14:30
Director: Alden Ehrenreich
The Time Before
In search of missing memories, Sophie embarks in new technology that could help solve the mystery of her childhood.
Runtime: 9:21
Director: Dustin Abernathy
Palm Sunday
A southern gothic drama about a young Black Caribbean Immigrant who attempts to assimilate into an all-white church in 1970s Raleigh, North Carolina.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Wes Andre Goodrich
1:15 PM : This Closeness - Thalian Main
Ben and Tessa (Zane Pais and Kit Zauhar) are a couple staying in a shared-space apartment in Philadelphia for the weekend, while in town for a high school reunion. Unable to get better accommodations, they wind up staying with reclusive shut-in Adam (Ian Edlund). What's already a rocky relationship only strains further with the addition of their new acquaintance. What follows? A tale of desire, jealousy, and passion hidden underneath the surface. As their relationship threatens to implode, Tessa finds herself having to truly consider the future and whether or not Ben and she really belong together.
Runtime: 88:00
Director: Kit Zauhar
1:30 PM : Rissi Palmer: Still Here - Thalian Black
Grammy–nominated country artist and radio host, Rissi Palmer redefines success as she works on her latest album while uplifting other artists of color in the Americana genres. As only one of four African American female artists to ever hit the billboards in the history of country music, Rissi Palmer challenges the current status quo, amplifying the voices of other Black, Brown and Indigenous female country music artists.
Runtime: 43:54
Director: Dilsey Davis
Cubicle(s)
Two complete strangers, Eve and Catherine, find themselves locked in a shopping mall’s restroom together in an unexpected and unavoidable encounter.
They need to support each other before they are freed. Will they succeed in becoming united or will they grow apart in their individual loneliness?
Runtime: 6:37
Director: Sali Yang
2:00 PM : VR Salon: IMMERSION - Filmmakers Lounge
Drop by the trippy virtual interactions, award-winning brilliance, & scintillating dialogue with inspired thinkers. Artists from our summer IMMERSION VR Lab return to share their work and expand their Port City experience.
Hosted by The School Of Making Thinking. Free Event.
Runtime: 240:00
4:00 PM : Riddle of Fire - Thalian Main
Hazel, his brother Jodie, and their friend Alice (who call themselves “the Three Reptiles”) want to spend the day gaming. But first, Hazel and Jodie’s sick mother insists they must fetch her a blueberry pie. What seems like a simple errand becomes a monumental quest across the North American West, setting off a wild tale with as many obstacles as the video game the trio actually wanted to play.
Soon, the Reptiles must face off against the Enchanted Blade Gang (led by witch Anna-Freya Hollyhock) before they can find their way home. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, this irreverent 16mm fantasy adventure has fairytale magic and a “Goonies” flair.
Runtime: 113:00
Director: Weston Razooli
4:15 PM : Thimbleweed Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Mad Man
A grieving rapper blindsides his manager with plans to perform a vengeful song for an important audition, potentially jeopardizing the opportunity.
Runtime: 13:02
Director: La-Rel Easter
Take Me Home
Anna is an adult with a cognitive disability, living with her mother in Midland, Florida. When her mother is unresponsive, she calls her sister for help, but is brushed aside. Emily returns home and is immediately engulfed in a struggle for medical information. In this sadness, Anna holds her own. The uncertainty for the sisters’ independence remains but they are now a team against all odds.
Runtime: 15:49
Director: Liz Sargent
Shoebox
Trey Malloy is a 12-year-old boy who works part-time at his neighborhood barbershop. As Trey sweeps hair and runs delivery errands, he is encouraged by local patrons to use his first paycheck on an array of ideas. Coping with the loss of his mother, Latoya Malloy, Trey decides to buy a flower garden in her honor.
Runtime: 14:48
Director: David Fortune
Blue Hour
Two personal journeys intersect when a struggling young photographer is hired for a cheap last minute portrait gig. The unfolding photo session, while transient, leaves an indelible mark on both women.
Runtime: 15:45
Director: J.D Shields
Four Nights and a Fire
Robert prepares for a sacred Ojibwe fire ceremony in the woods, desperate to feel close to his father one last time. Meanwhile, the spirit of his father finds the flame and seeks to console his son. As Robert fights to keep the flame alive, the spirit fights his fear of the inevitable transition to the afterlife.
Runtime: 12:38
Director: Alex Nystrom
Mandarins
Emotional and compulsive black sheep Olivia Chu reunites with her estranged family by crashing her mother's funeral. Determined to say something, Olivia unintentionally delivers an offbeat eulogy. Competing eulogies ensue, painting a larger picture of each of the siblings and the complex woman they've come together to honor.
Runtime: 14:13
Director: Chelsie Pennello
Millstone
Featuring an entirely deaf cast and shot exclusively in American Sign Language, this is the story of a married couple who - after having tragically lost a child - seeks out a new, experimental therapy. They have found the only therapist who might be able to help them - but his process could be worse than anyone imagined.
Runtime: 16:00
Director: Peter Hoffman Kimball
4:30 PM : Playland - Thalian Black
Taking on queer history, this hybrid of performance art and documentary depicts the “ghosts” of Boston’s most notorious gay bar, Playland Café. It’s a boundary-pushing, transdisciplinary film told with a combination of archival interviews and footage, contemporary vignettes of musical and drag performances, and extended takes with little to no dialogue or movement.
It strives to be a semi-surreal meditation on the haunted past of a now-demolished space for “generations of drag queens, disco DJs, leatherdykes, and sissies.”
Runtime: 72:00
Director: Georden West
7:00 PM : Last Straw - Thalian Main
Last Straw
Set over one night in a dusty roadside diner, Nancy, a young waitress working the night shift by herself, will wind up being forced to fight for her life. A series of chaotic events spiral out of control, as Nancy is terrorized by a group of masked assailants.
No one is who they appear to be, and with nowhere to turn, she must do everything she can to survive the night. Directed by Cucalorus alum Alan Scott Neal and featuring sometimes local indie actor Taylor Kowalski, this blood soaked stabfest is an indie gem.
Runtime: 81:00
Director: Alan Scott Neal
I Know Who I Am
Most Wilmington folks will recognize the name, but this time it’s Papa Kowalski with a timeless music video exploring loss, grief and psychological endurance. Made in Wilmington NC by a 3 person crew.
Runtime: 4:46
Director: Peter B Kowalski
7:15 PM : Cheeseweed Shorts - Thalian Black
The Line Jumper
BlockView all films tagged "Shorts Block"
Would YOU jump the line?
Runtime: 6:10
Director: Rob Underhill, Hugh Oyake
The Dishwasher
Overlooked by customers and coworkers, Arthur sees it all — particularly the loneliness in Molly, the café’s sole server. His concern for her grows as he sees how vulnerable she is to the surly serial-dating, app-surfing café owner, Billy, whom Arthur deems a **** and not good enough for Molly. When he meets the new owner of the wine shop next door, a shy, intellectual nerd named James, inspiration strikes!
Runtime: 14:39
Director: Sydney Penny
Serious Play
Life is a non-stop hustle for juggler and comedian Payel Gupta until a one-night stand with a mime leads to an unexpected pregnancy.
Runtime: 13:27
Director: Kate Mason
The Favor
"Death doesn't become her." When the Angel of Death comes to collect a woman who is just not ready to go, things take a surprising turn.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Wanjiru Njendu
Unemployees
Two recent college grads enter the workfield seeking gainful unemployment. Potrykus is a Cucalorus alum and his film BUZZARD won the Audience Awards in the Visions category in 2014.
Runtime: 26:00
Director: Joel Potrykus
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
A U-2 themed proposal at Joshua Tree goes awry when Paul realizes his wife-to-be is not a fan.
Runtime: 8:34
Director: Steve Collins
Black Santa
Henry makes an annual tradition of working as a mall Santa Claus with his son Otis as an elf sidekick. Now in his self-conscious middle school years, Otis is embarrassed by the charade until he learns that his father has a noble ulterior motive: to help teach him how to upend stereotypes and increase positive Black representation.
Runtime: 10:03
Director: Travis Wood
7:30 PM : Queendom - Jengo's Playhouse
Gena, a queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances—often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core — are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.
Runtime: 101:00
Director: Agnilia Galdanova
8:00 PM : Bird Woman - Filmmakers Lounge
Bird Woman is a multimedia performance by Carla Forte that fuses dance, film, original music and sound installation. It is based on and inspired by stories of Latina immigrant women. The piece explores the human condition and translates their stories into gestures, emotions and movements, creating a new language to express these women’s thoughts, desires, emotions and hopes.
Runtime: 60:00
Director: Carla Forte
10:00 PM : Do You See Me? - Jengo's Playhouse
A dance trapeze experiment grounded in control over the body. Through years of practice, trapeze artists develop precise control over small movements and gestures. Join us in the backyard at Jengo's Playhouse on Saturday night for an immersion into dance trapeze.
10:00 PM : She Is Conann - Thalian Black
Guardian of the underworld, Cerberus still has a muzzle but here he is called Rainer and has the breasts and voice of a woman, wears a studded black leather jacket, and a flash camera fit for the paparazzi. Talking to us from the great beyond, he details the successive reincarnations of Conann the Barbarian, a bloodthirsty Amazon from ancient times.
A visceral and impulsive queer illusionist, French auteur Bertrand Mandico (Cuc 27 secret screening After Blue: Dirty Paradise) casts his magic lantern on an imaginary prehistory, as well as some new little shops of horrors, rendered simultaneously in violent color and psychosexual monochrome.
Runtime: 104:00
Director: Bertrand Mandico
10:15 PM : Break the Game - Jengo's Playhouse
Break the Game
Documentary FeatureView all films tagged "Documentary Feature"
Video games have meant everything to Narcissa Wright. But as much as she loves the challenge of conquering virtual worlds, her biggest challenge will come as she comes out as transgender. Hell-bent on setting a new speedrunning world record in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Narcissa struggles to balance internet fandom and the prospect of building a life outside the confines of pixels. Narcissa must decide her fate: will she embrace love and adventure in the real world, or will she be seduced again by the glow of the computer screen?
Runtime: 72:00
Director: Jane M. Wagner
Dandelion
In a dystopian world, a coal-burning robot working on a mine one day finds something that he has never seen before: a dandelion.
Runtime: 3:38
Director: Ling Zhao, Zhengwu Gu
November 19, 2023
10:00 AM : How to Have an American Baby - Jengo's Playhouse
Behind the closed doors of the Southern California suburbs there is a flourishing shadow economy—a patchwork industry catering to pregnant Chinese tourists who travel to the U.S. to give birth on American soil in order to obtain citizenship for their babies.
Told through a series of interwoven storylines, the film traces the human supply chain of clients and birth tourism workers from Shanghai to Los Angeles—weaving private moments into a kaleidoscopic look at the lives, dreams, and dilemmas of specific individuals caught up in this global phenomenon.
Runtime: 113:00
Director: Leslie Tai
10:15 AM : Break the Game - Thalian Black
Break the Game
Video games have meant everything to Narcissa Wright. But as much as she loves the challenge of conquering virtual worlds, her biggest challenge will come as she comes out as transgender. Hell-bent on setting a new speedrunning world record in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Narcissa struggles to balance internet fandom and the prospect of building a life outside the confines of pixels. Narcissa must decide her fate: will she embrace love and adventure in the real world, or will she be seduced again by the glow of the computer screen?
Runtime: 72:00
Director: Jane M. Wagner
Dandelion
In a dystopian world, a coal-burning robot working on a mine one day finds something that he has never seen before: a dandelion.
Runtime: 3:38
Director: Ling Zhao, Zhengwu Gu
10:30 AM : Corpse Flower Shorts - Thalian Main
Tight Pants Ultra Bold
Georgie discusses a bubble font he designed and released himself -- to no acclaim.
Runtime: 2:00
Director: Dave Merson Hess, Justin Taber
Cristina's Dad Pitches Us A Short Film
Listen and watch Cristina's dad pitch us his idea of an “original” short film he would love to make.
Runtime: 1:30
Director: leah short
Daddy's Got The Gun
Daddy’s got the gun and he’s looking at me!
Runtime: 1:13
Director: Owen Flaherty
Bent Antenna
A work-in-progress. A fallen robot angel emerges from the void to encounter a city it no longer remembers. A stop-motion short set to the music of Justin Lacy's "Bent Antenna."
Runtime: 7:00
Director: Justin N Lacy
Las Nogas
Five hundred years into the future, the earth is a dry wasteland destroyed by humans. Doctor Alma, a fluffy, brilliant vulkeet (a cross between a parakeet and vulture) who drives a Vespa, must cure the only creatures left who can save the world by bringing back the rain - the bizarre and loveable Homeys who have fallen ill with a mysterious sickness.
Runtime: 00:19:32
Director: Catya Plate
Sammy, Without Strings
When a black puppet named Sammy, performing at the hands of his malevolent puppeteer, falls in love with a beautiful woman in his audience, he sets his sights on freedom from his strings to live a life of dignity and humanity with her.
Runtime: 15:59
Director: Ralph Parker, III
The Dumpster Dive
Set inside a dumpster television studio, is a talk show in which a pair of cockroach news anchors report on the latest exploits of the human infestation. In the pilot episode of the series, hosts Howard Scourge and Madison Von Vermin investigate microplastics. By getting up close and personal with real life scientists and plastic experts, the roaches revel in their findings that microplastics may just have dire consequences for their species’ biggest nuisance.
Runtime: 17:35
Director: Laura Asherman
Roped
Mother and daughter are roped for life by an eternal bond that heals and hurts, and that is perpetuated when the daughter becomes a mother.
Runtime: 10:00
Director: Carmen Córdoba González
The Old Young Crow
Mehrdad, now an old man, reflects on his time in Tokyo as a boy through the help of his old sketchbook. He recalls his encounter with an old woman named Chiyo whom he met at a graveyard near his elementary school. He investigates her sudden disappearance the following day.
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Liam LoPinto
1:15 PM : Summer Solstice - Thalian Main
Summer Solstice
Leo, a trans man, and his cisgender, straight friend Eleanor go on an impromptu weekend trip, during which they uncover some old secrets, some new challenges, and find the answer to the age-old question: can bad sex and good friends mix? Noah Schamus’s funny, melancholic feature debut celebrates and tests Leo and Eleanor’s bond in equal measure. Rising stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez (Adam) and Marianne Rendón (Mapplethorpe) give carefully calibrated performances that illustrate both the lasting love and growing frustration at the heart of the pair’s changing relationship.
Runtime: 80:48
Director: Noah Schamus
Intake It or Leave It
Rachel thought breaking her arm was excruciating. Just wait ‘til she meets her doctor!
Runtime: 4:12
Director: Jesslyn Virginia Wilson, Meghan Cook
1:30 PM : For Nick, From Dad - Thalian Black
For Nick, From Dad
Leo Damore was a New York Times best-selling investigative journalist who killed himself on October 2, 1995 when his son, Nick, was only 10 years old. Leo specialized in stories about the Kennedy family and true-crime investigations; most notably, his success breaking open Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident. Told through interviews with family and friends, this exploration into truth, memory, and fatherhood explores Nick’s vulnerable look at a father he barely knew. His life’s work was to seek the truth, though ironically, in death Leo Damore had become a mystery himself.
Runtime: 00:42:27
Director: Nick Damore
Marie. Eduardo. Sophie.
A mesmerizing contemplation of moving bodies and painting, with three magnificent performers of contemporary dance from Montreal: Marie Mougeolle, Eduardo Ruiz Vergara and Sophie Corriveau.
Runtime: 3:15
Director: Thomas Corriveau
1:45 PM : Cobra Lilly Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Ahead, Behind
A surreal dance short. Two strangers find themselves waiting in an infinite queue. Dance duo JA Collective and director Ben Kadie collaborate to create a trippy piece that uses impossible 3D space in a unique way.
Runtime: 2:38
Director: Ben V Kadie
Lost Eden
Increasingly, the question is not whether we will become post-human, for post-humanity is already here. Rather, the question is what sort of post-humans will we be? Invited by The APENFT Foundation to make a creative short that imagines the status quo of post-human condition, Wenkai creates a dance video that encapsulates the inevitable alienation that humanity is marching toward.
Runtime: 1:22
Director: Wenkai Wang
Round of Applause
A reclamation of gaze fueled by the supernatural powers of the curvilinear, this demonstrates the dimensionality of Black dance and its historical journey from past to future.
Runtime: 4:41
Director: Irishia Hubbard
Due North
An artistic and expressive dance film about life and embodiment of the wild.
Runtime: 23:10
Director: Chantal Caron
Opting To Be Pulled
Inspired by Alex Katz's five-panel painting "Pas de Deux", this film explores the push, pulls, and patterns of the five posed couples featured in the Katz source material, interpreted and expanded upon by the choreography of Colby College's Annie Kloppenberg.
Runtime: 5:26
Director: Emilie Silvestri
Bull Rider
This experimental documentary short merges meditations on dance from choreographer Martha Graham with music by composer Philip Glass and video featuring professional bull rider/modern dancer Ouncie Mitchell, at the 2022 Oakley Rodeo in Oakley, UT.
Runtime: 2:00
Director: Alexia Olden, Steven Gray
Black Butterfly
Eighteen-year-old Apollo is betting on a dance scholarship to help him escape his encumbering surroundings. When his dance instructor requires movements that don’t resonate with him, he has to decide which is more important. Does he execute the moves or forfeit the opportunity of a lifetime?
Runtime: 6:58
Director: Chrisshea Owens
The Dance After the Last Dance
One night during the pandemic, the director was dancing blindfolded with her partner and had a vision that she was dancing with his ghost. Emerging from that vision, the director explores the healing power of movement, darkness, and private grief witnessed collectively.
Runtime: 8:48
Director: Candice Holdorf
ESCAPE
Escape from life, escape from death, escape from danger, escape from fear, escape from growing up.
Runtime: 6:10
Director: Joseph P. King
Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film
Polyrhythmic movement comes together with an original score to look at the (ongoing) years of systemic exploitation of labor while highlighting the power and joy of collective resistance. This excerpt honors the sacred hands that feed us and was filmed on a farm with support from Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS), a non-profit advocacy organization for farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, CA.
Runtime: 13:12
Director: John Jota Leaños, Vanessa Sanchez
4:15 AM : Skunk Cabbage Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
One Buck Won't Hurt
Four Black teenagers from New Orleans support themselves by tap dancing for tips in the French Quarter. Following them from adolescence to adulthood, this coming-of-age story explores the reckless joys of youth and the bitter realities of growing up fast in the incarceration capital of the world.
Runtime: 15:39
Director: Christopher Stoudt
Compton's 22
On an unknown date in 1966, trans women in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district rioted against police violence at Gene Compton’s Cafeteria. Decades later, trans historian Susan Stryker unearthed the history of the riot and interviewed the surviving “Compton’s queens.” Powerful implications of intergenerational solidarity are revealed in this ongoing struggle for queer liberation.
Runtime: 17:30
Director: Drew de Pinto
Chronicle of a Summer Day
A community bouquet of remembrance and celebration, loosely documenting John Caleb Pendleton's (Planks & Pistils) 2021 Juneteenth floral installation. The film ends where it begins and begins where it ends, for future conversations around Juneteenth-- another effort to prop up future generations.
Runtime: 16:03
Section 59
Forty years after the funeral, a family decides to relocate their father's grave. This transfer is not a simple displacement. Instead, it becomes a poignant act of perpetuating love through the exhumation and rearrangement of a puzzle. The journey unfolds between the realms of the deceased and the living, intertwined with rituals and personal stories.
Runtime: 14:26
Director: Yasaman Baghban
SLICE
Black folks and water don’t mix, right? Rico Golden and his homeboys from Memphis submerge themselves in an original swimming art form of athleticism, creativity, and joy called slicing while refusing to drown in a pool of low life expectancy.
Runtime: 16:30
Director: Zaire Love
Olive
Olive Hagemeier is an energetic older woman, on her daily routine of salvaging, repackaging and redistributing food, and occasional other types of “waste” across Atlanta, GA. This ethnographic work places the audience in the heart of a decentralized, volunteer-run mutual aid network in a “post-COVID” American city.
Runtime: 13:28
Director: Lev Omelchenko
4:15 PM : King Coal - Thalian Main
King Coal
Coal has reigned as king in the Appalachian Mountains for most of the 20th century. Through a deep exploration of the coal industry’s past and future, filmmaker Elaine Sheldon dives deep into the communities shaped by the coal industry and the myths it has created. Emerging from the long shadows of the coal mines, pain and beauty are untangled, illuminating the innately human capacity for change. This artfully ambivalent film sets the weighty pull of coal’s kingly past against the region’s hopes for a freer, more sustainable future.
Runtime: 01:19:00
Director: Elaine Sheldon
"Wild Dream" by Eugenia Riot
Eugenia Riot performs for a small, detached crowd. But in her wild dream, she imagines a sparkling room alive with a mesmerized audience.
Runtime: 3:27
Director: Darryl Jones
4:30 PM : Sisters - Thalian Black
With their lives unraveling around them, three Mexican American sisters reunite, after years of estrangement, to complete their beloved grandmother’s pilgrimage through rural Mexico. With no hiking experience, little reception, and an old map, the sisters walk the sacred trail to Talpa de Allende and find help along the way from Kin (Fernández), a local with a dark past. They must work together through their differences in order to reach the end and find their miracle.
Runtime: 80:00
Director: Mar Novo
7:00 PM : SCALA!!! - Thalian Main
During Britain’s post-punk Thatcher years, London’s legendary Scala cinema offered community refuge with a programme ranging from established classics and offbeat cult hits to sexploitation, horror, Kung Fu and LGBTQIA+ titles. Nudging the boundaries of convention, the cavernous picture palace acted as a source of inspiration for movie lovers and creatives. Featuring a cornucopia of interviews, archive and film clips, this is an engrossing tribute to an indelible legacy.
Runtime: 96:00
Director: Jane Giles, Ali Catterall
7:30 PM : Windflower Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Becoming Yamazushi
A son honoring family legacy discovers how art can be a champion for healing, lost history, and cultural liberation, as he takes us on the poetic journey of Japanese restaurant, Yamazushi. In his directorial debut, hip-hop artist G Yamazawa reveals the essence of his family’s story, the source of his own courage, and the art of being unapologetically authentic.
Runtime: 14:00
Director: George Yamazawa
BLACK STRINGS
The Black String Triage Ensemble, an all-African American string orchestra in Milwaukee, performs on the scene in the immediate aftermath of incidents of gun violence, altering the notion of “first responders.” In a city with such a troubled relationship with violence, can this ensemble transform the traumatized public space into a place of recovery, healing and hope?
Runtime: 12:00
Director: Marquise Mays
Fitting
What does it mean to create an extension to someone else’s body, and what’s the impact this has on both the maker and amputee? The relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist is thoughtfully conveyed by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg.
Runtime: 10:51
Director: Caitlin McMullan
MISTER NEAL
Neal Thomas, of Wendell, N.C. has been making white oak baskets for more than half a century. He's not getting any younger and with the rapid growth of urban sprawl. Mister Neal is slowly watching his way of life disappear before his eyes.
Runtime: 6:20
Director: Rodrigo dorfman
Matriarch
Matriarch is an experimental short documentary celebrating the legacy of elderly motherhood from the perspective of the filmmaker's grandmothers, two Southern Black women hoping to maintain their independence during what could potentially be the final year of their lives.
Runtime: 29:10
Director: Donald Conley
The Elwell Ferry
The patterns and rhythms of a workday with Betty Rose Dolce, the operator of a small ferry carrying locals across the Cape Fear River in rural North Carolina.
Runtime: 15:00
Director: Dave Monahan
10:30 PM : Stinky Willy Shorts - Jengo's Playhouse
Northside Alley
A young black man witnesses his mother being beaten by her drug dealer/pimp in 1988 Wilmington, NC.
Runtime: 3:41
Director: Alicia Inshiradu
In Wonderland
Nina is granted asylum in the U.S. and forced to stay in the custody of her estranged aunt, Carmen. Inside the fantasy world of her book, “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” her imagination brings to life a magical rabbit hole. Will Nina come to terms with the truth of her past and embrace the adventure of a new home?
Runtime: 13:48
Director: Andrea Camacho McCracken
Pillow Fortress
When Lana takes her new boyfriend, Bart, on a visit to Tommy’s house, it doesn’t take long for the two men to realize that they knew each other as young children. Soon though, they disagree about their memories of a specific, trivial event. As the disagreement lingers, some of Bart’s other resentments surface.
Runtime: 19:00
Director: Zander Coté
Immutable
A woman free associates memories, free falling through her past experiences with her partner.
Runtime: 7:44
Director: Kelley Van Dilla
Magic Socket
Urges that are awakened by a woman's encounter with a compelling stranger lead her down the path of a bizarre affair.
Runtime: 8:30
Director: Harrison Atkins
Good Condition
Barry's starting over with the help of a used coffee table.
Runtime: 9:35
Director: Frank Mosley
Angels
With a sick mother at home and medical bills piling up, Beulah is almost ready to give up. But when a meteor falls from the sky and lands in her family’s field, Beulah discovers a strange, otherworldly creature. Does this being have the power to heal her sick mother?
Runtime: 7:18
Director: Samantha Aldana
Eyes
An obsessive lover’s mental state unravels as his relationship crumbles, leading him to act on his obsession with his partner’s eyes.
Runtime: 12:08
Director: Adrian Kader
ZIP
On her 16th birthday, singer-songwriter Melody awakens with a zipper sewn to her mouth. A story about the voiceless, who must fight to be heard.
Runtime: 15:40
Director: Ava Maria Safai
Date : November 15, 2023 - November 19, 2023
Location : Various Location
Click Here to View for More Information