Things get weird and wild in this expansive and experimental collection of mystical, magical, and downright deadly group of visionary short films. Pulsating from deep within, these shorts bring embodiment and empathy to new heights.
Films:
Stephanie Diane Ford
Informed by a mysterious voice, an imprisoned young woman must pass a series of enigmatic tests or face a violent death as the terrifying situation unlocks a dormant power in this story of courage and redemption. THE BLACK BAPTISM is a short film about a young woman who awakens imprisoned by a mysterious group. This afro-futurist psychological thriller explores themes around redemption, finding the courage to face fear and connecting to the God within using mythological concepts to visualize the Prisoner’s evolution through a fantasy lens. The plot is told from the protagonist’s point of view as the existential crisis shatters her concepts of God, justice, authority and humanities ability to create reality.
Baye & Asa
Second Seed is a dance horror film responding to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. Griffith’s film is an assertion of white cultural and intellectual supremacy, a call to arms against the changing social/racial structure of the United States. Our film is an exploration of white-victimhood and its enduring viral effect on American politics and relationships. Through choreography, Second Seed tells the story of a white family’s descent into madness.
Ario Motevaghe
Moniri and Kheradmand family are in park for a picnic. But after finishing their meal, it is revealed that they are here for something else.
Daniel Abramovici
Steve lives both his past and present concurrently. As time is compressed and he flows through spirals of love and sexuality, Steve finds himself in a transition; stuck between a family life built on half measures, and a desire for a more authentic experience.
Eryka Dellenbach
Schroon Lake is a film by Eryka Dellenbach in collaboration with performance artists Matty Davis and Ben Gould adapting their work Carriage to the 9-mile long frozen lake in the Adirondacks. Shot on expired 16mm film, the film offers an intimate sightline of the unstable space between masculinities, refracted through the winter and mutually activated syndromes, perceived and rearranged through a queer, female gaze.
Joseph Rucker II
A man encounters Hell. Is it real? Is it too late?