2019 Short Films

A downtrodden house dog chases the psychedelic temptations of the natural world.

Inspired by a teenager’s online confession on Quora, Five Secrets to Mom is a surreal and darkly comedic short that uses the filmmaker’s actual family photos, Microsoft Paint 95, and an automated voice to tell a story about the comfort and vulnerability in anonymity.

A short film about Golf and sexual harassment.

This experimental documentary short combines audio captured from Kiowa Tribe language lessons with breathtaking shots of the Great Plains.

A woman cons her way into another woman’s apartment, resulting in a strange and intimate encounter.
*Filmmaker in Attendance

After a long day in New York City, Lenny kisses his estranged mother gently on the forehead. “Could you stay for a while?”
*Filmmaker in Attendance

An obsessive-compulsive teenager struggles to learn the value of compromise while adjusting to her new home (and butting heads with the ghost of the boy who haunts it).

After discovering she is pregnant, a Distraught and confused Chloe navigates her way through Melbourne’s inner city looking for support. Only to find that the further she wanders into the night, the darker it becomes.

A vegan entrepreneur torpedos her life in a desperate attempt to make her dog immortal.
*Filmmaker in Attendance

A young couple experiences tensions surrounding a back scratch. The unreciprocated commitment between the two will lead to a gory end.
*Filmmaker in Attendance

A boy wants to make sure his doggy goes to heaven.

A fierce group of Muslim trans people stand their ground against social marginalization in secular Malaysia. Redefining femininity in Islam, they are painting their own portrayals of womanhood and individuality.

On the border of Oregon and Idaho, Steve Schultz, a lifelong man of the American West, mines for Picture Jasper, a rare form of rock. Through booms and busts, he works to find these natural treasures.
*Filmmaker in Attendance

In the 1st anniversary of his mother’s death, Jong-hwan should go to the seaside in Jebu-Island, Hwaseong City, where his mother sleeps. Suzie, a girl from the same highschool, appears unexpectedly and plans to accompany her trip to Hwaseong.

In 1942, Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita catapulted his seaplane off of a submarine, flew over the Oregon coast, and became the only pilot to bomb the U.S. mainland during WWII. He never dreamed he would one day be invited back to the region, where he would begin a lifelong friendship with the people of a small Oregon town. SAMURAI IN THE OREGON SKY chronicles how Mr. Fujita came to refer to his former target as his “second home.”
*Filmmaker in Attendance

Take a deep dive into the booming, scantily-clad barista coffee shop scene in Seattle where sex sells… your morning coffee. But behind the intrigue of lingerie and java lurks a darker side, where female “bikini baristas” struggle with the troublesome and inappropriate behavior of their male clientele. At what cost are merchants willing to foster a culture of sexual harassment and use sex to push profit?


*Filmmaker in Attendance

Yodelin’ Vern Lockhart is a hillbilly singer with a problem. On the verge of stardom in the late 1920s, he inadvertently has become immortal, a situation he only dimly glimpses. But when he encounters Jo Cullen, a present-day musicologist who’s expert on Vern’s past, he begins to grasp the deal with the devil he’s made. An Americana music saga with a supernatural bent.

A family attempts to repair their estrangement with an outing to the beach. Five-year-old Kai tries to make sense of her new family configuration with her dad’s return. The alienation of a family seems more challenging to mend than the promise of a summer afternoon.
Filmmaker in Attendance

No choice but to walk home alone, Hannah sees an opportunity for a ride, but others see an opportunity in her.

Jia Ning, a Beijing fashion photographer, agrees to help translate for Mark, an amateur British journalist coming to China for the first time.
*Filmmaker in Attendance

Alex and Casey, on another weekend hike, finally talk about whether they actually enjoy hiking with one another.

Darren and Matt write a song about what’s to come in their happy-go-lucky world.