EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1651863411593{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]SCREENING
Thursday 22 June – 10.00
BALL-PIT. WEDNESDAY.LEMONADE
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5964″ css=”.vc_custom_1686430527755{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text width=”admin”](UK)SYNOPSIS
During a game of hide and seek with his friend in a soft play area, Lewis starts to feel movement underneath him in the ball pit enclosure. He is then pulled under into the ball pit and into an alternate dimension where he greets his older self. They talk and the older Lewis gifts his younger self with a token and then immediately sends him back to his own dimension. On return, he passes the token onto his friend, and she smiles with gratitude. We last see older Lewis laying the ball-pit, seemingly lifeless and unmoving….
Writer/Director/Producer: Daniel Howard-Baker
Associate Producer: Louis Holder
Executive Producers: Carrie Howard-Baker, Kenneth Jacobs
Cast: Ian Falconer, Jack Brown, Josie Brown
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Daniel is a UK-London-Devon based award winning director, editor and writer specialising in surrealist drama. He grew up Plymouth, Devon and moved to London to study in the renowned BA Film course at the University of Westminster in 2021 and has since been working on short films, music videos and long form documentaries as a freelance editor, director, and writer for WFS, Studio Holder and HB Production clients. He is also managing director for Hargreaves Moving Image ltd.
INTRUDER
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5965″ css=”.vc_custom_1686430551873{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text width=”20 px” css=”.vc_custom_1686432206812{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”](China)SYNOPSIS
In the future, when a man found that there was a female that cannot be eliminated at will in his private world, he was eliminated by her.
Writer/Director: Liu Zhiqi
Director: Peng Ziqi
Producer: Ma Beibin
Cast: Liu Zhiqi
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Born in Xiamen in 2001, Liu Zhiqi is a third-year student studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, majoring in digital media.
Presenting the way of thinking about contemporary art such as performance and installation that I am good at using video as a medium, I want to explore some different aesthetic issues.
Try to express as restrainedly as possible, so that every element has a good reason for being there. Pursue a pure, to-the-point image that leaves power to the audience.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c49d21″ css=”.vc_custom_1686432224527{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}” el_class=”40px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]
INVISIBLE
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5966″ css=”.vc_custom_1686430568787{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text width=”20 px”](UK)SYNOPSIS
“Invisible” is a short film, directed by Steve Downey based on a poem about ADHD, written and performed by Christina Jane. This is the second of a series of 4 films by Steve and Christina about Autism and ADHD. Both Steve and Christina are on the Autism spectrum but were not diagnosed until adults. Their mission is to bring about increased awareness of Autism and ADHD, particularly amongst women and girls. Our first film “We are the Lost Girls” has so far received 19 awards at Film Festivals throughout the world. To date the film “Invisible” has won 14 film festival awards.
Director: Steve Downey
Writer: Christina Jane
Cast: Christina Jane
MEET THE DIRECTOR
After a long and successful career as a visual artist, I decided to start film making again, having previously trained at the London Film School, graduating with a First Class Honours. I undertook online and real training in video production and editing and felt ready to embark on my first new “artist video”. I had recently been diagnosed with Autism and made contact with a local autistic poet, Christina Jane [“C. J “]. This film “Invisible” is the second of four films we are making about Autism and ADHD.
MUSHKILE
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5967″ css=”.vc_custom_1686432115879{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686431480312{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}” width=”20 px”](Israel)SYNOPSIS
Mushkile’ talks about the relationship between granddaughter and her grandmother who has Alzheimer. The film moves between memory and now, between imagination and reality, and between the various feelings that arose throughout this journey as a granddaughter of an Alzheimer’s patient.
Writer/Director/Producer: Kami Shefer
Cast: Bilha Nissenson, Yuval Levi, Danny Herteanu
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Kami Shefer, a young designer and filmmaker from Tel-Aviv. Kami graduated from Holon Institute of technology, department of visual communication in 2022.
“The film was made after Kami’s grandmother who has been sick with Alzheimer for the past ten years.
Kami decided to create this film as part of her separation process from her grandmother. The whole film is based on Kami’s grandmother’s stories throughout her life and told from Kami’s emotional perspective.
In Alzheimer you always know what is coming at the end but you can never know if it’s going to take a year or ten to get there. Kami created a film that in each time you watch it you get a slightly different film- the story will always stay the same but the computer will decide each time which length of the movie you will get to see this time.”
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c49d21″ css=”.vc_custom_1652987502779{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]
O
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5968″ css=”.vc_custom_1686432187544{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686431717090{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}” width=”20 px”](Germany)SYNOPSIS
“A woman sees a fist-sized hole in a brick wall. She’s hypnotically drawn to it and can’t focus on anything else. An increasingly morbid obsession begins, until the hole suddenly disappears…”
‘O’ is a surreal short film about the horrors of addiction.
Writer/Director: Dominik Balkow
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Dominik Balkow studied film directing in Berlin. After graduating in 2012, he worked independently as a music video director on over 60 music videos (Anti-Flag, Billy Talent, Nina Hagen, Yiruma and many more). His third short film “O” won besides several other awards the “Méliès d’Argent” as best European short film. His feature film debut “Aphasie” celebrated its world premiere at the”56th International Hof Film Festival” in 2022.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c49d21″ css=”.vc_custom_1652987502779{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]
WALLS BENEATH OUR FEET
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5973″ css=”.vc_custom_1686432159777{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686431882943{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}” width=”20 px”](Finland)SYNOPSIS
Circus short film Inspired by the Pasila Street Art District in Helsinki exploring urban life from unexpected angles. Collaboration between contemporary circus group Race Horse Company, music producer RRKK and the Helsinki Urban Art.
Director/Producer: Antti Suniala
Cast: Rauli Dahlberg, Teemu Skön, RRKK
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Antti Suniala is a producer, artist and director of contemporary circus.
Race Horse Company was established in 2008 with the mission of creating uncompromising and unique circus with no holds barred. The rough-and-ready performances are based on strong acrobatic skills, the aesthetics of chaos, dark humour and surprise.
Balancing the real sense of danger with comedic relief, the extremely physical acrobatic shows have left a huge mark in the world of contemporary circus. Since the very beginning, Race Horse Company has focused on international touring with their hit shows like Petit Mal (2010) and Super Sunday (2014). The team quickly became one of the most internationally touring Finnish performing arts companies and the founding members were awarded with the State’s Circus Award in 2016 for their uncompromising work and risk-taking.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]
SILENCE 1b
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5970″ css=”.vc_custom_1686432092745{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686432690084{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}” width=”20 px”](UK)SYNOPSIS
Iggy, is dealing with the recent tragic loss of someone she hasn’t known for long enough to call her partner, but someone who without looking for it, became important enough become her entire world for that brief moment in time.
Writer/Director: Rollo Hollins
Producers: Ray Okudzeto, Sofia Sallon
Cast: YBárbara Maldonado, Alice Macrae
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Rollo is a writer but also and more often a director, mostly of commercials, some of which win awards. Rollo used to be a cinematographer as which he won other different (and to be honest bigger) awards. He’s recently shot his first pilot for Netflix and is in post a long-form documentary which follows a man building a machine that can fall in love. His first narrative feature The RIP, is in development with XYZ films in the US.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c49d21″ css=”.vc_custom_1652987502779{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]
SIMULATION
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5971″ css=”.vc_custom_1686428917287{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text width=”20 px”](South Korea)SYNOPSIS
We find the results of imitation and “scene-staging” in Shin’s Simulation (2021). All the elements in Simulation’s partitioned three-dimensional space – the smoke, the vibrations, the wind and water –are devices included to create a particular scene. With such a staged disaster or emergency, the participants expect to learn some pre-designed pattern of behavior. But then something unexpected happens: the character in Simulation speaks out, declining to go along with the anticipated theater.
In a subway car thick with smoke, he remains in place and performs a handstand.
Struck by the water, vibrations, and wind coming down the staircase, he lurches forward. He is too alive to be called powerless, too frail to be called strong.
Eliciting a temporary pausing effect, the scene recalls Brecht’s attempt to turn theater from a place of Illusion to one of a practical experience. In other words, by distancing us from and rendering a strange contemporary experience where we exist in the form of temporary theater, Shin encourages us to notice the unstable – or perhaps artificial –ground upon which we stand.
Writer/Director/Producer: Shin Jungkyun
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Shin Jungkyun majored in media art at Seoul National University. He held 6 solo exhibitions including <Acrobat>(Art Space BOAN2, 2021), <Lift & Drift>(Songeun Art Space, 2021), <Last of Us>(Sahngup Gallery Euljiro, 2023), and participated in several group exhibitions and screenings at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Coreana Museum of Art, Korean Cultural Center in Hong Kong, Doosan Gallery, and Amado Art Space. In addition, he moved to MMCA Goyang Residency(2017), SeMA Nanji Studio(2023), and was selected for Best Video Art at the Film Optico Festival(2021). Currently, his works are in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bank, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan , SongEun Art & Cultural Foundation, and ARGOS Center for Audiovisual Arts.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text width=”20 px”]STEPPING STONES
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5972″ css=”.vc_custom_1686428940421{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1686433223590{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}” width=”20 px”](UK)SYNOPSIS
When a young woman reflects on her life journey so far, she considers the advice she would give to her younger self. Based on an original poem, this moving letter is an introspective study of personal lessons learnt over time and an exploration of the ‘messiness’ of growth.
Writer/Director: Funke Alafiatayo
Cast: Gabrielle, Funke Alafiatayo, Mary Akinsulire
MEET THE DIRECTOR
Funkẹ Alafiatayọ is an award-winning filmmaker from Manchester whose films have screened globally, including at BAFTA and Oscar-qualifying festivals. She enjoys telling culturally-relevant and engaging stories that focus on finding beauty in ordinary moments, navigating the complexities of different relationships and exploring the messiness of growth. Her first short film, ‘Hatima’, was commissioned by Bumble as part of their Female Film Force competition. Most recently, she wrote and directed her magical-realism short, ‘Everything’s Fine’, for New Creatives which is available on BBC platforms.
Funkẹ has been selected for Talent Schemes such as Flex (Screen Yorkshire/SIGN), Momentum 2022 (Channel 4/We Are Parable), Kyoto Filmmakers Lab and Directors Workshop 2022 (BFI/Film Hub North x NFTS Leeds), and remains the only UK winner of the International Emmys’ JCSI Young Creatives Award for her experimental poetry film, ‘P.EA.C.E – A Spoken Word’. ‘Stepping Stones’ won the 2022 Submissions Director Choice Award at FilmOneFest in New Jersey, USA. Funkẹ has recently been a Director Mentee on an upcoming studio feature film and a limited TV series for a major UK broadcaster. She is currently developing more projects.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c49d21″ css=”.vc_custom_1652987502779{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row]