2015

Short Program 8 - College Film Competition

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Student filmmakers represent the auteurs of the future, pushing boundaries and challenging the conventions of style and storytelling. This collection examines relationships, loneliness and isolation, self-discovery, environmentalism, gentrification, family, and death in truly deep and thought-provoking ways.
A routine workday turns ugly for this bumbling lumberjack, as he unwittingly wanders into a forest full of vengeful plant life. Will Louie Lumberjack escape the wrath of horrifying carnivorous trees…
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A swimmer on the verge of perfection. Inspired by The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
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Haunted by a dead rape victim, a working class African-American father must decide whether to turn his only son into the police or delete the only evidence of the assault.
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As the long-time caretaker of 80,000 deceased at the San Francisco Columbarium, Emmitt Watson cannot help but see life while in the midst of death.
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A simple, domestic love story about a man who takes his skin off for his girlfriend, and why it probably was not the best idea...
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SAID is an exiled Moroccan young man who works in Mexico, in the maintenance department of a hotel.
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An elderly couple who runs a hospice for dying animals calls into question the ethics of pet euthanasia through the struggles of two disabled, old dogs at the facility.
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A fish-headed freak escapes the circus where he was trapped his whole life, in search of his real home. When he is lost and desperately needing water, an adventurous girl comes to his rescue and…
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A Chicano man endures the loss of his community in the San Francisco Mission District.
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A U.S. war veteran with PTSD has trouble adjusting to life back home.
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Sara, a small-town teenage girl with a dead-end existence who finds short-lived hope when she falls in love with the new pastors luminous daughter.
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Timmy II is a fast-paced absurd comedy about an American robot with a human heart who has an identity crisis. To avoid being discriminated against for being a robot, and to undermine his father who…
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Short Program 7 - Something Funny

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Laugh and the world laughs with you
The brothers 'De Smet' created a system to live their lives as singles in the most comfortable way. When a new woman moves into their street, their synergy turns out to be a house of cards.
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Beth learns that matters of the heart can get a little wonky when donating blood is involved.
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A fretful suburban mother gets a rude awakening from her high school son.
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An uptight getaway driver waiting outside a bank robbery has three nerve shredding minutes to get through before his crew returns. All he has to do is focus...
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A family man returns to his hometown to settle his parents' estate, but discovers that he is the last person in town who's not part of a legendary network-marketing pyramid scheme. And the others all…
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This short film exposes the thoughts of a man in a seemingly perfect relationship as he explores whether it is worth breaking up over.
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When two paranoid clerks working the late shift at a convenience store meet a man fitting the description of an alien from their favorite conspiracy radio show, events turn bizarre.
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Leonard (Martin Starr - Freaks & Geeks, Knocked Up and Party Down) exists in slow motion but lives in a regular speed world. When he discovers his office crush is getting transferred to Florida,…
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One evening, a young married couple settle in for a nice, relaxing game of Settlers of Catan. But what begins as friendly competition soon becomes heated, ushering in an epic struggle for dominance.
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What if, before you were born, you could pick your fate? Would you? Would you really? New Soul is a live-action/animated short about a new human soul, before it is born, sitting for an exit interview…
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Nothing is more compelling than the human experience. Get a glimpse into the unusual, surprising, and sometimes troubling worlds of real people: see women who are breaking down barriers in unexpected ways, discover characters whose sense of self is tied to their fascinating hobbies, hear stories of race and the preservation of culture, and take a heartbreaking late night bus trip. It all comes together in this eye-opening collection of documentary shorts.
After decades struggling to protect her ancestors burial places, now engulfed by San Franciscos sprawl, a Native woman and her allies occupy a sacred site to prevent its desecration.
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Michael Paul Smith is a recluse who has had a very tough life. His 60 year search to find himself was answered by his creation of a fictional town called Elgin Park.
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Each night in Silicon Valley, the Line 22 transforms from a public city bus into an unofficial shelter for the homeless in one of the richest parts of the world.
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A group of talented blind ballerinas inspire audiences to believe anything is possible, at the worlds only ballet school for the blind, in Brazil.
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Luna Magica, a professional Lucha Libre wrestling star in Mexico, dreams of becoming world wrestling champion while fighting to make ends meet as a single mom in Mexico City.
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Rodrick Markus is the face behind Rare Tea Cellar. For more than a decade, Rare Tea Cellar has been sourcing and selling tea as well as anything you can eat, drink, or cook with.
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Somewhere along the way, most of us reach a point in life at which we come to terms with who we are and how and where we fit into the varying communities in which we live...
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Lolita, a fashion movement imported from the streets of Harajuku, Tokyo, has a thriving group of followers in Los Angeles. Sugar Coated follows four Lolitas to investigate their motivations for…
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Cinequest is proud to present a collection of the darkest, strangest, most messed-up short films ever put upon the screen! These nine films incorporate themes of loss, murder, revenge, fear, and extreme experimentation. From puppets that walk the seedy side of town, to children's characters who exact their vengeance on their creator, to the twists and turns of outrageous fortune, Mindbenders never fail to puzzle and completely absorb the audience. Films from around the world take us to new places and leave us no map to get back home.
When a couple discovers a strange phenomenon in their backyard that duplicates organic life, their relationship takes unexpected turns after one of them makes a copy of themselves.
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A childrens book author is told that her new manuscript needs to be darker, but when her revisions piss off the characters in the book, they come back to make some changes of their own.
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In a town where people and puppets walk the streets, a puppet detective is on the case of his missing uncle. Though he has competition from every man, woman and dummy wanting to be named Noir Towns…
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A mans car breaks down next to a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. While trying to decide his next move he is helped along by a mystifying phone conversation and a girl named Dog.
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A night watchman is sent to guard the cellar of a museum by its mysterious curator. But once alone in these vaults he starts to hear something...IN EXTREMIS is a short in the mould of classic British…
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Sully is a middle-aged French Manhattanite who has it all: the money, the smarts, the looks. But he also has one quirk: he is a serial rapist. He meets Stephanie, an elusive bartender who doesnt fall…
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A fastidious office clerk battles chaos as he desperately hunts for the source of a loose end in his perfectly ordered world.
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An off-the-wall crime comedy about two oddballs whose unusual friendship is torn apart by a winning lottery ticket scratched off in a desolate petrol station on the border between Flanders and France.
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No world is as real as the one we create.
An old bear goes out every day to a busy street corner. Through a tin marionette theater of his own making, the bear will tell us his life story.
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A disheartened Earnest Knapp learns that the things he holds most dear are often just a buttcheek away.
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A geometric chase with undertones of morality.
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With unique access to the recordings of Ted Hughes reading what he considered his career masterpiece, this film tells the visceral story of CROW, the lead character from this seminal cycle of poems…
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The Dam Keeper, a short film by feature-animation artists Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi tells the tale of a young pig with an important job, and a new classmate who changes everything.
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Deadly tells the story of Boney, a working stiff in a dead-end job. That is until he has a run-in with a spirited old lady named Bridie...
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A sociopolitical metaphor of the world as a formal dinner that takes an unexpected turn when there is no more food to be served.
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A gullible man goes on a quest to find a mysterious destructive monster, ultimately arriving at a surprising revelation.
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Are we born to do good or are we here just to save ourselves? This animated film provides disconcerting answers.
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A Christmas Angel uses his manipulative ways to reunite a couple in time for Christmas.
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When the chaotically misfortunate Jenkins and the monotonously lucky Lou run into each other one morning, they find a thrilling and fulfilling change of pace as they hurtle down the hills of San…
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At their isolated hotel in the Canadian Rockies, a pair of teenage twin girls need to get over themselves and work together in order to defeat the most horrifying threat they have ever faced: their…
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Luna & Lars is a dark, magical realism short story of love and loss all within the confines of an old attic. Two puppets, Luna and Lars, come to life at night to dance together in their miniature…
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Nine is a haunting tale of innocence lost as the Grey Cat, afraid of losing his final life, makes a deal with the devil and gets much more than he bargained for, and loses even more along the way.
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That which is neglected, is lost.
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Some stories about kids are not for children's ears.
It's Bernard's birthday, but he is not happy about it. In a strange world where adults are selfish and indifferent, his parents never accepted him as a child. Bernard doesn't want to grow up if it…
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A boy in a forest, trapping animals for a living. The woman next door, planning a fresh start. As a desolate winter sets in, their lives begin to intertwine.
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A young mortician will give his heart away to find true love. A whimsical, gothic bedtime story filled with love, loss, taxidermy, Kung fu, and biker werewolves.
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Edwin has a dark obsession with drawing spiders. His mother does her best to curb his increasingly odd behavior, but unbeknownst to her, a terrifying mystery will soon be solved with the help of…
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A sudden encounter between a lonely tramp and a young girl leads to an unexpected friendship.
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A portrait of a young girl living with her stepfather in a state of omerta.
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A teenage boxer must finally come to terms with his true colours.
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Friends, family members, lovers; people we've just met and those we've known our whole lives: our relationships with each other define who we are, give us insights and perspective on life, and help us grow. This series brings you stories of characters in pivotal moments as they connect and disconnect with one another—or often do both at the same time.
On a summer night, a Brooklyn house party gathers couples and singles. Like any big party, it is an ideal setting for talking, laughing and flirting. Some guests know each other very well, some are…
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Desperate to return to her native Ireland, a disillusioned young woman seeks help from a shady older man who offers to pay her plane fare in exchange for one last job -- she must lure an unsuspecting…
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Abby, a penniless young drifter, is followed by a strange man while on her journey home.
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Deep in the Southwest desert, a wayward young couple embarks on a violent crime that unfolds in unexpected ways.
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A story about being separated by force. It is about the merciless march of time, about knowing the exact date your world will end and how you cope with it. Lena and Karin have known each other for…
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Haircuts, hip-hop and homo-sex on the down-low... A Latino barber secretly falls in love with a handsome Irish stranger over the course of a haircut during a hot and sweaty summer afternoon in a…
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Travel the world with this sprawling blend of international films that swing from gentle to tense, comedic to dark, fantastical to all-too-real. A father reconnects with his daughter in an all-night diner; two soldiers clash on the battlefield; story time in a classroom goes a little bit awry; a crime goes even more off course; a dystopian future and a dystopian present - get ready for a little bit of everything.
A contract killer receives some unusual advice to aid with his insomnia.
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On the run after a political attack Damien and Yvonne wake up at their hiding place in Paris. When they find out that Damien was filmed by a surveillance camera and is now wanted by the police, they…
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Claudia always imagined she would drive off into the sunset in the beautiful Ford Capri she was promised by her father. Once she set off to escape her town things were going to change and her life…
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While reading her students a fairy tale, a teacher becomes so invested in the story that she begins to substitute its morals with her own.
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Two lonely people with a shared past - a wanderer and a waitress - meet again in a rural diner. As the nature of their relationship quietly reveals itself, the little details of their lives and…
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Newborns attempts to provide a lens to the survivors of acid violence, to look forward and gaze back. They take us through the ennui of their domestic and public spaces in a nameless dystopian city,…
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Amidst the chaos of the Russian and Georgian conflict of 2008, a Russian civilian and Georgian soldier face a certain death unless they can learn to put aside their differences.
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Sea Horse

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Who can say where you are going, as long as you get there.
Who can say where you are going, as long as you get there. Stunningly shot against an otherworldly Alaskan backdrop, director Kamell Allaway immerses us in a surreal journey through a strangely…
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She's looking for love with a blindfold on.
She’s looking for love with a blindfold on. Lexi, a plus-size gal with a heart to match, can bake an irresistible blueberry cream cake and run an inviting B&B in Nova Scotia, but she can't find…
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