Thursday, May 31

Chocolate Milk [2011]
Directed by Eliza Kinkz -Redwood City, CA
Run time 9:18
Narrative / Animation / Student – UCLA Animation Workshop

Chocolate Milk is the #1 goal. At least, that what the Rehab informs the teenage Izzy as she enters for drug treatment.If she follows all their rules, then she can have chocolate milk. But why would she want some lame beverage, when she’s got pogobals, monster trucks and a best friend with a silverware fetish to keep her busy in the Lone Star State. A humorous and bittersweet teenage odyssey of coming to grips with addiction and trying to get through life without letting the current pull you under.

Waiting for Jo [2011]
Directed by by Jennifer Hall – Charlotte, NC
Run time 3:50
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte

Zoe is a young girl growing up in “anywhere USA”. The product of a broken home, she lives alone with her mother. On this particular day, Zoe is sitting on her front porch waiting for her father, Joseph.

Kingdom Incorporated [2011]
Directed by Christina Campagnola and Lauren Brinkman -Tallahasse, FL
Run time 15:00
Documentary / Student – Florida State University

This film explores the corporate power of a company whose image is associated with children and innocence. Having build an empire on its wholesome reputation, the Disney Company has expanded its influence globally and intimately, seeking to impact every person on the planet from birth onward.

Product [2012]
Directed by Erik Button – Charlotte, NC
Run time 8:50
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte

In a dystopian world where certain people call prod are eaten for health benefit while a prod hunter faces morality in an immoral society.

My Friend and I [2012]
Directed by Jeffrey Simpson and Matthew Willets – Charlotte, NC
Run time 4:04
Narrative / Local / Student – UNC Charlotte

A young man struggles romantically between being a gentleman and listening to that voice in his head from below his belt.

Geomorphic: North Carolina [2011]
Directed by Mariah Dunn – Greensboro, NC
Run time 3:26
Experimental / Local / Student – UNC Greensboro

Geomorphic: North Carolina is a mediation on the diverse landscape of North Carolina. Objects, such as leaves or seashells, found in each location were collected and inserted into the camera. The result captured on the 35mm film is both a macro and micro image that defines the space. The rough stop motion emulates a sense of exploration through the land beginning in the mountans and traveling east to the coast.

Sugarcreek Prelude [2012]
Directed by Billy Haake and Robert W. Filion – Charlotte, NC
Run time 5:00
Documentary / Local

The dialogue in Sugar Creek Prelude is taken from the Introduction to my colleciton of short stories entitled Sugar Creek Stories. The Charlotte Parks and Recreation Department used the Introduction in their Sugar Creek Greenway Project Book.

Artifacts [2010]
Directed by Joe Keller – Charlotte, NC
Run time 14:54
Narrative / Local

Photographer Clayton Ardubon leads a life of indulgence comprised of women and success. But no amount of either can satisfy the hole at the center of his life. That is, until Marion, an ex-lover from his youth, shows up unexpectedly at a showing. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a longing for days gone by, Clayton tracks down Marion. But his search leads to Marion’s daughter, Paige; a rebellious youth who opens the door to an unexpected love affair as dangerous as it is sincere.

Coming and Going [2010]
Directed by Jay Yager – Sanford, NC
Run time 0:48
Experimental / Local

The setting is a woodland path lit by a low afternoon sun. Compressed and syncopated, this video poem plays with aspects of time and space.

Intermission

The Severe Psychosis of a Musicless Man [2011]
Directed by Ian McClerin -Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 12:58
Narrative / Experimental / Local / Student – North Carolina School of the Arts

One day in the supermarket, mild mannered Preston begins hearing music in his own head. Living in a dull, cartoonish world, the music becomes the only sanity he has left.

Beyond Superman [2012]
Directed by Alex Hadden – Elon, NC
Run time 5:32
Documentary / Local – Student – Elon

This documentary examines the evolution of the comic book world and the struggle of one young artist to achieve his dream.

Ghosts of Yesterday [2012]
Directed by Tony Gault – Glenwood Springs, CO
Run time 5:30
Animation / Experimental

Thousands of Kodachrome home movies are auctioned off every month on ebay.com, and I buy as many as I can afford to preserve this archive of anonymous history. Ghost of Yesterday is a collage of rotoscoped home movies. It is inspired by childhood memories of religion and altered consciousness. The film explores our collective abandonment of analog imagery and is a personal attempt to reconcile with digital imagery.

Vampire Gastelbrau [2011]
Directed by Hannah Ayoubi – Houston, TX
Run time 2:30
Animation / Student – CalArts

Vampire Gastelbrau helps Gerta and Gabi with their chores in order to earn back his vampire fang!

The Dream Life of Cleo De Merode [2010]
Directed by Julian Semilian – Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 14:38
Experimental

A surrealist inquiry into the omeiric journeys of the notorious femme fatale.

There is Wind that Blew [2011]
Directed by Carl Elsaesser – Oakland, CA
Run time 30:00
Narrative / Experimental

Two parents insert themselves into their son’s diary and assume several roles until the diary realizes their presence. As the passages fall apart and the son violently tries to get rid of his parents, a film crew appears -framing specifics-searching for concrete answers to an echoing repression. There is Wind That Blows explores the fluid relationship between repression, filmmaking, narrative representation, family history and agency.

Friday, June 1

Wolf Call [2010]
Directed by Rob Underhill – Raleigh, NC
Run time 12:00
Narrative / Local

It is 1956. The previous year, 14 year old Emmett Till from Chicago had gone missing in Money, Mississippi. Later, the boy’s mutilated body was found in a river. William Bradford Huie of Look magazine sits down with the two men acquitted for the boy’s murder, Roy Bryant Jr. and J. W. Milam, to discuss the trial. Not a word had been uttered outside a courtroom by them or their kin, until now…

Instinctive Travels [2011]
Directed by Cory Ring, Latimore Platz, Wilson Bondesen, Erik Anello – Winston-Salem, NC
Run time 4:51
Narrative / Experimental / Local / Student – North Carolina School of the Arts

A creature from a blissful world of solitude, far from civilization, embarks on a quest to find the origins of a procession he highly values, as well as what else this culler may offer.

Screaming for Joy: The Music of Sophie Sputnik [2012]
Directed by Matthew Schlissel – Fort Lauderdale, FL
Run time 9:46
Documentary / Student – Florida Atlantic University

A documentary about a young singer trying to make it in the business.

Carolina Ramblers [2012]
Directed by Heather D. Freeman – Charlotte, NC
Run time 1:30
Animation / Experimental

Animated re-mix of Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers 1930 hit “Goodbye, Sweet Liza Jane.” The individual animated “particles” were used in 2011 for a collaborative interactive sculpture with Steven Danilowicz (UNCC architecture graduate student) as part of “Digital Kennedy”.

Apologize: A Declaration [2010]
Directed by Tim Alden Grant – Charlotte, NC
Run time 3:22
Narrative / Experimental / Local

America’s founding fathers voice their grievances to King George the III through the power of music in this historical, satirical music video.

Tree Frogs [2011]
Directed by PJ Barnes – Charlotte, NC
Run time 10:52
Narrative / Local

Rod Miller is about to hire a hit man for the first time… ever. How will he react when he realizes this man might be a little off?

Cam Roulette [2010]
Directed by Dr. Michael Frierson -Greensboro, NC
Run time 6:20
Experimental / Local

A screen space built from symmetrical rotating shapes.

Internal Affiars Part 1 [2011]
Directed by Ben Sliker
Run time 5:20
Narrative / Local

Dim-witted patrol officer Bill has an issue with Mimes, a fear that reaches deep into his psyche. So when he has trouble with a certain street performer, things get out of hand, and he earns himself a trip to see his IA officer.

Internal Affiars Part 2 [2012]
Directed by Ben Sliker – Charlotte, NC
Run time 4:21
Narrative / Local

Dim-witted patrol officer Bill calls in back-up on a suspicious looking vehicle. What’s inside the vehicle will send him on the adventure of a lifetime, and earns him another trip to see his IA officer. spoiler alert … it’s drugs.

Wiggle Room[2011]
Directed by Joe Schenkenberg – Chapel Hill, NC
Run time 7:42
Animation

Many things happen around the kitchen when you’re not there. Come along for the ride with the most unlikely character… a slug. Watch as he ventures into a new world filled with vibrant colors and delicious treats. However, the soothing environment is only a disguise for the evil that is lurking nearby.

When Walt Whitman Was A Little Girl [2012]
Directed by Jim Haverkamp – Durham, NC
Run time 11:37
Narrative / Experimental / Local

Not your typical History Channel biography, “When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl” tells the surreal truth about the formation of young Walt’s artistic sensibility. Starting out as an ordinary nine year old girl, she is soon catapulted into the world with all her senses ablaze, and neither will every be the same.

Based on a prose poem by Massachusetts poet M.C. Biegner, the film mixes drama, dance, puppetry, and surreal humor to portray the world through the eyes of a ‘sensitive kid.’ Walt, played throughout the film by nine year old Durham, NC actress Natalie Braun, first wakens to the beauty of the world around her, then must overcome family sturggles and finally a stint as a nurse during wartime. Each of these events indeliby mark her spirit and shape the artist that she will become.

Intermediate [2012]
Directed by Nicole Driscoll – Charlotte, NC
Run time 11:00
Narrative / Local / Student – Art Institute of Charlotte

Mackenzie Reed and her friends deal with hostile teachers, embarrassing crushes and bad school lunches on a daily basis. With a few awkward moments, this coming-of-age comedy explores what its really like to be in middle school. Re-live the most hellish years of your life and remember what it’s like to feel lost, humiliated, and excited about a budding future.

A Life’s Work [2011]
Directed by Adam R. Levine – Los Angeles, CA
Run time: 17:30
Documentary / Experimental / Student – CalArts

In the fifteen years since leaving the job he hated, D. J. Blanton has thrown himself into his practice as a blacksmith, building thousands of pieces in his home shop. A Life’s Work considers the intersection of art and life – the curiosities we are born with and the legacies we leave behind.

Connecting with Nature [2011]
Directed by Clint Enns – Winnipeg, Canada
Run time 1:28
Experimental

An instructional video that lies somewhere between the realms of infomercia and guide to spiritual enlightenment.

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse [2011]
Directed by Marc Russo – Raleigh, NC
Run time 9:35
Animation / Experimental / Local

The signs have begun. Silence prevents us from communicating with each other. If we do not communicate, we cannot remember our past and learn from our mistakes. Our silence brings the second sign: Decay. The decay of our social order and the material things that represent it. By ignoring the decay of our world, we are ignoring time, Nature’s singular tool to warn us of our impending turning point. The next sign will be our voracious Consumption of natural resources as we build around the ruins of our past. As we continue to consume and multiply, we are literally eating and destroying the earth from under our feet. It is impossible to forecast what mutations this will spawn; however, it is my belief that Mother Nature will defend herself, which will ultimately lead to our Death.

When We Fell [2011]
Directed by Drew Xanthopoulos – Austin, TX
Run time 13:00
Narrative / Experimental / Student – University of Texas at Austin

A man and a woman. A gun and a kiss. A game and blood let. Innocence lost.