FRIDAY | FEB 6
The Price Center, 222 W. San Antonio St
10AM - INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORTS
New films entirely culled from the planet Earth
PROJECT SAUDADE (Asia/Africa/Rhode Island, 6min)
A rumination on modern dissonance, crafted by a multi-continental team to mourn and grapple with the current disconnected state of the world. Directed by Ragroller Studio.
AROUND YOU (India, 5min)
A throwback to the days of simple endearing love hymns, Ninna Suttaya is sung in Tulu, a 2000-year-old language rooted in the coastal belt of Karnataka, India. Directed by Luke Sydney.
BIBIZA - AUF SPRITZTOUR DURCH WIEN (Austria, 4min)
Bibiza on a wild spin through Vienna, life in the fast lane. Directed by Rupert Höller.
SCHMIQUARDS (France, 9min)
Patoche and Dom go to Milou's bar to try to obtain their share from an obscure deal. Directed by Charlotte Cayeux.
MS. ROSSI MEETS THE MOB (Italy, 20min)
Traveling for work, Ms. Rossi gets picked up by the wrong driver at the airport. Directed by Pat Battistini.
BALERIN (Turkey, 15min)
An ordinary, small-town woman encounters her ancient, inanimate enemy at an amusement park, spurring her pursuit of the "humanity & happiness" that all those trapped in the patriarchal system seek. Directed by Erdal Ruhi Duran.
CONTROLLED BURN (Canada, 22min)
Reid spends his final day of parole doing all the things that got him there in the first place. Directed by Peter Howie.
Total runtime: 1 hour 21min
11:30 AM - A QUICK FRINGE KISS
Embrace a medley of shorts that are a tad out of the ordinary
LOVELY LOLA JEAN (4min)
This cosmic piece of short musical cinema features country music artist Andrew Wiscombe. Directed by Matt McKee.
SENSUS MORI (California, 9min)
When a strange elusive society on the edge of town agrees to be interviewed, a spry journalist must contend with their ideologies or risk falling prey herself. Directed by Sydney Rincón.
VOCATION (ATX, 10min)
A mysterious Business Person travels a ruined world in order to work with a confusing mess of a machine – & discovers an enigmatic glowing woman in a dream-like world. Directed by Wyatt Harris.
A VERY CROWDED ROOM (San Marcos, 6 min)
An overstimulating one-take centered around a run-on-sentence phone call delivered by Violet Plight at a dizzying pace. Directed by Nate Wilburn.
Total runtime: 29 minutes
12:30PM - DOC BLOC
The truth – nothing but the truth – so help us G-d
INUNDATIONS (Massachusettes, 4min)
A traveler meditates upon the unsettling discovery that climate change has transformed the American Northeast into floodlands, in a videopoetic tribute to the environment and Indigenous peoples. Directed by Anne Ciecko.
CANYON LIGHT (Oklahoma/Colorado, 6min)
Phyllis Bigler has been going to the Spanish Peaks of Colorado since she was a child. Now in her 90s, she tells her stories. Directed by Elijah Bigler.
INVISIBLE IMPACTS OF WILDFIRES (California, 6min)
A gripping narrative of survival & resilience, told from the perspectives of healthcare providers & survivors of the Butte County conflagration. Directed by Chris Logan Harley.
ROOTED IN LEGACY: THE ARBORETUM SAN ANTONIO JOURNEY (10min)
A once-forgotten stretch of land, reclaimed, transforms into a living monument to trees, ecological planning & cultural reflection, featuring voices of historians, Indigenous leaders & city visionaries. Directed by Robb S. Garcia.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER (Tyler, 11min)
The American Kestrel Project at the University of North Texas strives to find out why the widespread raptor is on the decline. Directed by Michael King.
THE LIFE WE HAVE (Seattle, 25min)
For over three years, Rob Shaver has run at least a mile every day. Through rain, pain & a terminal cancer diagnosis, his streak is more than a habit — it’s an act of resilience & a refusal to surrender to his disease. Directed by Sam Price-Waldman.
THE NON-BIOLOGICAL MEXICAN (Rio Grande Valley, 15min)
In the heart of Seoul, South Korea, Jung-Su Lee has dedicated his life to mastering the art of Mexican cuisine. Directed by Joseph Balderas.
SUNDAY MORNINGS AT THE BEACH (California, 10min)
Once a week at the oceanside, among surfers & sunbathers, a powerful ritual unfolds as worshippers in Tijuana & San Diego gather on opposite sides of the border wall for faith & fellowship through rusty steel bars. Directed by Tim Reid & Aaron Hose.
Total runtime: 1hr 27min
3 PM - DOMESTIC NARRATIVE SHORTS
Cinematic stories, crafted right here in the U.S. of A.
BALLAD OF THE MAN WHO ONCE WAS (Detroit, 6min)
An auto repairman, enjoying a nice glass of beer at a bar after a hard day’s work, becomes acquainted with another patron – until their conversation is cut short. Directed by Sebastian Rivera-Mendoza.
ANGELITO (New Mexico, 14min)
A 12-year-old boy dreams of becoming a gang member like his older brother until a tragic accident forces him to grow up far too quickly. Directed by Brent Petersen.
TRIM THE BARLEY (California, 16min)
A photo shoot becomes a lesson on modern farming techniques. Directed by Joshua M. Thomas.
UP(LIFTING) (Oklahoma, 7min)
A young man starts down the long path towards physical fitness & self-improvement, with the goal of being able to do a single pull-up. Directed by Kaden Wittig.
WEEKEND AT MAURY ISLAND (Seattle, 5min)
Two couples spend their evening at a cabin when they are surprised by a fleet of extraterrestrial visitors. Directed by Bradley Wilkinson.
UN ABRAZO DEL OTRO LADO (RGV, 5min)
A young Mexican woman who is feeling lost goes on an arduous journey across harsh terrain catching the attention of her ancestors who help guide her. Directed by Omar A Casas Jr. & Laura Daniela Martinez.
CAPTURADA (Brooklyn, 10min)
A grandmother secretly explores a new relationship online, rediscovering her identity beyond the roles of mother & grandmother, launching her on a journey of self-love, desire & liberation. Directed by Isabela Paiao.
YELLOW BRICK ROAD (NYC, 17min)
A directionless teen is sent to her eccentric aunt’s farm as punishment – but begins to unravel the uncertainties of the future & who she is. Directed by Sofi Dawalibi.
Total runtime: 1hr 20min
5:15 PM - LGBTQ SHORTS
Diverse narratives featuring queer/trans/same-sex-preferring protagonists
VENUS: FATE’S END (New Jersey, 13min)
Told via claymation, Venus must choose between her destiny as the goddess of love & a blossoming forbidden romance – all while on a dangerous quest that could expose the truth behind her mystical world. Directed by Emma Jacqueline.
FINAL FRAME (Chicago, 15min)
The high-stakes project deadline for a film editor conflicts with his partner’s critical surgery – will work get in the way of being there for his beloved? Directed by Andrew Nuño & Adrian Nuño.
VICTORIA (Alabama, 10min)
As she traverses the American South, Miss Victoria Jewelle assembles the pieces of her drag identity. Directed by John Haley.
DON’T CRY FOR ME ALL YOU DRAG QUEENS (Pennsylvania, 9min)
An homage to the revolutionary Mother Cavallucci, a New Hope drag queen whose annual wedding celebrations in the 1970s & 1980s doubled as fundraisers & community parties: a poetic merging of archival photographs & present-day footage of drag performance. Directed by Kristal Sotomayor.
COWBOY BOOTS (Portland, 13min)
A new-to-town cowboy from Nebraska finds anything but the promised land he envisioned upon visiting a San Francisco gay club for the first time. Directed by Eric K Delehoy.
Total runtime: 1 hour
7 PM - NIGHT IN WEST TEXAS (Odessa, 1hr 23min)
True-crime documentary of a false murder conviction: a Texas Monthly presentation embedded with The Innocence Project, directed by a Peabody-winning journalist
Forty years after a gay Apache man is framed for the brutal murder of a closeted Catholic priest, a police chief uncovers long-buried evidence that shakes up the small, oil-rich West Texas town that imprisoned him. Directed by Deborah S. Esquenazi.
Followed by a conversation with Patricia Cummings, a national leader in the innocence movement, & former supervisor of the Conviction Integrity & Special Investigations Unit at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Screening underwritten by the Center for the Study of the Southwest at TXST.
9:15 PM - PLEASURE, BYE (Bedford/Galveston, 2hr)
Extravagantly off-kilter science fiction – set on the gritty Texas coast – from an exceedingly promising first-time filmmaker
A struggling street performer, wandering the Galveston streets, gets recruited by a mysterious figure for a government experiment involving advanced, otherworldly technology – ultimately left to choose between his livelihood & his very survival. Directed by Adam Vencil.