SPANISH-LANGUAGE FILMS

Spanish-language Short Film Selection
1 hour 49 min; Spain; 2007-2008

Valkirias directed by Eduardo Soler
Estrella directed by Belen Herrera
Heroes: No Hacen Falta Alas Para Volar directed by Angel Loza
Objects in Mirror Are Closer than They Appear directed by Jose Angel Lazaro
Made in Japan directed by Ciro Altabas
Porque Hay Cosas que Nunca se Olvidan directed by Lucas Figueroa

A special out-of-competition screening!  These award-winning short films from Spain are in Spanish with English subtitles.  Ranging from narrative to documentary, comedy to drama, they cover a wide range of topics, styles and structure.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

Beneath the Mississippi
Director: Lonnie  Schuyler
1 hour 45 min; USA; 2007
Website

In this mysteriously beautiful ghost story made in Iowa, a documentary filmmaker and her crew cope with their fears as they seek to understand the strange mystery of a flooded island where hundreds have died.

Cathedral Park
Director: Vincent Caldoni
1 hr 20 min; USA; 2007

This highly original movie employs a documentary structure to tell a story of twenty years, six lives, two films, one family, where everything will come to light eventually.

Cave Women on Mars
Director: Christopher Mihm
1 hour 20 min; USA; 2008
Website

On the eve of the first manned mission to the Mars, no amount of speculation could adequately prepare for the unexpected discovery of cave women! Starring Iowa City native Brooke Lemke. FF

Illegal Use of Joe Zopp
Director: Sarah Rykal
1 hour 46 min; USA; 2008
Website

In this lively comedy, a child prodigy turned social outcast returns to his hometown to investigate the circumstances of his own death.

Remarkable Power!
Director: Brandon Beckner
1 hour 31 min; USA; 2007
Trailer

A late night talk show host concocts an elaborate scheme to save his cancelled show entangling an eclectic collection of Tinsel-towners in the process.  This hilarious comedy of errors stars Kevin Nealon and Tom Arnold.

Stash
Director: Jay Bonansinga
1 hour 22 min; USA; 2008
Website

A comically demented mockumentary about Discreet Removals, a business that, in the event of one’s death and for a modest fee, will secretly remove the pornography stash left behind.

The Bentfootes
Director: Todd Alcott & Kriota Willberg
1 hour 15 min; USA; 2008

A man attempts to memorialize a quasi-illustrious family of dancers who managed to keep their demented muse alive through 200 years of American history.

The Flyboys
Director: Rocco DeVilliers
2 hours; USA; 2007
Website

Two boys from a small town find their courage and friendship tested when they accidentally stow away aboard an airplane owned by the mob.  Starring Jesse James, Reiley McClendon, Tom Sizemore and Stephen Baldwin. FF

The Wretched
Director: Daniel Iske
1 hour 33 min; USA; 2007
Website

The truth will set you free... if it doesn't kill you first.  This horror story creeps up on the viewer slowly unless all Hell breaks loose.

Who is KK Downey?
Director: Darren Curtis & Pat Kiely
1 hour 28 min; Canada; 2008
Website

This hilarious satire is the comically demented story of two losers who achieve fame when their novel becomes an underground sensation.

Through the Night
Director: Mike Saunders
1 hour 26 min; USA; 2007

Sam and Tabitha have invited their friends to a party at their reclusive farmhouse. When a horde of deranged escaped mental patients storm the house, this fun-loving reunion turns into a blood-soaked nightmare.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

Alaska Far Away: The New Deal Pioneers
of the Matanuska Colony
Director: Paul Hill
1 hour 30 min; USA; 2008
Website

This documentary tells the story of a bold government experiment to give 202 destitute Midwestern farm families a chance to start over in Alaska. FF

Alcatraz Reunion
Director: John Paget
1 hour 18 min; USA, Mexico; 2007
Website

Alcatraz is hosting an alumni reunion of ex-inmates and their former cell house guards in this fascinating documentary that traces the Rock’s history and its mysterious transformation from legendary penitentiary to tourist mecca.

American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver
Director: Bruce Orenstein
1 hour 28 min; USA; 2008
Website

From the summit of privilege and power, Sargent Shriver’s ability to dare a nation to live out its most revolutionary ideals is explored. FF

Cork n' Bottle String Band: The Ken's Bar Story
Director: Jeremy Gotcher
1 hour 27 min; USA; 2007
Trailer

An unlikely bluegrass band’s journey from obscurity to weekly popularity is peppered with lively music. FF

Finding Kraftland
Director: Richard Kraft & Adam Shell
1 hour 15 min; Canada; 2006
Website

After the death of his brother, a Hollywood agent drags his son through an obsessive quest to recapture his own childhood.

Katrina's Children
Director: Laura Belsey
1 hour 25 min; USA; 2008
Website

This film explores the impact of hurricane Katrina from the point of view of diverse children in New Orleans. FF

King in Chicago
Director: Seth McClellan
1 hour 17 min; USA; 2007
Trailer

Candid interviews, period photos, and stirring music shine a light on the struggle for justice by Dr. Martin Luther King and the Chicago Freedom Movement. FF

Meadowlark
Director: Taylor Greeson
1 hour 17 min; USA; 2007

This autobiographical documentary explores issues of faith and sexuality while confronting the violent murder of the filmmaker's brother.

More Shoes
Director: Lee Kazimir
1 hour 15 min; Belgium; 2007
Website

From Madrid to Kiev, a struggling filmmaker walks three thousand miles across Europe on foot to learn about filmmaking.  English subtitles.

No Vacancy
Director: Michael  Tobias
1 hour 31 min; USA; 2005

This documentary chronicles the education, health and contraceptive needs required before couples have replacement size families and the actions that are taking place around the world to achieve population stabilization. 

Pipeline
Director: Flavian Prince
1 hour 42 min; USA; 2008
Trailer

Focusing on the instability of home life for at-risk students from the inner city, this documentary explores the cradle to prison pipeline.

Pond Hockey
Director: Tommy Haines
1 hour 20 min; Canada; 2008
Website

From Wayne Gretzky to the local rink-rats, Pond Hockey is a fresh and gritty examination of the changing culture of hockey. FF

The Life Penalty
Director: David Quint
1 hour 14 min; USA; 2008
Website

Slip into a juror's seat as David Wymore and other nationally recognized criminal defense attorneys bring their fight against the death penalty to the front line: the courtroom.

Vaccine Nation
Director: Gary Null
1 hour 30 min; USA; 2007
Website

This documentary exposes the dangers of vaccines and their direct relationship to autoimmune diseases, infections, allergies and an unprecedented increase in developmental learning and behavioral disorders in children.

ANIMATION

24 Frames
Director: Brad Patullo
18 min; USA; 2007

Claymation mayhem!  Animated film students work together to make an animated film.  But will the group fall apart before the movie can be finished?

Ancestors
Director: Cable Hardin
3 min; USA; 2006

In the end, we’re all related, as this amusing animated short will show.

Cantata in C Major
Director: Ronnie Cramer
8 min; USA; 2007

605 film clips from classic B-movies are assembled and used to create a single piece of electronic music. FF

First Memories
Director: Soo Hee Han
4 min; USA; 2007

3D animation is used to explore what might be part of a baby’s dreams. FF

Horizon Diner
Director: Joseph Crockett
3 min; USA; 2007

A lively exploration of altered reality through altered perceptions in which the laws of optics and time are out of control. FF

Manny
Director: Kyoung “Kay” Park
2 min; USA; 2007

This film is about a wooden doll named Manny, a Porcelain doll, and a Flapper doll; The Porcelain doll rejects Manny for being a simple wooden doll, but the Flapper doll likes him for who he is. FF

Street Musician
Director: Sooyun Jang
3 min; USA; 2008

In this animated short, an old street musician drinks an elixir to attain his desire through the exchange of the one most important possession he owns.

The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato's Allegory in Clay
Director: Michael  Ramsey
3 min; USA; 2007

A moving and intriguing adaptation of Plato's  “Allegory of the Cave” animated in clay, the cave set was lit only with fire. FF

NARRATIVE SHORTS

A Still Life
Director: Tom Parrish
21 min; USA; 2007

A dreamy, gorgeously shot story is told in still photographs and set to Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Corelli. FF

About Film Festivals
Director: Jim Jacob
6 min; USA; 2007

Useful advice on attending film festivals, this witty short will prepare you for the rest of the fest. If you are new to film festivals, watch it first! FF

Aces and Eights
Director: Matt Allen
8 min; USA; 2007

A bounty hunter cleans up a zombie-infested town in the Wild West in this clever take on the zombie genre.

Alicja Wonderland
Director: Martin Gauvreau
20 min; Poland; 2008
Website

Stylish, artistic and vaguely disturbing, this film from Poland is lushly photographed.  English subtitles.

Ancestor Eyes
Director: Kalani Queypo
15 min; USA; 2008

This is the story of a young Native American woman and her mother who both must come to terms with the young woman's illness. FF

Bennet’s Urn
Director: Michael Gordon
7 min; USA; 2008

An 8-year-old boy has one request for his quirky parents before he dies. FF

Betrothed
Director: Emily Sheskin
18 min; USA; 2008

After saying "Yes" to her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Madeline begins to worry about the expectations for her future. This narrative short combines live action and animation. FF

Collecting Canada
Director: Justin Piasecki
22 min; USA; 2008

A documentary crew follows two rival towns in Idaho as they compete to bring in Canadian tourists and win the title “The Welcome Mat of Idaho.” FF

Expendable
Director: David Malki !
18 min; USA; 2007

A day in the life of the anonymous henchmen to a James Bond-style supervillain.  Hey, at least the World's Fifth-Largest Evil Organization has a great health plan. FF

Gangster's Crib
Director: Jack Bank
23 min; USA; 2008

A crime boss meets his inner child.  It may not be pretty but it’s funny.

Intruder
Director: Brian Spillane
10 min; USA; 2008

When someone breaks into your house, it turns out that the difference between right and wrong isn't always black and white. Suspenseful and chilling, with a twist.

Keep Walking
Director: Ronaldo Acuna
8 min; Canada; 2007

A frayed director and an eager, young actor meet a struggling actress in a coffee shop and they begin to question their roles as artists. FF

Memorizing Dates
Director: Chad Schneider
11 min; USA; 2007

A ne'er-do-well photographer resuscitates his creative voice through tentative intimacy with a woman from his past. FF

Monsters in Autumn
Director: Charlie Cline
27 min; USA; 2006

A lighthearted yet also melancholy portrait of the lives and friendships of Frankenstein, The Wolfman, and Dracula, from childhood to old age. FF

PATH
Director: E.S. Frushtick
18 min; USA; 2008

Right girl; wrong state.  The hilarious tale of a Manhattan man who must decide if it's worth staying in his romantic relationship, even if it means traveling to Hoboken on the PATH train.

Patience
Director: Robert Hackett
7 min; United Kingdom; 2008

This sweet and thoughtful movie deals with envy and kindness through the eyes of two elderly women interned in hospital in the United Kingdom. FF

Plainview
Director: Scott T. Jones
24 min; USA; 2007

Inspired from true events, a restaurant manager attempts to redeem herself after being talked into a humiliating strip search of her socially inept employee.

Rebel Song
Director: Simon Arthur
15 min; United Kingdom; 2007

Set in the past, in this movie a woman and two men play out their broken lives amongst the swaying trees, singing hymns of love, lust and murder.

Silver Tongues
Director: Simon Arthur
25 min; United Kingdom; 2007

A wandering couple preys on the care home of senile dementia sufferers, convincing them they’re family members in this artistic short film.

Spoonfed
Director: Josh Summers
15 min; USA; 2007

In a Beverly Hills café we follow the average day of a simple dining utensil: deceit, disgrace, and death.

Sympathetic Details
Director: Benjamin Busch
58 min; USA; 2007

A conflicted assassin’s attempt to sever ties from a life of contract killing is complicated by the dark indifference of man's primeval nature and the impossibility of protecting the ones we love.  Starring cast members of HBO’s highly regarded The Wire.

The Gift Wrapper
Director: Daniela De Carlo
8 min; USA; 2007
Website

A Christmas tale about a girl who wraps gifts with love and care, until one Christmas love finds her and that becomes the best Christmas gift one could ever receive. FF

The Knuggle Incident
Director: Ryan Strandjord
5 min; USA; 2007

Iowa City native Brooke Lemke goes mano-a-mano with the Knuggle Bear in this take-off on a fabric softener commercial. FF

The Perfect Mark
Director: Linda McElroy
13 min; USA; 2007

When con men find the perfect mark, what's a poor old widow to do? FF

Three Minute Miracle
Director: Amalie Atkins
12 min; Canada; 2008

Three Minute Miracle is a short 16 mm experimental film about the beauty, danger, and mystery of a fictional world. FF

Voor een paar knikkers meer (For a Few Marbles More)
Director: Jelmar Hufen
11 min; Netherlands; 2006
Website

Their playground was stolen, now they want it back.  “For a Few Dollars More” – with eight-year-old ruffians!  English subtitles. FF

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

American Jouster
Director: Richard Alvarez
57 min; USA; 2005
Website

This film examines the lifestyles and motivations behind modern day “knights” who live a life of pain and glory on the road. FF

Carissa
Director: David Sauvage
23 min; USA; 2008

This film recounts Carissa’s experiences as a 12- year -old when she was homeless and forced into prostitution in Fresno, California.

Crude Substitute: The Folly of Liquid Coal
Director: Molly O'Brien
12 min; USA; 2008

If the coal industry had it its way, liquid coal would be in every car, plane and truck in this country, but is liquid coal really the answer to America's energy woes? FF

Devil's Oven: The Fire in the Heart of the Little
Cities of Black Diamonds
Director: Valda Lewis
52 min; USA; 2007

Centered around a still-burning century-old mine fire, the film documents the boom to bust era of the Hocking Valley Coal Fields of Southeastern Ohio. FF

It's In the Blood: Leo Abshire & the Cajun Tradition
Director: Cyndi Moran
58 min; USA; 2007
Trailer

A musical documentary about Leo Abshire - Cajun fiddler, instrument maker, cultural ambassador, and quite possibly the best musician most Americans don’t know. FF

Journeyman
Director: Kevin Obsatz
56 min; USA; 2007

The film follows two teenage boys struggling with depression and violence through a rites-of-passage and mentoring program that changes their lives.

Looking for Ms. Locklear
Director: Rhett McLaughlin
57 min; USA; 2008
Website

The funny and charming story of two lifelong best friends and semi-famous web comedians, Rhett  and Link, who go searching for their first grade teacher; their journey leads them to an obscure tribe of Native Americans. FF

Lost Nation: The Ioway
Director: Kelly Rundle
57 min; USA; 2007
Website

A fascinating yet forgotten tale of American conquest and Native survival that played out in Iowa before it became a state. FF

Puro Teatro
Director: Carlos Arenal
50 min; Spain; 2007

At a time when dreams are many and scattered, a strikingly unique woman renounces her mundane life to pursue her artistic dreams. English subtitles.

This American Gothic
Director: Sasha Waters
1 hour  3 min; USA; 2008
Trailer

A cultural history of one of the most famous paintings in the world with a quirky portrait of Eldon, Iowa, population 998, site of the house that inspired Grant Wood’s American Gothic. FF

What I See When I Close My Eyes
Director: Leslie Hope
30 min; Cambodia; 2007

This short documentary looks at how several of Phnom Penh's 20,000 street kids live day-to-day. Much of the film is told through the life-sized self-portraits the children draw of themselves.  English subtitles. FF

You Might Need It Someday
Director: Phoebe Webb
5 min; USA; 2007

A loving portrait of a family and the objects they hold onto, this movie speaks to the collector in us all. FF

STUDENT FILMS & VIDEOS

Birds Watching
Director: Laurie Eastman
5 min; USA; 2008

In an urban setting, people don’t always notice the birds, yet the birds are watching the people. FF

Burundi Film Center - Five Short Films
Director:  Burundi student filmmakers
50 min; Burundi; 2007
Website

Five short dramatic films with themes of love, AIDS, poverty, triumph, abuse, sacrifice and reconciliation – straight from the heart of Africa.  English subtitles.

Jean Shorts
Director: Sam Copeland & Roshan Murthy
35 min; USA; 2008

Close encounters of the man kind: A series of outrageous comedy vignettes revolve around a small Illinois town during the course of a day.

Keys
Director: Christopher Babers
23 min; USA; 2007

Emotions are never just black and white.  A mother brings her biracial child to her father’s home when she finds that she has been stricken with terminal cancer. FF

Malek Salah 'Majnun Layla'
Director: Amine Kouider
13 min; Algeria; 2007

A film about the Algerian contemporary artist Malek Salah as he prepares for the inaugural exhibition titled 'Majnun Layla' for the new Modern Art Museum of Algiers, the first of its kind in the Arab world.   English subtitles. FF

Rabia
Director: Muhammad Ali Hasan
24 min; USA; 2008

This fictional movie is loosely based on the true-life story of the first Palestinian female suicide bomber.

Seduction in C-Sharp
Director: Anne Peterson
17 min; USA; 2007

A film noir dance extravaganza follows one hot night in the life of Frankie Fast, a keen lady detective who gets thrown on a case that hits a little too close to home. FF

Ser O Estar
Director: Wilson Stiner
1 hour 5 min; Spain; 2007

After his hallucinations cause problems in the USA, Andy sets out to become immersed in the culture of a small Spanish town, battling his own giant windmills.  English subtitles.

The Father
Director: Anthony Onah
2 min; USA; 2008

In a terse slice-of-life narrative, injustice cuts both ways when a father's misguided effort drives his son to a shocking end.