Official Selection Narrative 5th Season
- Everyone has a story; some are just more colorful than others. Yet, every story is important to someone.
"The Surrendering of Gregory Beeman" was an official selection of a short film festival in 2016 at the Santa Barbara Center for Arts, Science & Technology (SBCAST.org), in Santa Barbara, California.
Photo of Gregory Beeman, an artist and musician with many stories to tell. Photo of Gregory Beeman in his street suit.
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Official Section Narrative 2021
There are 6 selected Narrative films from 5 countries:
Australia, Canada, Portugal, Puerto Rico, United States. Highland Home, was entered to be judged just on Original Score, yet it is a narrative to be screened in this category.
Screening Order! 1-6.
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Bisque
Narrative
Australia, 12:28
Director, Mark Lasky-Davison
Key Cast: Greg Saunders & Nicole Gulasekharam
Bisque is a narrative film about what it means to be family. Fred and his assistant Mavis are potters who live and work together at a rural pottery studio in Australia. Although Mavis has become like a daughter to Fred, when Fred's real daughter Jen calls asking him to help raise his grandchildren in Germany, he finds himself having to choose between his blood daughter and the one he has raised for the last few years.
Director Mark Lasky-Davison
Lasky-Davison a 2019 graduate (Bachelor of Fine Arts) of The Victorian College of the Arts school of Film and Television.
He says, "Film is a gorgeous, powerful medium and I’m honored to pursue a career working with it. I’ve always been interested in exploring the quiet spaces between people, and the philosophical framework of pottery was a great way to investigate this. My conversations with potters while researching for the film taught me that in pottery, process is more important than outcome; that you need to move smoothly and be in the moment; and that there is a kind of “Zen” about pottery.
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One
Narrative
8:01
Puerto Rico (USA)
Director, Dr. Ariel Orama López
Key Cast: Ariel Orama López & Louny Camacho
Music, Josué Vera
One tells the story of a castaway displaced by Hurricane Maria, in search of his nephew. At his side, this powerful hurricane is transfigured as a woman, who accompanies the castaway on his journey while facing his freedom. It is a struggle of masculine and feminine energies, combined with an inescapable dose of sacred elements, African archetypes, ancestral and indigenous sounds, and poetry.
Director, Ariel Orama López
Dr. Ariel López(AG ORLOZ) is a Puerto Rican professional actor, independent filmmaker, and psychologist. He is a collegiate (professional) actor of the Colegio de Actores de Puerto Rico, a certified Executive Coach (specialized in Crëative Life Coaching) from TISOC, Barcelona, Spain, and a licensed clinical (media) psychologist. He was selected as a finalist of Taller TELEMUNDO: actores, in Miami, directed by the well-known actress nominated for an Oscar in the movie Babel (2006), the distinguished Mexican actress and Professor Adriana Barraza. He has worked as Assistant Professor of Drama and Psychology at University of Puerto Rico - Humacao, and the University of the Sacred Heart.
Ariel (AG) has worked in commercials, theatre, short films, indie films, documentary, series, television, media writing, and voice-overs, summing more than 200 projects in arts (2001-2019). He is also a composer and singer: one of his songs (Seré/I’ll be) was selected for the Puerto Rican dramatic documentary The Eyes of the People and his song (Alto Vuelas/ Flying Higher) was selected as the official Puerto Rican song for the World March from the Peace, celebrated in Argentina and New Zealand.
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American Quartet
Narrative
USA, 8:51
Director, Jesca Prudencio
Key cast: Yekta Khaghani, Brain Wolfe, Ieesha Watts & Katherine Argo
American Quartet is a non-dialogue, narrative film set in a 2030s small town bitterly divided over who belongs and where everyone owns a telepathic diary device. A young Muslim-American woman in love with her local city councilwoman puts herself at risk when she shares her private, digitized memories with strangers, challenging the status quo in the hope that empathy will triumph over hate.
Director Biography - Jesca Prudencio
Jesca Prudencio is a director, choreographer, and community based artist. She is dedicated to developing new theatrical works that humanize issues and explore the tension between cultures. She focuses on new plays, musicals, and dance theater works in New York, regionally, and internationally. Jesca states: "This film will do more than just entertain audiences. It will encourage social change through social engagement across ideological lines to find common ground and, hopefully, a way to move forward. The experience will serve as an example of how Americans can stay true to their values without dehumanizing those who they see as opponents.
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Highland Home
Original Score/Narrative
4:59
*Entered for Original Score, placed in Narrative, without judging.
United States
Director, Writer Dan Schaefer
Original Score, Kurt Rosenberg
A poignant tale of longing and loss is revealed when a timeworn journal transports a young girl to a place of enchanting wonders.
Award-winning filmmaker Dan Schaefer makes his directorial narrative debut with Highland Home – a music video based on an original song by Kurt Rosenberg, for which Schaefer also created the film’s story.
Director Dan Schaefer
Shaefer is an award-winning filmmaker, makes his directorial Narrative debut with Highland Home – a music video and short film based on an original song by Kurt Rosenberg, for which Schaefer also created the film’s story. Previously, Dan has directed several documentaries including popular sports doc “Mania”, about the Portland Trailblazers, and “Figaro! Living in the Moment of a Character,” about two music schools brought together for Amadeus Mozart's comic opera.
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Cold Pixel
Narrative
Portugal, 15:00
Director, Rodrigo Areias
Music, Rodrigo Areias
Key Cast: Miguel Moreira & Ana Ribeiro
Cold Pixel is a tenuous narrative about him and her. They manage a cultural venue. He believes in technological evolution. She believes that love is static. One last exhibition and one last show.
Director Biography - Rodrigo Areias
Rodrigo Areias began his professional life as musician and music producer at the label GARAGEM and in Cinema as Sound Designer for directors Paulo Rocha and Edgar Pêra. Graduated in Management at the Portuguese Catholic University he also took a degree in Sound and Image at the School of Arts with specialization in Image, Direction at the Tisch School of Arts at NYU and in the production Eurodoc program and Venice Biennalle College. Throughout his career, developed creative work in the field of the independent cinema, in fiction and documentary, video art and video clips for some of the best bands in the Portuguese rock scene (The Legendary Tiger Man, Wray Gunn, Dead Hand, Sean Riley, D3o, etc.). Areias Started his producer work in 2001 and has produced and co-produced over 150 films.
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Encore sans titre (Still Untitled)
Narrative
Canada, 14:43
Director, Geneviève Sauvé
Key Cast, Catherine Dumas
Original Music, Benoit Panneton
Encore sans titre follows Catherine as she embarks on taking a picture for a man interested in her. Dissatisfied with the pictures that she takes of herself, the woman decides to play a game where she pretends to be the illustrious Cindy Sherman in four photographs from her
Untitled Film Stills series.
Director Biography - Geneviève Sauvé
Geneviève’s strength lies in her ability to create innovative and powerful films through her thoughtful work with the actors and her talent of create surprising associations between images and sounds. With 20 years of experience on movie sets, she has directed more than ten short films, some of which have traveled internationally (Egypt, Cannes, Medina, etc.) in addition to being presented in different festivals such as the RVCQ and the FNC in Canada. Her last two films Le Service (The Favor) and Dire (Unspokenwords) have received several distinctions including an Award of Excellence in the Best Woman Filmaker category of the Best Short Competition in California. Recently, she added to her skill set by completing the Directing Television program at the National Institute of Sound and Images (INIS) and is currently working on several fiction series as well as on her first feature film.