2024 FEATURE FILMS
2024 SHORT FILMS
Director: Eric M Boso
Runtime: 7 min 47 sec
A mechanical pencil finds a lifelong friend.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Ali Rose Bianco
Runtime: 17 min 7 sec
Fiona, a cautious yet brave young woman, hears of the possible overturning of Roe V. Wade and decides to get a Copper IUD as a pre-emptive protective measure. However, after the Copper IUD is inserted, it takes its form as Damim, a domineering woman, looking to control Fiona from within, causing excessive bleeding and sing-songy nightmares.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Alexis Schuknecht
Runtime: 1 min 27 sec
On the evening of Samhain, when the veil is thinnest between the world of the living and the dead, a lonely young girl participates in a ritual to ease her grieving heart.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Max Fogle
Runtime: 14 min 59 sec
Eliot fixes up old lamps and sells them online. But a secret lurks beneath the surface.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Jiyoung Kim
Runtime: 10 min 51 sec
Ondo is a heartwarming story that illustrates the love of a matriarch of an immigrant family. Mijung is a ghost, unaware she is dead. She remains at home, still looking after her granddaughter, Ondo. Haunting her in the most loving way.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Maya Wanner
Runtime: 19 min 39 sec
As the filmmaker and her mother attempt to heal their relationship, their memories reflect, refract, and reverberate in this personal multi-generational documentary about forgiveness and reconnection.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Kaylin Allshouse
Runtime: 12 min 43 sec
After burglars ransacked her mother’s childhood home, Frankie must help her mom clean the mess, but since the loss of her father, Frankie and her mother struggle to get along. Now, faced with so many reminders of the past, the two must find a way to navigate a world where they only have each other.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 1 at the Drexel
Director: Lydia Cornett
Runtime: 7 min 3 sec
At a butcher shop in Jeromesville, Ohio, four meat processors situate their labor within their own minds and bodies.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Payton Burkhammer
Runtime: 10 min 52 sec
After a recent breakup, social media obsessed Maria faces her deepest fear – spending the night alone. What will she do to pass the time? Not even she knows. Through facing her ex-boyfriend, celebrating her birthday, and a chance encounter with a delivery driver, she learns a lesson in what it means to choose yourself.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Jordan Sommerlad
Runtime: 6 min 14 sec
On the day of their wedding, a tornado derails a couple’s vision for their future.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Hao Zhou
Runtime: 20 min 49 sec
A costume designer leaves their life in Iowa to return to their hometown in Guam and make costumes for a children’s theater, hoping to reconnect with estranged parents.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Cameron Granger
Runtime: 23 min 11 sec
Five years ago the east side neighborhood of a town called Bad City was leveled by giant monsters called the Titans. I was recently hired by the city to document the community’s recovery efforts — and now I’m seeing just how different the road to recovery can look for a city, and for its people.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Rafal Sokolowski & Kanat Omurbekov
Runtime: 11 min 45 sec
River, a trans woman, returns home to attend the funeral of her estranged father. She arrives consumed by regret for not seeing him before he passed, but instead of closure, she finds that the funeral has been staged and that her father faked his death to lure her into “conversion therapy.”
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Jonathan Pickett
Runtime: 16 min 2 sec
An aging country musician who’s struggling to make ends meet receives an offer for an unusual private gig. Based on the life of cowboy singer Johnny Bencomo, who plays himself in the film.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Matthew Everitt
Runtime: 26 min 5 sec
A spate of local disappearances. A hill that may (or may not) be a conduit to the next life. A recluse, living off the grid, who hasn’t been seen for years—until one of his high school bandmates shows up with a birthday cake.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Neha Aziz
Runtime: 8 min
Sheila and Imran haven’t seen each other since college, but when Imran moves back to Austin, an opportunity arises for the pair to get acquainted once more.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Searit Kahsay Huluf
Runtime: 17 min 6 sec
An infatuated African-American chef creates an imaginary romantic relationship with an Ethiopian chef across the street—but her fantasies soon begin to overpower her senses, causing her to lose her grip on reality.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Victoria Negri
Runtime: 12 min 37 sec
A codependent long-term friendship is challenged when one of the women suddenly transforms into a mermaid.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Jacqueline Rosenthal
Runtime: 18 min 6 sec
In 2006, Mallory Newell (all names changed) was brutally assaulted and date-raped on her 21st birthday. The next day, she underwent a painful scientific 4-6 hour medical examination to collect clinical evidence. But because of the bureaucracy of the justice system, the police shelved her evidence and evaded her for almost two years, claiming the case to be “unwinnable.” But Mallory continued to help survivors, working at a rape treatment crisis center, where she is asked to advocate to end the Rape Kit Backlogs. Eventually, she finds insurmountable courage to become the key witness at the Senate Judiciary hearing in 2010.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 1 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Jason Headley
Runtime: 5 min 12 sec
A man misses his chance to say goodbye to his dying brother.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Em Yue
Runtime: 4 min 40 sec
We played games to pass the time in our parents’ Chinese restaurants. They weren’t authentic, but they were good.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Cameron Tyler Carr
Runtime: 17 min 34 sec
An Afro-futurist scrapbook storytelling of a Harlem Black family’s beautiful destruction during the 2008 recession. A natural disaster so mesmerizing you can’t look away from the tragedy.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Hajdi El-Omari
Runtime: 15 min
Haunted by her mother’s death and recurring attacks on her city, a young girl becomes obsessed with death. Reality invades their world as her father tries to distract her by making a stop-motion film. When his efforts to shelter his daughter fail, fantasy and imagination cross paths to help her, and in that fraction of time, story frees, and a touch of mar mama’s magic saves.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Bridget Frances Harris
Runtime: 12 min 58 sec
After an incident following Sunday mass, a Catholic altar server starts having visions of The Virgin Mary, forcing her to confront queer feelings for a movie theater coworker.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: Vero Kompalic
Runtime: 33 min 26 sec
A film crew documents a progressively sadistic commander, as he forces a group of actors playing soldiers to violent ends.
SHORTS BLOCK: Shorts Block 2 at Gateway Film Center
Director: ETA
Runtime: 31 min 15 sec
Latine twentysomething, Gema, is forced to confront the looming threat of gentrification head-on—after having no choice but to let an overeager stranger move in or risk being evicted. The uneasy peace soon turns sinister, exposing her to something far more invasive.
SHORTS BLOCK: Late Night Shorts at Studio 35 Cinema
Director: Laura Lee
Runtime: 13 min 30 sec
Even though Trundle makes the best borscht in the city, Mr. Murray says he is too hideous to work the counter. But when a Regular wants to thank the chef, Trundle takes matters into his own hands.
SHORTS BLOCK: Late Night Shorts at Studio 35 Cinema
Director: Brendan Butler
Runtime: 15 min
Stetson, a recovering addict trying to escape his past life, moves into a new apartment where he discovers a hole in his wall allowing him to watch in on his neighbors … who may or may not be watching him.
SHORTS BLOCK: Late Night Shorts at Studio 35 Cinema
Director: Carlos A.F. Lopez
Runtime: 12 min
A couple awakens in the night to sounds emanating from an unlikely orifice.
SHORTS BLOCK: Late Night Shorts at Studio 35 Cinema
Director: Tyler C. Peterson
Runtime: 15 min 3 sec
A drag queen embarks on a quest for better workplace rights, but finds herself in a dicey situation when her new lawyer, a tone-deaf straight woman, is revealed to be a drag super stan.
SHORTS BLOCK: Late Night Shorts at Studio 35 Cinema
2023 FEATURE FILMS
2023 SHORT FILM BLOCKS
2023 SHORT FILMS
Directors: Joshua Heath Clark, Mike Kash
Runtime: 35 min
A story of a family’s generational trauma and how it uses motorcycle riding as a coping mechanism across generations.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Jack Beckett Cohen
Runtime: 18 min
A theater actor with crippling body image insecurities must face his greatest fears when he is asked to perform nude on stage in his dream role.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Déja Russell
Runtime: 14 min
Vanesia Simmons, a young black woman, finds herself trapped in a mysterious space when her apartment hunting doesn’t go as planned. To escape, she must find the key to “Eclosion,” a magical garden that will send her home. When finding the key doesn’t prove as easily as thought, she is forced to address the monsters inside.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Payton Burkhammer
Runtime: 10 min
Anxious about her upcoming date, Gabi enlists the help of her best friend, Matt, to teach her how to have the perfect first kiss.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Jon Osbeck
Runtime: 12 min
Two mob hitmen, one retired, one still on the job, meet for supper.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Joshua Nowak
Runtime: 15 min
A dark, comedic drama about a waitress and single mother who is having a terrible night at her job. Between hitting her head, getting yelled at by her boss, and being stiffed by a customer, she barely notices the two criminals sitting in her section. It’s an ensemble of unique characters, cosmic coincidences, and serendipitous luck, both good and bad.
World Premiere – Santa Barbara Film Festival (2023)
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Adnan Siddique
Runtime: 36 min
A passionate astronomy student disengages from her college curriculum upon the discovery of an illusive artifact.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Kayla Lehman
Runtime: 4 min
Self in Progress follows a young woman’s experience with anxiety and mental illness and her journey of healing through acceptance and self-compassion. The film draws inspiration from the aesthetics of Surrealism to visualize this mental health journey.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Kaylin Allshouse
Runtime: 12 min
When her bionic boyfriend Ethan proposes, Jackie finally feels like she has found her happily ever after — until a chance encounter with another human shows her how messy love can really be.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Jonathan Riles
Runtime: 3 min
A slithering creature evolves into different forms, but also remains the same.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Angelo Thomas
Runtime: 7 min
Two souls meet in the space between this life and the afterlife.
SHORTS BLOCK: Local Shorts
Director: Michael T. Workman
Runtime: 18 min
After Tim’s work-related stroke leads to troubling signs of memory loss, his son Michael returns home to Montana. As they spend the most time together since Michael’s childhood, they reckon with the past that haunts Tim. Meantime is a deeply personal exploration of memory, guilt, labor, and the attempt to preserve the fleeting.
Winner (Best Short Film) – Telluride Mountainfilm (2022)
Winner (Vimeo Staff Pick Award) – Palm Springs ShortFest (2022)
Winner (Best Short Documentary) – BendFilm Festival (2022)
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Directors: Elisa Stone, Matthew Leahy
Runtime: 22 min
As the world grappled with pandemic isolation, Edith Espinal entered her third year of sanctuary in a Midwestern church. A Shelter for Edith sheds light on the solitary life of one undocumented woman and the threat that sent her indoors — not the pandemic, but the fear that ICE could tear her family apart.
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Directors: Claudia Owusu, Ife Oluwamuyide
Runtime: 18 min
Set in the sister cities of Accra, Ghana and Columbus, Ohio, Ampe: Leap into the Sky, Black Girl is a rhythmic love letter to Black girlhood across the African diaspora. Through the lens of the Ghanaian traditional jumping and clapping game, Ampe, the film takes us on a journey of sisterhood, loyalty, and nostalgia in a space created for us, by us.
World Premiere – Indie Memphis Film Festival (2022)
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Robert Machoian
Runtime: 5 min
A shift at a metal foundry provides the basis for a meditation of life as a pressure machine.
World Premiere – Cinequest (2023)
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Kuukua Eshun
Runtime: 9 min
Kuukua Eshun explores the reconnection of women of African descent with the earth.
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Brian Plow
Runtime: 21 min
A short documentary about two women with intensive trauma histories and the new approach to mental health treatment that led to healing and resilience. It is also the story of the pioneering women who are leading the way in advocating for Trauma Informed Care in Ohio.
SHORTS BLOCK: Documentary Shorts at the Drexel
Director: Anne Hu
Runtime: 16 min
When a Taiwanese American woman prepares lunches from her childhood, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother.
World Premiere – Hawaii International Film Festival (2023)
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Director: Conner De Mita
Runtime: 3 min
A son reminds his mother, who is surrounded by darkness, that there is still beauty in the world.
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Director: Anna Salinas
Runtime: 12 min
When Allie’s plans fall through, she must face her chaotic Inner Demon to survive an evening home alone.
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Director: Nitzan Mager
Runtime: 13 min
Amateur harpist and professional teacher’s pet, Meg Littleton, is fed up with everyone’s thoughts and prayers.
World Premiere – Cleveland International Film Festival (2023)
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Director: Kayla Abuda Galang
Runtime: 13 min
Teenager Ly and her cousins get high before a boisterous family Thanksgiving at their auntie’s house in southeast San Diego in 2006.
Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Sundance Film Festival (2023)
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Directors: Josie Charles, Phoebe Brooks
Runtime: 14 min
A young working-class Welsh woman meets her wealthy English boyfriend’s eccentric family for the first time on Christmas Eve. She’s thrown straight into the family’s traditional Christmas game, and struggles to keep up with its in-jokes and strange rules. But as she improves, she begins to uncover a dark secret in the family’s past.
Finalist (Best Director, Best Production Design, Best Sound Design) – The British Short Film Awards (2022)
SHORTS BLOCK: Narrative Shorts
Director: Justin Zimmerman
Runtime: 22 min
SOLDIER focuses on Daniel Krug: a heroic firefighter, father of five, SWAT trainer, and armored combat enthusiast. Daniel is also a former sniper, with ten years of combat, security, rescue, and recovery experience in Iraq. And over the past decade, he’s lost 11 of his close military friends – and almost lost himself – to PTSD.
SHORTS BLOCK: The Power & Purpose of Our Veterans’ Stories
Directors: Spencer LaGros, Alexander Hinsch
Runtime: 26 min
Jason Graven, an Army Veteran, looks into the generational trauma from his missing father and surrendered daughter. This eventually leads to him finding a new family of fellow veterans who cope together through physical fitness.
SHORTS BLOCK: The Power & Purpose of Our Veterans’ Stories
Directors: Julie Pacino, Aron Meinhardt
Runtime: 22 min
Brainstorms is an experiential look inside the mind of Brian, a veteran who has sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) during combat. The film follows Brian’s struggle returning to home life with his wife and daughter. While experiencing a panic attack in a hospital parking garage, Brian meets a young VA nurse named Danielle who is in the process of recovering from her own TBI.
SHORTS BLOCK: The Power & Purpose of Our Veterans’ Stories
Directors: Ryan Gentle, Austin Quarles
Runtime: 13 min
Alexander, a space-loving day dreamer hopes to pass that love on to his son Galileo. As he grows up, Galileo realizes he needs to break away from his father’s hope to find his own path, but his path is closer to his father’s dreams than he ever thought.
Shorts Programmer Award – Sidewalk Film Festival (2022)
Screening before feature film Stargazer
