EVERGREEN. 7min. short film. Played at the Female Feedback Film Festival.

The line between reality and dream blurs for Swedish Mia, who suffers from anxiety induced paranoia on the day of her immigration interview.

https://www.instagram.com/evergreentheshortfilm

Director Statement

With this film, I hope to raise awareness of the hardship that immigrants of all nationalities are facing while applying for permanent residency in the U.S and open up for a conversation around the subject. This issue is a reality regardless of what skin color you have, what country you are from, or what languages you speak. Ironically, as the US country that is in fact created by immigrants.

In this story, we follow Mia, a European immigrant’s story, yet “Mia” could be anyone in the world. For me, her story represents the issue of the immigration process in the U.S.

The film explores through an experimental, nightmare-like lens, the fear and feeling of paranoia that immigrants might experience, while being tested by a system that is not only difficult and scrutinizing but also intimidating, overwhelming and even at times disrespectful. Having to respond to endless requests, both personal and professional, being challenged as to the existence of a job, the validity of a relationship or being able to prove that oneself is “extraordinary” enough to live in the country. The sentiment I managed to gather from my own experiences as well as other immigrant friends, was the sense of not being wanted, trusted or welcomed.

Therefore, I hope to shed light on this issue and open up a discussion around the questions:
Is this process really fair and respectful? To what extent is this a valid test or is it an exercise and abuse of control? How do we decide who is worthy to stay in a country based on their ethnicity, gender, fortune, skills, nationality, religion or who they love and marry?

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

FOR I AM DEAD. A Belgium short film.

In late-1800s Europe, Oscar, a wealthy but lonely middle-aged man who has lived a decadent, extravagant life in a chateau filled with wine, courtesans and opium, confesses love to his gardener Jude before he dies of his excesses.

Conversation with the lead actor/producer Al Nazemian and director Patricia Delso Lucas on the making of the film.

Director Statement

“A period piece, 18 minutes. A dark, surreal drama. A story about unrequited love, self-acceptance and the limits of the sane mind.”

With the script of For I Am Dead, I wanted to show the personal and social struggle to accept the nature of who an individual is, when his/her desires or choices do not correspond to the majority. In this particular case, Oscar is fighting with his repressed homosexuality, but this is just one of many possible incarnations portraying this dilemma.

I chose to set the story at this moment in time, the late 1800s, with the intention to accentuate the fact that these kinds of questions, although they have progressed, are still relevant today.

Will belonging to a minority ultimately end in tragedy?

This story can be extended to any situation of identity repression: Oscar being a victim of a time, an ideology, of himself; Jude being the response to him, in the form of love or hate.

Seen through the eyes of Oscar, the character of Jude embraces a duality between the kind and respectful young man he really is and the devil, the grotesque deformation Oscar projects onto him as a result of his tortured soul.

The unusual use of sound in the film, going in and out of sync at times - as well as a few jump cuts - emphasize Jude's duality and highlight Oscar's loss of sanity, as he is no longer able to tell what's real and unreal. Despite his wealth and status, Oscar was never able to buy people’s minds, not even his own.

What I want to show with this film is what happens inside of a person when they are brutally denied the freedom to choose who they are, the right to define how they want to live.

In this story, Oscar finds relief from his anguish the moment he confesses his love to Jude, but he is rejected and the price he pays is death.

In any case and despite the consequences, this permission to be yourself should start from within.

-Patricia Delso Lucas

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

POGO IS BORED, 4min., Australia, Animation

Pogo and best friend Flower are always in search of something new to do. They love to help others in need and are very keen to jump in with innovative ideas to do so.

https://www.delvalentinoproductions.com/
https://www.instagram.com/richie_valentino/

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

THE STAR MILL Short Film, Black & White Film Festival showcase
A boy and his pet owlbear learn to appreciate the present, and not worry about the future, while running a windmill that powers the stars at night.

https://instagram.com/artdoingdan

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

The World Cruzer travels through a future of nature pollution and climate chaos. Mankind is organized more democratically fighting for the survival of their own species. We share moments of insights with the World Cruzer on his mission to save the planet. His crew supports him with familiar voices, speaking about the many facets of being human. A modern movie with contemporary electronic music from Berlin clubs. It wants to change our point of view and to call upon mankind to find a global agreement - a new common sense pact.

Project Links

• Website

• Facebook

• Instagram

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Braving the realities of the harsh Montana winter and changing hunting regulations, hobby and career biologists track and study wolves in the Northern Tier of Yellowstone National Park. While the fate of wolves remains uncertain, the devotion and passion of Yellowstone’s Wolf Watchers are always a constant.

https://www.instagram.com/wolfwatchersdoc/

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

UNIVERIFIED was the winner of BEST FEATURE FILM at the 2022 THRILLER/SUSPENSE Film Festival.

Jason Sutherland wants to prove that such things as Sasquatches exist, but he doesn't want to kill one to do so. He and others come up with a non-lethal way to possibly verify their existence but a pro-kill advocate tries to beat them to the punch.

Project Links

• Facebook

• Instagram

Director Biography - Scott Herriott

Scott Herriott is a documentarian, former stand-up comic and Bigfoot enthusiast. He won a regional Emmy for his hosting duties on Internet Tonight on ZDTV (later known as TechTV) and was also a contributor on the channel’s The Screen Savers. He was also a contributor on CNN’s NewsNight with Aaron Brown and co-hosted “The Bigfoot Show” podcast. His trail name is Squatch, but please don’t call him that at any social events involving tuxedos and/or martinis. He’s been shooting his own documentaries for the last 17 years. "Unverified" is his first scripted feature.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Would you eat human for humanity? By 2050, the global population will be 10 billion. How can we produce food without wrecking the planet? The aim of the campaign was to highlight this question, and Sweden’s answer. In the film Eat a Swede, viewers follow Erik Karlsson, a Swedish scientist with a controversial business idea: to produce and sell lab-grown human meat to feed our planet. But you know what, why eat a Swede, when you can eat Swedish!

Project Links

• Website

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

When a daydreamer falls in love with a book smart, things might get complicated - in her head, flying to the moon is more feasible than asking him out for ice cream, but on this bus ride, she will find the courage to speak up before the end of the line.

Conversation with director Michael Sternberg & producer/actor Shira Alon)

Director Statement

This story is inspired by a true event that I myself witnessed between two people sitting on a bus wanting so badly to speak to each other but struggling to express themselves. This event was very magical to me and I was touched by how both of them tried different ways to get to each other's hearts but kept stopping themselves because of their shyness. I could relate to this feeling of struggling to express love and how hard it is to approach someone you want to be with - it's not accessible, there are obstacles.

The moment where the guy gets up and leaves the bus was such a magical heartbreak representing the loss of the most important things we own, like sand disappearing from our hand. A bus represents something temporary, ephemeral, not something permanent. Nothing is stable, there are bumps in the road, even stops in the road but nothing really stops, people join you and people leave you, everything is passing... I chose to make this film in a foreign language because it takes me to a whole different world, to a magical world, just like a kid traveling abroad. In fact, just like a kid listening to a story before bedtime. 

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

TODAY I WROTE NOTHING played at the Black & White Film Festival. “Russian absurdist writing made flesh from the beautiful micro-fiction words of early soviet avant garde writer Daniil Kharms.”

Project Links

• Website

• Instagram

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

“Inside an old cottage, a middle-aged man, K, is sitting at his desk. As K struggles to create on his working desk, he looks over at his pictures of yesteryears.” Conversation with EVERY DAY writer/director on the making of the film.

Director Biography - Navjyot Singh

Born in India, Navjyot studied Architecture in pursuit of a stable career. However, he soon realized that a screenplay's structure is much more interesting to him than a building's beam grid. During college, he made a few short films and later worked on a film set. Since 2017, Navjyot has called Canada home. After two years of studying filmmaking, he has started working on his own projects.

Director Statement

I'm a storyteller interested in exploring the human condition through intriguing stories.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

WHERE TEARS, PERHAPS is a music video featuring a dance duet between two female dancers that represents the act of creation. Interview with the Columbian filmmaker Walter Escamilla on the making of the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy7QN8rwGPY

Director Biography - Walter Escamilla

Walter Escamilla is a filmmaker based in Bogotá, Colombia. He studied Visual Arts at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He's first short film, Video Pulso, premiered in 2008 and was selected in various local film festivals including Cartagena International Film Festival. He's second short film, Prayer for Transformation, premiered in 2012 to further acclaim.

Apart form his artistic career, he has extensive experience as a Director and Editor of TV shows and documentary films. In 2012 he co-founded MONARCA, a young and highly creative team that produces music videos, fashion films and experimental media.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Teo Belton is a French and Mexican film director and screenwriter based in Peru. His talent for photography and storytelling is immense, and it really shows in his recent short film CUIDANTSIQMI: Love and Care for the Land.

“The Wari Indigenous people of the Llupa community, located below the Cordillera Blanca of the Peruvian Andes, are facing an environmental disaster that is directly affecting their physical and mental health.”

Director Statement

Dedicating myself to film directing has allowed me to be versatile in my interest and ability to reveal unique worlds and atmospheres in both fiction and documentary.

I am interested in staging singular worlds, since I can understand them from my own life, forged from encounters and dreamlike journeys, since my childhood since I was born in Zapopan, a town in Mexico, where I lived and grew up with native peoples. Native cultures have always accompanied me and today they persist as memories that direct my gaze towards different ways of existing.

The cinema is for me, the possibility of continuing with an oneiric journey that marked my existence.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

JOY! BLUE MOON is an animation music video based on the legendary song “Blue Moon” by The Marcels.

Read blog interview with director: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/joy-blue-moon

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

“Circles” is a music video of a song composed by Charlie Lim. He is visualized as a pixel art character journeying through a surrealistic pixel art landscape to find his love. Conversation with the amazingly talented Singapore filmmaker Guo Xiang Khoo on the making of the film.

https://youtu.be/jaH7laaq808

Director Statement

Circles was my first time directing a music video. I had a thought that the idea of a character running around, looking for something he lost no matter the period or era a rather romantic thought.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service today. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

GLORY & INJUSTICE is a superhero, fantasy/comedy from the Martinez-Areffi family, with the help of veteran screenwriter Sean E. Crouch (The 100, Numb3rs) and director Jamieson Tabb.

Conversation with star/writer Bella Zoe Martinez & writer/producer Melissa Jean Martinez-Areffi about the making of the film and working with family.

“When a custody petition arrives, 13-year-old girl "Glory" must break her dad "Lord Injustice" out of a depression or they will lose each other forever.”

Project Links

• Website

• Facebook

• Instagram

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service today. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

BLOSSOM IS SILENCE is an amazing extreme sports short documentary about the meaning of life.

“Laura ran away from home after junior high school, but she found her self in vertical caving and painting. This film is about extreme sports and meditations on how to live an authentic life.”

Director Statement

There are plenty of films about the coolness of extreme sports. However, I want to focus on the reasons behind it. This film is about caving but more about how to be a modern hermit. It's made for young people who are wondering about their place in this over-competitive society. I want to inspire them: it's okay to step out of what the society tells you.

Read blog interview with Zhihao Deng: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/blossom-in-silence

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service today. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

In this fun monster romcom, a first date is interrupted by the oddest thing - a roaming Kaiju.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1501183/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Director Biography - Christian Gossett Vila

From the age of nineteen I have been a professional storyteller. My drawing ability has led me from theater design to graphic novels to film, television and video games. My favorite directors are all illustrators (Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Cameron, Ridley Scott, Joe Johnston) and it wasn't long after learning this that I moved into directing television. I am currently working on the story art team for Zac Snyder's animated series, Army of the Dead - soon to be streaming on Netflix.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

An image of a child looking towards the evening moon visited my thoughts one day or maybe it was a dream, from there an imaginary dialogue or dance emerged between the moon and the child. But who is guiding who in this planetary dance, is it the moon or the child?

https://www.digitaltapestries.site/

Director Statement

In 2015, Hart Ginsburg founded Digital Tapestries in response to his experiences as a psychotherapist. Inspired by the healing potential of art, he aimed to serve the diverse needs of his clients through interactive books and short films. He soon expanded his visual materials by developing a workshop format, offering film screenings as well as panel discussions. Each of Digital Tapestries’ productions – films, books, and workshops – encourages meaningful dialogue and human connection and encourages participants to reach beyond a surface level response by awakening to their own humanistic capacities.

​Since its inception, Digital Tapestries has grown into a team of artists and professionals that draw from digital media, art, social work, psychotherapy, and communications

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

After the one-year anniversary of their mother’s death, Stevie and Julia must spread her ashes. They go to the field that their mother took them to as children to cloud watch. on arrival, Stevie is forced to confront her confusing feelings about her mother’s death. Stevie picks a fight with Julia because she realizes she is Jealous of the relationship that Julia got to with her mom. When Stevie eventually gives in to her feelings of sadness, the sisters leave the field with an understanding of the other’s pain.

Project Links

• Website

• Instagram

Director Statement

I have always been someone who copes with life by making up and visualizing scenes and stories in my head. From the minute I had consciousness I had a camera in my hands. As a kid, I had more surgeries than anyone I know, so I spent a lot of time in bed watching movies and tv, and it become my safe place. I could talk to my mom and dad about how amazing the light in a scene from my favorite movie was or completely lose myself in the world that was created in front of me. Movies and tv helped me deal with a lot.

Greener Pastures is no different. As I was going to sleep one summer night after my dad called me to tell me to prepare myself for my mother's likely death, I saw a scene of two siblings in a field. They sat in a wood-paneled SUV with their mother's ashes in a silver box strapped to the roof with pink and green biker cables. The field was rich with tall green grass. They picked it because it was their mother's favorite. The siblings were not me and mine but they were strangers.

Stevie and Julia are both conversations that I was having with myself during this time. Part of me was mad at my mother for getting sick at all and the other was mad at her for almost dying.

I have always seen movie in my head but this is the first time it has become something that I can watch and show to other people.

Film playing on the Film Festival Streaming service later this month. You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

Subscribe to the podcast via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook