BARBETTE + FONTAINE, 14min., USA
Directed by John-Carlos Estrada, Zak Zeh
A century apart, two Texas icons unite through art, resilience, and a shared legacy of self-expression and freedom.

https://instagram.com/barbette.fontaine

Get to know filmmaker John-Carlos Estrada:
The idea for Barbette + Fontaine came from an award-winning TV news profile I reported on for CBS Austin. After the broadcast story aired in June 2022… I was Inspired by a dream where the legendary Texas drag icon Barbette urged me to tell their story. We’re honored to provide Barbette with their final performance and take pride in doing so. Here’s the link to the CBS Austin story: bit.ly/3CeAXTG

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

RE:BIRTH, 8min., Taiwan
Directed by Laticia Fan
A lost soul traumatized by her past and trapped in the confines of her own imagination. Unable to move forward with life until she was led to begin her journey of recovery and discovery by a sound healer, ultimately conquering her darkest memories, fears, and desires, and transcending the perpetual tug-of-war between attachment and letting go.

https://www.laticiafan.com/
https://instagram.com/sheng.shortfilm

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

CATS AND HUSBANDS, 7min., USA
Directed by Grace Samson, Barry Samson
We enter the story where two close friends, Fern and Marcie get together at a local coffee shop to celebrate a birthday. Fern has been going through two years of cycles of In Vitro, desperately trying to get pregnant but with no success. Her husband, Nick’s coping mechanism has been dressing up with the family Cat and taking silly pictures. Marcie jokingly suggests that Fern just book a vacation for herself and leave hubby with the cat. All this to help soften the reality that the birthday Fern celebrates today is that of a child she miscarried two years before.

https://instagram.com/catsandhusbands

Get to know filmmaker Grace Samson:
Being a thirty two year old woman, I started to see ads for freezing your eggs. I thought, wow I’m not ready for that yet, but interesting what a pressure it is to have babies as a woman at my age. I wanted to include a woman’s story that others who are in the same position could commiserate with and feel like they are not alone.

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

ALL WE WERE, 20min., USA
Directed by Emily Aleece Burton
Olivia, a struggling artist and hopeless romantic, is blindsided when her successful boyfriend, Nico, suddenly dumps her. The two then reflect on all their relationship from two perspectives. For her, he’s a broken distraction she can fix; for him, she’s a beautiful mystery just out of reach. What happens when you fall in love with the idea of someone you’ve created in your head instead of who they actually are? Can you honestly say you knew all we were?

https://www.instagram.com/allwewerefilm/

Get to know the filmmaker:
I chose to write and direct this short film, ‘All We Were,’ after getting out of a toxic relationship of my own. I fell in love with a man who allowed me to feel safe and vulnerable for the first time only for him to then use that against me when I expressed how insignificant I felt to him. After months of therapy, I wanted to create something beautiful not only to take back my voice that I felt that he had dismissed but to explore both sides of the relationship to see where along the way we got lost in translation. People tend to fall in love with the idea of someone instead of who they are. The same goes for my lead characters, Olivia and Nico. In the end, Nico uses radical honesty to try and deflect any blame for the outcome of the relationship. At the same time, Olivia refuses to believe him as she has hung on to any breadcrumbs of love he’s ever given her as proof to herself that he does care. Neither one ever sees the other for who they actually were.

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

MORNING AFTER, 21min., USA
Directed by Elijah Chandler
“When a wild night ends rubbing shoulders with the LA mob, a directionless college grad has to get his friend out of danger, or it’ll be her blood on the streets next.”

https://facebook.com/enchandler
https://instagram.com/enchandler

Get to know the filmmaker:

Morning After is my second short film I’ve written and directed after graduating from film school. Graduating from film school initially left me with a sense of defeat, as I felt I hadn’t created enough of my own stories due to imposter syndrome. While in film school, I mainly worked as a cinematographer for my peers’ projects, but I later realized that many of them wouldn’t pursue directing, let alone filmmaking entirely. Only a handful continued to pursue filmmaking and had a unique voice. Imposter syndrome can make us doubt ourselves, but it affects us all differently. Some overcompensate by appearing knowledgeable in film history and having complex visions for their films. Others, like me in film school, may run in the opposite direction due to self-doubt. The film industry’s competitiveness and comparison game, exacerbated by social media, are inherent challenges. However, most artists share the same insecurities, and we’re all trying to overcome them in our own ways.

I gained valuable experience as a cinematographer, enhancing my visual storytelling skills. I enjoyed helping directors with camera movement and actor blocking, as it allowed me to create on-screen dynamics during dialogues. This experience strengthened my passion for filmmaking and my desire to tell my own stories. Despite having fewer resources and fewer connections than in film school, my motivation to pursue filmmaking has never been stronger. My current motivation is to build my storytelling skills through continuous practice, like a workout, so that I’m prepared when opportunities with greater responsibilities arise.

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

CRAVATE, 11min., Canada
Directed by Clement Faure
When Mav wakes up from another mysterious nightmare, he decides not to take his medicine that day. Locked in a dark basement residence and haunted by his work, he wishes he would have a break. That morning, Mav doesn’t expect to face someone he might know.

http://fluxproduction.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/flux.production.ca
https://www.instagram.com/clement.faure.video/

Get to know the filmmaker:

I got the main idea for this film one morning 7 years ago. I woke up after a sleepless night and went to the bathroom to wash and dress. I started to look at myself in the mirror and as I was staring intensely at my reflection , I became aware of these two characters, these paradoxal life paths’s desires inside me. My conscious wanted something and my unconscious (reflection) was saying something else. That was also explaining why I was not sleeping, why I was so stressed and anxious in my life at that time: my two selves were not aligned.
Then I knew I wanted the story to take place in a dystopian universe, a near future but where the viewer would feel the underground confined environnement. This place is the metaphorical representation of the first character’s psyche obviously. Then the bathroom is the place where you wash yourself, you wash your sins maybe, you wash to make your mind cleaner, clearer. I knew I wanted these metaphorical aspects in the film that added another layer to the story.

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

FLOWING – MY DREAM OF MORE FREEDOM, 4min., Austria
Directed by Christine Sonvilla, Marc Graf
In “Flowing – My dream of more freedom” the river itself speaks to us about its dream of flowing wilder and freer again, thereby providing a home (again) to a diversity of species.

https://www.facebook.com/christine.sonvilla/
https://www.instagram.com/grafmarcphotography/

Get to know filmmakers Christine Sonvilla & Marc Graf:
Christine + Marc: The Dam Removal Initiative is an incredibly powerful tool in river conservation and restoration. However, it still needs more attention in the public and with decision-makers. That’s why we wanted to highlight how very much our rivers are craving for more freedom.

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

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp8Y7Y8Qxfo

Inspired by a young adventurer, a frustrated midlife wife escapes her marriage and flies to America with a birthday bucket list that helps her find truth, freedom and the future she’s waited twenty years for.

Get to know the writer:
Jenny Collins is a bored, midlife bookworm who unexpectedly gatecrashes a wake, gets inspired by a young adventurer and takes a surprise trip to New York with a birthday bucket list that turns into the adventure she’s always wanted. Discovering who she might be, if she gave herself a chance.

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
  

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/viewing

After a supernatural experience, a street artist at the end of his rope goes to work for a billionaire as a psychic viewer but must fight his way out when he discovers that his shadowy employer is embroiled in a deadly conspiracy. Inspired by true events.

Get to know the writer:

After a supernatural experience, a young street artist at the end of his rope goes to work for a fossil fuel billionaire as a psychic viewer but must fight his way out when he discovers that his employer is embroiled in a deadly conspiracy. Inspired by true events.

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

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk9nn1nx1xA

Type of Script: TV spec script for the tv show Firefly

The pain caused by the bounty hunter, Jubal Early, in the finale of Season Two still echoes. When the crew of Firefly are infected with a mysterious and deadly airborne virus with dark links to River’s past, Simon must choose between saving the crew and saving his sister.

Get to know the writer:

A spec script of the tv show Firefly. The pain caused by the bounty hunter, Jubal Early, in the finale of Season Two still echoes. When the crew of the spaceship Serenity are infected with a mysterious and deadly airborne virus with dark links to River’s past, Simon must choose between saving the crew and saving his sister.

I was really interested in how the crew in a confined space would react to a deadly disease. Bullets and fist fights can be faced head on, but disease is more insidious and plays on different fears. Infection makes everyone suspect.

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

NO SLASHER HERE, 9min., USA
Directed by Robert Tiemstra
A woman comes home from work, only to receive an unsettling phone call. Does the danger only exist over the phone, or is there a masked killer inside her home?

https://instagram.com/the_timestar

Get to know the filmmaker:
The production for ‘No Slasher Here’ started with a New Years’ Day text message from me to Llenelle, my producing partner for this film – “do you want to make a spooky movie this year?” We’d worked together before, but never on a horror film. I was just finishing up the film festival run for my last film – a dystopian short called The October Martyr – and I was feeling the urge to do something scrappy & fun. Once I had Llenelle on board to act in something, I just asked myself ‘what sort of horror movie would I cast her in?’ and the answer came in the form of a When a Stranger Calls/Black Christmas/Scream style horror movie opening. The central conceit occurred to me while I was on a walk – instead of having a killer call someone, what if the ‘victim’ in this kind of setup picks up the phone to find another similar horror movie opening going on somewhere else? Then it became a puzzle for me to solve, a weird mobius strip of slasher movie suspense.

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

EnaMOREd, 11min., Finland
Directed by Petri Puroaho
”EnaMOREd” (2023) explores the relationship between reality and dreams. Film shows what is it like to live in parallel world at the same time while coping with the real life events. What we carry in our minds eye can be different than what society assumes from us and even tries to conform us to so called normality when dealing with a persons love-life and relationship.

https://kipikipiweb.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/PetriPuroahoFinland/
https://www.instagram.com/we.sock.pp

Get to know the filmmaker:

Awareness, therapeutic process and time-efficiency. Being myself in a relationship that this film`s theme deals with made it a personal journey, just like my other works of art before. Since the day I started doing music and films, I have always based and rooted all my artistic interpretations and visions from personal experiences or wishes, so I could bring a little bit of hope and enjoyment to the world. I found and got to meet the love of my life just before pandemic started (2019). Then we were torn apart because of restrictions and other things for a long time. So we created a full life online. And last year (2023) we got to meet again. So that time apart was a life-changing experience and made me rethink and re-create my understanding of relationships in a new way. That transformation was so powerful that I felt I wanted to bring a little bit more awareness of that to the world through my film.

And by creating the film it became even almost a therapeutic experience for myself, how to express this phenomenon that I had experienced and lived through (and still living) but this time in film through visuals, music and a story. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could make enough of an impactful story-line with time-efficient length with the film. I wanted to tell so many details and it would have taken hours to explain everything. So I wanted to tackle the theme of the film and get to the heart of it with a few main ideas, and give the audience the chance to fill out the rest of the story in their minds, and the final impact of my film to them would be through their (audience) own reflections.

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

SCHERAZADE'S CLOAK, 7min., Italy

Directed by Michele Stella

A prince called Kalendar falls in love with a prostitute, Scherazade, who's under the protection of an evil witch. Thanks to his friends and the help of a goddess, he frees Scherazade

https://www.datatalk.it/

Get to know the filmmaker:

The main reason was the possibility to collaborate with Florania, the emerging fashion brand that have produced the short film together with our agency Dalk. Me and Flora, the super talented mind behind Florania, were very connected since the first call we did: she wanted to promote her new collection inspired by sea fantasy voyages, i wanted to make a short film inspired by "One Thousand and One night", one of my favorite book.

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

SHOOTING YOUR OWN SHADOW, 4min., USA
Directed by Joseph J Parisi, Michael Amman
A jaded and delusional assassin rethinks some life choices with her manager, while believing she’s the main character in a 90s style tv show called, “Shooting Your Own Shadow”.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28597286/?ref_=ttawd_ov_i

Get to know filmmaker Joseph J. Parisi:

We’ve been working in the TV/ Film industry for over 17 years and never had the chance to make something that was “ours” and we decided to make something short, sweet and to the point!

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

DERECK FROM HINGE, 7min., USA
Directed by Jeff Rones
Fresh off a breakup, a young millennial tries her luck on a popular dating app with a gen z.

Get to know the filmmaker:
As a single twenty-seven-year-old in 2024, I am no stranger to dating apps. Unfortunately, what dating apps promise is a far cry from what they achieve for the people on them. I wanted to channel my frustration into something relatable. Although studies on the impact of mental health and self-esteem from dating apps are out there, active dialogue on how these apps are affecting the users is few and far between. I hope that my film builds awareness on what we actually seek from swiping away our loneliness. Perhaps the commodification of building connection and romance is not actually in our best interest. My hope is that this film allows the audience to dig deeper and laugh at the ridiculousness that is dating apps.

Another aspect that I wanted to incorporate was the generational gap between millennials and generation z. As someone on the cusp of these generations, I find myself caught in the middle. I might frequently use “puppers” to describe cute dogs like Madison, or find myself caught up on TikTok like Dereck, although maybe not on a first date. There is much humor to be found in this dissonance. I believe there are deep issues that both generations find themselves in, but I know the film can only scrape the surface. These issues include a reckoning with the pervasiveness of social media, a worsening housing market, social isolation of a pandemic, and a rapidly changing climate. I hope that my film can start these conversations between generations to reach some common ground.

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

CHERUBIM, 17min., Ukraine
Directed by Evgeniy Matvienko
«VARTA» is a series of documentary novellas about the Ukrainian military, created by the authorial team of filmmakers called NEUTRINO. Since the full-scale invasion of russia of Ukraine, the team has been documenting the military events and telling the stories of our soldiers.

Get to know the filmmaker:
There is a war in the country, people are dying every day, our military are dying. I am tired of hearing about heroes only after their deaths, and I decided to change this, namely to make a film about the inner world of our fighters, and show the whole world their brave look, deep soul and sincere desire to live in peace. To document real people who resist evil and protect us, civilians. We want people to be able to see heroes when they are alive, not when they die, so that over time our generations can see those who have kept peace in our homes.

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

SHATTERED REMEDY, 16min., USA/China

Directed by Dmitry Kulak

A police officer suffers from severe migraine right before his night shift. He decides to fight it with abnormal amount of medication. However, he does not realize that the side effects will soon cause him to lose his ability to understand reality and differentiate between his own experiences and those of others.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmRa6OCKvGx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emEm78WV3yE

A woman senses serious trouble connected to a discarded plastic bottle leaking an eerie green substance in her neighborhood.

https://www.debbimack.com/

https://facebook.com/debbimackwriter/
https://instagram.com/debbimacktoo

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

AUGURY, 5min., USA
Directed by Cousteau Bix Christopher
What do you see?

Get to know the filmmaker:

I have always been fascinated with film, and I fully committed to being a filmmaker at age 11, a passion that has never faltered for me. With the case of Augury, it had certainly been a while since I created my last short film (during the pandemic). A lot of momentum was derailed due to covid, so I switched gears and while working full-time focused on getting my Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Studies through ASU Online. Throughout this time, I also did extensive amounts of personal research into cinematography and film production to learn as much as I could.

Once I finally received my Bachelor’s, I decided to put myself to the test. I wanted to make the highest quality production I could with essentially no budget. I believe the total budget for this film was around $200, and it pretty much all went to the prop and craft services. I don’t come from a wealthy family, and never had that “rich uncle” or anyone who would be able to fund my film endeavors, so being self-funded I always leaned heavily into how to “get the best bang for your buck.” I had some gear I collected over the years, and with my trusty Blackmagic Pocket, two video lights, a little LED light mat, and the absolute unbridled passion from my amazing cast and crew, Augury came to be.

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

MR. BULLOCH: CHICAGO’S DONUT KING, 5min., USA
Directed by Claude Edward Fethiere
This short film celebrates Mr. Buritt Bulloch the successful owner of Old Fashioned Donuts Incorporated, a business which has thrived in the financially blighted Chicago south side neighborhood of Roseland for over 50 years.

Get to know the filmmaker:
I was motivated to make this film because in a world were food is ordered on kiosks, and mass produced by machines, seeing Mr. Bulloch hand make delicious masterpieces every day is a breath of fresh ( baked,raised, and fried ; ) ) air. I wanted to celebrate Mr. Bulloch’s artistry, resilience, wisdom, and charm.

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