THE SLATE, 8min., USA
Directed by Katherine Connor Duff
A struggling actress attempts to film a self tape.

https://www.katherineconnorduff.com/

Get to know the filmmaker:

This film was based on a domestic argument I found recorded on my self tape camera. I lost the argument, I lost the boyfriend, but I won Best Story at TOFFF! After finding said video, I thought it would make for a great short film, where reality is blurred à la cinéma vérité style of the new wave films of the 1960s. I wanted to convey raw authenticity, the unsuccessful balance of career and relationship, and remove the line between fiction and fact. As an actress in LA, I wanted also to explore the audition method where we film so many self tapes using our own homes, our own equipment, and our own readers, in my case, an uncooperative boyfriend.

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.

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OCD, 1min,. Canada
Directed by Madonna Gonzalez
“Amanda, a girl with a debilitating “tick” fights to survive the war raging within her terrifying psyche – all while stuck sitting in a Psych 101 lecture.

https://www.imdb.me/micahkelpin
https://www.instagram.com/iammicahkelpin/

Get to know Kallie Hu Writer & Story Creator:

The film is based on a true story that is very close to me and my family. It’s meant to be a raw look at the reality of its namesake, attempting to demystify the disorder and sharing what success could mean for those living with it.

It was originally written as a submission to Vancouver’s Mighty Asian Movie Making Marathon (MAMM), hosted by the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, which required me to infuse my own heritage into the story while streamlining it into a 1-minute film. I wanted to build empathy by showing how every minute living with OCD can be an intense and terrifying struggle. This struggle is only compounded by the habits of ignoring, misunderstanding, and dismissing mental health issues which are so prevalent amongst Eastern cultural groups. OCD rips back the curtain for those seeking to understand anxiety disorders within the larger context of cultural stigma, while lending a life preserver to those who already know.

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.

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SUMMERVILLE, 26min., USA
Directed by Anthony Di Pietro
After an Alien invasion, the invaders decide to convert humans to a work force… An underground resistor, the Ghost, has some special skills that helps in the fight.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9805310/reference/

Get to know writer/producer/actor Paul Darrigo:

This started out with “Let’s shoot a quick scene” Then the passion got the best of us and here we are. (It took) At least 3 years to make this film. Multiple editors, re-shoots and script/story changes. Evidently, I took over editing and really had to make this happen. We went over budget a bit but I found 3 key people to finish the film.

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.

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ARMED WITH A DILDO, 5min, USA
Directed by Karuna Tanahashi
When Dani’s boyfriend Leslie breaks up with her, a mass shooter starts attacking the motel they were going to have a romantic night at and suddenly the break up becomes the least of her problems.

http://suenitomedia.com/
https://facebook.com/theatouchton
https://twitter.com/thea_touchton
https://instagram.com/theatouchton

Get to know Thea Touchton

We made this film for the Collaborative Film Festival where we had two weeks to come up with the film based on a quote that was revealed at the festival launch. Winnie pitched this idea to me at the launch after just meeting and it stuck and even though I knew it was going to be challenge, I couldn’t think of anything else and knew we would figure it out and grow as filmmakers in the process.

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.

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FLAWLESS, 7min., France

Directed by Lévy CLAUDE

A young man is going on a first date with a young lady, but things will take an unexpected turn because of a new mobile app

https://www.facebook.com/100defauts/

Interview with the lead actress Zoe Corraface.

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.

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MASTER SENSEI, 20min., Denmark
Directed by Theis Gavnbo Holmstrup

Written by Jes Bergholt Bach
The world-famous elite soldier Master Sensei decides to blow himself up after a series of public scandals have destroyed his career. However, his plan is put on hold when he meets the young boy scout “Piggy”, who is in desperate need of help. Piggy is harassed by the excentric bully and influencer, Lanky Lenny, who has stolen Piggy’s braces in an attempt to shake him down. Master Sensei must now go on one last mission, so he can help Piggy retrieve his braces and stand up against the evil tormentor Lanky Lenny.

https://styrvolt.dk/projekter/mastersensei

Get to know the filmmaker:

We started planting the seeds for this film back in the summer of 2021. Back then we were brainstorming on a tv show, about a boy who was training to become a local justice warrior, through an online YouTube course. That course was held by Master Sensei, and he was supposed to be a side character on the show. The show didn’t get picked up (who knows what might happen in the future), and we retooled it into a short film that incidentally sort of works as a prequel. We wrote a synopsis for the short film in April 2022, then we got the funding and started shooting in September 2022. The film was completed in February 2023.

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.

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THE DEEP BLUE TOMORROW

Directed by Brandon Normon

A hitman questions his next move after taking a job that tests his boundaries. Made for the 2nd Annual AGBO No Sleep Til...  48hr Film Festival.

Conversation with lead actor Ron Selmour about the making of the film.

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.

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DRIFTING OF A LEAF, 2min., USA, Animation
Directed by Wenpei Li
If you could have another life, do you hope to become a tree? A little leaf becomes a bird flying in the world. Is it a leaf or a bird? It does not know where its root is. Maybe the root is all this world.

http://wenpeili.com/
https://twitter.com/wplyeyeye
https://www.instagram.com/wenpei.art/

Get to know the filmmaker:

“Drifting of A Leaf” was one part of my MFA thesis project. The idea for this thesis came from Italo Calvino’s book, “Our Ancestors.” There were three short stories in this book, one of which was about a tree. Since I was a kid, I hoped I could become a tree or a bird if I had another life. So, I wanted to make an animation about trees.

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.

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THE DARK FROG EXPERIMENT, 7min., USA
Directed by Gabriel Caro
A woman’s nightmare is turned reality when she is kidnapped by a mad scientist who plans to add her to his collection of monsters.

Get to know the filmmaker:

I didn’t see a lot of 2D horror films out there, which is a shame because animation is in many ways a perfect platform for horror films. I wanted to try my hand at it because I liked the idea of telling mature and dark stories through the medium of animation, and hopefully that would translate into darker more mature stories being mainstream in western animation later on.

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.

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L’APPRENANTE (THE LEARNER), 7min., France, Drama
Directed by Angelique Kalani Axelrode
L’Apprenante is an American college student in the process of “finding herself abroad” in Paris. She takes French classes to immerse herself in the culture, even though her accent is tragique. In one particular class, she struggles to recount her weekend where she goes to a Parisian party and meets La Femme; a girl she is immediately drawn to. As she navigates the discomfort of learning a new language, she also navigates the discomfort of discovering her queerness. Her inability to get out of her head inhibits her not only from improving her French, but also from being vulnerable with La Femme. Will she ever be able to commit to the accent and make a move? Impossible n’est pas français.n

https://www.tiktok.com/@lapprenantefilm

Get to know the filmmaker:

I made this film as a way to process some things I was personally grappling with. Like many queer people, I knew I wasn’t straight long before I said or did anything about it. My queerness lived in my head where I would replay interactions I had with people almost obsessively- oh were we flirting? Was she hitting on me? Why did I run away? If only I had said this. Or maybe if I hadn’t been so drunk. Or maybe if I had been a bit more drunk… Imaginary scenarios where I finally mustered up the courage to be intimate with someone else were only temporarily satisfying. I had to learn to get out of my head and actually act on my queer impulses. “L’Apprenante” is about this awkward process. The idea for this film came to me while I was living in Paris at the beginning of 2022 and feeling a sense of freedom I haven’t experienced since studying abroad in college. I was rediscovering myself and relearning what it means to be vulnerable, realizing I had very little vocabulary to work with. It felt like learning an entirely new language- one, like French, that sounds nothing like it is written.

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.

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PROJECT MYCROFT, 15min., Mexico, Sci-Fi
Directed by Jorge Diaz Zamora
Mycroft is a machine that will show you a personalized work of art, for better or for worse.

https://instagram.com/proyectomycroft

Get to know the filmmaker:
This feeling that I needed to create something, and the pandemic made it even stronger.
I knew I wanted to get something out, I had a notebook filled with ideas, so in the end, it was a combination of what was possible and what do I want to tell.

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.

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THE THIRD, 4min., USA, Comedy
Directed by Jonathan Kehoe
Making friends is hard.

From Danny Abrahms:

I wanted to make something fun with my actor friends that we could all add to our reels. I wrote it in January, we filmed it in May, and had a final cut by September. There was plenty of downtime in between, but from start to finish was about eight months. We ran into some technical issues in post that were very annoying and slowed the process down. We probably would’ve finished it a month or two sooner otherwise.

Interview conducted by Matthew Toffolo

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.

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MONOLOG 2, 10min., Austria, Documentary
Directed by Nils Roling
Christoph Schoefegger has been skiing longer than he can remember, it’s his biggest love and his whole life circles around it. But what happens if somehow you loose the foundation of this passion? What happens when you don’t go skiing for yourself anymore but because of competitions?

From Christoph Schoefegger:

The whole film was more a journey than really planed to go out and make a movie. Basically the last push to make this movie was the Coronavirus and that we suddenly had even more time to ski and film because of Lockdowns and so we just went out and had fun. But in my mind I also had that I don’t want to make just another ski movie, I really wanted to inspire people and share my passion with them, and also that it’s not always about competition or against each other it’s just about being out with friends and having fun.

Interview conducted by Matthew Toffolo

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.

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MODUS OPERANDI: BRISBANE’S RIPPER SUSPECT, 8min., Australia, Documentary
Directed by David Hodkinson, Alice Walker
A student film that explores a myth of over 130 years. Did ‘Jack The Ripper’ flee to Australia and lay to rest in Brisbane’s Toowong Cemetery?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15522038/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.instagram.com/dghfilms

Get to know the filmmakers:

Alice: I think what motivated me to make this film was that I wasn’t always connected to this project – I joined it because I found myself getting invested in the story researching it in my spare time and I thought “oh, this is actually a very cool and unique story that I would love to help actually turn into reality and portray it on a screen.” I also knew I could do it in a really unique way with David, and I really wanted to be able to go in there with his whole crew that had already been established with the story and kind of show them my perspective on it, and introduce our audiences to new angles and nuances about the story and it’s origins.

David: I always feel that Brisbane gets left out of Australian stories compared to Sydney and Melbourne. I wanted to tell something unique to Brisbane and what could tie it to the rest of the world and this ‘myth’ pops up occasionally in our media as a joke. Well that was enough for me to say ‘Hey! Let’s explore it and see for ourselves’. Boy did we see for ourselves with endless rabbit holes and over a century of history to research. I was compelled from the very start and never looked back.

Interview conducted by Matthew Toffolo

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.

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ELLIDA, 85min., Switzerland, Drama/Relationships
Directed by Leon Mitchell
Producer/Star: Katrina Syran
Writer: Birgit Syran Myaard
Based upon Henrik Ibsen’s famous play, The Lady From The Sea. It’s set in a timeless period shot south of Norway where Munch painted his masterpiece The Sun. We follow the journey of Ellida’s world of loss, love and passion, heightened with the compositions of Grammy winner Mark Thomas and cinematography of Bafta-nominated Ian James Gray.

From Katrina Syran:

Being Norwegian I’ve grown up with Ibsen and I have played many of his roles, Gerd from Brand, Hilde from The Master Builder, Nora from The Dolls House & I have even translated for U.K. big theatre director Mike Alfreds the play, Ghosts.

After writing 3 of his plays into monologues, Hedda Gabler,The Dolls House & The Lady From The Sea and producing & directing them I realised The Lady From The Sea is a very visual play and could work beautifully as a movie.

Interview conducted by Matthew Toffolo

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.

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CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION, 9min., USA, Drama
Directed by Tessie McCoy, Tajianna Okechukwu
Cracks in the Foundation is a short drama that explores generational trauma through the lens of a Black woman as she strives to prevent toxic cycles from happening within in her family.

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.

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A TRUE NATURE, 15min., USA, Fantasy
Directed by Nickolas Powers-Gomez
Plague survivors, Liam, Bird, and Hamill navigate morality and survival instinct as they struggle to make their way through a treacherous new world in order to reach the nearest safe haven known as, “the station.”

http://www.realisticpoetryfilms.com/

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.

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“From renowned adventure filmmakers Safari Productions and cinematographer Hamish Pattison comes Andrew Englisch’s world first attempt to cross treacherous Bass Strait on his Wing Foil. A stunning, intimate and raw portrait of Andrew’s journey to raise himself out of the depths of depression and be the first person to cross one of the most dangerous stretches of water on the planet, despite only learning to wing foil 12 months earlier and before his 55th birthday.”

https://gonewiththewing.com.au/
https://instagram.com/englisch

Director Statement

I am a pirate. I travel to the world's most dangerous, beautiful and scary places and bring back the loot. A bounty of film, photos and stories. When not scouring the world for interesting stories I work to improve awareness around mental health.

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.

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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.

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“A heartwarming comedy about appreciating what you have whether you are single, in a relationship or it's complicated. It's Valentine's day and none of the couples coming in have a reservation, one of them suffers from OTD. The chef is giving the server shit for not being able to pronounce Shahi Paneer. A single guy comes in with a book and he has a reservation. What is he writing? why is he by himself on Valentine's day? What is OTD? How do you actually say Shahi Paneer?”

Project Links

• Website

• Instagram

Director Statement

Humour is one of the most underrated emotions especially when it comes to films. Making people laugh lowers their inhibition and more receptive to what you are trying to say, which is why I love comedies. Gratitude was made by a small team of wonderful humans with huge hearts, we laughed every day on set, during rehearsal and while shooting. Even if I don't get into your festival, if I made you smile and start appreciating what you got, I have achieved my goal, enjoy!

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.

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