The 39th Annual Big Muddy Film Festival Program Guide by Big Muddy Film Festival

Official Program for the 39th Annual Big Muddy FIlm Festival

Letter from the President and Color Key

Welcome to the 39th Annual Big Muddy Film Festival. Last year, I became the President of this years festival and since then I have had the privilege to work along side some of the smartest and most dedicated students at the university to bring you this years festival. We at The Big Muddy Crew believe that films have a power to entertain, educate, and inspire; because of this we poured over more than 150 submissions to curate amazing viewing experiences for you. There are 78 films in our festival this year from narrative, to documentaries, to experimental, and animation and with each we hope you are able to connect with independent cinema. Thank you for coming to the festival and I hope you enjoy these films as much as we have enjoyed organizing them. Without you attending we would not be able to carry on this amazing tradition of one of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest student run film festivals. If you have any questions about the festival or how we somehow pull it off please connect with one of our crew members. Our festival is only as good as the connections we make with this community so once again thank you for coming and enjoy some movies. -Caleb S Bunn President of the Big Muddy Film festival

Color Key: Red: Documentary Blue: Narrative Gold: Experimental Green: Saturday Morning Cartoon Block Black: Horror Purple: Mixed Genre

Monday Guyon Auditorum 6 pm - 8 pm Fragments Carlos Cova 0:12:10 Emir Kamenica and his family were among the hundreds of thousands of refugees that fled Bosnia amid armed turmoil more than 20 years ago. Now living in Chicago, Emir revisits his memories, recounting the outbreak of the war and its profound effects on his family’s life. Documentary, Student, War Documentary, War, Documentary

The Peace Agency Sue Useem 1:31:00 “Lian Gogali and her 500 female students are a force to be reckoned with the conflict torn area of Poso, Indonesia. They are part of a powerful and successful movement for peace and justice in an area that has been racked by inter-religious violence for over a decade. But five years ago, Lian was just a single mother living in rural Poso with a broken leg and a big dream to educate marginalized women. The Peace Agency follows her remarkable journey from her village to New York City to create The Women’s School, an institution that transforms its all-female class into agents of peace and non-violence grassroots activism that has altered the course of the conflict in Poso, and possibly the future of Indonesia.” Documentary, Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Asian Studies, Peace and Conflict, Interfaith, Disability, Documentary

Wednesday Student Center 6 pm - 8 pm

Ten More Brad Riddell 00:11:20 A concert pianist (David Pasquesi) receives a startling omen as he struggles to recover from a traumatic brain injury. Short, Drama, Thriller, Horror

Death On A Rock Scott Ballard 1:22:00 “Portland filmmaker Scott Ballard’s (A STANDING STILL, WELCOMING DEPARTURE) latest feature follows a young woman coming to terms with a trying event in her life. Lillian’s (Rachael Perrell Fosket) bright outlook, she loves her job in a flower shop and has a sweet budding relationship with her boyfriend, is rocked by illness. Days spent in long term care at the hospital bring reflection, desperation, and some family tension. This vibrantly shot tale follows Lillian’s year of happiness, pain, and growth, told through flashbacks and drifting between memories and shifting consciousness. Seen through a framework of loss, Death On A Rock is a bittersweet tale balanced between tragedy and levity.“ Feature

Thursday Student Center 4 pm - 6 pm Farmer/Veteran Alix Blair, Jeremy M. Lange 01:10:00 Home from three combat tours in Iraq, Alex Sutton forges a new identity as a farmer, hatching chicks and raising goats on 43 acres in rural North Carolina. He dives into life on the farm with his new love Jessica, but cannot shake the lingering traumas of war. The stories he tells about his battlefield experiences become unmoored from reality as he cycles between states of heightened awareness and “feeling zombified” from a cocktail of prescriptions meant to keep him stable. For the viewer, as for Alex, what to believe about his past is uncertain. The farm becomes a terrain to unearth what is buried, what it really means to be “the perfect soldier,” and where to find the way forward. Documentary, Feature, War, Social Issue Klasse Malia Bruker 0:09:16 Klasse tracks back to the winter of 1938 in Jewish Hamburg at the height of WWII in a classroom kept just as it was during the war. The chairs, desks, chalkboards and solid walls are reminders of the haunting fixity of place against the trace of memories left as records of a tortuous time. The intimate cast of German middle school students and professional dancers bring to life letters written between young classmates as they left one by one on the Kindertransport, reimagining the courageous spirit of children with uncertain futures, both then and now. Documentary, Experimental

SMOKE THAT TRAVELS Kayla Briet 00:13:00 What happens when a story is forgotten? ‘Smoke That Travels’ is a personal documentary by 2016 Sundance Film Festival Ignite Fellow Kayla Briët that explores preservation and loss of Native American culture and her own identity as Prairie Band Potawatomi. Documentary, Short, Web / New Media

Summer Friend: A Ballet Film Adam E. Stone 0:04:17 A meditation on transience, connection, longing, love, and loss. Experimental, Short, Other, Dance film, ballet film, black film

Absence of Her Nicole Bogdanovic 00:04:48 “If our minds forget painful experiences, then our bodies will remind us, and they tell us of that pain during strange moments in our lives.” Nicole Bogdanovic. The short film “Absence of Her” is about how the abuse of a woman’s body is remembered. It also discusses society’s obsession to objectify and sexualize women’s bodies and how it is hurting our perceptions of how we see women. Experimental

Thursday African American Museum of Science 5 pm - 7 pm Nathan East: For The Record Chris Gero 01:25:00 A documentary film that takes viewers behindthe-scenes as one of the most influential bass players in modern music recorded his debut solo album last year. His long-awaited solo album (released in March) spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Album chart and 34 weeks in the top position on smoothjazz.com. For The Record also chronicles Nathan’s three decade plus career from when he hit the road age 16 with Barry White, his session and touring work across musical genres and membership in the legendary jazz quartet Fourplay. The film features interviews with many of the musicians he’s worked with including Clapton, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, Vince Gill, Herbie Hancock, Don Was and more Documentary

Thursday Student Center 6 pm - 8 pm The Orange Story Eugene Park 00:17:29 February 1942. President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, which authorizes the forced “relocation” of 120,000 ethnic Japanese from their homes and into incarceration camps throughout the U.S. Koji Oshima is the proud owner of a small corner grocery store, but he must now abandon everything and report to an assembly center. His belongings, his business – everything must be sold or left behind, except what he can carry in one large duffel bag. Up against a wall, Koji receives only one low-ball offer for his store, which he has no choice but to accept. The lone bright spot during this turmoil is the friendship Koji develops with a precocious nine-year-old girl. On the day of his departure, however, Koji is saddened to learn that even this friendship has been tainted by the larger forces of fear and wartime hysteria. Short

Relocation, Arkansas - Aftermath of Incarceration Vivienne Schiffer 01:18:41 In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which sent nearly 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry, most of them American citizens, to hastily built prison camps. Two of those camps were in America’s Deep South: at Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas, both rural communities located in the Mississippi River Delta, an undeveloped, depressed, but beautiful, landscape. Paul Takemoto grew up far from Arkansas. His mother and her parents had been arrested and imprisoned in both of the Arkansas camps. Now a grown man, he returns to Arkansas with one thought: how has what happened here made me who I am? Relocation, Arkansas explores the events that forever altered the lives of American citizens and intersected with the American Civil Rights Movement, and mines the irony of prejudice, and the power of reconciliation. Documentary

Thursday Student Center 8 pm - 10 pm Bombing Gloria R Mercer 00:13:12 Sophie is an unmotivated comedian. When her estranged young daughter is unexpectedly thrust back into her life, Sophie’s plans have to be reshuffled. While they both struggle to adjust to the new environment, Sophie must come to terms with the fact that she’s in over her head. Short, Student

What Children Do Dean Peterson 01:23:00 A comedy about two estranged sisters who are thrust back into each other’s lives by the impending death of their grandmother and forced to try to repair their feral relationship. Feature Comedy, Drama, Family, Women

Friday University Museum 4 pm - 6 pm

Renewed Ashley Seering, Cory Byers 0:07:43 An ex-con restores furniture and works to repair his own life. Documentary, Short

The Phoenix: Hope is Rising Phil Gioja 1:20:00 Facing demolition of their facility, zoning challenges, and a lack of volunteers, a scrappy ministry startup is changing how the community interacts with the homeless. Documentary

Over the Bridge Maria Lavelle 0:17:39 A documentary-short exploring homelessness in South Dakota. Documentary, Short, Student

Friday Longbranch 5 pm - 7 pm [solitary] Derek J. Pastuszek 00:16:39 DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS INMATE IDENTIFICATION Facility: STATE SUPERMAX. Location: SEGREGATED HOUSING UNIT (SOLITARY CONFINEMENT). Inmate/Cell No.: SHU-#B1-67. Sex: M. H/W: 6’ / 170. Race: BLK. Category: SECURITY LVL 3 (HIGH THREAT). Short, Student

Peace Has No Borders Deb Ellis, Denis Mueller 01:08:47 Between 1965-1973, over 50,000 Americans made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in the Vietnam War. Forty years later, Canada has another moral choice – whether to give refuge to U.S. veterans of the Iraq War who crossed the border instead of serving another tour. Caught between two countries, today’s war resisters have the support of the public, but still fight for the political will to allow them to remain in Canada. Documentary

Friday Guyon Auditorum 6 pm - 8 pm

The Train Asher Grodman 00:09:30 A preoccupied young man reluctantly agrees to take some time from his busy day to meet his girlfriend’s grandfather (Academy Award Winner Eli Wallach). He learns how life can change in a moment. Short, Drama, Jewish

The Other Kids Chris Brown 01:35:00 A raw, intimate look into the struggles of six small-town teens on the verge of high school graduation, THE OTHER KIDS is a bold and original hybrid of fiction & non-fiction in which real teenagers collaborated with director Chris Brown to tell their own gripping, personal stories. Feature, Teen, Drama

Friday University Museum 6 pm - 8 pm Cliff, Superfan Diane Quon 0:26:45 In the last 22 years, 68-year-old Clifford Hayashi has attended over 4,000 Stanford games. Nicknamed “”Stanford’s Superfan,”” Cliff leads cheers, imparts statistics, and travels the country to attend games. His devotion to multiple sports and the athletes is unshakable and legendary. But although most know who Cliff is, the man himself remains a mystery. Usually attending games alone, Cliff does not own a phone or computer. Until a year ago, he did not own a car. For this documentary, the filmmaker (whose daughters played soccer and field hockey at Stanford) set out to discover the man behind the “”superfan.”” Rivaling his love for Stanford sports is Cliff’s passion for writing about the Japanese concentration camp in Tule Lake, California where his mother was imprisoned during World War II. Determined to identify every Tule Lake prisoner in the thousands of nameless photos he’s collected, Cliff will often use sports to share stories of the camps -- introducing many to a forgotten piece of history. Whether it’s cheering on the sidelines or poring over books in the library, Cliff follows his passions. Viewers will discover an intriguing, enigmatic man -- generous despite challenges along the way. Everyone should have a fan like Cliff. Documentary, Short

No Stories Can Be Told - All The Deals Have Already Been Made Micah H. Weber 00:03:55 The artist reflects upon his studio practice, personal narratives, and Rashomon. Animation, Experimental, Short

Fish Hannah Passmore 0:03:40 An eccentric loner befriends a pet fish. Events spiral out of control when he inflicts his bizarre traits upon his new companion. Experimental, Short, Student, Comedy, Drama

Altimir Kay Hannahan 00:17:47 Since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria has experienced the most extreme population decline in the world. Low birth rates, high death rates, and emigration have pushed many villages to the verge of extinction. Altimir explores life in one of Bulgaria’s disappearing villages haunted by the promises of communism and capitalism. Documentary, Short, Student, Portrait, Politics

Productive Frustration Tara Ahmadi 00:13:24 Productive Frustration is a short experimental film investigating an artists’ ongoing, everyday, both conscious and subconscious struggle to remain creatively productive in an exasperating atmosphere that has robbed her of certain sociopolitical conditions that used to define her artistic practices. To be more specific: I am scrutinizing my own position as a politically engaged Iranian filmmaker, or a political activist whose main tool of expression is audiovisual medium. Combining different mediums, different textures and different means of expression such as stop motion animation, video, 16mm film, still images and voiceovers, Productive Frustration juxtapose thoughts and memories of both examined and unexamined past, present, and possible future. Productive Frustration ultimately demonstrates hope for a change amid both bitter and humorous paradoxes and questions. It struggles to reach beyond passive reconstructions of memory and illustrations of present to arrive at a hopeful conclusion that making art still makes sense. The title of the film is inspired by an interview with the Lebanese artist Jayce Salloum in which he discusses the motivations and disappointments of filmmakers who live and work in politically unstable zones. Taking Salloum’s comments as my point of departure, and considering my own limitations as a contemporary Iranian filmmaker, I ask how I can accurately represent my concerns through cinema. Experimental, Short, Web / New Media

Doorcuts Zak Tatham 0:05:54 A traveler who uses Doorcuts can experience the infinity in shortcuts. Opening a Doorcut is a cinch way to skip the middleground in travel and unleash a world of destinations. Though it may be transparent to access doors that fold space, linking alternate universes, as the short-cuts are exploited hospitality closes a two way door. Animation, Experimental, Short, Sci-fi, Fantasy, comedy

Friday University Museum 6 pm - 8 pm Continued Coyoteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flying Saucers Andrew Norbeck 0:04:05 On the border of San Diego County, Coyote builds and repairs old school flying saucers. His extraterrestrial compound has become a spectacle for people passing by, but Coyote sees outer space as one of the few places we can find common ground. Documentary, Short, Student

End of Earth Caleb Michael Johnson 00:06:00 A small kid goes looking for his astronaut father. Short

The Island of Lost Things Thomas Javier Castillo 00:10:00 Ezequiel finds himself on a mysterious island where he encounters memories both happy and sad in this wry, evocative, and surreal short comedy-drama Short, Comedy, Drama

Aluminum Frank Ladner 0:15:15 A man with uncanny telekinetic abilities is approached by a young woman with a bizarre request. Short, Mockumentary, Comedy, Drama

Friday University Museum 8 pm - 10 pm From the Dizziness of Freedom: The Philosophy Vessel Melissa Ferrari 00:07:14 Across cultures, the labyrinth and the maze have played significant roles in the history, spirituality, mythology and entertainment of human society. By tracing their contexts and concepts across cultures, we can view mazes and labyrinths as philosophical architecture that embodies the history of human meaning and metaphysical thought. This film is a visualization of the strategies that people incorporate to find meaning in their lives inspired by the mythology and functions of mazes and labyrinths throughout history. Animation, Experimental, Short, Student

JASMINE Dax Phelan 1:20:00 A year after his wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s murder, oncesuccessful Hong Kong businessman Leonard To (Jason Tobin) is still reeling from the tragedy. Having lost his job, friends and all sense of order in his life, Leonard becomes obsessed with a mysterious a he sees at his wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grave, believing him to be responsible for her death. Feature , Thriller, Mystery, Suspense

Minotauress Diana Galimzyanova 00:08:10 The ancient story of the minotaur told from the point of view of the female minotaur. Short

Friday Soundstage 8 pm - 10 pm

Black River André Silva 00:04:00 An observational documentary, shot on high-contrast black and white film, about a largely undeveloped river in southeastern North Carolina that is home to the oldest trees east of the Rocky Mountains. Documentary, Experimental, Short, Nature, Environmental

Bright Spots Jilli Rose 0:07:47 A poetic portrait of scientist Nick Holmes and his work preventing extinctions on islands. Animation, Documentary, Short

My Earth’s Eye Paul Turano 0:08:00 “A portrait of a pond near my childhood home, a personal inventory of a place where I explored nature and the nature of being on the earth and of the earth. It was here that my parents taught me how to look and listen. Shot with a mix of analog film mediums and devices, through scientific and poetic lenses. This work is part of an ongoing series of autobiographical films about quotidian moments and the lyrical transformation of personal and domestic space.“ Documentary, Experimental, Short, Landscape

Fall Bradley Rappa 0:06:50 Fall, is a process-oriented, high definition experimental film that incorporates timelapse digital photography, 16mm contact printing, HD video, and an elaborate sound design to allegorically portray the detrimental environmental costs of rampant and unsustainable technological development. This consumer-driven industrialization is quickly upsetting the balance of a once perfect and biologically diverse organic world. Inevitably though, technology will end up consuming itself. Experimental, Short

Little Wound’s Warriors Seth McClellan 00:57:00 As Pine Ridge Indian Reservation faces the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma as well as a recent teen suicide epidemic, the voices of Little Wound High School students rise up in hope through their traditions, language, and the Lakota warrior heritage. Documentary

Friday Soundstage 10 pm - 12 am

The Itching Dianne Bellino 00:15:00 In this handmade collaboration, a shy wolf tries to connect with a group of hip, party-loving bunnies, but finds her body in revolt. Animation, Short, Comedy, Drama

Monsters Steve Desmond 00:12:26 Jenn lives in an underground bunker with her family, protected from the monsters that now ravage the world. This is the day that she goes outside… Short, Thriller, Horror

What Happened to Her Kristy Guevara-Flanagan 00:14:00 WHAT HAPPENED TO HER is a forensic exploration of our cultural obsession with images of the dead woman on screen. Interspersing found footage from films and police procedural television shows and one actor’s experience of playing the part of a corpse, the film offers a meditative critique on the trope of the dead female body. The visual narrative of the genre, one reinforced through its intense and pervasive repetition, is revealed as a highly structured pageant. Concurrently, the experience of physical invasion and exploitation voiced by the actor pierce the fabric of the screened fantasy. The result is recurring and magnetic film cliché laid bare. Documentary, Experimental, Forensic

Panic Attack! Eileen O’Meara 00:03:20 You know the nagging thoughts that start with “did I leave the coffee on?” and turn in to “what if I give birth to Satan’s baby?” This hand-drawn animation explores anxiety, obsession, and one woman’s slippery hold on reality. Animation, Short

Sam Jessy Hughes 00:09:45 While preparing a secluded cabin for her friends’ arrival, a young woman must contend with a familiar monster. Short, Drama, Thriller

Schizophrenia Yuri Muraoka 0:10:00 Self-portrait conducted in my 7th year of treatment for schizophrenia. An obsession by the name of “oddnumbers” torments me in daily life. ( Chap.1 ”The odd numbers”) A death sentence was being pronounced. With the sound of the scaffold coming down, the fear of self-destruction that “the reality” collapses into pieces from my foot (Chap.2 ”Transparent,I am.”). Animation, Experimental, Short

Friday Soundstage 10 pm - 12 am Continued

Beneath the Crawlspace Lucas Ostrowski 00:14:50 When a former priest looks to open a new church, the secrets beneath it slowly create a nightmare. Short

Cainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shadow Antonio De Palo 00:29:20 November 5th, 2025. Western metropolis. Young inspector Abel is grappling with the umpteenth disappearance: Angela, a 9-year-old girl, of whom there has been no news for two days. For more than ten years there have been many disappearances of children. Numbers assume alarming proportions; the police are indicted. Ada is a young woman of thirty whose daughter was kidnapped some years before. From that day on she has led a personal investigation searching for the truth. Eddi, a transsexual in his sixties, is the host of a late night radio programme. Together with Agnes, he founded an association that through various propaganda activities, including the radio, struggles to find the truth. On the night of November 5th the stories of these characters will be inexorably intertwined, leading us to a bitter and shocking discovery.

Saturday CCA 10 am - 11 am

The Bloop Troop Ram Singh 00:02:59 A ruthless barbarian, a hairsplitting master archer and a knight in shining armor are brought together in the battlefield by a common enemy- a formidable fly. What ensues in this battle of epic proportions tests everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skills and takes an age-old war that every human has wanted to win, to a whole new level. Animation, Short

Lilly Hits the Road The Bum Family 00:04:51 Lilly, a 10 foot tall orange monster, and her adorable friend Fluffle are abducted by aliens. An epic adventure ensues as they try desperately to return home in the nick of time. Animation, Short, Student

Saturday CCA 10 am - 11 am Continued

Shmevolution Nolan J. Downs 0:04:47 The evolutionary life of an organism unfolds in a bizarre landscape. Animation, Short, Student

Saturday Soundstage 10 am - 11 am

If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home Rajee Samarasinghe 00:14:30 A silent poem reflecting on the place of my mother’s birth and her first traces on earth. A generational portrait of South Asian “makers” becomes a perceptual voyage into memory, experience, and touch. Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student

Emerald Ice Jesseca Ynez Simmons 00:16:00 Emerald Ice is a cinematic journey exploring the mind of the American poet Diane Wakoski. This experimental short brings to the screen her work-the sprawling beauty that is Diane’s emotional spectrum. Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student, Docufantasy

Saturday Soundstage 10 am - 11 am Continued

Circles: A Poem in Three Parts Silvia Turchin 0:09:59 CIRCLES is a visual poem that ponders various manifestations of circularity as a way of trying to uncover deeper, perhaps fathomless existential undercurrents. Experimental

Saturday Soundstage 11 am - 12 pm

70 Acres in Chicago: Cabrini Green Ronit Bezalel 00:57:00 For 70 years, there stood a Chicago public housing community known as Cabrini Green. Home to thousands, misunderstood by millions, Cabrini Green once towered over Chicago’s most valuable neighborhoods. A looming reminder of inequality and poverty, Cabrini’s high-rises were demolished and an African-American community cleared to make room for another social experiment: mixed-income neighborhoods. Shot over the course of 20-years, 70 Acres in Chicago documents this upheaval, from the razing of the first buildings in 1995, to the clashes in the mixed-income neighborhoods a decade later. 70 Acres in Chicago tells the volatile story of this hotly contested patch of land, while looking unflinchingly at race, class, and who has the right to live in the city.What happens when a mixed-income housing ‘experiment’ collides with reality? Filmed over 20-years, 70 Acres in Chicago: Cabrini Green looks at the demolition of Chicago’s most infamous public housing development, Cabrini Green. The film centers on the stories of three public housing residents, Mark, Deidre and Raymond, as their lives are turned upside down when their community is torn apart in the name of progress. Cabrini is being demolished as part of a national plan to replace public housing with mixed income communities. Critics contend that the motivation is economic gain, as public housing’s prime real estate is too valuable for the low-income Black communities that live there. The film chronicles a neighborhood upheaval on Chicago’s most hotly contested 70 acres of land. Documentary

Mu Tom Ludwig 0:17:35 A meditation on impermanence inspired by the destruction by fire of a neighbor’s house and life expressed through personal/lyrical imagery and the thoughts and poems of Ed Sanders. Experimental

Saturday Soundstage 12pm - 1pm

Circles Marcus Sudac 00:11:10 He’s been waiting 14 years. She’s just arrived. Short, Student

Sargasso Jaime Herrera Jr. 00:13:13 The tale of a lovelorn young woman trapped in an unkind relationship. Completed at 18 years of age. Short, Student

MUSLIM[AH] Sarah El Bakkouri 0:07:18 An experimental study of the effect of media on muslim women in the West. Experimental, Short

The Spectre Watches Over Her Rajee Samarasinghe 00:13:53 A reaction to the seminal text by Swiss anthropologist Paul Wirz entitled “Exorcism and the Art of Healing in Ceylon,” this silent and hand processed film considers a history of colonialism and ethnographic practices in South Asia. At my mother’s village, I restaged an exorcism once performed on her in the early 1960s when she was a little girl. Possessed by the lecherous entity known as the Kalu Kumara, the Sanni Yakuma healing ritual was performed over a 12-hour period. Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student, Experiemental, Documentary

Saturday Sound Stage 1 pm - 3 pm

The Radical Jew Noam Osband 00:22:10 Baruch Marzel is one of the leaders of Israel’s far-right. Living in Hebron, the most violent city in the Israel-Palestine conflict, his activism and antics have made him a household name within Israel, yet he remains relatively unknown outside the region. In this Errol Morris-esque film, Baruch invites us into his psyche, sharing with us the viewpoints and life experiences that have led the United States and Israeli governments to label him a terrorist. Documentary, Student, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, Warfare

Disturbing The Peace Stephen Apkon, Andrew Young 01:26:00 In a world torn by conflict—in a place where the idea of peace has been abandoned—an energy of determined optimism emerges. When someone is willing to disturb the status quo and stand for the dream of a free and secure world, who will stand with them? DISTURBING THE PEACE is about people born into conflict, sworn to be enemies, who challenged their fate. The film follows everyday people who took extraordinary actions by standing for what they believe in, just like those who came before them – Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and many others whose names we don’t know. The movie challenges all of us – to understand the narratives we live within, to look at our current roles in our societies, and to decide what role we are going to play in creating a more humane world, for all. And it starts with our willingness to disturb the peace. DISTURBING THE PEACE is a story of the human potential unleashed when we stop participating in a story that no longer serves us and, with the power of our convictions, take action to create new possibilities. DISTURBING THE PEACE follows former enemy combatants - Israeli soldiers from elite units and Palestinian fighters, many of whom served years in prison - who have joined together to challenge the status quo and say “enough.” The film reveals their transformational journeys from soldiers committed to armed battle to nonviolent peace activists, leading to the creation of Combatants for Peace. At a time in our world when societies are becoming more polarized and painfully few people are speaking of nonviolent solutions to our conflicts, popular movements like Combatants for Peace have the potential to capture the public’s imagination and shift the conversation from the inevitability of conflict, to the possibility and process of establishing lasting peace. DISTURBING THE PEACE evokes universal themes relevant to us all and inspires us to become active participants in the creation of our world. Documentary

Saturday Soundstage 3 pm - 5 pm

Think Globally, Eat Locally Laura Vazquez 35:03:00 ‘Think Globally/Eat Locally’ is the story of DeKalb County Illinois’ community-led efforts to address the need to increase the production and distribution of locally grown foods to improve, health and nutrition, foster community building and promote reconnection with one of our most basic needs—the need to come together to provide food for ourselves and for our communities. Documentary

T is for Turnip Kiera Faber 0:02:42 “3,467 hand painted 16mm frames metaphorically explore three sibling’s collective childhood trauma. Repetitive and ritualistic acts provide structure amongst perceived uncertainty while compartmentalization offers a false sense of security and abets forgetting. T is for Turnip was hand painted over the course of 1,000 hours; using the smallest paintbrush available to apply silk dyes to the film’s emulsion, while looking through a stereoscopic microscope to see the tiny objects on the film.” Experimental, Short

Saturday Soundstage 3 pm - 5 pm Continued

Seed & Sprout: Growing the Food Rescue Revolution Maryanne Galvin 00:50:00 In 2015, one in six Americans experienced hunger while over 40% of food produced in the USA went uneaten. The film follows eight innovative food rescue initiatives across the USA. From prison farms and grocery store donations delivered solely by bicycle, to gleaning from Harvard University dining halls, these go-getters encourage a new generation of creative responses to ending hunger and shrinking landfills. Their focus is on morphing discarded healthy food into nourishment. Seed & Sprout asks: can ordinary people end hunger in America by redistributing a small percentage of the wasted food flooding our food system and dumping grounds? Documentary, Feature, Environmental, Social Justice, Food, Farming, Consumerism, Waste, Food Insecurity, Volunterism, Gleaning

Saturday Soundstage 5 pm - 6 pm

Unbroken Glass Dinesh Sabu 0:57:00 When he was six-years-old, Dinesh Sabuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents died. Raised by his siblings, he had little idea who his parents were or where he came from. Now as an adult with a burning curiosity, Dinesh sets out on a journey across the United States and India to piece together their story. Uncovering a silenced family history of mental illness, Dinesh confronts the legacy of having a schizophrenic mother who died by suicide, the reality of growing up an orphaned immigrant, and the trauma of these events. Can he reconcile these truths all while living in the specter of mental illness? Documentary

Saturday WBDX 6 pm - 8 pm Doorcuts Zak Tatham 0:05:54 A traveler who uses Doorcuts can experience the infinity in shortcuts. Opening a Doorcut is a cinch way to skip the middleground in travel and unleash a world of destinations. Though it may be transparent to access doors that fold space, linking alternate universes, as the short-cuts are exploited hospitality closes a two way door. Animation, Experimental, Short, Sci-fi, Fantasy, comedy

Prison Island Susan DeLeo 00:03:46 Prison Island is an exploratory journey through an island previously inhabited by prisoners of war. It is a portrait of a place conceived through 3 rolls of super 8mm film and the impressions left on the filmmaker from a days visit to this abandoned and fascinating site. Experimental

I Am Learning to Abandon the World A Moon 00:09:50 This silent found-footage film cuts together eventless moments from a trove of vintage 16mm films discovered at a salvage house with new intertitles to create an elusive anti-narrative of absence, self loss, desire, and hidden threats. The film shifts the original films’ focus on the external, the visible, and the spectacular. It explores, instead, the internal psychological experience of the women it reimagines as heroines, the unrepresentable, and the possibility of imaging female subjectivity in a medium whose formal conventions have been defined by heterosexual male desire. Experimental, Short

Staticscope Mariam Eqbal 00:02:19 The work is about time and memory. It is an illusion of time passing recreated through the process of recall. The recollection, as a physical act, is repeated over and over again and combined into a living experience, a kind of a transmission, a dream, or a memory. Time appears to move forward while it is a collection of reprints and copies, hundreds of versions of the same thing shimmering and boiling in place. Reproduction is used as means for transformation and for generating an illusion of a passage of time. Photographs are printed and scanned using a black and white cartridge printer and a flatbed scanner. As each photograph is reproduced multiple times, the toner diminishes with each print; the images become gritty, and ultimately fade, in a way like charcoal; leaving just residue and an impression of what use to be. The paper copies combined with the handheld process of scanning adds to the variances in the results, which are created through simple repetition and are attributes of a manual process. The changes are further exemplified as static, continuous motion, or boiling. Time enters stillness as prints transform into frames from a film. The similarity in the work to tradition film is not arbitrary rather is the result of the processes and mechanisms used to create the work. I consider the physical and mechanical aspect as being an extension to the long combined history of drawing and printmaking. Water enters the work and it seems to have been there the entire time, as though time itself—reflecting, exposing, recording, every act, every light, like a camera. The idea of documentation, a record of time is further represented and accentuated through sound. Radio static and an old vinyl record are paralleled with sounds of the city, water, and a train crossing a bridge. In the work time is a reflection of the memory once recorded, a memory, which recalls itself repeatedly in order to move time forward. Animation, Experimental, Short

Sight Unseen Diane Nerwen 00:07:02 “Sight Unseen” is a multilayered reverie that merges shot and found images of iconic New York City into a dislocated screenscape. City walkers stroll dreamily through hazy streets and glowing lights where images are more real than the city itself. Experimental

Action Phase Loop 5: Crane Hang Dustin Zemel 00:07:40 Inspired by the early phase loops of classical musician Steve Reich, Action Series Phase Loops play with notions of novelty, experience, and re-experience to give viewers a new insight into exceptional action film sequences. Each of the pieces loop and superimposes a three to eightsecond action scene upon itself, running each track at slightly different speeds. The looped and superimposed film samples provide a unique window into the intricate production techniques utilized by high-budget action films. The superimposition provides, initially, a jarring and surreal exposure, while the looping grounds a familiar foundation. In other words, looping provides a comfort within the dissociation from cinematic reality. Through the slow process of dissociation and realignment, viewers are soon removed from the hypnosis of narrative, and transplanted into a new cognitive realm where they have the opportunity to closely scrutinize the visual instances within the sequence with a meticulous eye comparable to that of the director. Experimental, Short

Saturday WBDX 6 pm - 8 pm Continued ABCAM Richard Martin 00:07:54 ABCAM (A&B Cam) deconstructs the process of montage, exploring a sequence of a TV movie, revealing the central conventions of the genre and its raw, rhythmic and mesmerizing predictability. Experimental, Short, Other experimental, found footage

Battlestar Abstractica Gregg Biermann 0:08:00 A 1980’s sci-fi classic is rendered into a kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria. Animation, Experimental, Short

MUSLIM[AH] Sarah El Bakkouri 0:07:18 An experimental study of the effect of media on muslim women in the West. Experimental, Short

Dead Mall 00:05:13 The mall featured in this film is, like many dying malls, a quiet symbol of America’s economic decline and erosion of consumer confidence. American shopping malls, once bright and shiny temples of commerce, have become in many cases like virtual ghost towns. Most malls were built in the mid-70s and reached the peak of their popularity in the 1980s. But in the late 90s, people began to move to online shopping, new upmarket urban shopping communities, and big box discount stores. Outside the mall featured in this film a Target and a Wal-Mart opened across the street, and a K-Mart opened in an add-on wing to the mall itself, pulling consumer traffic away from all of the mall’s once thriving stores. When the economy collapsed in 2008, it was the final nail in the coffin for many struggling malls. Today, many malls have been converted into other spaces – commercial office parks, university administration offices – but even more have been shuttered and are falling into disrepair. Google “dead malls” and you will find an online community of thousands of people who trade photographs and videos of these abandoned spaces, many of which feature broken windows, long-dead plants, and crumbling walls where once stood the touchstone of the American consumer shopping experience. “Dead Mall” evocatively floats through the kitsch design, cheesy floor tiling, lilting muzak, empty parking lots, indifferent clerks, shuttered storefronts, soft light and neon letters, glass and plastic and worn carpet, and tiny mom-n-pop businesses that have replaced major chain outlets. The mall in this film is in stark danger of closing for good – in the days spent shooting the film (with hidden cameras, to evade the mall’s bored security force), very few customers ever appeared. “Dead Mall” is a haunting meditation on a time when the American perspectives on consumerism and capitalism were vastly different than they are today. Short, Experimental, Avant-Garde, Documentary, Nonfiction, Art, Art House

The Other Shore Stéphane Glynn 0:13:15 A man journeys through the stages of grief and mourning after the death of a loved family member. The man grapples with the meaning of death, eventually coming to his own conclusions. Experimental, Short, Student, Hybrid

Saturday WBDX 6 pm - 8 pm Continued

Sweet, Sweet Gravy 00:10:00 Three conversations with artists Experimental, Short, Student, Sci-fi, Horror, Comedy

Blood Shaped Hole in my Heart Kevin Endres 00:05:37 A forlorn woman searches for truth in her motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eclectic sayings, blurring the line between memories and home movies as she reflects. Experimental, Short, Student Experimental, Drama

Sunday Longbranch 3 pm - 6 pm

Best of the Fest

Meet the Jurors

Ines Sommer Ines Sommer is a filmmaker, curator and educator who has directed and produced experimental films and documentaries about the arts, women’s issues, direct democracy, human rights, and other topics. In 2016, Ines was featured in the annual FILM 50 - Chicago’s Screen Gems edition, published by Chicago’s alt weekly New City. Ines’ recent documentary COUNT ME IN highlights an innovative experiment in direct democracy that gives ordinary Chicagoans direct say over local public projects and monies. COUNT ME IN was supported in part by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation and aired on PBS stations across the nation as well as the PBS WORLD Channel in Fall 2016. Ines co-directed and shot the human rights documentary BENEATH THE BLINDFOLD, which was a Chicago Reader pick for Best Political Documentary of 2012. Ines frequently collaborates with other filmmakers as a cinematographer and has shot projects for major Chicago documentary companies Kartemquin Films, Kindling Group, and many others. Besides producing documentaries and commissioned projects through her company Sommer Filmworks, Ines has had a longstanding interest in engaging audiences with alternative cinema and advocating for independent filmmakers. She has held positions as a film programmer and film festival director, is the co-founder of the non-profit Percolator Films, and serves on the Board of Directors of IFP Chicago. Ines holds a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University, where she is the Associate Director of the MFA in Documentary Media program in the Radio/TV/Film Department.

Meet the Jurors Continued

Alrick Brown Alrick Brown is Assistant Professor of Undergraduate Film and Television. An award winning writer and director, Alrick graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and a Masters of Education. He received his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Education is Alrick’s first calling, but he found his medium, film, after visiting the slave castle of Elmina, in Ghana, during a two-year tour with the Peace Corps in Cote d’Ivoire. The interactions with the people of his village, and his overall experiences in West Africa, informed his creative expression. An expression first fostered by his birth in Kingston, Jamaica and migration to, and upbringing in Plainfield, New Jersey. An activist and highly sought public speaker, Alrick’s commitment to social, political and economic justice, and revealing the heart of the world through the craft of storytelling is what draws audiences and peers to his work. Alrick’s cinematic reach includes credits on the small screen as director, producer and writer on a variety of projects – ABC’s Final Witness, ESPN’s short doc series Spike Lee’s Lil’ Joint, and Investigative Discoveries Emmy-Award winning series A Crime Two Remember. His published work has appeared in the Huffington Post as well as the New Jersey English Journal. Alrick’s collective body of film work has screened in numerous festivals worldwide, earning several honors. Among them is the HBO Life Through Your Lens Emerging Filmmaker Award for the critically acclaimed documentary Death of Two Sons. Alrick’s first feature, Kinyarwanda, was recipient of the prestigious Sundance World Cinema Audience Award. He has previously taught undergraduate courses

Meet the Jurors Continued Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat is a Dominican animator and storyteller. He is also a talented illustrator that is able to creatively manipulate multiple mediums in order to portray the client’s vision to target audiences. Tomás is a graduate of the Parsons New School of Design and a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the prestigious Altos de Chavón School of Design. He has exhibited his work at acclaimed shows in New York, Buenos Aires, Berlin, Milan, Lisbon and the Dominican Republic and is the humble recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his work. Tomás eventually was granted a full year scholarship at Fabrica, Benetton’s Design Research Center in Treviso, Italy. At Fabrica, Tomás provided cutting-edge animations and illustration services to clients such as the UN, TEDEd, The School of Life, Pictoplasma and other brands and organizations. His work has hints of magic-realism, evoking the colorful, surreal and sometimes disorienting experience of growing up in the Caribbean.

The John Michaels Award John Michaels was a cinema student at SIU Carbondale in the 1980s who dedicated his work to peace and justice. While a student, he traveled to Cuba with Professor Emeritus and Big Muddy Film Festival founder Mike Covell and Edgar Barens to document the daily life of people immersed in that living revolution. Closer to home, Michaels worked on a film about a St. Louis church that gave sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador escaping persecution from a dictatorship at home. After leaving Carbondale, Michaels was diagnosed with brain cancer, which he did not survive. To memorialize his work, the Big Muddy Festival added a new award category to encourage filmmakers who focus on creating inspiring stories about struggles for social justice, locally and in the world. Each year, a jury of local activists and engaged residents spends a day watching documentaries and narratives to select the ones that offered the most relevant, impassioned and engaged perspectives to the many troubles of our time.