Puppet

Producer/Director: Patrick Smith

A young man fabricates a simple sock puppet, not knowing the abuse the entity will soon inflict. Through an escalating series of torture, the possessed puppet takes on the embodiment of fear, chaos, and willful self-destruction.
(Web Site)

6 min

Rest Stop for the Rare Individual

Writer/Producer/Director: Roberto Bentivegna

After being berated by his Acting Coach, struggling actor Paul Denby embarks on a new line of work. His infatuated colleague George Sheperd offers him a part-time gig while he is out in L.A. Desperate for cash, Paul finds himself in the confines of the infamous Chelsea Hotel, locked in a room with a strange old man who has a unique role in store for him.

14 min

The Ring of Ultimate Power

Writer/Producer: M. Sweeney Lawless; Director: Jay Stern

When all seems lost, one brave and noble former accountant boldly sets out on a quest for the Ring of Ultimate Power. Witness the prophesy of the Weird Sister of Central Park! Wonder at the wise counsel of the Enlightened One of Seventh Avenue! Become uncomfortable when our hero meets the Keeper of the Riddle in some undergrowth near a school! What vile perils does fate hold in store for the bold and uninsured William of 23rd Street?

17 min

Roma Sub Rosa: The Secret Under the Rose

Writer: Jim Thalman; Producer: Matt Walsh; Director: Michael Fischa

On the eve of war, a politician’s empty words echo the glories of war, as a generation of battle hardened veterans decide that the murder of a politician is a wiser course of action that to knowingly march thousands to their death. Set in southern Italy 212 B.C.

The Secret Under The Rose is the birth of Ma’fia, the death of politicians, and the dawn of an Empire. Una Cosa Nostra

28 min

Snake

Director: Becky James

Deceptively playful, Snake is a film about stubbornness in the face of change. The film chronicles a failure to deal with growing up while using its extremely appealing characters and sounds to glorify the obdurate attempt to replace what is lost.

3 min

Sparks

Writer/Director: Andre Ford; Producer: Brandon Frazier

Daniel and Meredith have a normal house, in a normal neighborhood, on a normal street. They have two nearly-adult children, Josh and Dana, which is quite normal. But things aren’t all that normal for the family.  You see, Daniel and Meredith like their kids…really, really like them.

15 min

Sperm! The Motion Picture

Writers: Chris Gortz, Ricky Sprague; Producer: Chris Gortz; Director: Ricky Sprague

With the aid of a mysterious doctor, Guy Johnson is shrunk to microscopic size and sent on an odyssey into his own testicle. Thrill with Guy as he discovers new vistas within himself. Feel his mounting terror as he confronts his own sperm, who demand the right to be treated as more than just the instruments of his pleasure. Wonder at the depth of emotion as they demand to be treated as his equals. How far would you go for adventure? What would you give up for pleasure? These questions and many others are answered in Sperm! The Motion Picture.
(Web Site)

5 min

Thanksgiving With the Kranzes

Writers/Producers/Directors: Cory Betzel, Brian Finifter

In this parody of the film Apollo 13, Gene Kranz attempts to guide a delectable feast safely home to the dinner table after disaster strikes their Thanksgiving dinner. With the help of friends, coworkers, and crew, the team will do whatever they can to solve their most harrowing culinary challenge to date. (The real Gene Kranz and Jim Lovell viewed the film and Kranz claims that watching it is a new family Thanksgiving tradition.)

18 min

A Thousand Words

Producer/Director: Sean Kennedy

In the near future, another war has begun. Fleeing her hometown, a girl  stumbles across the remains of a house. In an effort to preserve the memory of the lives ruined by the war, she begins taking pictures before stumbling across a more gruesome artifact—the decaying body of the last inhabitant. She searches for remnants of this person’s past, who this person was, what life was to him. She finds photos, leading her to ask the timeless question: What is a picture worth?

4 min

The Time Machine

Writer/Director: Ben Joseph; Producers: Andrew Corkin

Everyone remembers his or her first time—the uncertainty, the awkwardness, the brevity… Jesse and his girlfriend just consummated their relationship and, as Jesse quickly learns, there are no do-overs in bed. That is, of course, unless you just happen to have a genius younger brother with a fully operational time machine at your disposal. Now, Jesse must travel back in time two hours to save himself from, well, himself. Will Jesse be able to salvage his first (and hopefully not last) experience with carnal relations? Will his own past self get in his way? What if HE screws up? Who will be there to stop him? The answer to all these questions, and more, in The Time Machine!

6 min

Totally Connected

Writer/Producer/Director: Randy Brown

This dry-witted SNL-style mock commercial touts the ultimate smart phone: a matchbook-sized device that delivers your email, faxes, and phone calls 24/7. The device even has a built-in GPS transmitter, so you can always be found. But ‘getting away without falling behind’ has a hidden cost…
(Web Site)

3 min

The Toy Maker

Director: Ben Martinez

When an elderly toy maker suffers a heart attack, the only one who can save him is the teddy bear he saved so many years earlier.  Live action with stop-motion animation.

11 min

Under My Skin

Writer/Director: Stanley Ray; Producer: Elizabeth Martinez

Jeff, an apartment maintenance man, encounters a mysterious, secretive tenant on a service call. After a harrowing experience with the afflicted man’s filthy garbage disposal, Jeff rushes to clean up his hand. But he has taken something with him that won’t wash off… something under his skin. He seeks treatment from a less than willing dermatologist, and comes away still infected. He is then forced to take matters off his own hand…

12 min

Vanished Acres

Writer/Director: Adam Bolt; Producer: Michael Silberman

Jerod Grot’s once-prosperous farm is now a twisted shadow of its former self. With his land overrun by crows and a scarecrow with a mind of its own, Jerod is forced to seek solace in the fading happy memories of his past. Each day is as the next.

But today, Jerod finds a lost love letter from his deceased wife. The letter is not to him, but rather to his scarecrow.
With his world turned upside down, Jerod is met with many more memories—dark and unpleasant ones which he chose to ignore. As he confronts the scarecrow about the letter, these buried secrets begin to surface, shattering the uneasy peace that once existed on this haunted land, and forcing him to face his past as it truly was.
(Web Site)

31 min

Vengeful Spirit

Writer/Director: John Bradbury; Producers: Rene Amador, Jocelyn Hsu, John Bradbury

After witnessing his family’s death at the hands of the feudal lord Matsudaira, Katsu Takahashi grows up in the shadows wracked with guilt and hate. When the pain becomes unbearable, his animal instinct for revenge consumes him, forcing him to confront his family’s killers.

8 min

When The World Goes Dark

Writers: Anthony Scalmato, Richard Pope; Director/Producer: Anthony Scalmato

In the underworld of the New York City subway system, one man struggles with madness for a chance at love. Presented as a disjointed sequence of fantasies, When the World Goes Dark is a chilling reminder that the everyday and commonplace can be as grotesque as it is absurd. In the end, only one certainty remains: this macabre delusion is not only on screen, but within our own minds.

7 min

Wrapped

Writer/Director: Bazyl Dripps

Sometime in the near future our society has become so paranoid, that we don’t go out without masks, and we don’t touch without plastic wrap between our skin. The government watches our every move. One man breaks the rules, and pays the price.

6 min

Zombie Love

Writer: Yfke van Berckelaer, Darren Herczeg; Producer: Aubrey Kershner; Director: Yfke van Berckelaer

In this musical extravaganza, Dante, a 200 year old zombie, falls in love with Claudia, a mortal girl. He tries to change his zombie self and pass as a human in order to get her to love him in return. Filled with singing, dancing, blood and gore, Zombie Love will have you laughing all the way to your grave!

37 min