Callalilly

Writer: Christy Kane; Producers: Jerrold Ridenour, Stephen Chiodo, Christy Kane; Director: Stephen Chiodo.

In the beautiful yet slightly dark world of the Sisters Kane, where only dolls exist, Callalilly longs to play the piano perfectly. But her inability to be instantly great sends her into a fit. Will Callalilly have the patience to become a skilled piano player? Or will she give into frustration? What happens may shock you as it did her sisters.

Callalilly—a short film with a moral lesson, taken from the book Tales of the Sisters Kane by Christy Kane.

8 min

Cannibal Lovers

Writer/Producer/Director: Tara Eary.

If love can survive an apocalypse, it should survive hunger – right? But when terror and unseen monstrosities chase two young lovers into an all too real nightmare, can their relationship make it past supper time? Especially if they’re “what’s for dinner”?

10 min

Creepers

Writers: CJ Johnson, Nick Thiel; Producers: Nick Thiel, Genevieve Wheeler, CJ Johnson; Director: Nick Thiel.

Creepers centers on two strangers trying to survive in a small house from a mysterious alien attack. As the mystery to the attacks begin to unravel, paranoia sets in. Creepers was created to present an homage to classic horror films while presenting a present day filmmaking style. Creepers reveals underlying themes of humanity and trust, providing a poignant tension amongst the main characters. This breed of science fiction and horror reflects not only the uncertainty of our era, but our sense of survival in the face of frightening obstacles.

17 min

Crowded With Voices

Writer/Director: Anya Belkina

Crowded with Voices is an experimental short created by artist Anya Belkina and composer Scott Lindroth. It is inspired by the poetry of Rumi, whose 800th birthday is being celebrated this year. The film is intended as a tribute to Rumi’s teachings and art that appealed to people of many faiths in his lifetime and united them at his funeral. The central visual motif of the film is an image of a whirling dervish whose revolving motion is in harmony with the motion of the smallest particles in nature and the largest galaxies in the universe.

5 min

The Art of Darkness

Writer/Producer/Director: Ron Andruss.

The Art of Darkness is a 10 minute experimental horror film with goth rock music playing over 230 pieces of original horror artwork in one long montage of dissolves to convey a feeling of the darkness within.

10 min

Al’s Beef

Writer/Director: Dennis Hauck; Producers: Jacob Motz, Aimee Barth, Dennis Hauck.

Bloodied, barefoot, and branded like cattle, a mysterious woman comes to town with an aim to kill the son of a bitch that done her wrong. Starring Jordan Ladd, and Dean Stockwell.

35 min

Zombie Hunters

Writer/Director: Christopher Baker; Producers: Adam McIver, Christopher Baker.

A reality show camera crew follows four friends one night as they go hunting for zombies in their small town of Troy, North Carolina. Riding around in their pickup truck, drinking beer, and engaging in unexpected existential and religious debates, the hunters find their idea of a fun night going quickly awry once they locate their quarry of the undead.

13 min

X-Mess Detritus

Writer/Director/Producer: Aurelio Voltaire.

MTV and SciFi Channel veteran, Voltaire, takes a dark look at gift-giving and the negative effect it has on the Earth in this one-minute Christmas parable. Animated in stop-motion by Voltaire and narrated by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.

2 min

A Woman in the West

Writer/Director: Jeremy Dylan Lanni; Producer: Jeremy Dylan Lanni & Peter Jason.

Reuniting three stars from the HBO series Deadwood, A Woman in the West tells the shocking true story of a frontier wife who is tough, independent, and willing to do whatever is necessary to protect her home. When Marion Faber’s husband Oscar is beaten up and robbed in a local saloon, Marion takes it upon herself to right the wrong. The film boasts outstanding performances from Paula Malcomson (Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica Prequel: Caprica), Peter Jason (Deadwood, The Other Side of the Wind), and Larry Cedar (Deadwood, Hollywoodland).

10 min

The Winged Man

Writer: José Rivera; Director: Marya Mazor; Producers: Camillia Sanes, Stephanie Bell.

In this work of Magical Realism, the only thing we know for certain is that Daysi, a Latina high school girl, is pregnant. Is the conception the son of a mystical winged man, as Daysi insists? Or the result of a one-night stand, as the girl’s mother claims? This visually arresting and poetic rumination on truth, written by Academy-award nominee José Rivera, asks what it means to hold fast to a belief, and what it takes to let it go.

14 min

Wilted

Writer/Director: Rafael De Leon Jr.; Producers: Anthony Sylvester, Rafael De Leon Jr.

A young man introduces his homecoming date to his mother, a gravely ill woman with sinister intentions. Wilted is a brief, twisted look into how family can prevail in the face of obstacles such as illness and the sting of rejection.

5 min

Who’s Your Daddy?

Writers: Dov Engelberg, Andrea Schwartz, Brian Schwartz, Marcus Zalewski, Eric Guerin; Director: Dov Engelberg; Producer: Brian A. Schwartz.

A puppet youngster, Milo, finds out from his human parents that he is not their biological son. He and his “brother” then set out on a road trip to find his real biological parents. This mission helps Milo learn not only his origins, but also gain some severely lacking sexual experience.

8 min

Until the End of Everything

Writers: Logan Blackwell, Nathan Blackwell, Craig Curtis, Jason Curtis; Director/Producer: Nathan Blackwell.

Gentleman superspy Ethan Hazard is back in action! Only you have the power to help him! At critical moments of the story you must vote and choose the path he takes—whether he lives or dies—in his latest daring adventure!

7 min

Unawakening

Writer/Director: Jack Daniel Stanley; Producer: Barry Green, David Jimerson.

Haunted by imagined or possibly real visions of the murder and macabre burial of a mysterious stranger deep within the woods, a man struggles to regain his sanity and save an adulterous marriage. In this mind-bending thriller, loosely inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee and part homage to Hitchock’s Psycho, love will undoubtedly prove key—but to what—sanity or madness?

9 min

Tree of Knowledge

Writer/Director/Producer: Gregory Walsh.

This documentary short depicts the efforts of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia to erect a non-religious display on the lawn of the county courthouse in West Chester, Pennsylvania, already adorned with a Christmas tree and Menorah. Amid mixed reactions and controversy from the citizens of West Chester, the Freethought Society affirms the importance of bringing visibility to an often unheard minority.

13 min

Trafficking

Writer: Josh Mitchell; Director: David Lindabury; Producers: Nancy Miller, Jack Charlop.

A courier gets stuck in rush hour gridlock, where he finds himself stalked and tormented by someone—or something—that really wants the mysterious package.

8 min

Throwaway

Writers/Directors/Producers: Dennis Widmyer, Brian James Fitzpatrick.

Abby works the graveyard shift at a home security company as an operator. With such a tough schedule, she spends her days like a vampire, sleeping while the sun is up. This rotation gets disturbed, however, when Abby is repeatedly awoken each day by the sounds of a bum rummaging through her apartment’s dumpster (which rests directly outside her bedroom window).

When Abby decides she’s had enough, she confronts the Bum in the hopes of negotiating for some daily solace. Only the Bum has other plans for Abby that have nothing to do with a little spare change.

If you sleepwalk through your days, you could bump into a nightmare.

21 min

Theosaurology

Writer/Director:/Producer: Alex Austin.

Theosaurology presents the concept that since there are so many things scientists still speculate about with dinosaurs, why couldn’t they be super powerful creatures that performed wondrous acts? We were not there to witness these things, and there has been no fossil evidence to prove otherwise. All told with a sense of arrogance and humor, the narrator leads the viewer through this concept though a book while the dinosaur illustrations come to life and demonstrate their awesomeness. This is a layered satire and action comedy.

5 min

Survivors

Writer: Soham Mehta, Marcel Rodriguez; Director: Soham Mehta; Producer: Seema Shah.

The dead are rising and the city has been evacuated, but two survivors remain behind. Rita would not abandon her infected husband, and Sachin refused to leave the memory of his dead wife. Willing to do anything to avoid dying alone, Rita deceives and seduces her way into Sachin’s life, but soon discovers that tempting his memories is even more dangerous than what’s lurking outside.

Survivors brings Indian influences to the classic zombie genre to create a sexy, fun, and terrifying nightmare.

13 min