2016 Maine Short Film Festival

Jurors have selected 14 winning films for the Maine Short Film Festival 2016.  The 100-minute program includes subjects close to Maine’s heart: Maine artists, rivers, farms and original screenplays in all genres: documentary, fiction, experimental, comedy and horror.

Descriptions of the films that are part of the Maine Short Film Festival 2016:

Bonair e (1:34) by Mauricio Handlerp — Produced as part of a Dutch Caribbean National Parks environmental awareness campaign, ‘Bonaire’ is one of 5 shorts edited from an extensive natural history film shoot done by Cinematographer Mauricio Handler. 

My So-Called Housing Cooperative (10:54) by Craig Saddlemire — the story of young adults trying to live a life of cooperation and compassion… without losing their minds.  This episode from a monthly webisode features a scripted parody based upon real life at the Faire Bande à Part Housing Cooperative (Faire-Op), a 3 story apartment building in Lewiston, ME.

Heart & Hand (4:26) by Sharyn Paul Brusie and Kevin Brusie —  celebrates the life of a farmer and his animals.  Through video, music and poetry, this pure and rich life is revealed. 

Alison and NuDay Syria  (4:59) by Josh Gerritsen — Alison McKellar talks about the non-profit organization NuDay Syria she volunteers for by constructing shelters for refugees. We also meet Nadia Alawa, the founder of the organization.

The Raw Essence of Carlo Pittore (8:36) by Richard Kane —  a portrait of this joyful yet vulnerable artist who led a generation of younger artists in Maine forming the Union of Maine Visual Artists and changed the way we define beauty in figurative art.

Clothes Encounter (2:04) by Mike Perlman — a hip hop comedy representing this Ellsworth 2nd hand clothing store in a song parody of Macklemore’s hit song “Thrift Shop.”

I Just Don’t Get It – It’s My Russian Soul (7:25) by Walter Ungerer — The visuals / landscape of the film is Portland, Maine viewed through time-lapse photography, and presented for interpretation and contemplation.The audio track explains the film’s title; a dialogue between a young Russian man and his English girlfriend; where he explains his Vodka habit. “I just don’t get it? It’s my Russian soul. Why can’t you understand?”

Scribe of the Soul (3:52) by Alban Maino and Jimmy Liepold — In 1846, a beautiful woman puts on all the layers of Lingerie before she goes out in society. A Memory-Lane.Tv “dreamscene”, part of a collection of films for people living with dementia and Alzheimer. 

Fever  (17:34) by Marie Chao and Matthew J. Siegel  — Fever is a psychological thriller about a woman’s desperate attempt to recapture the affection of her estranged husband.

Maine Heritage Orchard (17:00) by Huey — A reclaimed gravel pit is transformed into the Maine Heritage Orchard, a living museum to apples traditionally grown in Maine.  Organic farmer and apple expert, John Bunker, and others pass on their knowledge of working the land to the young farmers settling in Maine, preserving Maine’s orcharding traditions.  

Tickle (11:57) by Corey Norman — We all know how 80s horror movies start: a babysitter and a little boy alone in a house. When things go bump in the night, are they the imagination of a scared little boy, or is someone—or some thing—in the house with them?

Penobscot River (2:31) by Justin Lewis, Michelle Stauffer and Laura Rose Day   Many of the 75,000 dams in the United States block fish migration corridors they need to survive with devastating impacts to fish, people and wildlife, while only 3% actively produce hydroelectric power. This short documents how the Penobscot River Restoration Trust and others took down the Great Works Dam, opening up access to 1,000 miles of the Penobscot and its tributaries and unleashing the river’s recovery.

Gun Shop (2:42) by Alan Magee — The satirical film Gun Shop comments on the escalation of mass gun violence in the United States. It asserts that the proliferation of guns will only increase the number of victims. The film is an appeal to our nation to reexamine its misguided obsession with guns.

A Nasty Law (3:20) by Alan Magee — The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 contains a provision legalizing indefinite military detention of any person without charge or trial. Since no charges need to be made, the law allows for detention of individuals based on suspicion alone. The images in this film are my own childhood drawings—made between 1950 and 1953.