STAGE MANAGED, 28min., USA, Comedy
Directed by Guy Noland
A suburban community theater must successfully produce a knock-off version of “My Fair Lady” in order to keep their doors open.

http://www.viralentertain.com/

Get to know the filmmaker:

I grew up in the theater and made the transition to filmmaking in college, but always held onto my love for the stage. When the pandemic hit, everything shut down in Hollywood and all of my friends were out of work, so I thought, “Hey, let’s put something together to keep everyone working!” Then I had to come up with something that we could do on a shoestring budget, easy, not a lot of locations, and would hit a niche audience. That’s when I came up with the idea of Stage Managed.

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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ANATEVKA, 4min., USA, Family
Directed by Danielle Durchslag
A group of school children perform a darkly comedic version of the song Anatevka, from Fiddler on the Roof, for their parents, with new lyrics exploring the modern tribulations of Jewish communal anxiety.

https://www.danielledurchslag.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ddurch/

Get to know the filmmaker:

Years ago, I attended a Fiddler on the Roof themed birthday party for a girlfriend’s daughter. Alongside the other adults, I watched a group of young Jewish ladies in pink ballet outfits, singing and dancing all the big hits from the show. One song they did not perform, I noticed, was my personal favorite from the musical, a sorrowful, sarcastic number sung by the ensemble about being forced to flee their beloved, poor, small village, Anatevka, due to the violent antisemitism perpetrated on them by their Christian neighbors. It’s a heavy, sardonic, shrug of a song. Not the tone we typically associate with children’s birthday parties.

Yet Anatevka’s exclusion haunted me, as did the party in general. Why, I kept wondering, with so many powerful examples of Jewish art, does this one story stubbornly persevere, especially in America? My people have not lived in shtetls for a very long time, thankfully, and though hatred of our community certainly and terrifyingly continues, the story of American Jewish life is largely one of safety and success. Yet this tale, of our poverty and victimhood, of being fundamentally unsafe, remains at the center of how we see ourselves and invite others to see us.

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 HARMONY OF TOUCH: THE HIGH-FIVE, HANDSHAKE, AND HUG, 3min., USA, Experimental
Directed by Kristyna Archer
Human connection thru physical touch are as critical to our survival as a species as is the air that we breathe. Standing the test of time, these visceral, bodily, mortal connections remind us we are still alive. Synchronicity being the master. Firmness being the gauge. Vulnerability being the superpower. Without them, we are powerless. I leave you with, the undeniable forces of nature found in the hive five, handshake, and hug.

Get to know the filmmaker:

The music was the biggest challenge, I had something in my head, yet it really needed a complex music composition that could not be sourced and needed to be composed which I didn’t originally budget for. Because originally I wanted a playfulness, and awkwardness really to come through all the way like 2 beings from another universe learning and experimenting with these forms of communication, yet upon watching the hug sequence after we shot, I realized it was not possible to take the emotion & intimacy out of those moments, so I need a track that transformed from playful lighthearted to deeply intimate. The visuals were more complex and truly has a turning point I wanted recognized in the track, that I wasn’t expecting before.

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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HER SWEATER, 25min., USA, Relationships
Directed by Jannik Ehret
After Desmond spends a surreal post-graveyard shift day with his enchanting co-worker Freya, he has to choose between following his heart and his own advice.

https://www.instagram.com/madronepictures

Get to know the filmmaker:

The first draft of the script was verbatim a real life experience. Making the short was my way of processing the frustrations of things not working out the way I wanted them to. Despite this, the experience felt like a gift. Getting to be in a real life Richard Linklater movie. Even if it was only for a day. Showing the real Freya the final product was terrifying. I made the short for myself but having her approve the final product was emotional. I’ll treasure the screenshot of her response forever. We’re still friends to this day.

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 DENDROVERSE, 4min., Mumbai, Experimental
Directed by Deep Malhotra
Fear of heights, cockroaches or dark. Fear can differ; some fears are minor, while others can be big. And when you overcome them, you feel more substantial than you were as you understand they were only panic inside your head and nothing else. And you just needed a bit of courage to win over them. But what if some phobias are so real that they might kill you and the species if you don’t crush them? Maybe such fears are those you don’t mess with to save your life. This poetry can sometimes become a nightmare in reality. Is the option in our hands to choose?

https://linktr.ee/deepruptive
https://facebook.com/deepmalhotra
https://instagram.com/deepruptive

Get to know the filmmaker:

This film was made for the India Film Project (IFF), an International 50-Hr film competition with the concept of “Fear”. I thought of twisting the idea with a message that is hard-hitting and relevant in current times and the need of the hour.

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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ENTANGLEMENT, 32min,. India, Fantasy
Directed by Yashaswini Nath
A couple struggles to make sense of the past, and their vastly different versions of the bizarre event that made their relationship spin out of control.

Get to know the filmmaker:

I had been writing scripts to turn into my first film, but out of everything I’d written, this story spoke to me with the greatest immediacy. The idea came to me in bits and pieces as philosophical themes and metaphysical ruminations. Musings about emotional consequences of people and events we can’t quite make sense of, and psychological implications of realities we aren’t familiar or comfortable with. I wanted to put these questions out there to a larger audience.

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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OUTTA THIS WORLD, 5min., Animation
Directed by Brittany Christine
An animated sci fi comedy about a human woman, Astria ZonBerg, who longs for something. On a journey with alien Pike to find it, she discovers something else she never knew she was missing.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3046505/
https://www.instagram.com/brittanychristineofficially/

Get to know the filmmaker on what motivated her to make this film:
The Pandemic and being in lockdown! I very much felt the same way my character Astria Zonberg did, in the sense that I had already turned my backyard into a beach complete with a lounge set for tanning, bbq area for cooking, volleyball court, ping pong table, racquetball set, tennis court, & projector screen for outdoor movies, then on the inside of my house I bought a rower machine, elliptical, bike, treadmill, thigh master, free weights, dumbbells, work out bands, a bosu ball, weighted throw balls, a thera gun, vibration plate machine, every board game target had on sale that month etc. I was going bored out of my mind and even started picking up crafts like sewing, knitting, macrame, pottery, candle making, doing puzzles, the list just goes on. It was absolutely hilarious. My old roommate Dakota would laugh at me and join in sometimes when she had a night off from working but to give you an idea, I never finished any of the projects I’d start because I would get so bored of them half way through too! Same with ordering food from the restaurants closest to me, I’d be craving pasta but then once it was delivered took one bite and was like AGH! Nothing satisfies me anymore. Hence the reason it shows Astria eating the buffet, playing golf, playing with cats, (I worked for a couple animal shelters in real life during that time called Hoja Nueva as well as Peru Dog Rescue, but we thought the purring of the kitties would be the quickest, easiest, and most funny to imitate) we really played on that where she is missing planet life even though she has it all on the ship, because I was missing social life even though I had everything I could possibly want to keep me entertained and busy while trapped at home. I have always been a very independent person, and enjoy my own company being the introvert I am, however, during the first yr of Covid I quickly realized activities aren’t nearly as much fun to experiment with or experience by myself. I wanted the audience to see & feel that in a funny way, rather than a sad and depressing one.

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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ZARDA ( Sweet-rice) a local desert in Pakistan, 17min., Pakistan, Drama
Directed by Zainab Hassan
In this slice of life/drama we peek into the life of a young Pakistani teenage girl Shella who comes from a conservative, lower middle-class family but dreams with an open heart. As she is slowly stepping out in the real world, she is fascinated by the ever-changing aesthetic of the modern life. One such occurrence accounts to her looking at a girl getting hair dyed pink, leaving her utterly mesmerized and longing for something like that for herself. Unfortunately, her cultural norms and lack of bodily autonomy renders it impossible until she is forced to realize and challenge these norms and find her own way out.

Get to know the filmmaker:

Being very aware about my confinement into this socially constructed narrative of genders I’ve always been very sensitive and vocal about issues regarding women. Therefore, personally I always knew I wanted to make a women centric film. Around the time when I was brainstorming for ideas, I read an article in a magazine somewhere about this group of Indonesian women who in Malaka culture were tattooed when they got married, to mark them as “taken”. but after World War 2 some of the single women from that clan tattooed themselves to escape being taken away by Japanese soldiers. So really this idea of taking something which was once used to oppress or put one in a box and to use it as one’s strength, and the spirit to live and flourish in the most unlikely of environments is what inspired me. This central idea then gelled in with my own struggles for bodily autonomy eventually birthed this story.

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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SHIRINGA: AMAZON WHITE GOLD, 9min., Canada
Directed by Oscar Akamine, Joseph Neyra
Jorge Escompani is a “Shiringa” master, “Shiringa” is a tree which produces natural latex. This is considered a tradition that preserves great passion and environmental awareness. The extraction of latex from the Shiringa three led to the death of thousands of indigenous people due to slavery during “the fever of latex” in the 19th century.

Get to know the filmmaker:
My friend Joseph Neyra, who told me about this place in Iberia, Peru. Where was the “maestro” Jorge Escompani, who was one of the few artisan extractors of natural latex. And between the two of us we decided to make this documentary in the midst of a pandemic, traveling by plane to the jungle and then in a small bus with the windows almost closed at more than 28 degrees Celsius for 4-5 hours. The motivation, although it sounds crazy, was to venture, witness, and record something that is so deep that it is almost magical. I have always had this feeling that the best secrets are found in the depths of any person, in this case in the depths of my country.

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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WIN(D) OVER CANCER, 9min., USA
Directed by Andrew Jowett
Last summer the world was closed, but our waters were open. This crew took the opportunity to make a difference – More Kids On Sailboats, a 501(c)(3) organization is proud to present our first short film – WIN(D) OVER CANCER.

https://morekidsonsailboats.org/
https://www.instagram.com/more_kids_on_sailboats/

Get to know the producer Brett Langolf:
The motivation was the desire to do SOMETHING! My wife, Katie, and I were sitting in the dining room both working (pandemic online elementary school teacher and me trying to run a Creative Advertising department remotely) and we started talking. We had just received our 501(c)(3) status for our non-profit More Kids On Sailboats. We decided to find a path to do something with kids and activate them in these crazy times. Andrew was involved in the new non-profit and was one of our new Board Members. In the real world, he and I had been doing TV Commercials, Sailing Shorts, etc but it was the pandemic and this work had taken a pause. Getting a group together outdoors was basically our only option. So we plotted the course, and we got this crew together….we were not sure what would unfold or what may or might not happen. So we hit record and let the story come to us.

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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MONEY TALKS: THE LIMITS OF FINANCIAL INFLUENCE IN POLITICS, 10min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Thomas Chen Hui Gilchrist
The history and importance of governmental regulation of money in United States politics.

Get to know teenage filmmaker!

Storytelling is my passion. When choosing topics for films, I often ask myself what story my audience needs to hear. Often, the most impactful stories are those buried behind the headline and as soon as I started research into money in politics, I knew I had to uncover this amazing story.

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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MEMORIAM, 2min,. USA
Directed by Lyla Ruth
My dad passed away recently and I’ll be completely honest here, watching him die slowly from cancer is a hell I would not wish on my worst enemy. Family and friends ask me how I am feeling, or how I am handling it all. In actuality, the emotions are too intense to verbalize.

https://www.lylaruth.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dancelyladance

From filmmaker Lyla Ruth:

Well, here’s the true story. My father had a very rare form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma. It made him extremely confused. My father was a 6’3” Buffalo Fire Chief, who ironically was incredibly claustrophobic. He could not do an MRI. In order to get him to do it, I had to lay in the bed with him for 25 minutes and hold his hand. He had medication to distract from the enclosed space and the sounds, I did not. I noticed a really interesting rhythm with the machine. And in between the rhythm I would breathe to try and slow down his breath. Later that evening I recorded the rhythm in my head in a few different time signatures. I called my friend Buck Snow, a Grammy Award winning sound engineer, and together we created the beat. It’s a reverse heart beat. I needed a place to channel my emotions while handling the daunting task of being the caretaker of my parents. Thus, the video was born.

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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REVERIE, 9min., USA, Dance
Directed by Brian Bowers
The past can be an unreliable narrator, and the future is simply a shifting reflection of where we are right now. Driven by choreographed movement, original music and sound, REVERIE is an experimental visual narrative that seeks to question and explore. An ensemble dance casts guides us through the delicately narrated introspective, inner dialogue that an emerging artist is having with time itself. Is it true, what they say, that life is but a dream?

http://reverie.nabircreative.co/
https://www.facebook.com/nabircreative
https://www.instagram.com/nabircreative

From Brian Bowers:

Without sounding too cliché, it was like a dream state. I didn’t really set out on pursuing this as my first film project, so it was an accident. I was in the middle of developing a production kit for a film based on classical animation, and it became just a massive undertaking. I shelved the project. And by the end of that week, the idea came to me. What it started off as, and what it turned into, are very different.

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 SCREENING, 13min., USA
Directed by Orhun Timur

Writer/Actor: Chis Tergliafera
A tale we know all too well; hopeful actor waits to be called into his commercial audition. However, things are not as they appear. Our hopeful young actor is struck with confusion when he is met with an interrogation from a Sag-Aftra Agent. This satire takes a dive into our relationship with rules and regulations, and how we choose to bend them when it is convenient to us.

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 middle aged woman finds herself convicted of murder in the 1930’s. She is sent to an all male prison in deep Southern Illinois to await her fate for a crime she may not have committed. Based on true events.

Watch the Best Scene Script Reading of THE ELECTRIC EYE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8SolAV87Mk

From Kimberly Butler:

The life story of a woman in the 1930’s who finds herself convicted of murder. She is sentenced to the death penalty, and sent to an all male prison to carry out her sentence. This story is based on true events.

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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EXPRESSION, 2min., USA, Drama
Directed by Kyle Briot
A young woman talks to a professional about her past, but all is not as it seems.

From the filmmaker:

I’ve been making films consistently since I graduated college in 2016 both as a director and a crew member on my friends’ films but after COVID hit we took a long break, obviously. So my brother Kevin used the quarantine time to write a feature film called Losers of Eden that we shot in the summer of 2021. And we had such a blast doing it that I didn’t want to keep waiting to do another one, so I started pre-production on Expression while Losers of Eden was in post.

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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MARBLE ME FREE, 7min., USA
Directed by Diane Leslie Kaufman
How do we cope and what do we do when physical and emotional pain, obstacles, and hardship block our way forward? This “dark night of the soul” journey is powerfully depicted in the “Marble Me Free” animated film.

https://www.marblemefree.com/

Conversation with: director Diane Leslie Kaufman. poet/writer Starlit Swan. Animator Lucia Martinez Rojas

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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LOST AT SEA, 6min,. Germany, Music Video
Directed by Alex Sebastian
A fairy tale gone wrong: A woman between two men.

http://alexsebastian.de/
https://facebook.com/alexsebastianmuc
https://instagram.com/alexsebastianmuc

From filmmaker Alex Sebastian:

I’m basically a self producing independent rock/pop artist and as such in control of the whole creative process start to finish. First there was the song which was inspired by a friends poem. While I was working on producing song with some great musicians (e.g. drummer Jerry Marotta, who also played for Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney and many many more) I had to listen to it over and over again while out running. Images of a drifting abandoned boat came into my head (The starting image and the ending image.) and I crafted the initial plot.

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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I DON’T WANNA GO, 4min., USA, Drama
Directed by Max Vadset
A kid doesn’t want to go to school because he’s worried about the possibility of a school shooting.

https://www.facebook.com/infinitemonkeyproject/
https://www.instagram.com/infinitemonkeystudiosoffical/

From Filmmaker Max Vadset:

I wanted to make this film because of how much gun violence is permeating the consciousness of kids these days. It’s a fear that I have personally experienced and I’m sad that it’s become a normal part of growing up and going to school.

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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VADGEVERTISING, 8min., USA, Comedy
Directed by Kate Peterson
Shortly after the release of his controversial “Healthy Boy Toothpaste” ad, Leo Mann gives Satirical News Magazine, Nitecap, an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview of his new intravaginal advertising agency, and shares his philosophy behind “Vadgevertising.”

Get to know Writer/Producer/Star Caryn Ruby

Kate (my co-writer) and I were so disgusted by Tom Ford’s sexualized perfume ads, that we thought, “what could possibly be next?!” and we joked that they would have to advertise inside of vaginas to make it worse. So we laughed and then wrote it.

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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