2010 PCFF Shorts Collection

Your Shorts Are Showin’ (YSAS)

PCFF proudly presents the 2010 YSAS program, a curated compilation reel of short films. Some of these films were chosen by our jury and others invited by our Director of Programming.

• Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
  USA, 2008 / Director: Valentine Sheldon/ 5 min / DVD
  A toe-tappin’ tune accompanies a young woman clipping, blending, melting and crunching many items of her childhood to create a central, totemic artifact. The creative editing and use of just about every household item will leave you wanting to melt some crayons of your own.
• HOSE
  USA, 2008 / Director: Kevin Watkins / 10 min / DVD
  A garden hose in search of adventure discovers that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. Director Kevin Watkins uses stop-motion animation masterfully in bringing a garden hose to life.
• How Birds Got Their Song
  USA, 2009/ Director: Jo Dery / 5 min / DVD
  Local filmmaker Jo Dery, in collaboration with the students of Nuweetooun School, based this short on a traditional Narragansett Indian story.Under Dery’s direction the students created the figures and scenes used in animating the story and played the instruments in the film’s original score.
• Songs of Freedom
  USA, 2009 / Director: David Marshall / 28 min / DVD.
  Contemporary music, storytelling and film enrich this narrative about the Underground Railroad, told from the perspective of a young girl named Imani. She and her family are forced to flee if they are to remain together during the time of American slavery.
  Age 8+ (Advisory: Includes disturbing historical situations and dramatic tension.)
• Gus Outdoors: Gull Island
  USA, 2009 /Director: Sean Nightingale/ 23 min / DVD
  Local filmmaker Sean Nightingale could not have found a better nature narrator than his own son. Six-year-old Gus explores Gull Island and teaches us what he knows about the life-cycle of birds nesting on the island and some of the plant life that surrounds them. Gus, outdoors, will captivate and inspire children to get outside and see what they can find in their own “backyards.”
• Electric Car
  USA, 2009 / Directors: Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata; animation production by Tiny Inventions / 4 min / DVD
  A musically inspired, cut-and-paste style short film follows the journey of animal friends riding in an electric car. With music by perennial kid-music favorite They Might Be Giants.
• Davy Crockett in Outer Space
  USA, 2008/ Directors: Max Porter, David Cowles, Ru Kuwahata; animation production by Tiny Inventions / 4 min / DVD
  Who needs computer animation when we have chalkboards? Western folk hero Crockett becomes a chalk-line“buckskin astronaut” as They Might Be Giants updates the music from the classic 1950s TV show.
• Force 1 TD
  USA, 2008 / Director: Randy Krallman / 10 min / DVD
  High school friends on Manahattan’s Lower East Side seek to help a visually impaired friend find the “right” attire for their upcoming prom. They’re a pair of sneakers away from a great outfit, but what starts as a quick last visit to a shoe store becomes an odyssey. Carmine te Seeing Eye horse keeps everything unpredictable.
  Ages 8+ (Advisory: Course language)
• RITA
  USA, 2007 /Director: Alison Teal Blehert-Koehn / 15 min / DVD
  Seven-year-old Alison has been dragged around the world by her eccentric, adventure-photographer parents. She longs to stay in one place and go to school with children her own age. On a family expedition high in the Himalayas, Alison meets a Sherpa girl named Rita. Although they cannot speak each other’s language, the two strangers set off on a wild and touching adventure over a 17,000 ft. pass near the base of Mt. Everest—a journey that plops them right in Alison’s dream world. Based on real-life experiences of the director.
  Ages 8+
• Sarah’s Story
  USA, 2009 / Director: John McGowan / 2 min /DVD
  This animated short is about the story of a young girl named Sarah who loves to read. Her vivid imagination and passion for books leads her on adventures of the imagination and inspires her to write stories to share with readers young and old alike.
• Locally Unwanted Land Usage
  USA, 2009 / Director: Kate Balsley / 7 min / digital projection
  The city of Biggerton has too much trash! Its people don’t know what to do with all of the garbage! Finally, they decide to dump it all onto the city of Smallerton. How will Smallerton get out from underneath this mess?