2011 PCFF Shorts Collection: Middle School Edition

Your Shorts Are Showin’ (YSAS)

PCFF proudly presents this reel of shorts that were submitted or invited to our 2011 festival. These films are a wide assortment of animation, live action, musicals and narratives. Some of these film makers are as young as YOU!

New Spirit
USA, 2010 / Dir. Graeme Steller / 3 min / digital projection
“New Spirit” is a locally made video synchronizing yo-yo moves with music in a very theatrical way. Full of moves and high energy, this short film will inspire you.

Beneath the Same Sky
USA, 2010 / Dir. Dan Masucci / 13 min / English / digital projection
Regardless of your views on our military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, one fact remains, many American families (especially children) struggle with having loved ones deployed to war. For 10-year-old James, the distance separating him from his mother becomes a lesson in sacrifice, maturity and how a father and son can grow closer through their shared feelings of separation.

The Clock That Ran Amok
Poland, 2010 / Dir. Leszek Gałysz / 9 min / English / digital projection
Award-winning author Agnieszka Taborska, internationally famed illustrator Antoni Boratyński and renowned director, screenwriter and producer Leszek Gałysz have joined forces to create a magical film about happiness, loneliness and the passage of time. The book upon which the film is based, “The Crazy Clock,”was recognized by the German Academy for Children’s Literature for both its text and illustrations. A king ordered a magic clock built, one that runs faster in unhappy times and slower on days of contentment. Thus the king’s subjects could savor their happiness, while difficult times went by in a flash. Not for long. One day the clock acquired a soul and through it cast a spell enslaving the realm. Now the princess – aided by a stranger from a faraway land, a witch, a gardener and a little sorceress – must release the clock’s grip on the kingdom.

Sugar
USA, 2010 / Dir. Lena Bubenechik / 16 min / English / digital projection
Nana is bored, alone and craving sweets. Left alone by her preoccupied older sister and ignored by her friend, Nana is on the verge of falling off her diet before high school starts. By a chance meeting Nana runs into a Polish WWII survivor who invites her for tea. Nana finds out that the elderly lady has a sweet tooth as well. Will Nana’s sweet tooth get the better of her or will their meeting change her profoundly?

The Poodle Trainer
USA, 2010 / Dir. Vance Malone / 9 min / Russian w/ English subtitles / digital projection
Irina Markova, a solitary Russian poodle trainer, reveals her transcendent relationship with her dogs; the childhood tragedy that sparked a lifetime of working with animals; and the welcome isolation behind the red velvet curtains of the circus. This intimate portrait of destiny, passion and loss was a Sundance 2010 short film selection.

Three Times Me
USA, 2009 / Dir. Wendy J.N. Lee / 4 min / digital projection
A young girl passes the time away under the table of another boring ”adult” dinner. Inspired by the footwear she sees, her imagination takes off. Placing herself into real-life roles that she associates with the style of shoe nearby results in three wonderfully divergent (and empowering) narratives.

Parallelostory
USA, 2009 / Dir. Daniel Elwing & Kelly Meador / 3 min / digital projection
“Parallelostory,” which is slang for “parallel love story,” uses charmingly simple illustrations to weave an inter-dimensional tale of attraction. As always, the duo Impactist (aka Kelly Meador and Daniel Elwing) created everything in this short, including the music. It perfectly sums up their handmade aesthetic and delightful sensitivity to color and form.

Safe Painting Dream
USA, 2009 / Dir. Julia Gandrud /2 min / digital projection
In a dream about art and change, the viewer rappels past windows of a building. In each room is a new and surprising event.