Magic Carpet Ride (PCFF Shorts Collection)

Curated by our director of programming, this selection of animation, live action, musicals and documentaries will pique your curiosity, challenge your senses and spark the imagination!

Jump on the PCFF carpet and get ready to ride! This year’s reel transports you to lands from as close as Massachusetts to as far away as Iran, Finland and Italy. Visiting these distant places will make you realize our similarities are far greater than our differences.

BOUND FOR GLORY
Hop aboard the animated Los Angeles Limited as retired steam train engineer, Glen Whistler, takes his grandchild down the tracks of memory lane with an American song that has inspired generations.
USA, 2015 / English / David Chai / 3.5 min
Animation

COWS MOOSIC VIDEO
A simple and stylish animation by Sandra Boynton showing an all-out Broadway number performed by sincere yet overambitious bovines. The song is performed by The Seldom Herd (an enthusiastic fictitious group.)
USA, 2014 / English / Sandra Boynton / 3 min
Animation

THE FLY (LA MOSCA)
Carlotta and her class are asked to draw animals whose names begin with the letter M. While the rest of the kids have no problem drawing them, Carlotta experiences an artistic block. When she finally decides which animal to draw, she needs to think fast on her feet to keep it!
Italy, 2015 / Italian (w/English subtitles) / Marco DiGerlando / 8 min
Live Action/Animation

HANSEL & GRETEL
We often refer to the filmmaking process as ‘visual storytelling’. In this film, Soyeon Kim creates a unique and powerful way to tell the classic story of Brothers Grimm Hansel & Gretel visually using simple geometric forms such as dots, lines, circles, triangles and rectangles.
USA, 2014 / Music / Soyeon Kim / 3.5 min
Animation

OTTER OF THE UNDERGROUND
When their gold mine experiences a mysterious power outage, Otter and Mole’s journey to restore the mine spirals into a wild adventure.
USA, 2015 / English / Christina Jean Benenati / 4.5 min
Animation

SNAKE & FOX
A serpentine story of a tender-hearted snake (who would probably be better off as a vegetarian), becomes friends with a curious, lost, innocent little fox.
USA, 2015 / English / Moe Myint Htet / 4 min
Animation

IT HIT UPON THE ROOF
This beautiful short film from Iran follows a young boy’s playful attempts to catch raindrops leaking through the roof.
Iran, 2015 / No spoken dialogue / Teymour Ghaderi / 3.5 min
Live Action

PERFECT PIGGIES
This is Sandra Boynton’s latest animation of five harmonizing pigs singing a lively ‘hog cappella’ swing song about their own perfect selves.
USA, 2015 / English / Sandra Boynton / 3 min
Animation

ONE COLORFULL DAY
A chance encounter with a young girl on a city street renews one city dweller’s sad view of people not caring for one another.
USA, 2015 / No spoken dialogue / Jayoung Kim / 3 min
Animation

PIKKULI SAYS NO!
A creative animated film from Finland that demonstrates the patience (and love) required by a father when dealing with his obstinate fledgling.
Finland, 2015 / No spoken dialogue / Metsämarja and Antti Aittokoski  / 5 min
Animation

THE SEARCH FOR THE MONSTER OF LAKE QUANNAPOWITT
This film’s animated setting is inspired by the real Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Does the lake really have a monster in it?
USA, 2015 / English / Sarah Reul / 3.5 min
Animation

HEADS OR TAILS
Are our lives determined by chance or fate? Through a combination of songwriter Alexis Harte’s lyrics and Kate Isenberg’s animation, Heads or Tails is a whimsical, cosmic tale of how love anchors us in the face of this conundrum.
USA, 2014 / English / Kate Isenberg / 3.5 min
Animation

THIS TIME IT’S SHOPPING
It’s a store that sells EVERYTHING…you just need $10,000 hundred dollars!
USA, 2015 / English / Chek Wingo / 4 min
Live Action