Extremely Shorts 15

Juror Andy Smith in Attendance

Friday Screenings, June 29, 7PM & 9PM

Saturday Screening and Award Reception, June 30, 8PM

Purchase Tickets AT DOOR ONLY:

Screening only Friday 7PM: $5 Members, $15 Non-Members

Screening only Friday 9PM: $5 Members, $15 Non-Members

Screening and Award Reception on Saturday: $15 Members, $25 Non-Members

Aurora Picture Show likes short shorts. The films selected for the 15th Annual Extremely Shorts Film Festival represent diverse themes and voices, but each one will only take up approximately three minutes of your time. Juror Andy Smith from Indie Grits Film Festival and Nickelodeon Theater in Columbia, SC, has finalized his selections of 29 films that were chosen from over 150 submissions. These short films will be screened on June 29th and 30th in the new home for Aurora Picture Show, 2442 Bartlett Street, at three separate screenings: Friday, June 29 at 7PM and 9PM; and a VIP Screening and Award Reception on Saturday, June 30 at 8PM.

The annual competition brings to the forefront the latest in artist- made experimental, narrative, and avant-garde film. At each screening, audience members will be invited to cast votes for their top three films and support the filmmakers of this year’s Extremely Shorts. Artists featured range in experience from university students to recognized filmmakers.

Smith will be in attendance for all screenings. The final night of the festival will feature a VIP Reception with the Awards Ceremony to announce the top three prizes as selected by the audience. Food and drinks will also be included in the Saturday event. Special thanks to Hotel Icon, Tiff's Treats, Whole Foods Market, and Saint Arnold Brewery for their support of this program. Please note that some films contain MATURE CONTENT.

SELECTED FILMS

Media Flight by Alonso Tapia

This video piece explores the over abundance of sexual advertisement in mass media culture. By mixing these images with images of nature a subliminal feeling is created, much like the one that is presented to us every day.

REM by Brenda Cruz

Dreams are questioned...Memories are questioned. What really happens when dreams and memories intersect to become one. What comes first?

8bit Ghost Hop by Brian Lonano and Kevin Lonano

A mysterious signal from the moon summons strange ghosts.

Weightless by Case Hathaway-Zepeda

This piece depicts unspoken elements of a long-distance father/daughter relationship.

Nightbook by Case Hathaway-Zepeda

My dream interlude.

Texas Traffic by Claudia Melgar

A video on bringing awareness against sex trafficking in Texas with Latin American women. More specifically, in Houston, which is one of the capitals for Human Trafficking in the United States.

How Great Thou Art by Gisela Parker

Technology: making life easier, but not necessarily better.

Excessive Use of the Force by Harrison Smith and Derek Beck

Derek and Harrison learn the true power and danger of the Force, while Trevor is taken over by the Dark Side.

Spartacus by Jenny Lim

Spartacus finds transcendence in a moment of humiliation.

I Am Your Grandma by Jillian Mayer

I Am Your Grandma is an autobiographical video diary log (vlog) that Jillian Mayer records for her unborn grandchildren. Envisioned as an authentic solution to fleshing out the detached model of the family tree, Mayer hearkens to bygone times when ancestors could glimpse one another through a locket or lock of hair.

Merman by Jono Foley

Harrison dances within an amazingly lush, deep well of crystal clear water, undisturbed by his onlooking friends.

Everything, BUT by Lili White

Everything, BUT embodies the idea of plant Earth as our sanctuary. A cacophony of voices bombards the audience with a smorgasbord of disjointed newspaper stories and documentary facts about agriculture; whose implications stretch between humor and horrific reality; articulating the intersection between nature and civilization; suggesting fissures between human and natural infrastructure.

Reinaldo Arenas by Lucas Leyva

Told from the point of view of a dying shark, Reinaldo Arenas metaphorically captures the current state of the aging Cuban-American exile community, many of whom have still not come to terms with the Communist Revolution that changed their lives forever. The film culls from various Cuban films and works of literature to create not a singular voice, but a feeling of a particular moment in time.

Mule by Melissa Tran and Vanessa Godden

Chimera constructed children's flip disks out of skin-toned paint swatches in an impossible attempt to blend the tones.

Meiosis by Melissa Tran and Vanessa Godden

The cell division that results in two daughter cells each with half the chromosome number of the parent cell.

Paint Showers by Miguel Jiron

Swirling cosmos of paint give way to a storm of color and drips. An experimental animation that is a mix of paint on glass and stop motion, Paint Showers is the anticipation, fury, and release of a colorful storm.

Harvest Moon by Miguel Martinez

A video of static and appropriated sound clip of an Alzheimer patient showing the visual parallel to memory loss.

Déjà Vu De Jour by Mile Olenick

In this silent film spectacle, an actress -- played by Catherine Deneuve -- encounters an unexpected, but familiar destiny. With music by Clark Wilson

All of my friends are worried about the future by Os Galindo

The first in a series of shorts examining the variety of relationships in my life.

Judas Burning by Otis Ike and Ivete Lucas

Around 2000 years ago, Jesus's friend Judas sold him out for some pocket change. Jesus got beat-up bad and people are still really mad at Judas. Every year on Easter Sunday in the mountain town of Real De Catorce, Mexico, paper statues of Judas get what is coming for them.

Remember by Paris F. Jomadiao

A short memento mori.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared by Rebecca Sloan and Joseph Pelling

Take: A pinch of inspiration, a handful of joy, 2 spoonfuls of courage, 3/8 of a litre of desire, splash of pride, 3 heaped tablespoons of laughter, one kg of saltwater, and a cup of going the distance. You'll know when its ready.... A short film about teaching creativity - by This Is It Collective.

An American Arabesque Part 1 by Ron Diorio

Although we are connected to the same historical moment; production values, authorship and the contested territory of complex visual and textual collages inflate the reputation of the magician through the dissemination of theatrical counterfeits.

Reddish Brown and Blueish Green by Sam Gurry

Using a found object as a catalyst, Reddish Brown and Blueish Green explores a family's destructive journey through childhood. Much of the imagery in the film comes from a baby book found on a curb in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inside the mother chronicles her son's life, as well as her own struggle with addiction, ending abruptly around the child's 4th birthday.

The Gummba Sutra by Sean Hughes

The Gummba Sutra is a satirical representation of Gumby encountering the Kamma Sutra. Gumby is copy written by Art Clockey Productions.

Koi Fish by Silvia Aviles

A curious little video about koi fish, viewed in an interesting angle.

Echo From My Room by Ted Kennedy

Repeating motifs of texture, outside space, absence and presence as the manifestation of recorded aloneness.

Traveling Fatherhood by Vanessa Godden

The filmmaker's obsession with ritualistic manifestation progressed into a cyclical and customary familial practice within her household in which she resurrected each of the objects her father has brought back from his international business ventures. Hoping to establish a tangible relationship with her estranged father, the filmmaker developed performances in which she photographed myself interacting with the tchotchke’s as a means of documenting our artificial connection.

Cultured by Vanessa Godden

Growing up in a country where people identify you with the ethnicity your skin tone matches the most made the filmmaker continually attempt to identify with her Trinidadian heritage more so than her Canadian heritage.

ABOUT THE JUROR

Andy Smith is the Executive Director of the Nickelodeon Theatre, a not-for-profit arthouse cinema in Columbia, SC. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Indie Grits Festival, which features the best in low-budget, independent film from the Southeast and was recently named one of the “20 Coolest Film Festivals” by Moviemaker Magazine. He received an M.A. in Film, Television and Digital Media from UCLA and a B.A. in Film Studies from Swarthmore College. In addition to his work at the Nickelodeon, he also serves the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center and teaches in the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of South Carolina.

ABOUT EXTREMELY SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL

Started in 1998, the Extremely Shorts Festival is a juried competition of adventurous three-minute or shorter films and videos from around the world. Each year a different juror (esteemed filmmaker, film programmer or arts curator) selects 20-25 mini-masterpieces to be shown at a two-day screening event in June. Audience Choice cash awards are given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The short format of the festival encourages innovative approaches to filmmaking in a range of genres including narrative, art, experimental, documentary and animation.