ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

shorts

Reporting from Slamdance – “Unstoppable” filmmakers (part 2)

by Leave a Comment

Diversity is being recognized as an important goal in the film industry. Many voices and many perspectives are needed in every art form, and that is very true of film. This year’s Slamdance Film Festival has made an express effort to bring the idea of ablism and the perspective of people with disabilities (PWD). There is a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that focuses on films by or about peoples with disabilities. It has a wide range of styles, tones, and content. There are documentaries, music videos, and narrative films. There are 22 films in the section, so I’ve divided my comments into two reports. This is the second report. The earlier report can be seen here. The Unstoppable section is presented by Hulu.

On the Outs. (37 minutes, directed by Jordan Melograna). This documentary follows three inmates with disabilities as they prepare for their release and reenter the world. One has mental illness, one has brain damage and has had hip replacement, one has visual impairment. Their disabilities certainly complicate the process, but even more that film shows the way the system falls far short of preparing even those without disabilities for a time after their sentence.

Safety Net. (12 minutes, directed by Anthea Williams.) A thirteen year old boy living with a disability has just entered emergency care after his mother was arrested. He is staying in a seedy motel with a guardian present. The first guardian is compassionate and encouraging. The relief guardian is stern and demanding. The boy’s future may well depend on this care and which guardian will dominate his time.

Single. (16 minutes, directed by Ashley Eakin). A young woman born with one arm faces the world with an attitude. She doesn’t want to be pitied or thought of as disabled. She responds to most people with anger when they note her missing arm. She’s been set up on a blind date, and discovers that her date only has one hand. She is irate at the person who set them up. Her date convinces hre to come to his rooftop and throw eggs at the wall to take out her anger at all those who have slighted her. A good therapy session for her.

Stilts. (7 minutes, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams) A young man who, like the rest of his family, lives with very large stilts attached to his legs. Because he’s so tall, he can’t get through an exit to the outside world. He seeks surgery to remove the stilts and be set free.

The Bin. (15 minute, directed by Jocelyn Tamayao). A father and his hearing impaired son are at odds over getting cochlear implants versus using sign language. The father wants to make his son “normal”; the son wants to live his own kind of normal.

The Co-op. (7 minutes, directed by Cameron S. Mitchell). A thief attempts to hold up a market late at night, but his plans hit a snag when the store is filled with PWD.

Union. (19 minutes, directed by Julia Neill). During the Civil War a woman returns home for Christmas, she brings with her a Union soldier to meet her family. They met when she, a surgeon, amputated his arm. Now they come for her father’s blessing. But how does he know the man will be able to take care of her? Perhaps it is his own insecurities that cause him to hesitate.

Unspoken. (27 minutes, directed by Emma Zurcher-Long, Julia Ngeow, and Geneva Peschka). Emma Zurcher-Long is a fourteen year old girl with autism. After years of not being able to communicate, it was discovered she could write using a keyboard. She shares information about her world and how it differs from ours. She breaks down the stereotypes and prejudices that surround her.

Verisimilitude.  (14 minutes, directed by David Proud). An actress who can’t get roles because she is in a wheelchair is hired for a movie to teach an abled actor how to act disabled. There are also several abled extras in wheelchairs. This film serves as a bit of judgment on an industry that often fails to see beyond a first appearance.

Road to Zion. (16 Minutes, directed by Andrew Reid). A undocumented Jamaican young man and his family (which includes a brother with a intellectual disability) struggle to make ends meet. Without a green card it is hard to get the kind of job that will bring the money his family needs. A local drug dealer makes it know he can work for him. What will he do to take care of his family?

A truly appreciate Slamdance and Hulu for making this special section possible. Of course, not everything suited my taste, but the voice that comes through from many of these shorts is important. It also shows how valuable it is to have diversity in filmmaking.

My top favorite from the section is Feeling Through. Others that I deeply appreciate are How Much Am I Worth?, On the Outs, and Unspoken.

Reporting from Slamdance – a Sampling of Narrative Shorts

by Leave a Comment

Narrative shorts are films that are storytelling stripped down to the essentials. You don’t have time in shorts to develop side plots or bring in very many characters. You just put the story out there to be enjoyed or thought about. As I’ve had time, I’ve looked at a few of the narrative shorts that are part of the Slamdance Film Festival this year. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Autoscopy. (14 minutes, directed by Claes Nordwall). A young man goes into the woods with sound equipment capturing the sounds of nature. Along the way he finds an abandoned floatation chamber that leads him to a trippy chance to look at himself.

Blue. (15 minutes, directed by Ali Şenses). A man walks through the city carrying a paint bucket and a long-handled brush. As he walks the handle of the brush hits everything, making noises. Until he hits a particular piece of fence that makes the sound he’s been searching for.

Each Other. (6 minutes, directed by Oskar Weimar). This is more dance that story. A very limber naked man emerges from a tree and seeks to understand what his place in the world is. Cow? Chicken? Something else?

Trammel. (11 minutes, directed by Christopher Bell). A solitary man comes in to the local pharmacy to talk to his friend behind the counter. He tells his stories. We may or may not believe him. The key question I asked myself during this film is what assumptions I made about the man based on his appearance and his stories.

Inside the Storm. (14 minutes, directed by Daniel Bloom). A man who has had a break up goes to visit a friend he hasn’t seen in a long time. The man isn’t in a healthy place. I found it a bit hard to watch for the ways he seemed to be degrading himself.

Returning. (14 minutes, directed by Lucy Bridger). A retired teacher, whose husband is away for a few days, deals with a man helping her with her garden. It’s interesting how much we learn about the married couple and the desires and frustrations the woman experiences.

 Mada (Mother). (20 minutes, directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst). A young woman in rural Jamaica has conflict with her devout mother over allowing her son to play with a doll. The grandmother wants them to go to church so they don’t fall into the wrong paths. But we see both women are seeking what is best for the boy, even if they have very different ideas of what that is.

Young Forever. (15 minutes, directed by Stevie Szerlip). A Korean woman in Los Angeles, struggles with a pyramid cosmetic sales program, gambling, debt, and loss. Her sales pitch is about getting away from stress, but her life is filled with it.

There. (29 minutes, directed by Wu Yu Fen). An Indonesian caregiver mourns “Grandpa”, whom she has been taking care of. She is now planning to return to Indonesia to care for her ailing mother. But with Grandpa’s children all working abroad, there are few people around to mourn Grandpa at his funeral. The key contrast is seen in the care the woman has for the deceased in her prayer by herself as opposed to the prayer cried by the professional mourner.

Reporting from Slamdance – I’ll admit there’s some weird stuff here.

by Leave a Comment

Festivals often have films that are outside my normal comfort zone. I may just skip over those sections with experimental styles of filmmaking. Slamdance has some groups of films that fit this category, including sections of Experimental Shorts, DIG (Digital, Interactive, and Gaming), and The Department of Anarchy. I decided to dip my toe into these sections to look for a few that might interest me.

“The Department of Anarchy”

Life. (4 seconds directed by Mohammad Mohammadian). Yes, that’s right, a four second film. How much depth can there be in that short a period? Well, you’re spending more time reading this review than the length of the film. Obviously, the theme is the brevity of life. And it makes that point clearly.

Bare Bones.  (10 minutes, directed by Meryem Lahlou). This is a computer animated film with voice over that reflects on the pendulum of life and death. It  creates a surreal world that leads us to nihilistic existential contemplation.

ASMR for White Liberals.(3 minutes, directed by John Connor Hammond). A black man softly says the kinds of things that will calm white liberals. As a white liberal myself, I understand that these are thing I think I would want to hear, but there is moral judgement to be found in that.

 Everything You Need to Know about Pierogi. (4 minutes, directed by John Phillips). What starts off as a rather boring celebration of the Polish dumpling suddenly takes a very strange turn into fulfilling life’s purpose.

Peter the Penguin. (10 minutes, directed by Andrew Rutter). Nigel is about to meet his girlfriend’s daughter for the first time. The stuffed toy he’s brought really isn’t good enough. When they get to the house, the child is in a panic because her stuffed penguin has been hurt. The ensuing drama takes a very dark turn for Nigel.

“DIG: Digital, Interactive & Gaming”

The Long Fall. (4 minutes, directed by Cade Mirabitur). Computer animation using a gaming engine. The interior of a house, with manikin-esque people. The house falls and tumbles into a bottomless pit.

24,483 Dreams of Death. (15 minutes, directed by Chris Peters). This project uses two separate Artificial Intelligences. The first AI watched a movie several times and then creates the visual world it perceives. Over this visual are the words of another AI that had been trained with millions of lines of poetry that creates its idea of poetry. The result is an eerie visual poetry.

To Die in the Valley I Love. (12 minutes, directed by Koryn Wicks). This film calls itself “a movement meditation on horror movies”. With a computer-generated text about horror films, a dancer responds to the text.

“Experimental Shorts”

Morning Sickness in the USA. (3 minutes, directed by Christine Brache). The filmmaker shares her grandmother’s story of coming to the US from Puerto Rico and being placed in a mental hospital when she went to a doctor for inexplicable nausea. The assumptions based on ethnicity point to problems in the system.

Rumi and His Roses (6 minutes, directed by Navid Sinaki). A gay Iranian man tells the story of the smuggling of love poems in bootleg DVD menus in his first relationship.

The Gospel According to Them. (11 minutes, directed by Bury Leod). A collection of various clips focusing of faith, but also black British experience. The clips are all in small inserts on the screen which created a distance that, for me, was off-putting.

Photos courtesy of Slamdance Film Festival

Reporting from Slamdance – Animated Shorts

by Leave a Comment

The Slamdance Film Festival has a section set aside for animated shorts. (Some of the films is other sections are also animated, but this report will focus on the Animated Shorts Section. There are a wide variety of styles and approaches represented. Some of these films are art school projects. Some strike me as somewhat experimental with the form. Here are some of my impressions.

Bad Mood. (10 minutes, directed by Loris Giuseppi Nese) A recounting by a girl/woman at ages 11, 16, and 21 of her mother working as a domestic worker taking care of dying people for €5/hour. She must deal with getting attached to patients, then losing them. As the girl grows older, she too must go to work.

Friend of a Friend. (15 minutes, directed by Zachary Zezima) A story of a sexual assault, revenge, and sexual ambivalence.

Knife Hanging From a Tree. (4 minutes, directed by JiHee Nam) This is a piece that is really more about experiencing the art and sound, rather than a traditional telling of a story.

Lizard Ladder.(6 minutes, directed by Ted Wiggins) Another that isn’t so much about story, but the artwork around the dog, lizard, and snake that are in the film is interesting.

Molly Dane. (7 minutes, directed by Ida Lasic). A cocktail party fundraiser and a death occurs. Not really fond of the artwork in this one.

Opera. (9 minutes, directed by Erick Oh) A mesmerizing world of tiny people in a pyramidal hierarchy. Each little section is busy with its own activity. There’s working, worship, war, and rebirth. What a pleasure to explore!

Papa Sun. (7 minutes, directed by Noah Gallagher) Music and poetry mixed with some interesting art work. A bit uneven.

Poise. (8 minutes, directed by Luis Soares). What to do with a handful of flies? As a man tries to decide, the whole world is set in indecision.

Return to the Peach Blossom Wonderland. (19 minutes, directed by Haoman Peng, Yue Huang, and Yuchao Luo). This harkens back to a 1600 year old Chinese fable of a utopian vision. It contrasts that with modern life in China (or an any modern city). Interesting view of modern life.

Something to Treasure. (3 minutes, directed by Annapurna Kumar). This has an experimental form and is an experiential piece. It’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t be surprised to see as a visual installation in a museum of modern art.

The Land of Whim. (9 minutes, directed by Bettina Bozek). This is an animated world of Dali-esque surrealism. Objects shift and evolve in bizarre ways. It has a very pleasant visual style and energy.

Urges. (2 minutes, directed by Angela Stemple). Bright, colorful pop-art style of animation seeking to visualize sensual pleasures and desire.

White Horse. (8 minutes, directed by Yujie Xu). A dreamlike world in which a man follows a horse through a maze, then they transform and really can’t get together.

Among this section of shorts, my absolute favorite is Opera. Others that I found especially enjoyable (for reasons I can’t quite explain) are Lizard Ladder and Return to the Peach Blossom Wonderland.

Welcome to the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival

by Leave a Comment

Like festivals all around the world over this last year, Slamdance Film Festival is going digital. Over 100 films will be available to watch from February 12-25. Slamdance, as the name implies, skews a bit to the edgier side of independent films. But that doesn’t mean it’s all weird, all the time. There are some very interesting films that will be part of the online festival.

Naturally there are feature films, both narrative and documentary, with a wide range of subject matter. There is also a load of short films. These include the traditional shorts sections of live action narrative, animated, and documentary shorts. But Slamdance also always has some sections that are a bit more out there. This year, that includes, “The Department of Anarchy”, “Experimental Shorts” and “DIG: Digital, Interactive, and Gaming”. Slamdance is also featuring a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that deals with people with disabilities. There will also be panel discussions about filmmaking and the business along the way.

I plan on reporting on many of the features, some in single film review, some in small groups of films, throughout the week. I’ll also be spending some time with the shorts and bringing reports on many of them.

Because this is a virtual festival, it means that you, too, can be part of the festival. Festival passes are available at the festival website for an amazingly low price of $10. That gets you access to the wide range of films without standing in line or filling a crowded screening room. (Even though many of us are yearning to return to theaters for films, we can’t just yet.)

Thursday at AFIFest 2020

by Leave a Comment

As AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi comes to an end, I want to thank the festival for allowing me to cover it again this year. This is always one of the highlights of my cinematic year. It is always an enormous task to put on a festival, especially one like AFIFest. This year has presented festivals with many challenges. AFI has come through with a tremendous event.

The Argentinian film Piedra Sola, from director Alejandro Telémaco Tarraf, is an ethnographic fiction film. In the highlands of Argentina we meet a llama herder as he and his son make a long journey to sell meat and hides. At home his herd is being killed off by a puma he cannot find. Other herders convene to discuss the need to be in harmony with Pachamama (Mother Earth) by sacrificing some llamas to the puma. As he journeys to satisfy the puma and the natural order he also must confront his own mortality. Much of the film is made up of long, meditative scenes. This is the kind of film that takes viewers into a very unfamiliar world. The lives of the people we meet are very different than our own. We often may not understand what they are doing, but we do find a common sense of the human condition.

Rival, from German director Marcus Lenz, is the story of Roman, a Ukrainian boy who is smuggled into Germany to be reunited with his mother Oksuna, who has been serving as a caregiver for the last three years. Now that the woman she has been caring for has died, she has stayed on with the woman’s husband Gert. Oksuna and Gert are in a relationship, and young Roman is not happy about it. He is always sullen when Gert is around. Roman clearly has some Oedipal feelings towards his mother. Roman continues to act out in various ways. But when his mother takes ill and is hospitalized, Gert takes him to a country house to avoid authorities since Oksuna and Gert are not in the country legally. Awaiting Oksuna’s release, Gert and Roman begin to bond a bit, but then Gert too is stricken, leaving Roman on his own not really knowing where he is and not speaking German.

I also took in a few shorts to round out my week.

Blocks (11 minutes), by Bridget Moloney, is the story of a mother of two small children struggling to keep up with it all. And they she begins vomiting Legos. Eventually, those Legos will provide her with a bit of an escape.

In Heading South (13 minutes), by Yuan Yuan, an eight year old Mongolian girl is taken from her home on the grasslands into the city for her father’s birthday. She learns that his father has remarried. She is very much an outsider at the raucous celebration filled with loud voices and drinking. We sense that the only relationship between father and daughter is what is forced upon them.

Dustin (20 minutes), from Naïla Guiguet, follows a young transgendered woman through a night at a nightclub. As she interacts with her friends, we sense her unhappiness as the story moves from hysteria to melancholy. The kindness and love she longs for are hard to find.

New French Shorts 2020

by Leave a Comment

If you read my festival coverage, you’ll know that I am a proponent for short films. I enjoy the chance to take in a program or two of shorts when I attend film festivals. Shorts are more than just practice for aspiring filmmakers. Shorts get to the point quickly and often very effectively. Usually, the only chance you have to see shorts is by attending a festival. But Kino Lorber is screening a two and a half hour program entitled “New French Shorts 2020” from Young French Cinema, a program of UniFrance and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. The program is made up of seven shorts varying in length and style.

Ahmed’s Song (30 minutes, directed by Foued Mansour) is the story of an attendant in the public baths who is nearing retirement and a young man on probation who is also sent to work in the baths. It is a chance for each of them to learn and grow—and to find new ways forward in their lives.

The animated film Sheep, Wolf, and a Cup of Tea (12 minutes, directed by Marion Lecourt) is an adventure in magical realism as a child going to sleep invokes a wolf from under the bed. Think of wolves in sheep’s clothing, and vice versa.

In Tuesday from 8 to 6 (26 minutes, directed by Cecilia de Arce) we follow Névine, a middle school monitor through her day as she tries to stand up for a troublesome student. She finds herself in the middle between students, teachers, and administrators.

The Distance between Us and the Sky (9 minutes, directed by Vasilis Kekatos) is the story of two men who meet at a gas station late one night. One is there to fill his tank, the other is trying to get a few euros to get home. It becomes very flirtatious as the two men banter back and forth. This film won the Short Film Palme d’Or and the Queer Palme at Cannes 2019.

The Tears Thing (25 minutes, directed by Clémence Poésy) tells of an actress who must go to a gun range to prepare for an upcoming role. She discovers that her instructor is a former girlfriend who abandoned her. How will that past impinge on the present?

Another LGBTQ+ themed film is Magnetic Harvest (24 minutes, directed by Marine Levéel). Mickael is a pig farmer who’s trying to get his organic certification. Living in a remote area, there’s little opportunity for romantic connections. He has an app on his phone that rarely shows nearby prospects. But through it all a returned neighbor, Paul, is beginning to work his way into Mickael’s life.

The Glorious Acceptance Speech of Nicolas Chauvin (26 minutes, directed by Benjamin Crotty) is marked as a “special bonus short”. It is mostly a time-bending monologue by the Napoleonic soldier who gave his name to super-patriotism. The film relishes anachronism as he tells his boastful story. Of course, he’s also confronted with the idea that he was a literary creation and never really existed. But for a man like Chauvin, what does reality even mean?

As my wife and I watched these shorts, we gave them separated scores (as if at a festival). For us the top film was Ahmed’s Song. It was a touching human story of wisdom that can flow between generations.

“New French Shorts 2020” is available on Kino Lorber’s Virtual Cinema site, KinoMarquee

Oscar-Nominated Short Documentaries

by Leave a Comment

Short films are important enough for the Academy to award three Oscars to shorts each year: Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, and Best Short Documentary. Most people haven’t had a chance to view these films, which may be harbingers of tomorrow’s filmmakers. But each year, shortly before the Academy Awards are presented, programs made up of these short films play in select theatres around the country. You can find where they will play near you at https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/theatrical-release/ . The films will also be available on VOD on Feb. 4. Here’s the line up for the Short Documeantaries.

In the Absence (29 minutes) from South Korea and the US, directed by Yi Seung-Jun. This film recounts the tragic sinking of a ferry in 2014 and the ways the government failed in its rescue attempts—failure that eventually contributed to the impeachment and removal of President Park Geun-hye. Made up of archival footage and interviews with survivors and families, this doc conveys the tragedy in the hundreds of lives (many children) lost.

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If you’re a Girl) (40 minutes) from the UK, the US, and Afghanistan, directed by Carol Dysinger. Girls are often not encouraged to go to school in Kabul, but many do anyway. We see some who along with learning to read, write, and do math, learn how to ride a skateboard. The school is known as Skateistan. Why teach them to skate? For one thing, it’s something that boys are applauded for, but girls are told not to do. It also teaches them courage and to trust their capabilities. And, it’s fun. By the way, Skateistan schools in Afghanistan are supported by the skating community around the world—who knew?

Life Overtakes Me (40 minutes) from the US, directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson. Hundreds of immigrant children in Sweden have developed what has become known as Resignation Syndrome. They go into a catatonic state for several months. The reason seems to be the uncertainty in their lives. They come from traumatic backgrounds, and the constant possibility of deportation is just too much for them to bear, so they sink into a coma-like state. We watch as three families try to deal with their affected children, plus their own uncertain futures.

St. Louis Superman (28 minutes) from the US, directed by Sami Khan and Smriti Mundhra. Bruce Franks is a battle rapper, a Black Lives Matter activist, and member of the Missouri state legislature. He is not your typical politician. As he strives to pass a law that recognizes youth violence as a public health matter, he also is striving to come to terms with his own trauma, seeing his nine year-old big brother shot and killed.

Walk Run Cha-Cha (20 minutes) from the US, directed by Laura Nix. Paul and Millie Cao were youthful sweethearts in Vietnam during the war. After the war, Paul and his family fled, eventually reaching the US. Later he was able to bring Millie. After their years of work to establish lives in their new country, they have formed another bond in ballroom dance. They are more than just recreational dancers; they take lots of lessons and compete. This is a film that will feed fans of “So You Think You Can Dance?”

Among the nominees in this category, my favorite is Learning How to Skateboard…. It is a story of hope. Many of us in the west may cringe at the way women are often treated in some places around the world. Skateistan provides a vision of shaping women who will overcome the strictures of their society.

Photos courtesy of Shorts.TV

TIFF ’19: I Am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain

by Leave a Comment

Image result for i am in the world as free and slender as a deer on a plain

In her directorial debut, Sofia Banzhaf (Black Conflux, Splinters) introduces us to a young and unnamed female protagonist (Micaela Robertson), showing us fragments of her journey with sexual exploration. Incredibly stoic throughout the film, she is almost emotionless as she interacts with her three sexual partners (Spencer Macpherson, Daniel Maslany, and Andy McQueen).

In fact, since the film opens on lifeless pigs hanging in the back of a truck, followed by the protagonist cooking a raw piece of meat, Banzhaf seems to insinuate that this is how the lead character views the males that she interacts with. This is an intriguing look at a reversal of the male stereotypes. Instead of presenting a callous male, we see a female who lacks an emotional connection to her sexual partners, and seems to have the “piece of meat” mentality towards them.

Too often, films depict their sexual encounters in very unrealistic ways. The sexual interactions in this film seemed very true to life, bringing with them a more genuine awkwardness and even discomfort, which I appreciated.

Sofia Banzhaf proves herself to be a thought-provoking artist, with her work frequently offering more insight than just what you see on the surface.

To listen to my discussion with Sofia Banzhaf about this film, please click here.

Saturday at #NBFF20

by Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the Newport Beach Film Festival presented by Pacific Sales. It was a full day for me, as you’ll see when you see the nine films I have to talk about. Okay, I’ll admit that six of them were shorts, but that still seems like a full day to me. Note that I’m including my votes for audience awards (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor)

I started the day with a shorts program, “Irish Lads and Lassies Shorts”. NBFF always has a good representation of Irish films. (Screen Ireland and Culture Ireland are two of the Cultural Arts Sponsors of the festival.) Saturday is also a day with programs aimed at young people. These shorts all featured young actors and themes. The films in the program were:

  • All in Good Time, directed by Bonnie Dempsey. A story of two ten year-olds who magically communicate through notes in a bottle. The trick is they lived 100 years apart. Yet they manage to solve each other’s problems. (My vote: Excellent)
  • First Disco, directed by Helen M. O’Reilly. This is the story of a teenager who is due to go to her first school dance, but just got braces. How will she ever get the attention of the boy she has a crush on when she feels her looks are ruined? The film has a very pleasant soundtrack of 80s music. As I watched I though this would be a nice companion to the film Happy Face I saw at the festival on Friday. (My vote: Good)
  • Low Tide, directed by Ian Hunt Duffy. This one has a bit of a horror vibe. A father and son go out fishing, but on the way back the father demands his son jumps in the water to confront the sea monster below. It’s a life changing encounter. (My vote: Good)
  • Honest, directed by Matthew Roche. This one takes place in church. A young boy fears the Jesus at the front of the church, knowing that he is always watching him. It brings up questions of belief and what it means to us. (My vote: Good)
  • Cry Rosa, directed by Imogen Murphy. A mixed-race girl must deal with bullying in school because of her color. It is a story of finding the strength to prevail in embracing her identity and self-worth. (My vote: Excellent)
  • The Wiremen, an animated film directed by Jessica Patterson. In the 1930s as electrification is coming to rural Ireland, an imaginative girl thinks she sees a fairy circling a light bulb. Her grandmother warns her of the dangers of the electrical box, and tells a story of Wiremen, evil beings that come with electricity. But the girl is just too curious and may be in danger as she pursues the fairy. (My vote: Good)

The joys and trials of having a child are the focus of Babysplitters from director Sam Friedlander. Two couples both have a dilemma, they don’t agree on having a baby. Sarah (Emily Chang) is anxious to start a family, but her husband Jeff (Danny Pudi) is dragging his feet. When they meet with friends Don and Taylor, it turns out that Don (Eddie Alfano) is ready, but not Taylor (Maiara Walsh). They talk about if they could share a child, it would give them the joys of parenting, but still give them time to enjoy life. The plan becomes more and more complicated, and each complication brings new laughs. The sex scene removes romance and eroticism from the act with very funny results. Eventually the film makes it all work out with an affirmation of family and parenthood. (My vote: Excellent)

Go Back to China was another comedy about family. When spoiled party girl Sasha (Anna Akana) is forced to go to China to work in the family business, it is with great resentment. Her father (Richard Ng) is demanding and mercurial, but he also seeks to give Sasha and her various half-siblings the benefit of his lifetime of working. The father believes his financial support of his children is fulfilling his responsibility. But what of his absence and emotional abandonment all those years? It is a time of self-discovery for Sasha, as well as for her father. In the Q&A following the film, director Emily Ting, noted the autobiographical aspects of the film. She returned to China at age 24 to work in the family business. (The factory in the film is the actual factory the family owns. My vote: Good)

The Canadian Spotlight of the festival fell on A Colony (Une Colonie), a Quebec film from director Geneviève Dulude-De Clelles. This is a coming-of age, fish-out -of-water tale of Mylia (Emilie Bierre), who must go into town for high school. She has always been in a rural setting, and the large school setting is chaotic for her. She never quite fits in with the other girls, even with her cousin who is also at the school. She develops a friendship with another outside Jimmy (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), a First Nations boy who lives nearby. Together they discover that “coloring outside the lines” may be the secret to finding happiness. There are some family issues and backstory that could have been fleshed out a bit, but overall, this was a nicely done film. (My vote: Good)