PRESENTED BY THE NICKELODEON
INDIE GRITS POCKET GUDIE
WITH THE CARD ACCEPTED BY MORE DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS SouthCarolinaBlues.com
Indie Grits 2017
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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Sponsors
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Table of Contents
Passes & Tickets
VISIONES FESTIVAL PASS $150 – Non-Members $100 – Nick Members
FESTIVAL PASS BENEFITS One free admission to:
CONTENTS 5
EVENT SCHEDULE
7
FESTIVAL MAP
9
FILM SCHEDULE
11
FEATURES
24
FILM AWARDS
25
SHORTS BLOCKS
37
INDEX
• • • • • •
All film screenings at the Nick (based on availability) One Puppet Slam performance The Weekly Revue Late Night at New Brookland Tavern The Keynote Speech with Favianna Rodriguez, our Artist-in-Residence
•
2 drink tickets per passholder for the After Party at Main Street Public House and access to VIP Lounge
You will be mailed a festival pass lanyard upon purchasing, or can pick it up at the Nickelodeon Theatre. You must wear your lanyard to receive festival pass benefits. The festival pass is not a fast pass. Pre-reservation for tickets is encouraged.
TICKETS & PRICES $10 – General Admission $8 – Member (For film events only – does not include Weekly Revue and Puppet Slam) $5 – Student (Box Office only) Tickets are first come, first served. Ticket sales cut off at midnight before the screening. All seating is general admission.
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Indie Grits 2017
Event Schedule
THURSDAY APRIL 20 WEDNESDAY APRIL 19
Day 1
FACTO TEATRO WORKSHOP 6-8p // FREE
Columbia Marionette Theatre 401 Laurel St
NOCHE DE VISIONES
Indie Bits
1216 Taylor St
A FREE Opening Night Block Party featuring Lambchop and Curtis Harding
Events
1600 Block of Main St, outside of the Nickelodeon
SHOWCASE
12-8p // FREE
FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ KEYNOTE & ART REVEAL Reception: 6p Keynote: 7p, El Sur: 8p The Nickelodeon 1607 Main St
FRIDAY APRIL 21 Day 2
FACTO TEATRO WORKSHOP 6-8p // FREE
Columbia Marionette Theatre 401 Laurel St
LATE NIGHT AT NEW BROOKLAND TAVERN Doors: 10p Show: 10:30p 1125 State St
6-10P
AFTER PARTY AT MAIN STREET PUBLIC HOUSE 10p-2a
1556 Main St
WEEKLY REVUE 8:30-10:30P Doors: 8:30p Revue: 9p 1216 Taylor St
AFTER PARTY AT THE WHIG! 10:30p, last call 6am 1200 Main St
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Event Schedule
Indie Grits 2017
SATURDAY APRIL 22 Events
KINDIE GRITS: LUCHA MAGIC
10a-2p // FREE The Big Apple 1000 Hampton St
DON CHICO CON ALAS
Shows at 11a and 3p Columbia Marionette Theatre 401 Laurel St Indie Bits
ALFREDO SALAZARCARO KEYNOTE 11a-12p // FREE
FOOD TRUCK PARRANDA
12-5P
An afternoon of Latin-American food and live music. FREE ADMISSION! 1000 block of Hampton St, outside of Richland Library and St. Peter's Catholic Church
Richland Library 1431 Assembly St
PUPPET SLAM
BUMPERS & FLIPPERS
1216 Taylor St
SUNDAY APRIL 23 Events
SUNDAY BBQ 12-4P The War Mouth Parking Lot 2404 Main St
Performances at 7-8:30p & 9-10:30p
12-8p // FREE
Indie Bits
1216 Taylor St
SHOWCASE
SHOWCASE
12-6p // FREE
1216 Taylor St
DESIGN SUMMIT
1216 Taylor St
12-8p // FREE
1-5:30p // FREE
AFTER PARTY AT ART BAR
Richland Library 1431 Assembly St
1211 Park St
DESIGN SUMMIT
10p-2a
2:30-5p // FREE Richland Library 1431 Assembly St
PARK ST.
8
THE BIG APPLE
5 11
16
5
3-4 2
RICHLAND LIBRARY
13-15
7
BOYD PLAZA
COLUMBIA MUSEUM OF ART
1 1-2
4
THE NICK 15
7
9
2
11-14
16
3-4
THE MARRIOTT
FREE TIMES
MAIN STREET PUBLIC HOUSE
ONECOLUMBIA
8
TAPPS ART CENTER
10
1-2
1216 TAYLOR
6
P
ST. PETER’S CATHOLIC CHURCH
3
P
MAIN ST.
1
6,16
HAMPTON ST.
TAYLOR ST.
P
BLANDING ST. SUMTER ST.
ASSEMBLY ST.
12
EE
RIV
P
parking
ER
5. Food Truck Parranda 1000 Block of Hampton Parking available at St. Peter's Catholic Church
4. Puppet Slam
3. Weekly Revue
2. After Party at Main Street Public House
ASSEMBLY ST.
WASHINGTON ST.
venue
12. Late Night at New Brookland Tavern
10. Facto Teatro Workshop 11. Don Chico con alas Columbia Marionette Theatre
9. Sunday BBQ The War Mouth Parking Lot
8. After Party at the Whig!! P
7. After Party at Art Bar
6. Kindie Grits
GERVAIS ST.
10-11
ASSEMBLY ST.
1. Noche de Visiones 1600 Block of Main
EVENTS
N
R GA
ART BAR
CO
7
ELMWOOD AVE.
9
MAIN ST.
THE WHIG!!
8. Danny Flores
7. Christian Guerrero
6. Pauline Arroyo
5. Abi Gomez
4. Santiago Echeverry
3. MILAGROS collective
2. Andrea Patiño Contreras & Univision
1. Favianna Rodriguez Keynote & Installation
16. Alice Rodriguez
4. Design Summit
3. Alfredo Salazar-Caro Keynote Speech
2. Bumpers & Flippers 15. Irving Juarez
1. Showcase 14. Ivan Segura
INDIE BITS
2. Richland Library
1. The Nickelodeon
FILM VENUES
GERVAIS ST.
13. Marina Ziehe
12. Danielle Calle
11. Jorge Intriago
10. Elizabeth Houck
9. Diana Farfán
VISIONES ART PROGRAM
8
WASHINGTON ST.
9
Indie Grits 2017
INDIE GRITS EVE WED, APRIL 19
Film Schedule
THURSDAY, APRIL 20
FRIDAY, APRIL 21
12 P
1P
NE V E R CA M E BACK
2P
1:30pm 88 min page 18
3P
4P
M E AD OW BR I D G E 2:30pm 88 min page 19
EL SUR 4pm 88 min page 19
6P
FAV I ANNA ROD RI GUE Z KEYNOTE & EL SUR SCREENI NG
7P
TH E 41 ST DAY
9P
1 0P
2pm 83 min page 27
J U NGL E
5P
8P
HO M E TOW N HE R O E S
8pm 94 min page 11
6pm 215 min page 25
THE TI E S THAT BI ND 6:30pm 80 min page 14
YO U R R I DE I S HE R E 9pm 82 min page 20
1 1P
4:30pm 76 min page 25
M O ME NTS O F CA MPAI G N 5pm 74 min page 15
CA I R O I N O NE BR E ATH 7pm 80 min page 13
E V E RYBO DY DI E S 9:30pm 66 min page 29
THE NICK FRANK COX THEATER
THE NICK BCBSSC THEATER
THE NICK FRANK COX THEATER
THE NICK BCBSSC THEATER
2pm 74 min page 31
F UT URE VI S I O N 4:30pm 86 min page 33
LO O K & S E E HO ME TOWN HE RO E S 7:40pm 83 min page 27
HA PPI NE S S BO MB 10:10pm 76 min page 22
12A
T H E NE W NO STALG I A
THE NICK FRANK COX THEATER
7:10pm 82 min page 11
H AR A KI RI 9:30pm 87 min page 21
THE NICK BCBSSC THEATER
10
Film Schedule
SUNDAY, APRIL 23
SATURDAY, APRIL 22
1P
2P
3P
INDIE GRANTS 12pm 90 min page 23
HE ARTS OF PALM 2pm 90 min page 23
4P
5P
7P
8P
4:30pm 74 min page 31
FUTUR E VISION
9P
10P
11 P
12:30pm 76 min page 36
EL SUR T H E R OOM OF B ON ES 3:30pm 82 min page 16
3pm 76 min page 25
AN O UT R AG E T E M P E STA D
2pm 95 min page 13
OA X ACA 5pm 76 min page 36
T H E M OD ERN JU N G LE 6pm 82 min page 17
E NCO R E S CR E E NI NG T BD
D IS C O LIM BO 7:30pm
E VERY BODY DIES
8:30pm 82 min page 12
1:30pm 60 min page 17
LO O K & S E E 3:45pm 82 min page 11
WI NNE RS T BD
6pm
WI NNE RS T BD
8:30pm
9:15pm 66 min page 29
THE NICK BCBSSC THEATER
RICHLAND LIBRARY
THE NICK FRANK COX THEATER
THE NICK BCBSSC THEATER
SPECIAL SCREENIN G
12 A
THE NICK FRANK COX THEATER
SH ORTS BLO CK
6:45pm 86 min page 33
12:30pm 115 min page 35
OA X ACA
FE ATU RE BLO CK
6P
THE NEW NOSTALG I A
FEM M E FR ON T ER A
S C RE E NINGS M AY BE AC C O MPA NIE D BY A Q & A
12P
Indie Grits 2017
Features
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Non-Competition
THE 41ST DAY: THE JOURNEY OF RYAN HALL NON-COMPETITION
TIM JEFFREYS Brooklyn, NY 94 minutes
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 8:00PM
LOOK & SEE: A PORTRAIT OF WENDELL BERRY
In this documentary feature debut from Tim Jeffreys, marathon runner Ryan Hall--a star on the rise athlete gunning for a chance at Olympic gold--suffers a stunning setback at the 2012 games in London that leaves him injured and unable to compete. As he embarks on a cross-country odyssey back in America, Hall reckons with questions of spirituality, individual purpose, and identity after his dreams of Olympic glory are extinguished.
LAURA DUNN & JEFF SEWELL Austin, TX 82 minutes
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 7:10PM SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 3:45PM
NON-COMPETITION Novelistic in its quiet introspection and episodic structure, this carefully composed, astonishingly intimate praise song offers unprecedented access to the notoriously private, internationally renowned writer and environmental activist Wendell Berry. Sporting elegant interviews with family members, a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival photographs, as well as a rich, nuanced voiceover from the author himself, Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry is a ravishingly told story of one man’s unflagging passion for the Kentucky landscape that he calls home.
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Non-Competition
Features
PRESENTED BY MAGIC HOUR! FEATURING A PERFORMANCE BY INFINITIKISS
FREDO LANDAVERI & MARIANO TOLEDO Buenos Aires, Argentina 70 minutes
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 8:30PM
PRECEDED BY:
MUSIC OF DESIRE Kristin Reeves Murray, KY 8 minutes
SAM COHEN - “THE GARDEN” Lucy Munger Brooklyn, NY 4 minutes
DISCO LIMBO NON-COMPETITION A young man’s quest to track down a handsome partygoer drags him across the rugged terrain of memory, into karaoke parlors, over mountains, and beyond. A rollicking, kaleidoscopic queer romance that plays by its own rules, this debut feature flouts convention every slip-sliding step of the way, utilizing animation, video tutorials, dubbing, and other seemingly incongruous tricks of the cinematic trade with reckless abandon.
Features
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Non-Competition
This screening will feature a Q&A by Julie Smithwick, PASOs Executive Director.
TATIANA HUEZO México / El Salvador 105 minutes
TEMPESTAD
SUNDAY, APRIL 23 2:00PM
NON-COMPETITION
Striking handheld camerawork and spellbinding voiceovers are hallmarks of this expressionistic documentary, a study in atmosphere and introspection. Miriam, wrongfully imprisoned on trumped up charges of human trafficking in her native México, grapples with the violence she endured behind bars, while Adela--a circus clown--longs for her missing daughter, gone some ten years. Tempestad was commended as “a passionate plea for freedom” by jurors at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered.
Strongman Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, in the weeks and months leading to his ouster, attempts to curb sound pollution in the capital city of Cairo by installing wireless receivers in its nearly 4,000 mosques and instituting a government-broadcast summons to worship--eliminating the need for muezzins, Muslim men who call the faithful to prayer. This rich soundscape of spiritual tumult and political transformation in a rapidly westernizing Egypt is a visually and aurally stunning documentary from Indie Grits alum Anna Kipervaser.
CAIRO IN ONE BREATH
ANNA KIPERVASER Durham, NC 80 minutes
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 7:00PM
Documentary
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Features
THE TIES THAT BIND DIANA NEWTON Carrboro, NC 60 minutes
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 6:30PM
Rigorous in its thoughtful self-examination, this devastatingly personal family portrait--a documentary feature nearly fourteen years in the making--details director Diana Newton’s own journey toward acceptance alongside her sister Christine, a trans woman navigating the emotional and physical perils of coming out. Wrenching and eloquent, The Ties That Bind offers a new gloss on living authentically in an environment historically hostile to difference.
PRECEDED BY:
FEAR
POSITIONING
Dawn Dreyer & Andrea Love Durham, NC 8 minutes
Anne Beal Chicago, IL 4 minutes
ASH
CRUMBLING
Alice Lammers, Mary Nejatifar & Chovy Quiñones San Antonio, TX 6 minutes
Faith Cox Columbia, SC 2 minutes
15
Features
Documentary
MOMENTS OF CAMPAIGN TOMÁS ASTUDILLO Quito, Ecuador 52 minutes
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 5:00PM
Director Tomás Astudillo’s unflinching, impartial camera manages to capture moments of genuine feeling from an otherwise elusive subject: the contemporary politician. Shot in stark, unforgiving black and white, this incisive behind-the-scenes portrait of charismatic populist Rafael Correa--whose successful 2013 bid for reelection as President of Ecuador serves as the focus of this documentary--offers surprising parallels for American audiences on the heels of our own recent national election.
PRECEDED BY:
SERIOUSLY NOT FUNNY Charles Fairbanks, Forest Bright, Lillian Burke, Odette Chavez-Mayo & Ellie Burck Yellow Springs, OH 17 minutes
THE ARIA OF BABYFACE CAULIFLOWER BROWN Tim Grant Charlotte, NC 5 minutes
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Documentary
Features
THE ROOM OF BONES MARCELA ZAMORA San Salvador, El Salvador 60 minutes
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 3:30PM
PRECEDED BY:
THE DIVER Esteban Arrangoiz Mexico City, México 16 minutes
DEJAR Caitliin Díaz Los Angeles, CA 6 minutes
In this hard-nosed, steely-eyed documentary feature, Marcela Zamora--El Salvador’s preeminent journalist-cum-director--exhumes the sad remains of decades’ worth of gang violence that have decimated her country and its people. Straddling the line between compassion and science, forensic anthropologists gather to study the bones drawn from El Salvador’s innumerable mass graves, hoping to identify the remains so that grieving mothers of the desaparecidos (the “missing”) can arrive at some sense of closure.
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Features
Documentary
THE MODERN JUNGLE CHARLES FAIRBANKS & SAUL KAK Yellow Springs, OH Chiapas, Mexico 72 minutes
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 6:00PM
Juan, the Mexican shaman at the center of this hazy, feverish snapshot of globalization gone awry, turns to slickly marketed nutritional supplements to cure the excruciating hernia that his incantations won’t. Meanwhile, his widowed neighbor Carmen tends to her land just as she always has--property that her late husband fought and died for during a landless farmers’ movement.
AN OUTRAGE HANNAH AYERS & LANCE WARREN Richmond, VA 33 minutes
SUNDAY, APRIL 23 1:30PM
Crisp monochrome cinematography, thought-provoking interviews with scholars, and rarely-seen archival photographs document the rise of lynching in the postbellum South. This riveting documentary (which premiered at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC) travels to six different lynching sites around the South, with African-American historians, community activists, and descendants of lynching victims seeking to excavate the racist motivations behind this appalling practice.
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Narrative
Features
NEVER CAME BACK JEREMIAH JAHI New York, NY 81 minutes
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 1:30PM
PRECEDED BY:
SIXTEEN Vashti Harrison Onley, VA 7 minutes
A carefully observed debut, shot in bleary, melancholy black and white, Never Came Back chronicles the return of a long-absent patriarch to the arms of his ambivalent family after a period of twenty-five years. This timely, emotionally resonant narrative feature grapples with the lasting repercussions of incarceration on the African-American consciousness.
PRECEDED BY:
MORE DANGEROUS THAN A THOUSAND RIOTERS Kelly Gallagher Yellow Springs, OH 6 minutes
THE COURAGE OF HER CONVICTIONS Gillian Ray Alexandria, VA 19 minutes
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Features
Narrative
JUNGLE MARTIN RIEZNIK Buenos Aires, Argentina 75 minutes
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 4:00PM Shot completely in natural light, this unvarnished, raw debut feature follows world-weary Lucas--a hopelessly rational man trapped in a hopelessly irrational environment--as he ventures deep into the Amazon rainforest in search of an elusive (and potentially nonexistent) group of indigenous tribes. As the harsh conditions and prolonged isolation begin to compromise his sanity, Lucas encounters Selva, a beautiful and mysterious woman who challenges his quest to find the indigenous community.
PRECEDED BY:
MEADOW BRIDGE TIJAH BUMGARNER FRIDAY, APRIL 21 Charleston, WV 89 minutes
2:30PM
TISURE AdriĂĄn Geyer Caracas, Venezuela 13 minutes
Wrestling with questions of place, purpose, and prosperity in small town Appalachia, this charmingly candid debut feature traces the arc of a young woman’s coming of age in 1990s West Virginia. High school student Darcy reckons with age-old dilemmas of parental confrontation, young love, and much more, managing to come to terms with her identity in the process.
Narrative
20
Features
FRASER JONES Atlanta, GA 58 minutes
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 9:00PM
YOUR RIDE IS HERE A buddy movie that defies easy categorization, this debut feature writes its own cinematic recipe, mixing elements of comedy, drama, documentary, and narrative to produce a unique genre mashup all its own. Isaiah, a rock musician turned ride-share app driver, forges an unlikely bond with his new mentee Fraser--a recent film school dropout haunting the streets of Nashville in the hopes of creating a documentary about the city.
PRECEDED BY:
CRASS Micah Troublefield Rock Hill, SC 12 minutes
80S DATING VIDEO REMIX Hillary R. Heath & Nicole Kemper Decatur, GA 7 minutes
TABLE MANNERS House of June Atlanta, GA 5 minutes
Features
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Narrative
HARA KIRI
HENRY ALBERTO Los Angeles, CA 81 minutes
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 9:30PM
This narrative feature chronicles the lovers’ last day on Earth. Unapologetically punk, rough-edged and lyrical, Hara Kiri is a dark queer romance set against a backdrop of a decidedly unglamorous contemporary Los Angeles. Navigating uncertain emotional and psychological terrain, all while migrating through the graffitied bedrooms and arid sidestreets of their city, skateboarders August and Beto enter into a suicide pact and agree to end it all together.
PRECEDED BY:
THE HOLE PUNCH Harry Bartle New Orleans, LA 6 minutes
Narrative
22
Features
HAPPINESS BOMB: A CHICKEN POX NOW!! WILLIE WHITE Lexington, SC 52 minutes
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 10:10PM
Five tales of rare stupidity! Happiness Bomb is a Twilight Zone-type anthology series of rock operas and melodramas starring a group of puppet actors -- Suzie, Nod, Pythagoras, Zero Rabbit, Moses, and the Rat! -- who broadcast their stories to the strange remnants of a cartoon world, 78 years past the Happiness Bomb ... as The Host rodserlings it all.
PRECEDED BY:
BAGGAGEKLAIM “BETTER DESPERATE” Adam Drawdy Columbia, SC 4 minutes
DEX•TER•I•TY Brooke Keppy & Timothy Nesmith Columbia, SC 2 minutes
DEVIL’S TRAP Liz Houck & Alice Lilitu Columbia, SC 11 minutes
TEENAGE CALIGULA, THE TRAILER Christopher Bickel Columbia, SC 6 minutes
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Features
Narrative
HEARTS OF PALM MONICA PEĂ‘A Miami, FL 74 minutes
PRECEDED BY:
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 2:00PM
THE RABBIT HUNT
Sun-bleached and surreal, this enigmatic experimental feature debut is as literary as it is cinematic, with two nameless protagonists (El y Ella) retreating into the realms of ritual and the supernatural as they close themselves off from the outside world. When the appearance of the mysterious NiĂąo Bueno beckons with him a host of otherworldly forces, El y Ella are confronted with the possibility of their own romantic doom.
NON-COMPETITION
INDIE GRANTS
Patrick Bresnan & Ivete Lucas Palm Beach, FL 12 minutes
SQUIRREL Robin Salant Memphis, TN 4 minutes
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 AT 12:00PM
Check out recent shorts from the SC Film Commision's Indie Grants program that funds and produces short films by South Carolina filmmakers. Filmmakers will be on hand for Q&A, as well as Indie Grants staff to talk about the grant application and production process. Funding cycle is now open, with applications due June 19th. Visit indiegrants.org for more info.
Film Awards
24
Indie Grits 2017
FILM AWARDS ANIMATED GRIT ($250) Best animated film as decided by the jury.
REEL SOUTH SHORT FILM AWARD ($500) A non-exclusive license deal to distribute the best short film representing the new American South. Sponsored by South Carolina ETV, UNC-TV and the Southern Documentary Fund.
THE PEOPLE’S GRIT ($500) Voted on by the audience.
VISIONES AWARD ($500) For the film considered by our jury to be the best in regards to the aims of our theme, Visiones.
HELEN HILL MEMORIAL AWARD ($500)
OTHER JURY AWARDS Big Grit Best feature length film Short Grit Best short film Experimental Grit Best experimental film Local Grit Best local film Young Grit Best student film
Awarded by the jury to the best work by a female filmmaker, in honor of Columbia native and celebrated animator, filmmaker and teacher Helen Hill (1970-2007).
TOP GRIT ($1000) Given to the top film as determined by our jury. Films from all categories are eligible to win this award.
All films are in competition unless otherwise noted. Shorts paired with any features are in competition.
Short Blocks
25
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19 AT 6:00PM with Favianna Rodriguez Keynote Speech
El Sur
EL SUR
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 AT 4:30PM SATURDAY, APRIL 22 AT 3:00PM at Richland Library, 1431 Assembly Street
Rhythmic and riveting, El Sur is the South as you’ve never seen it before. These exquisitely rendered visions of the contemporary Latinx experience offer audiences a much-needed antidote to the poisonous politics of the moment, as well as a stark and unforgiving commentary on a national prejudice left unchecked. With boundless compassion, the filmmakers of El Sur document the
struggles, sacrifices, and joys unique to the Latinx community, elevating stories of men, women, and gender nonconforming individuals who transform the South for the better by choosing to call it home. La Comida de los Cocineros, a nourishing documentary portrait of brotherhood born through shared circumstance, pulses with the staccato rhythm of a knife on a cutting board. A group of Mexican line cooks live and work alongside one another in a small North Carolina town in the latest film from Indie Grits alumna Victoria Bouloubasis, produced in collaboration with newcomer
26
El Sur
Short Blocks
Andrea Patiño Contreras. Danielle Calle’s subdued observational documentary A Day’s Work offers a stark contrast in tone, detailing the everyday experiences of a Colombian couple grappling with the vile racist rhetoric surrounding our recent national election. Hewing even closer to the real-world consequences of political scapegoating, For Senator Graham—the inaugural project from Indie Grits Labs—presents a series of earnest interviews with DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrival) recipients living in South Carolina. Rodrigo Dorfman’s kaleidoscopic experimental short In My South makes room for joy with a tender collage of everyday moments from Latinx lives, while La Danza—Rafael Cordova and Tharun Karakattu’s empowering documentary short—resuscitates an indigenous style of Mexican dance obscured by the forces of colonialism and assimilation. Carlo Nasisse’s bracingly funny portrait of a rough-and-tumble South Texas Cowpunk mired in the legal consequences of substance abuse offers an intimate view of the Latinx punk scene in this final documentary short.
SELECTED FILMS
IN MY SOUTH
A DAY’S WORK
Rodrigo Dorfman Durham, NC 7 minutes
Danielle Calle Greenville, SC 6 minutes
LA DANZA
SOUTH TEXAS COWPUNK
Rafael Cordova & Tharun Karakattu San Antonio, TX 9 minutes
Carlo Nasisse Austin, TX 17 minutes
LA COMIDA DE LOS COCINEROS Victoria Bouloubasis & Andrea Patiño Contreras Durham, NC 6 minutes
FOR SENATOR GRAHAM (non-competition) Seth Gadsden & Amada Torruella Columbia, SC 20 minutes
Short Blocks
27
Hometown Heroes
Intensely moving and occasionally melancholy, the films of Hometown Heroes celebrate the free spirits, magnetic personalities, and enigmatic figures that lend our southern cities character. Iron-willed and fiercely independent, with liberated world views that serve to awaken the complacent around them, these Hometown Heroes inspire with their unbridled creative energy and manic desire to see their dreams realized.
HOMETOWN HEROES THURSDAY, APRIL 20 AT 2:00PM FRIDAY, APRIL 21 AT 7:40PM
A collection of absorbing life studies that brim with hard won, unflagging optimism, the documentary and narrative shorts of Hometown Heroes challenge audiences to live more authentic lives. Indomitable and undaunted, our Hometown Heroes chart their own course, and in so doing encourage others to do the same. Columbia based musician Aaron Graves refuses to give in to fear after a horrific diagnosis, renewing his dedication to songwriting in an effort to combat emotional demons.
Hometown Heroes
The Indie Grits regulars at Dust of the Ground buoy with My Bones are Singing, an invigorating profile that insists on the redemptive power of art. Creative self-expression as a means of freedom from illness persists with Hannah Engelson’s uplifting documentary short Jonah Stands Up. A visual artist, standup comedian, and one-time New Orleans mayoral candidate, wheelchair-bound Jonah Bascle flouts the limitations of muscular dystrophy, empowering others to reconsider the boundaries of the possible. For the bewitching “Coyote Boy” at the center of Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s electrifying coming of age short Get Out Fast, an uncertain, unglamorous life on the road is infinitely preferable to a rigid small town routine. Patrick Shanahan’s documentary portrait of the fiercely ambitious The No Hand King invigorates with its chronicle of one man’s quest to satisfy an unusual (and seemingly impossible) world record while biking along the North Carolina coast. Giovanni Autran’s sun-dappled travelogue Paloma concludes Hometown Heroes with a chorus of voices from the streets of Havana, Cuba, delighting in the simple joys of love and friendship in a city as yet unsullied by the forces of modernization.
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SELECTED FILMS
Short Blocks
MY BONES ARE SINGING Dust of the Ground Columbia, SC 3 minutes
JONAH STANDS UP Hannah Engelson Cambridge, MA 21 minutes
GET OUT FAST Haley Elizabeth Anderson Austin, TX 13 minutes
THE NO HAND KING Patrick Shanahan Raleigh, NC 30 minutes
PALOMA Giovanni Autran Brooklyn, NY 11 minutes
Short Blocks
29
Everybody Dies
EVERYBODY DIES Not all of us are destined to go gentle into that good night. Ask any of the island spirits, murderous siblings, or vengeful artists dominating this block. Everybody Dies, sure, but our individual journeys to and through the afterlife—if one believes in such a thing—are sometimes anything but peaceful. Angst-ridden and anarchic, simmering with not-so-quiet rage, the shorts of Everybody Dies concern themselves with the souls and psyches of those for whom tranquility and passive acceptance are not
possible. Everybody Dies burns with irrepressible emotion, searing audiences with taboo feelings that would certainly remain covered otherwise. All the lives of Everybody Dies rattle and rage, going out with an explosion, not a whimper. J. Cole’s music video “Everybody Dies” sets an unmistakably volatile tone, with director Scott Lazer honing in on the devastating power of language to insult and malign. In
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 AT 9:30PM SATURDAY, APRIL 22 AT 9:15PM
this truck bed tirade, the artistic reputations of others are victims of the rapper’s poisoned pen. On the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, malevolent jumbi haunt the memories of locals in Vashti Harrison’s
Everybody Dies
30
Short Blocks
journalistic experimental short Field Notes. Spoken recollections and notebook scribblings overpower grainy 16mm film footage to create a vision of an afterlife populated by supernatural furies. Death, Gabriella Badillo’s scorched revision of a traditional Mexican folktale, offers yet another tale of a painful, protracted demise with the story of three brothers attempting to elude the inevitable. White Death, Robert Collío’s ghostly real-life chronicle of a lost Chilean battalion’s ill-fated trip through the snowy mountains, unsettles with its frightening vision. André Silva’s 16mm observational documentary Black River haunts with somber images of a landscape cycling through decay and eventual renewal. David Zonana’s narrative short Dim Blood perplexes with its study of a young woman’s strange response to her sister’s leukemia diagnosis. Wave Iteration, Anna Spence’s pixelated, color-saturated experimental study of organic sea forms, concludes Everybody Dies with its bewitching array of intense imagery.
SELECTED FILMS
FIELD NOTES Vashti Harrison Onley, VA 18 minutes
WHITE DEATH Robert Collío Santiago, Chile 17 minutes
J. COLE “EVERYBODY DIES” Scott Lazer Los Angeles, CA 3 minutes
BLACK RIVER André Silva Wilmington, NC 4 minutes
DEATH Gabriela Badillo Mexico City, Mexico 3 minutes
DIM BLOOD David Zonana Mexico City, Mexico 15 minutes
WAVE ITERATION Anna Spence Atlanta, GA 5 minutes
Short Blocks
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The New Nostalgia
THE NEW NOSTALGIA FRIDAY, APRIL 21 2:00PM SATURDAY, APRIL 22 4:30PM
The vulnerability of memory is a driving preoccupation for the filmmakers of The New Nostalgia, who work to capture fast-fading reminiscences, decaying landscapes, and a host of other all-too-brief moments and lives before they disappear entirely. With frank, funny, brutally honest work that embraces complex, nuanced feeling ahead of reductive logic and cheap sentimentality, The New Nostalgia is wistful for the unconventional and the obscure—for people, places, and moments
that many would rather forget altogether. The emotional archeologists of The New Nostalgia excavate and disinter, drawing what we’ve dismissed or buried back into the fore of our consciousness. In Stephen Crompton’s sun-washed documentary short Sweet Love, Harvard educated lawyer Alvin Bojar recalls his stint as a soft-core pornographer in 1970s New York City. Plodding past the immaculately manicured lawns and pastel-colored houses of his South Florida retirement community, Bojar resuscitates his dormant passion for scandal. Emily
32
The New Nostalgia
SWEET LOVE Stephen Crompton Tampa, FL 20 minutes
35MM MONSTERS Remington Smith Louisville, KY 5 minutes
ALL SKATE, EVERYBODY SKATE Nicole Triche Durham, NC 19 minutes
SELECTED FILMS
BYGONE BARNS Matthew McFarling Wilmington, NC 6 minutes
REGRESO Rodrigo Dada San Salvador, El Salvador 3 minutes
HOUSE OF SAINTS Gerry Melendez Columbia, SC 14 minutes
GIRLS ZUI SIDE “SAD LIFE” Jennifer Miville Quebec, Canada 2 minutes
CHECKERS IN THE AFTERNOON Emily Harrold New York, NY 3 minutes
Short Blocks
Harrold’s loose, intuitive documentary short Checkers in the Afternoon shifts from the personal to the political when a rambling afternoon conversation in the back of a South Carolina car wash transforms into a plaintive song for the plight of the rural southern worker. Indie Grits alumnus Remington Smith tames 35mm Monsters in this reverent documentary short, a sorrow-tinged study of a dying art form: threading a film projector. Pained memories of a lost romance temper a postmaster’s love of roller skating in Nicole Triche’s quiet documentary short All Skate, Everybody Skate. German punk group Girls Zui Sade thumb their nose at this kind of tenderhearted expression in Jennifer Miville’s music video for “Sad Life,” a digital mashup of Internet age tropes. Matthew McFarling’s 16mm experimental short Bygone Barns explores a rural barnyard brimming with artifacts of a South long gone, while Rodrigo Dada’s experimental short Regreso splices home video footage with shots of a mysterious coast. Finally, local filmmaker Gerry Melendez tours the House of Saints alongside his documentary’s subject, Reggie Scott—a jazz aficionado still tormented by a crime from his past.
Short Blocks
FUTURE VISION FRIDAY, APRIL 21 AT 4:30PM SATURDAY, APRIL 22 AT 6:45PM
33
Future Vision
For the cinematic equivalent of an acid trip, look no further than Future Vision, an otherworldly, eerily prescient assemblage of films from today’s most visionary young directors. These optically astounding dark dreamscapes merge science fiction with southern-fried surrealism to create a future that is anything but utopian. Hallucinogenic, gripping, and timely, the films of Future Vision—both exhilarating and disquieting by turn—announce the arrival of a vital new generation of filmmakers working in the tradition of Kubrick and Cuarón. Clear-eyed, urgent dispatches from a frighteningly believable reality, Future Vision is essential viewing—a series of cautionary tales and premonitions that are entirely of the moment.
In the Brooklyn of director Terence Nance’s Afro-Futurist allegory They Charge for the Sun, natural light is a taxable commodity and over policing of black bodies is the norm. Subtle and smart, with detours through the realm of magic realism, They Charge for the Sun empowers with its vision of black resilience in the face of overwhelming oppression. A bloody ritualistic sacrifice (complete with floating boomboxes) introduces viewers to the
Future Vision
queer cave dwellers of Alejandro Peña’s PEDAZOS, a technicolor fever dream that boasts blockbuster-sized visuals. Similarly ambitious in scope but shot in somber, static black-and-white, Indie Grits alumnus Georg Koszulinski’s inward-looking
34
SELECTED FILMS
AUGUST
LETTER TO A DISTANT FUTURE
Caitlyn Greene New York, NY 8 minutes
Georg Koszulinski Seattle, WA 8 minutes
extraterrestrial epistle Letters from
FRONTIER JOURNALS 08: ANTIPODES RISING
a Distant Future unsettles with harrowing imagery of a desolate Earth.
Georg Koszulinski Seattle, WA 3 minutes
A deceptive post-apocalyptic romance serves as the anchor for Caitlyn Greene’s humid, claustrophobic first-person narrative short August. The end of the world is at the center of Warren Lewis Allen’s 16mm narrative short Radio Road, an observational study of four slackers tooling around the outskirts of Nashville, TN. Indie Grits alum Georg Koszulinski offers a bleary-eyed view of a Pacific Northwest highway in his second experimental short Frontier Journals 08: Antipodes Rising, while fellow alum William S. Davis populates his music video
THEY CHARGE FOR THE SUN Terence Nance New York, NY 17 minutes
PEDAZOS Alejandro Peña Boston, MA 9 minutes
LONGSHOREMAN with deceased possums and other icons of southern living. Humans recall their past lives as animals in Carolina Charry Quintero’s Lynchian experimental short Blua, and Benjamin Roberds’s music video for “Time Stops” pits the music of StarBenders against the relentless velocity of his precise, mesmerizing tracking shots.
Short Blocks
LONGSHOREMAN William S. Davis Charlotte, NC 2 minutes
BLUA Carolina Charry Quintero Cali, Colombia 22 minutes
RADIO ROAD Warren Lewis Allen North Hollywood, CA 13 minutes
STARBENDERS “TIME STOPS” Benjamin Roberds Athens, GA 4 minutes
Short Blocks
35
Femme Frontera
FEMME FRONTERA From the Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase
SELECTED FILMS Memory Box Angie Reza Tures El Paso, TX
La Catrina
NON-COMPETITION
Saturday, April 22 12:30pm
Ilana Lapid Las Cruces, NM
Child of the Desert Whether they are real or imaginary, physical or intangible, boundaries divide and disquiet in Femme Frontera, a ravishingly well-told, deeply felt series of narrative and documentary shorts from Latina filmmakers living along the US-México border. Resisting stereotypical, hyper masculine depictions of the Latina experience that so often reduce characters of color to the status of flimsy cardboard cutouts, the directors of Femme Frontera prioritize feeling and style ahead of plot, cultivating tactile emotional realities onscreen that address--in part--the illogic behind man-made walls. “These films revise the cultural narrative entirely through the simple act of showing the truth,” Femme Frontera founder Angie Tures writes. “The six women filmmakers of Femme Frontera are unapologetic in their portrayals of sacrifice, perseverance, sexism, bigotry, and radical hope.”
Iliana Sosa El Paso, TX
Undocumented Freedom Laura Bustillos Jáquez Juarez, Mexico
The Appleseed Project Jennifer Lucero El Paso, TX
Overland Jazmin Harvey El Paso, TX
Oaxaca
36
Short Blocks
SELECTED FILMS Cuckold Picasso Lance Larson Los Angeles, CA
Las Nadadoras de Villa Rosa Josefina Recio Buenos Aires, Argentina
Little Syria
OAXACA Curated by the Oaxaca FilmFest NON-COMPETITION Saturday, April 22 12:30pm at Richland Library
Sunday, April 23 5:00pm
Francisco Sánchez Solis Mexico City, Mexico
Carefully curated to present a diverse look at nearly all facets of the human experience, the narrative shorts from Oaxaca FilmFest are sure to resonate with every viewer in some form or fashion. Through the talented directing of filmmakers from across the globe, human relationships danger, tragedy, love, oppression, and the supernatural are dissected in films that are as rich in substance as they are in mastery of technical skill. Asking the audience to ponder their own
circumstances and responses, these films are a provocative look at what it means to possess a soul, personality, sexuality, set of responsibilities, and other elements of humanity. Although focused on various unique characters and themes, the films from Oaxaca FilmFest manage to unite under the idea of the universality of the human condition and weave together to form a challenging and stimulating cinematic tapestry.
Brothers in Midnight Sun Lars Persson Helsingborgs, Sweden
Save Iván Sáinz-Pardo Munich, Germany
Glass House Erik Ivar Sæther, Nicolai Berg Hanssen Norway
Schirkoa Ishan Shukla Gujarat, India
Cuerdas en la Vida Gerardo González Pérez Mexico
Hugo Bumfeldt Éva Katinka Bognar Budapest, Hungary
37
Indie Grits 2017
Index
32
Cairo in One Breath
13
41st Day: The Journey of Ryan Hall, The
11
Calle, Danielle
26
Chavez-Mayo, Odette
15
80s Dating Video Remix
20
32
Alberto, Henry
21
Checkers in the Afternoon
Allen, Warren Lewis
34
Child of the Desert
35
All Skate, Everybody Skate
32
CollÍo, Roberto
30
Anderson, Haley Elizabeth
28
Contreras, Andrea Patiño
26
Cordova, Rafael
26
Courage of her Convictions, The
18
Cox, Faith Crass
35 mm Monsters
An Outrage
17
Field Notes
30
For Senator Graham
26
Frontier Journals 08: Antipodes Rising
34
Gallagher, Kelly
18
Gadsden, Seth
26
Get Out Fast
28
Geyer, Adrián
19
Girls Zui Side - "Sad Life"
32
Glass House
36
14
Grant, Tim
15
20
Greene, Caitlyn
34
Appleseed Project, The
35
Aria of Babyface Cauliflower Brown, The
15
Arrangoiz, Esteban
16
Crompton, Stephen
32
Hanssen, Nicolai Berg
36
Ash
14
Crumbling
14
22
Astudillo, Tomás
15
Cuckold Picasso
36
Happiness Bomb: A Chicken Pox Now!!
August
34
Cuerdas en la Vida
36
Hara Kiri Harrison, Vashti
21 18, 30
Autran, Giovanni
28
Dada, Rodrigo
32
Ayers, Hannah
17
Davis, William S.
34
Harrold, Emily
32
Badillo, Gabriela
30
Day's Work, A
26
Harvey, Jazmin
35
BAGGAGEKLAIM "better desperate"
22
Death
30
Hearts of Palm
23
Bartle, Harry
21
Dejar
16
Heath, Hilary R.
20
Beal, Anne
14
Devil's Trap
22
Hole Punch, The
21
Bickel, Christopher
22
DEX•TER•I•TY
22
Houck, Liz
22
Black River
30
Díaz, Caitlin
16
House of June
20
Dim Blood
30
House of Saints
32
Disco Limbo
12
Huezo, Tatiana
13
Diver, The
16
Hugo Bumfeldt
36
Dorfman, Rodrigo
26
In My South
26
Drawdy, Adam
22
Jahi, Jeremiah
18
Dreyer, Dawn
14
Jáquez, Laura Bustillos
35
Dunn, Laura
11 28
J. Cole - "Everybody Dies"
30
Dust of the Ground Engelson, Hannah
28
Jeffreys, Tim
11
Fairbanks, Charles
15, 17
Jonah Stands Up
28
Jones, Fraser
20
Blua
34
Bognar, Éva Katinka
36
Bouloubasis, Victoria
26
Bresnan, Patrick
23
Bright, Forest
15
Brothers in Midnight Sun
36
Bumgarner, Tijah
19
Burck, Ellie
15
Burke, Lillian
15
Bygone Barns
32
Fear
14
38
Index
Indie Grits 2017
Jungle
19
Munger, Lucy
12
Seriously Not Funny
15
Kak, Saul
17
Music of Desire
12
Sewell, Jef
11
Karakattu, Tharun
26
My Bones Are Singing
28
Shanahan, Patrick
28
Kemper, Nicole
20
Nance, Terence
34
Shukla, Ishan
36
Keppy, Brooke
22
Nasisse, Carlo
26
Silva, André
30
Kipervaser, Anna
13
Nejatifar, Mary
14
Sixteen
18
Koszulinski, Georg
34
Nesmith, Timothy
22
Smith, Remington
32
La Catrina
35
Never Came Back
18
Solis, Francisco Sánchez
36
La Comida de los Cocineros
26
Newton, Diana
14
Sosa, Iliana
35
La Danza
26
No Hand King, The
28
South Texas Cowpunk
26
Lammers, Alice
14
Overland
35
Spence, Anna
30
Landaveri, Fredo
12
Paloma
28
Squirrel
23
Lapid, Ilana
35
PEDAZOS
34
34
Larson, Lance
36
Peña, Alejandro
34
Starbenders "Time Stops"
32
36
23
Sweet Love
Las Nadadoras de Villa Rosa
Peña, Monica Perez, Gerardo González
36
Table Manners
20
Lazer, Scott
30
Persson, Lars
36
Teenage Caligula, The Trailer
22
Letter to a Distant Future
34
Positioning
14
Tempestad
13
Lilitu, Alice
22
Quiñones, Chovy
14
They Charge For The Sun
34
Little Syria
36
Quintero, Carolina Charry
34
Ties That Bind, The
14
LONGSHOREMAN
34
Rabbit Hunt, The
23
Tisure
19
Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
11
Radio Road
34
Toledo, Mariano
12
Love, Andrea
14
Ray, Gillian
18
Torruella, Amada
26
Lucas, Ivete
23
Recio, Josefina
36
Triche, Nicole
32
Lucero, Jennifer
35
Reeves, Kristin
12
Troublefield, Micah
20
McFarling, Matthew
32
Regreso
32
Tures, Angie Reza
35
Meadow Bridge
19
Rieznik, Martin
19
Undocumented Freedom
35
Melendez, Gerry
32
Roberds, Benjamin
34
Warren, Lance
17
Memory Box
35
Room of Bones, The
16
Wave Iteration
30
Miville, Jennifer
32
Sæther, Erik Ivar
36
White Death
30
Modern Jungle, The
17
Salant, Robin
23
White, Willie
22
Moments of Campaign
15
Sam Cohen - "The Garden"
12
Your Ride Is Here
20
More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters
18
Save
36
Zamora, Marcela
16
Schirkoa
36
David Zonana
30