2007 Method Fest Film Selections
Note: Features, Shorts in blue have links to a dedicated website with trailers and other content.

See Film Screening Schedule

Purchase Festival Packages, as well as tickets for flims, shorts and events, online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Lonely Hearts Set for Closing Night Performance On Wednesday, April 4, at 6:30 p.m.

FEATURES

7 Days
Mexico, 95 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Fernando Kalife
Writer: Fernando Kalife
Producer: Bernardo Bichara, Leonardo Villareal
Starring : Eduardo Arroyuelo, Julio Bracho, Jaime Camil, Lumi Cavazos, Beto Cuevas

Claudio Caballero decides to gamble $500,000 dollars in a desperate attempt to raise the cash necessary to bring the world's biggest band (U2) to Mexico.

All The Days Before Tomorrow
USA, 100 min, L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Francois Dompierre
Writer: Francois Dompierre
Producer: Francois Dompierre, Kevin Leydon
Starring: Alexandra Holden, Joey Kern, Richard Roundtree

Wes wakes up to an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night. It's Alison, the girl that could have been. She's flying home to Tokyo in the morning and wants to come by for one last night of reminiscing, laughs and catching up before finally saying goodbye. Neither is prepared for the emotional ride that follows, as the memories of the last few years surface to reveal the puzzle they have created together.

A delicate blend of quirky memories, evocative dreams and the art of loving and losing, François Dompierre's impressive directorial debut is about the futility of connecting and how we can spend an eternity trying to figure out what brings us together and what pushes us apart.

Are You Ready for Love?
United Kingdom, 89 min., U.S. PREMIERE

Director: Helen Grace
Writer: Roberto Trippini, Trudy Sargent, Helen Grace
Producer: Trudy Sargent
Starring: Lucy Punch, Andy Nyman, Ed Byrne, Michael Brandon, Leigh Zimmerman

A pair of Californian dating gurus come to London to launch their book on how to find love in three days. As a publicity stunt for the book, they try to find soulmates for three lonely Londoners, but things don't go according to plan.

Black Irish
USA, 92 min., LA PREMIERE

Director: Brad Gann
Writer: Brad Gann
Producer: Kelly Crean, Mark Donadio, Brad Gann, J. Todd Harris, Jeffrey Orenstein
Starring: Michael Angarano, Brendan Gleeson, Tom Guiry, Melissa Leo

This tale chronicles the trials and tribulations of Cole McKay, 15, an obedient son who yearns for the attentions of his emotionally remote father. Cole is by turns nurtured and abandoned by the rest of his family; his sister Kathleen, older derelict brother Jack, and rigid mother Margaret. As the tale unfolds each family member undergoes a crisis of their own, their individual arcs interweaving until a heart-wrenching climax.

Bridge 13
Iran, 97 min., US PREMIERE

Director: Steven Rush
Writer: Steven Rush
Producer: Hooman Atiyabi
Starring: Jamshid Mashayekhi, Alireza Osivand, Majid Salehi, Sharareh Rokham, Bita Tavakoli

Nargess is a seven year old girl. She and other children her age travel from the homes of their poor families to the city of Tehran where they are gathered together by two men Davar and Gholam, who put them to working begging in the streets and selling flowers and gum. Nargess is very sick and suffering from a bad internal bleeding, but that does not excuse her from having to walk the streets daily. She manages to escape and finds herself outside a big beautiful house owned by old man who hates everything, including children. His daughter, who has returned from Canada to take care of him after a heart attack, is kind in contrast. When Nargess sneaks into the house and is discovered, the struggle begins between the father who wants to send Nargess into the welfare system and the daughter who wants to care for her as her own. Amid this tug-of-war, Davar and Gholam are diligently trying to find and recapture their best young worker leading to a dramatic conclusion.

El Carnaval de Sodoma
Mexico, 119 min., US PREMIERE

Director: Arturo Ripstein
Writer: Paz Alicia Garciadiego, Pedro Antonio Valdez (novel)
Producer: Miguel Necoechea
Starring: Marta Aura, Maria Barranco, Alejandro Camacho, Samuel Gallegos

Residents of a bordello scurry to put together their outfits for an annual carnival.

Charlie
USA, 90 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Salvatore Interlandi
Writer: Salvatore Interlandi
Producer: Salvatore Interlandi, Adam McClelland, DJ Mendel, Erik Wiegel
Starring: DJ Mendel, Denise Greber, Timothy Donovan Jr., Maria Buttazzoni, Ewa da Cruz

After years of drifting away from his family, Charlie comes home one evening to find another man's car in the driveway. Certain of his wife's infidelity Charlie explodes into a binge of drinking, fighting, and confusion. The desperate search to remind himselfof who he is leads him to his lover, to his ex-girlfriend, to an explosive confrontation with his best friend, and finally to an evening of chasing down a stranger in hopes of some of emotional contact. The journey is a failure. Charlie returns home to ask for forgiveness. Charlie is about a man's search to discover why he has failed in love. Why he has constantly destroyed people closest to him, the one's who loved him most.

Dead Man's Cards
UK, 90 min., LA PREMIERE

Director: James Marquand
Writer: James Marquand, James McMartin
Producer: James McMartin, Matthew Whyte, Matthew Whyte
Starring: Paul Barber, Samantha Janus, Tom Bell, Spencer Wilding

Ex boxer Tom (James McMartin) is on the ropes. His promising fight career is long over thanks to an eye injury, his marriage is on the rocks and he is broke. When a chance encounter at the gym leads to the offer of work as a doorman at a run down nightclub, the jury is out on whether he has taken a step on the road to redemption or finally hit the self-destruct button.

Destiny
USA / Armenia 137 min, WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Vage Khachatryan
Writer: Marine Sargsyan, Gor Vardanyan
Producer: Haig Bagerdjian, Kolya Khachaturov
Starring: Gor Vardanyan, Yevgeni Karnash, Svetlana Jukova, Andri Vardanyan        

In February 1988 the Armenian Committee of the Karabakh movement demanded equal treatment of minorities in the territories of Azerbaijan SSR. In response organized mobs started their pillage of in Sumgait Azerbaijan. The chaos continued for three days without Moscow's intervention resulting in 32 deaths and 18,000 Armenian civilian refugees. Only then did the Soviet Army show up to restore order. In
1989, the first non-communist was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR giving the Karabakh movement an official platform. Mobs answered in 1990, this time in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, by unleashing horror, killing more than 200 and creating an additional 210,000 civilian refugees. In 1991 under the supervision of the Soviet military, the Azeri forces started “Operation Koltso.” The objective
was to cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh of its historical Armenian population.

Divergence
USA, 114 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Patrick Donnelly
Writer: Patrick Donnelly
Producer: Meg Sudlik, Christopher Zimmer, Mike Garza
Starring: Traci Ann Wolfe, Jakob Hawkins, Marci Adilman

“Divergence” is a story of how American society has changed and struggled with the effects of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. It is a tale told through the microcosm of two wounded people coming together and grappling with the ramifications of war and loss. The story takes place in a seaside resort town on the Jersey shore in the midst of a cold and bitter winter. Tim Lawson is a wounded and disillusioned soldier returning from Iraq to his hometown. We find Clare O'Neil, whose life has been turned upside down by a fatal accident, hiding away in a secluded beach house on the road to self-destruction.

The Elephant King
USA, 92 min., LA PREMIERE

Director: Seth Grossman
Writer: Seth grossman
Producer: Emanuel Michaell, Tom Waller, Tamar Sela,
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jonno Roberts, Tate Ellington, Florence Faivre, Joseph Sommer

Jake Hunt, who has abandoned his anthropology research for a life of debauchery in the village of Chiang Mai, invites his younger brother Oliver for a visit. Oliver, an aspiring writer suffering through a bout of depression so severe that he tried to take his own life, reveres Jake despite the fact that Jake bullied Oliver throughout their childhood. Intoxicated by both his reunion with Jake and his newfound freedom from responsibility, authority, and structure, Oliver leaps headfirst into Jake's decadent world and falls hopelessly in love with Lek, a comely Amerasian bartender whom Jake paid to be nice to Oliver. Jake, filled with self-loathing, can't make up his mind about whether he wants to sabotage Oliver's relationship or protect his brother from being hurt. A confused and angry Jake pays Lek a visit and unleashes his rage, thereby setting the film on a course towards its bloody, tragic conclusion. By this point Oliver has rejected his brother's depravity and turned inward instead, finding solace in the Buddhist belief that life is illusory and all things cease to exist in the end.

Falling
Austria, 88 min., LA PREMIERE

Director & Writer – Barbara Albert
Executive Producer – Bruno Wagner
Producers – Barbara Albert, Martin Gschlacht, AntoninSvoboda, Bruno Wagner
Cast -Nina Proll, Birgit Minichmayr, Ursula Strauss, Kathrin Resetarits, Gabriela Hegedüs, Ina Strnad, Darina Dujmic, Georg Friedrich

In a small town, a popular local schoolteacher passes away. Five of his former students who are now grown up come back home for the funeral, the first time the former friends have seen each other in fourteen years. Nina is about to have a baby; Brigitte is a teacher herself; Alex works at an unemployment office; Carmen is an actor; and Nicole is a mother on temporary leave from prison. Their reunion goes long into the night of the funeral and into the following day as they all are forced to reflect on everything that has changed over the intervening years. Adolescent conviviality may have been rediscovered, but old wounds are reopened as well; everyone must reappraise childhood dreams that have not necessarily come to fruition. What does it mean to leave youth behind? How does one make peace with the hand one has been dealt in life?

Fido
Canada, 93 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director:     Andrew Currie
Writer: Robert Chomiak, Andrew Currie, Dennis Heaton
Producer: Blake Corbet, Mary Ann Waterhouse
Starring: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, K'Sun Ray, Henry Czerny, and Tim Blake Nelson

Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world is a six-foot tall zombie named Fido. But when Fido eats the next-door neighbor, Mom and Dad hit the roof, and Timmy has to go to the ends of the earth to keep Fido part of the family. A boy-and-his-dog movie for grown-ups, "FIDO" will rip your heart out.

Jindabyne
Australia, 123 min., LA PREMIERE

Director: Ray Lawrence
Writer: Raymond Carver (short story), Beatrix Christian
Producer: David Williamson
Starring: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, Deborra-Lee Furness, Chris Haywood

Stewart Kane, an Irishman living in the Australian town of Jindabyne, is on a fishing trip in isolated hill country with three other men when they discover the body of a murdered girl in the river. Rather than return to the town immediately, they continue fishing and report their gruesome find days later. Stewart's wife Claire is the last to find out. Deeply disturbed by her husband's action, her faith in her relationship with Stewart is shaken to the core. She wants to understand and tries to make things right. In her determination to help the victim's family Claire sets herself not only against her own family and friends but also those of the dead girl. Her marriage is taken to the brink and her peaceful life with Stewart and their young son hangs in the balance.

Just Like the Son
USA, 86 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Morgan J. Freeman
Writer: Morgan J. Freeman
Producer: Jamin O' Brien, Matt Parker, Gill Holland
Starring: Mark Webber, Antonio Ortiz, Brendan Sexton III, Rosie Perez

A petty thief's mentoring of an apparent orphan takes a profound turn when he kidnaps the boy from a foster home and drives him cross-country to his sister's house in Texas.

LA Blues
USA , 95 MIN, WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Ian Gurvitz
Writer: Ian Gurvitz
Producer: Randy Carter
Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Dave Foley, Kevin Rahm, Marsha Thomason, Nicholas D'Agosto, Sean Maguire, William Ragsdale

A dark comedy, LA BLUES opens in a Hollywood parking lot on New Year's Eve as paramedics load a guy on a gurney into an ambulance as his friend looks on. When questioned by a female detective, the friend tells the story of what may have been an attempted suicide while unravelling the larger story of a year in the lives of 6 guys who hang out in a blues bar in Hollywood, watch sports, talk trash, and bitch about their lives, as they go through problems ranging from construction nightmares to divorce, gambling addiction, alcoholism, and child custody fights. As it unfolds the audience is left wondering which one of these guys ended up in the ambulance, and why. The blues soundtrack is true to the nature of the music itself, and to the movie, as it's about heartache and longing, loving and losing, striving and failing, dealing with adversity and, as one of the characters says in the end: 'having a few friends around to watch your back as you do it.' Ultimately, LA BLUES is a story about male friendship and the way guys communicate.

Lonely Hearts
USA, 106 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Todd Robinson
Writer: Todd Robinson
Producer: Holly Wiersma, Boaz Davidson
Starring: John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Salma Hayek, Jared Leto, Laura Dern, Scott Caan

In a story that could be called uglier than Bonnie and Clyde, America 's notorious ""Lonely Hearts Killers"" Martha Beck (Salma Hayek) and Ray Fernandez (Jared Leto) committed as many as 20 murders during the late 1940's. With Martha posing as Ray's sister, the lovers would respond to personal ads of war widows and spinsters. Showering the lonely women with attention, Ray would gain their confidence and then the pair would swindle them out of their savings, often killing them when their game was over. But when two New York detectives Elmer C. Robinson (John Travolta) and Charles Hildebrandt (James Gandolfini) from the Nassau County Police Department begin investigating one of the murders, the case gets personal. Robinson, who is struggling with his wife's recent suicide, sees the case as a way to answer questions of accountability, and to better understand his relationship with his son. Together the partners slowly put together the pieces of this gruesome puzzle and determine that this was not an isolated murder, but one of many. Add to the already stellar cast list Laura Dern as Robinson's secret love interest who's fighting for a place in Robinson's life. In this latest retelling of Beck and Fernandez's crimes, Todd Robinson follows every bizarre, gruesome, kinky twist leading up to the capture of the notorious serial killers. Lonely Hearts looks into the darkness of isolation, vulnerability, and unexplained cruelty and shines a light.

Man in the Chair
USA, 107 min.

Director: Michael Schroeder
Writer: Michael Schroeder
Producer: Michael Schroeder, Randy Turrow, Sarah Schroeder
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Michael Angarano, M. Emmet Walsh, Robert Wagner

CAMERON KINCAID, a rebellious 17 year old from a broken home is in trouble at school, with the law, and at odds with his mother and his constantly deriding harsh stepfather. Cameron's a fanatical film buff who longs to be an important cutting edge filmmaker, but so far it seems as if he is more likely to end up in prison than in Hollywood. Cameron gets the opportunity to pursue his dream when he enters a prestigious student competition, set up over Christmas vacation, which offers the winner a scholarship to their Hollywood motion picture school. Cameron enlists the assistance of a reluctant retired gaffer named FLASH, who is the only surviving crew member from the legendary Citizen Kane and who lives in the motion picture retirement home. Flash, in turn, persuades his elderly retired filmmaker friends that by helping Cameron realize his dream, they to can relive their dreams of working on the set again. Among Flash's friends is MICKEY HOPKINS, a frail geriatric old man, a retired Hollywood screenwriter living in a squalid, rat-infested home for the aged, forgotten by everyone except his old friend, Flash. When he's approached to write the screenplay for Cameron's new movie, Mickey is excited yet terrified and fearful that he has lost his magic touch with story. Mickey regains his confidence when Cameron shows how he has not been forgotten on IMDB. Cameron's new surrogate family and unlikely senior citizen production team winds up filming an award worthy documentary about the plight of the nation's elderly. During the course of the filming, Cameron's dream of being the Man In The Chair comes true but more importantly, his life is happily transformed through his mentor Flash who in turn, by rediscovering his dignity and reigniting his creativity can finally accept his fate with peace and tranquility.

Mentor
USA, 107 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: David Langlitz
Writer: William Whitehurst
Producer: William Whitehurst, Jeff Eline, Gill Holland, Lillian LaSalle
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Matthew Davis, Dagmara Dominczyk, Susan Misner

When a letter arrives from a deceased mentor, the protégé, now a teacher at a creative dead end looks back at a time when he was a promising student eager to pursue a career as a writer. The story takes us back to his mentor, a famous university professor and his complicated relationship with two people that inexorably led to a destructive, damaged conclusion.

Mexican Sunrise
USA , 76 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Rowdy Stovall
Writer: Rowdy Stovall
Producer: Rowdy Stovall and Sally Jo Effenson
Starring: Drew Powell, Jordan Belfi, Reed Frerichs, Tom Tartamella, William Gregory Lee

Ryan is getting married tomorrow. His friends have decided to throw him a bachelor party across the border in Mexico . But along the way something goes terribly wrong. Local drug ring leader Paco discovered that Ryan's friend Derek has been using the cocaine he was supposed to be selling. With the use of flashbacks and flash-forward, we enter the film at its most climactic point: Someone has been buried alive. The action of the film, from their journey across the border to the wedding, is interspersed with scenes of a victim buried in a barrel, desperately trying to fight his way out. The viewer is constantly in suspense. Who is in the barrel? Will they live? How did a simple bachelor party come to this?

Midnight Clear
USA , 99 min, L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Dallas Jenkins
Writer: Wes Halula
Producer: Dallas Jenkins
Starring: K Callan, Stephen Baldwin, Kirk B.R. Woller, Victoria Jackson

For five people spread across a Southwest town, Christmas Eve is the loneliest time of the year. A middle aged man, jobless and recently evicted, and an old woman estranged from her family, contemplate suicide; a church youth pastor takes his teens for a night of bad caroling to shut-ins; a young mother and her son visit her brain-damaged husband on the anniversary of his car accident; and on the outskirts of town, a gas station owner spends the slow day bored and depressed. As the night progresses, they randomly cross paths, and in unique and subtle ways, change each other's lives forever.

Plum Role
Australia, 74 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Zak Hilditch
Writer: Zak Hilditch
Producer: Zak Hilditch
Starring: Matt Hardie, Laura Henderson, Luke Jago, Adam McGurk, Tom Stokes, Matt Penny

Jacob is an up and coming actor living in the most isolated city in the world, Perth in Western Australia . Jacob receives his big break in the form of a starring role in a new cop show being filmed on the other side of the country in Sydney . However, the week before his departure, Jacob meets a vulnerable young woman named Cheryl. It's at this point Jacob's world quickly starts to unravel around him as a series of unresolved misdemeanors begin to threaten not only Jacob's shot at fame but his very life. Jacob realizes he has no option, but to tie up the lose ends, still lingering in his life in order to make his transition to Sydney a smooth one. Jacob is forced to take unexpected measures in order keep his dream alive, resulting in unforeseen consequences.

Schooled
USA, 85 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Brooks Elms
Writer: Brooks Elms
Producer: Brian Hennessy
Starring: Daniel Kucan, Alysia Reiner, Kelleia Sheerin, Vladimir Borges, Jack Sway, Nick Huff

The Silence
Australia, 104 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Cate Shortland
Writer: Alice Addison, Mary Walsh
Producer: Jan Chapman
Starring: Richard Roxburgh, Essie Davis, Emily Barclay, Alice McConnell

Detective Richard Treloar is transferred to a desk job at the Police Museum after his involvement in a fatal, largely unexplained shooting. While preparing for an exhibition, he becomes obsessed with a haunting black-and-white image of a woman, gunned down in a silk dress, lying on a pier, her belly a blotchy mess from the bullet she took. He starts searching for her face in other images and begins to see anomalies. Richard launches into an investigation that leads him to an ornery former cop who is now a boxing coach. He holds the key to the mystery; Richard returns to speak with him once more only to find him dead - as though murdered by the now-uncovered past. Richard finds that he himself is increasingly implicated not only in the murder, but also in the photograph itself, as the film leads to an unexpected and unsettling conclusion.

Steel Toes
Canada, 90 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director: David Gow, Mark Adam
Writer: David Gow
Producer: Francine Allaire, David Gow
Starring: David Strathairn, Andrew Walker, Marina Orsini, Ron Lea

Powerful performances mark this tense drama of a racially motivated murder committed by skinhead Mike Downey (played by Andrew Walker)and the Jewish lawyer, Daniel Dunkleman, who reluctantly agrees to defend him. Dunkleman, played by Oscar nominee David Strathairn ("Good Night and Good Luck"), traverses difficult emotional terrain in which he must somehow reach into the red hot core of rage that motivates his client. Though Mike says of Dunkleman, "In an ideal world I'd have you eliminated," something akin to mutual respect develops between the two. Despite his thorough indoctrination as a skinhead, Mike is intelligent and articulate. And Dunkleman, though repulsed by Mike's racist philosophy, has been raised with the ethic of, "love thine enemy."

Tomorrow Is Today
USA, 98 min.

Director: Frederic Lumiere
Writer: Mark Hefti
Producer: Jennifer Eler Haubrich
Starring: Scout Taylor-Compton, Mark Hefti, Warren Draper, David Brown, Luke Pennington

A drama-romance about love, loss and survival at the New Jersey Shore. When young Julie Peterson saves the life of a hapless drifter, she begins the quest to save him emotionally as well, and give him the ultimate gift of hope. Battling an emotionally flawed local Sheriff who wants Jerdon out of town, and a young admirer who is jealous of her relationship with the drifter, secrets are revealed, and Julie sparks a chain of events that will change the lives of those around her, forever.

Trade Routes
Bulgaria, 117 min., U.S. PREMIERE

Director: Jim Loftus
Writer: Jim Loftus
Producer: Ian Marquardt, George Markov, Jim Loftus
Starring: Kosta Tsonev, Alice Patten, Ross McCall, George Zlatarev, William Hope, Marina Sirtis

A political thriller exploring the ineptitude of U.S. Intelligence and cynicism of the global "democracy business." Set against an Eastern European election, multiple story lines revolve around Sarah, a young law student who joined the CIA to "contribute something" following September 11. Five years later, she's about to discover the cost.

Waitress    Opening Night Film
USA, 107 min., L.A. PREMIERE, WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director:        Adrienne Shelly
Writer:        Adrienne Shelly
Producer:        Michael Roiff
Starring:        Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Jeremy Sisto

WAITRESS is the story of one woman trapped in a life from which she dreams of escape. Jenna's (Russell) secret ambition is to save enough money from her waitressing job to leave her overbearing and controlling
husband (Sisto). Jenna is a sharp, sassy woman with a gift for making unusual pies whose recipes are inspired by the trials, tribulations and circumstances of her life. An unwanted pregnancy changes the
course of events giving her an unexpected confidence via letters to her unborn baby.

SHORT FILMS

5000
USA, 15 min.

Director: Luis Alvarez
Writer: Luis Alvarez
Producer: Luis Alvarez
Starring: George Isaacs, Hugo Salazar, Mariangelica Cuervo

Diego Granados a known journalist in Columbia is kidnapped by FARC the biggest guerilla group in the country and held captive in the mountains for several months. Between the hostile days and the uncertainty of a country in the middle of war Diego Granados would come to finish his final story, his own.

Across the Hall
Canada, 17 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Alan Powell
Writer: Ian Kennedy
Producer: Alan Powell, Aviva Frenkel
Starring: Carlos Diaz, Laetitia Villetorte, Chris Owens, Mateo Morales, Joseph Zita

Recently emigrated Miguel has a hard time dealing with diverse cultures while his kids try hard to just fit in. But Miguel's refusal to acknowledge his cross-dressing neighbor and his stricy orders to have his kids do the same angers his wife and eventually has the kids defying his authority.

A.W.O.L
USA, 22 min.

Director: Jack Swanstrom
Writer: Holly Martins
Producer: Jessica Wethington
Starring: David Morse, John C. McGinley

Vietnam. 1972. US Army Special Forces Major Cliff Marquette (David Morse) leads a squad ordered to investigate unusual reports and secure a remote jungle temple which locals believe to have mystical powers. An exceptionally heroic, but ultimately losing battle lands Marquette in the hands of a merciless Viet Cong torturer. As Marquette struggles to take in what-- and how-- this is happening to him, he discovers the cruel pain of war is not over after all. As the clock strikes midnight every night, Marquette is back in Vietnam, and his torture resumes a few minutes each time. Trapped in unending cycle of pain, he must find a way to endure -- unless, with the clock counting down, Marquette can cheat fate.k

Blind Luck
USA, 24 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Kenneth Mader
Writer: Jody Arensberg
Producer: Jody Arensberg
Starring: Jody Arensberg, Michael Sorvino, Karen Zumsteg, Gary Rubenstein

Deborah, a single career woman believes true love happens by accident. Her friend tries to fabricate a chance meeting between her and Mr. Right by setting them both up on separate blind dates at the same party.

Bombay Skies
USA / India, 21:20 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Rita Rani
Writer: Rita Rani
Producer: Tina Nagpaul, Dmitri Vigneswaren, Rita Rani
Starring: Rajat Kapoor, Amit Salunke, Rita Rani, Pawan Singh

American born Anjali runs off to India with dreams of becoming a movie star in Bombay. Her father goes after her vowing to bring her back, but when a little street boy takes him on a journey through the streets of Bombay in search of his daughter, he ends up reviving memories from the past, re-encountering a dream long lost, and falling in love with the city he once called home.

Breakdown
Canada, 12 min.

Director: John Bolton
Writer: John Bolton
Producer: Errin Clutton, John Bolton
Starring: Christopher Shyer, Amanda Tapping, Carly McKillip, Sonya Salomaa

In May 2006, filmmakers John Bolton and Errin Clutton were given eight days to produce a disaster movie. Unfortunately, they spent the first seven days on casting.

Chance Meeting
USA, 5 min.

Director: Todd Lampe
Writer: Marcy Kennedy
Producer: ErinRose Widner
Starring: Geoff Erwin, Lisa Wardell

 A man and woman meet in a park and try to make small talk feel comfortable.

Clear Cut, Simple
USA, 14 min.

Director: Vineet Dewan
Writer: Jason Delmarty
Producer: Jason Stone, John Blair
Starring: Navid Negahban, Rob Tepper,

Ismail Tahair, an Iraqi interpreter, and Matt Garrett, a U.S. Army Captain, seem to be the only two people who are able to understand each other in a place where tensions run high and fear governs every decision. But, when Matt receives a report that his loyal interpreter is an insurgent, their friendship is put to the ultimate test.

Counter Intuitive
USA, 25 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Dianne Haak Edson
Writer: Myron Murakami, Angela Sostre
Producer: Angela Sostre
Starring: Shawn Colten, Jean-Baptiste Lovensky, Sergio Savinovic, Matthew Widman

Two would-be robbers out for an easy score have to do some fast thinking as their sad plans dissolves into unexpected twists and turns.

Cricket Head
USA / South Africa, 19 min.

Director: Grant Greenberg
Writer: Tommy Nowell, Justin Nowell
Producer: Justin Nowell
Starring: Cathy Curtin, Aquiles Conde

A teacher, recently released from prison, tries to rekindle a romance with an ex-student.

Death's Requiem
Australia, 30 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Marc Furmie
Writer: Marc Furmie, Ji Hao Lou
Producer: Tim Maddocks
Starring: Jai Koutrae, Alin Sumarwata, Bruce Spencer

Nathan Chapel has little time to live. A reclusive illustrator, Nathan spends his time, drinking, smoking and drawing his comic book “Death's Requiem.” Nathan harbors a voyeuristic obsession with his neighbor Sarah. As the reality of Nathan's mortality encroaches, he ultimately commits an act of self-sacrifice in order to save Sarah, inadvertently giving her life new meaning.

The Death Strip
Germany / USA, 30 Min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Nicole Haeusser
Writer: Nicole Haeusser
Producer: Nicole Haeusser, Ulrich Schwarz, Vedra Mehagian Dallesandro, Birgit Weingartner
Starring: Anne Ramsay, Scott Clifton, Paula Malcomson

In 1980, Mike's family is forced to escape from East Berlin across the Death Strip. Ten years later, Mike reluctantly returns to the unified Germany to see his godmother, forcing him to confront his past.

Deface
USA, 20 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: John Arlotto
Writer: John Arlotto
Producer: Roman Wyden
Starring: Joseph Steven Yang, Greg Joung Palk, Alexis Rhee, James Kyson Lee, Aira H. Kim

Sooyoung is a faceless worker in North Korea. But when his daughter dies of starvation, his outrage drives him to vandalize the propaganda billboards that decorate the town, an act punishable by death.

Father and Son
USA, 13:50 min.

Director: Michael C. Edwards
Writer: Michael C. Edwards
Producer: Will Davis, Michael C. Edwards
Starring: Will Davis, Tasha Dixon, John Savage, Darcy Shean

After five years away, a young man returns home to attend his estranged father's funeral. While cleaning out the fathers' study, the son discovers the unstated love from his father and the value and importance of forgiveness.

Forgetting Betty
USA, 10 min.

Director: James Anderson, Robert Postrozny
Writer: James Anderson, Robert Postrozny
Producer: James Anderson, Robert Postrozny
Starring: Helen Rose, Robert Postrozny

Betty, a 96 year old Polish woman leads a lonely life. Her day consists of routine chores, revisiting past memories, and waiting for the visitor who never comes. But today is different. Her only grandson arrives to celebrate her birthday.

Fool Me Once
USA, 14:22 min.

Director: Paco Farias
Writer: Cliff Traiman, Paco Farias
Producer: Clay Westervelt, Nicholas Gonzalez
Starring: Sharon Lawrence, Tom Irwin, Carlos Gomez, Barry Lynch

Maureen Ackerman, a clever, coquettish housewife, starts her day like any other - the morning paper, laundry, dishes. She sees off her husband with an obligatory kiss and a steaming cup of coffee. Then her lover shows up…

Grace
USA, 15 min.

Director: Camille Cellucci
Writer: Camille Cellucii
Producer: Juanita Diana Feeney, Margaret Ann, Dennis Murphy
Starring: Christie Lynn Smith, Joey King

In this hauntingly beautiful film, Rae drowns in a crisis of grief and loss until a five-year-old child unexpectedly interrupts her last desperate act, inspiring Rae to embrace life and living once more.

Hola to the World
Spain, 12 min.

Director: Chuchie Hill
Writer: Chuchie Hill
Producer: Chuchie Hill
Starring: Jena Malone, Hugh Bonneville

Through a chance encounter with an older man, a teenage girl is shown that running away from home is not the solution to her problems.

Legs
USA, 15 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Richard Redlin
Writer: Richard Redlin
Producer: Richard Redlin, Christine Redlin
Starring: Robert David Hall, Richard Redlin, Liisa Lee, Lynn Manning

An aging actor who has fallen from grace gets one last shot to get back on top by working with a crazed Italian auteur. How far will he go to get the role.

Matters of Life and Death
USA, 31 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Joseph Mazzello
Writer: Joseph Mazzello
Producer: Michael Breines, Erica Callas, Corey Wish
Starring: Rachael Leigh Cook, David Strathairn, Joseph Mazzello, Daniel Gillies

Three siblings struggle to maintain control of their lives after the unexpected death of their parents thrusts them into an uncertain world of adulthood.

Mei
USA / Taiwan, 11 min.

Director: Arvin Chen
Writer: Arvin Chen
Producer: Lin Ying Tso, Cai Xing Hong, Veronica Shamo-Garcia
Starring: Jack Yao, Dori Wu, Bi Zr-Gang

Jian works at a popular noodle stand in Taipei. He is in love with Mei, the daughter of the stand's owner. She has long had dreams of moving to America, inspired by the tourists that come through the stand daily. Jian must decide if he will reveal his love or let her go. Winner: Silver Bear Berlin Film Festival Best Short Film.

Miraculum
Egypt, 28 min.

Director: Sherif Nakhla
Writer: Sherif Nakhla
Producer: Sherif Nakhla
Starring: Hany Seif

In a society where intimate relationships between Muslims and Christians are firmly frowned upon, Miraculum explores the thick lines between love and tradition through the eyes of a young inter-religious couple in modern Cairo.

Mother
USA, 17 min.

Director: Sian Heder
Writer: Sian Heder
Producer: David Newsom
Starring: Angela Featherstone, Ashleigh Sumner

Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Beverly Hills housewife hires a stranger to baby-sit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for. Winner: Cannes Film Festival Cinéfondation.

Meurtas
USA/Mexico, 8 min.

Director: Ryan Piers Williams
Writer: Ryan Piers Williams
Producer: April Kimble, Jason Berman, Julian Meiojas, Lindsay Hovel
Starring: America Ferrera, Francesco Quinn, Masiela Lusha

A young American journalist attempts to piece together the fractured memories of a love lost amidst the ongoing Juarez, Mexico murders.

My Backyard Was a Mountain
USA, 24 min.

Director: Adam Schlachter
Writer: Adam Schlachter
Producer: Austin Wakefield
Starring: Andrew Aguilar, Wendeline Beltran, Marlon Correa

Ten-year-old Adan lives a carefree life in the rural town of Palmarejo, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950's, surrounded by his friends, his caring mother, Lilliam, and his beloved pet goat, Chivo. His father, Pablo, returns home from New York City after a brief absence, bringing good news that he has found employment there and announcing he will be moving the family to the distant city immediately. Although Adan initially thinks the trip will be fun and exciting, he discovers that he cannot take Chivo along with him. With the help of his childhood friend, Denise, Adan embarks on a quest to find a new home for his goat....

My Exoskeleton
USA, 4:20 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Jack Letterel
Writer: Jack Letterel
Producer: Brian Wolfe
Starring: Apollo Bradley

A man boards an ordinary city bus, unfortunately the passengers are anything but ordinary.

My Name is Wallace
USA, 17:05 min.

Director: Bob Pondillo
Writer: Bob Pondillo
Producer: Bob Pondillo
Starring: David Lawrence, Leslie Ellis, Bob POndillo

A lonely, high functioning mentally challenged man falls in love with a 900 sex line operator and through that call both find redemption.

No Destination
USA, 17:50 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Shannah Laumeister
Writer: Shannah Laumeister
Producer: Phyllis Stuart, Andrea Shreeman, Travis H. Huff
Starring: John Savage, Guillermo Diaz, Brianna Brown, Dwayne Cameron

What happens when the rules of a mad man make up his life, when he wakes up one morning and decides his days are done... Find out in this Fargo meets Crash.

Non Soy Gringo
Mexico, 14 min.

Director: Manuel Cisneros
Writer: Manuel Cisneros
Producer: Samuel Saunders
Starring: Fernando Ortiz

It's common in Mexico to call any blonde a “gringo.” Such is the case with Brad, an Australian backpacker headed for the beach, is picked up by a bunch of locals. Between travel, marijuana and tequila, the suspense builds.

The Perverts
USA, 28 min.

Director: John Gegenhuber
Writer: John Gegenhuber
Producer: Clancy Brown, Eli Kabillio, John Gegenhuber
Starring: Eric Lange, John Gegenhuber, Marie DelPrete

The continuing story of Bob and Lorena Meagher, an attractive, happy, all-American couple living a lifestyle of unbridled sexual deviance in a New York suburb during the "Camelot" years of the early 1960's.

Pop Foul
USA, 19:30 min.

Director: Moon Molson
Writer: Anthony Eleftherion, Moon Molson
Producer: Jennifer Handorf, Moon Molson
Starring: Steven Clark, Sekou Laidlow, Danielle K. Thomas, Keith Bullard

A boy sees his father attacked by a local thug on the way home from a Little League game and agrees to help hide the incident from his mother. Winner: 2006 Student Academy Award.

Real Men
USA, 10 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Sean Hanish
Writer: Sean Hanish
Producer: Chris Sias
Starring: Eric Matheny, Will Potter

Best friends push the boundaries of their relationship to discover what a “real man” is.

Red Autumn
USA, 15 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Mike Elsherif
Writer: Mike Elsherif
Producer: Justin Jackson
Starring: Mark Jeffrey Miller

Rick, a guy who has seen it all, finds himself in a drug deal that ends in murder. Winding up with a duffle bag full of cash and drugs, Rick feels his problems are over. Things change when a little girl shows up on his doorstep asking for help.

Redemption Song
USA, 12 min., WEST COAST PREMIERE

Director: Cameron Fay
Writer: Cameron Fay
Producer: Kandis Erickson, Chip Hale
Starring: Marty Lodge, Milauna Jemai, Shane Callahan

A lonely barber must face his racist past when he's forced to hire a black girl as part of her rehabilitation.

Reflections of a Life
USA, 30 min.

Director: Kathi Carey
Writer: Kathi Carey
Producer: David Manship, Kathi Carey
Starring: Kathi Carey, Linda Gray, Fredric Lane

“Reflections of a Life" is an intimate portrait of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Rip-Off
Canada, 10 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Kung Chang
Writer: Richard Lemire
Producer: Antonello Cozzolino, Annie Normandin
Starring: Louis-Philippe Dury, Richard Lemire, Michel Perron, Jennifer Seguin

Rocketboy
USA, 12:30 min.

Director: Justin Guerrieri
Writer: Justin Guerrieri
Producer: Justin Guerrieri
Starring: David Clennon, Hunter Gomez, Mel Fair, Bill Nye

Roger Lange, a disenchanted accountant, comes face-to-face with a strange visitor: a young space traveler who mysteriously crash-landed on the moon in a homemade spacecraft.

Room Service
USA, 18 min., U.S. PREMIERE

Director: Kevin Castro
Writer: Kevin Castro, Mark Andrews, Jeremy Becker
Producer: Kevin Castro, Jeremy Becker, Mark Andrews, Chris Bunker
Starring: Howie Mandel, Axelle Grelet, William Knight

Joe Burns (Howie Mandel), a traveling salesman, is away from his home and family. After a grueling day at a hardware convention, he seeks a little self-gratification in his hotel room and orders an adult film. When the TV breaks down, it'll take a room full of hotel employees to get it fixed.

Rushers
USA, 26 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Joey Boukadakis
Writer: Joey Boukadakis
Producer: Mary Pat Bentel, Joey Boukadakis
Starring: Paul Boukadakis, Joey Boukadakis, John Patrick Jordan

Twenty-seven-year-old free spirit Tanner Easley has a plan to help his twenty-five-year-old workaholic brother, Kyle, lighten the hell up. When Kyle discovers Tanner's plan is to pose as college students and crash fraternity Rush Week - he's already neck-deep in free beer and hot coeds. In this effervescent, intelligent comedy - age is relative. Because "you're never too old, for the time of your life!"

Super-Anon
Canada, 10 min.

Director: Stephen Plitt
Writer:
Producer: Deb Sears
Starring: Brant McIlror, Chy Chy, Deb Sears,

Super-Anon is a support group for family relatives of superheroes.

Surface of Things
USA, 11 min., L.A. PREMIERE

Director: Keith Davis
Writer: Keith Davis
Producer: Henry Jenkins III, Eugene Bell, Janice
Starring: Samuel Ray Gates, Cherise

Sela & Sam, a young Brooklyn couple, must decide to end a life or not and do it NOW before life decides for them.

Transgressions
USA, 14:25 min., PREMIERE

Director: Valerie Weiss
Writer: Isabelle Marinov
Producer: Carrie Legrand
Starring: Holly Robertson, Robert Johnson, Antoinette Saldana

"A Clockwork Orange" meets "Pleasantville" in this sci-fi short set against the backdrop of a dystopian society that idolizes celebrity assassins called Agents.

Union Guys
USA, 11 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Kevin Oeser
Writer: Kurt Sinnamon
Producer: Nathaniel Eyde, Vinnie Singh
Starring: Andy Jones, Matt Eyde, Nathaniel Eyde

The Detroit newspaper strike of 1995 tests the friendship and resolve of three union guys as they attempt to hold the line.

Vartan LLP
USA, 17:20 min., WORLD PREMIERE

Director: Myles Price
Writer: Myles Price
Producer: Myles Price
Starring: Jay O. Sanders, Bronwen Coleman, Christopher Hoffman, Joel Swetow

One of the most powerful and successful businessmen working on Wall Street is shaken to his core by one phone call.

Volver, Volver
MEXICO, 16 min.

Director: Gary Alazraki
Writer: Gary Alazraki
Producer: Alejandro Gonzalez Padilla, Patricia Gonzalez Padilla
Starring: Jaime Camil, Alex Queiroz, Martha Higareda

Yasin
USA, 13 min.

Director: Betty Lee Kim
Writer: Chris Cloyd
Producer: Charles R. Uy, Diedre Coney
Starring: David Mersault, Nicolas Khayyat, Anna Khaja

Until 9/11, ten-year-old Yasin lived an ordinary life with his Jordanian-born parents in Southern California. After the attack, Yasin's life is turned upside down when the FBI arrests his father in a terrifying early morning raid.