Screening Times
March 10, 2010
5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
Screening Locations
The Tower Theatre
815 E. Olive Avenue
Synopsis & Film Details
Live-Action Shorts
THE CONFESSION UK/26 MIN
Director: Tanel Toom
Writer: Caroline Bruckner
Producer: Emily Williams
Cast: Aran Bell, Joe Eales, Lewis Howlett, James Simmons
Quiet and sincere, 9-year-old Sam is worried about making his first confession at church. As his conscience is clear, he therefore cannot hope for any relief from the experience. He and his friend Jacob decide to remedy that situation, but their initially innocent prank turns unexpectedly tragic.
THE CRUSH Ireland/15 MIN
Director/Writer: Michael Creagh
Producer: Damon Quinn
Cast: Charlie Bonner, Neilí Conroy, Oran Creagh, Rory Keenan, Olga Wehrly
An 8-year-old schoolboy is so besotted with his teacher that he challenges her boyfriend to a duel to the death.
GOD OF LOVE USA/18 MIN
Director/Writer: Luke Matheny
Producers: Gigi Demant, Ryan Silbert, Stefanie Walmsley
Cast: Luke Matheny, Marian Brock, Christopher Hirsh, Emily Young, Miguel Rosales
Lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow finds his prayers are answered — literally — when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts. The catch is that the one woman he loves — Kelly, a drummer in his band — is already in love with Ray’s best friend Fozzie, the guitarist in the band. But when Ray uses the darts in a loony scheme to resolve this strange romantic triangle, he learns a surprising lesson about unrequited love and discovers his own place in the universe. Romance is in the air in this bohemian charmer.
NA WEWE Belgium/19 MIN
Director: Ivan Goldschmidt
Writers: Ivan Goldschmidt, Jean-Luc Pening
Producer: Ivan Goldschmidt
Cast: Renaud Rutten
1994: There is civil war in Burundi, a small country of Central Africa directly bordering Rwanda. A near genocidal confrontation opposes rebels mainly composed of ethnic Hutus and a national army with a majority of Tutsis. This short film relates a sadly frequent episode of this fratricidal conflict: the attack by rebels of a minivan carrying ordinary citizens. A Kalashnikov bursts out. The bus stops, the passengers get off. An order is barked: “Hutus to the left, Tutsis to the right!” The sorting out begins. But who is a Hutu, who is a Tutsi? This story is entirely based on real people and situations. It was written by a person who has lived in the beauty of Burundi and suffered its horrors. With emotion, suspense and humor it exposes the absurdity of ethnic and racial strife.
WISH 143 UK/24 MIN
Director: Ian Barnes
Writer: Tom Bidwell
Producer: Samantha Waite
Cast: Jim Carter, Jodie Whittaker, Dean Andrews
A fifteen-year-old boy with only months to live is granted one wish from the Dreamscape Charity. But David doesn’t want to go to Disneyland or meet Gary Neville; what he really wants is an hour alone with a naked woman.
Animated Shorts
DAY & NIGHT – USA/6 MIN
Director/Writer: Teddy Newton
Producer: Kevin Reher
When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other’s unique qualities – and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world – the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
LET’S POLLUTE – USA/6 MIN
Director: Geefwee Boedoe
Writers: Geefwee Boedoe, Tim Crawfurd, Teddy Newton
Producer: Geefwee Boedoe
In the spirit of 50′s & 60′s educational films, ‘Let’s Pollute’ is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.
THE LOST THING – Australia, UK/15 MIN
Directors/Writers: Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan
Producer: Sophie Byrne
A boy discovers a bizarre looking creature while out collecting bottle tops at the beach. Realising it is lost, he tries to find out who owns it or where it belongs, but is met with indifference from everyone else, who barely notice its presence, each unwilling to entertain this uninvited interruption to their day to day lives. For reasons he does not explain, the boy empathises with the creature, and sets out to find a ‘place’ for it.
MADAGASCAR, CARNET DE VOYAGE – France/11 MIN
Director: Bastien Dubois
Writer: Bastien Dubois
Producer: Ron Dyens, Aurélia Prévieu
A visual travel journal demonstrating the importance of dance, death, and traditional customs present and vibrant in the Malagasy society.
THE GRUFFALO – UK, Germany/27 MIN
Directors: Max Lang, Jakob Schuh
Writers: Julia Donaldson, Max Lang, Jakob Schuh
Producers: Martin Pope, Michael Rose
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, James Corden, Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Rob Brydon, Robbie Coltrane
The magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him – a fox, an owl and a snake – the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive, creating an imaginary monster who then turns out to be all too real.
THE COW WHO WANTED TO BE A HAMBURGER – USA/6 MIN
Director: Bill Plympton
A children’s fable about the power of advertising, the meaning of life and ultimately the test of a mother’s love.
URS – Germany/10 MIN
Director: Moritz Mayerhofer
For many years Urs has had to look after his aging mother. But now he sets out for a dangerous journey: He carries his mother up a mountain to find a better place for both of them. But she wants to stay at home.