Films/Programs
Short Films
This past fall, SIFF achieved a goal five years in the making when it became a qualifying festival in the category of short films by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With our new qualifying festival status and the return engagement of ShortsFest weekend, SIFF’s commitment to films in the short form is stronger than ever. Filmmakers throughout the world—including Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson, Jason Reitman, and Martin Scorsese, to name a few—celebrate short films, often their favored form during their apprenticeship. Short films teach filmmakers the lessons of concision, story economy, and how to assemble their footage into a taut, compelling montage of images that, when completed, run 30 minutes or less. It’s more difficult than it looks on paper, but those who accomplish it learn the most important lesson short films can teach—true, unadulterated cinematic passion.
Every short film at the Seattle International Film Festival is eligible for both the Golden Space Needle Audience Award and the Jury Award. The Golden Space Needle prize winner will be determined by audience balloting and will receive the latest Mac loaded with filmmaking software from IrisInk and The Mac Store.
Our Shorts Competition jurors will choose winners in the Narrative, Animation, and Documentary categories. Each jury winner will receive $1,000—and perhaps even a shot at an Academy Award as well.
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USA, 2008, 28 min.
In this adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron interrupts a live broadcast of the National Ballet taking the entire theater hostage, and throws off his handicaps in challenge to the Handicapper General and the 212th Amendment.
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USA, 2009, 1 min.
The winning 1 minute film from the 2009 Seattle Times 3 Minute Masterpieces contest.
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USA, 2008, 7 min.
Harvey Milk’s “Read this in the event of my death recording played against footage of the Milk set. A dual meditation on the power of history.
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Mexico, 1998, 7 min.
Shot in black-and-white 8mm film, this first short from Mexican Enfant Terrible Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light) is a Bergmanesque, surrealist story of a man, a coffin, and a cliff.
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Australia, 2008, 15 min.
Sent to a detention camp for Middle Eastern refugees, Afghani Ahmad uses his green thumb to plant new roots.
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USA, 2008, 4 min.
Alice faces her fear of the darkness upstairs.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 14 min.
If you hoard your dreams, someone is going to want to watch them.
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USA, 2009, 10 min.
Musca Domestica, the common house fly. Who would have thought such a pesky creature could possess the promise of filmmaking glory...? The Documentary film cast and crew create a period, behind-the-scenes sneak peek of the 2009 Fly Film Challenge Competition.
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Philippines, 2008, 20 min.
A pair of boys struggle to earn twenty pesos.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 8 min.
One man’s attempt to preserve love forever.
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USA, 2009, 10 min.
In order to protect his mother from an abusive guardian, young Arthur Matthews must call upon a more capable persona in order to defeat the beast.
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Spain, 2008, 9 min.
“Sent to work.” A poetic ode to the reality children face in Africa.
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Ireland, 2008, 4 min.
New hope arrives upon the Atlantic breeze for a remote farmer.
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Brazil, 2008, 12 min.
From an artist’s studio to a distant island, two stranded lovers remember their lives in-between.
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Italy, 2008, 4 min.
A pastoral scene on an alien world blossoms with the creation of a new life.
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USA, 2008, 6 min.
An unhappily married couple arrives home only to stumble upon a terrifying scene.
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USA, 2008, 16 min.
Errol’s humdrum life changes when a stranger bursts into his bookstore in search of an intriguing request.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 12 min.
Maya dreams about going to fashion school while working at her father’s Arabic restaurant in London. But when forced to decide, which will come first, her father or her dream?
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USA, 2009, 17 min.
A deceased baker haunts the inhabitants of her bakery until they can prove their worth.
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USA, 2009, 2 min.
A wonderfully wistful hand-drawn animation involving bats and dreams.
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USA, 2009, 10 min.
Someone has found out about David’s affair and is blackmailing him. David plans to make the payment to spare his political career, but he’s about to find out he’s been double-crossed.
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Mexico, 2008, 12 min.
Don Julian makes a sucessful living carving religious figures, but when another facet of his art is revealed, his life dramatically changes.
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Argentina, 2008, 12 min.
Erotic tale of a blind woman, a lumberjack, and a bear whose yarns entangle in the cold Swedish night.
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USA, 2008, 11 min.
A frustrated artist has only hours until his gallery opening where he hopes to impress a sexy beatnik chick. His solution? Go robotic.
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USA, 2008, 10 min.
Worst. Mom. Ever.
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Ireland, 2008, 13 min.
A community bake sale proves to be the unlikely site for Helena’s reconciliation with her delicate mother.
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New Zealand, 2008, 2 min.
Ingredients: a boy, a ladder, a buzz saw, and a nail gun.
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USA, 2009, 15 min.
A young woman travels time and space to reunite with her parents at Seattle's World's Fair.
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USA, 2009, 15 min.
Two skateboarders, Jack and Cleo, are harassed and thwarted by a pack of card-playing, dancing freaks while on their mission to deliver a package.
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Canada, 2008, 7 min.
Danger comes to Halftone City in the guise of Doctor Moire and his powerful control device.
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Germany, 2008, 5 min.
Romeo and Juliet … between construction vehicles.
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USA, 2009, 3 min.
A moving portrait of the bustle and permanence of a city, Dahila mixes the stable forms and patterns of life with the frenetic behavior of humanity, set to a driving score of vocal percussion.
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Canada, 2009, 9 min.
For a period of time, while we believe it to be perfectly still, lifeless flesh responds, stirs and contorts in a final macabre ballet. Are these spasms merely erratic motions or do they echo the chaotic twists and turns of a past life?
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USA, 2009, 7 min.
An exploration of shadows and light in art.
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USA, 2008, 17 min.
Every teenager’s worst nightmare comes to pass when a strange astronomical phenomenon turns all the parents into wannabe hipsters.
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USA, 2008, 7 min.
A tender letter from a girl to her traveling hamster.
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USA, 2008, 11 min.
We all know the world is warming up, but how we choose to change our lifestyles because of it is the key.
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USA, 2007, 3 min.
Over the staccato beats of a jackhammer, the filmmaker locks his camera’s gaze on the street in front of his home as it was dug out, paved over, then ripped apart again, revealing a restless array of mysterious geometries.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 13 min.
Mom and Dad won’t believe there are elephants in the house.
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USA, 2008, 5 min.
An exploration of a stress-saturated world, created with the use of more than 1,300 hand-cut stencils and an assortment of in-camera effects.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 5 min.
Ever wonder what it’s really like to be Julia Roberts, Tom Jones, or George Lucas?
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USA, 2008, 19 min.
Obsessed by all things surgical, Pauline orchestrates a twisted plan to win her parent’s approval.
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USA, 2008, 5 min.
Captain Fred T. Rogard's muses in the isolated planet Oasis.
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Australia, 2008, 18 min.
Two couples with troubled marriages come up with a plan to put the spark back in their relationships, but find that love doesn't always work out the way it should.
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France, 2008, 9 min.
In a fancy Parisian Café, an uptight businessman discovers he forgot to bring his wallet and bides his time by ordering more coffee.
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Germany, 2008, 12 min.
In these troubling economic times, Miroslav will take any job he can get … even as part-time, entry-level Zombie Hunter.
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Australia, 2008, 6 min.
Ever have that feeling you can’t seem to shake?
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Japan, 2007, 6 min.
An examination of the cinematographic space from within and without. A continuously repeating camera movement, like a mantra, leading to new observations and insights.
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New Zealand, 2008, 15 min.
A school janitor answers an enigmatic graffiti message on the girls’ lavatory wall, making a vital connection with the mysterious author.
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Australia, 2008, 20 min.
Kaden’s troubled world gives way to self-discovery through a young girl and a boy who loiters on his street.
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USA, 2008, 18 min.
The best friend and the fiance of a recently deceased woman fight over her memory and her medications.
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Ireland, 2008, 4 min.
Winner Documentary Grand Jury Prize - SIFF 2009 Short Film Jury Awards
In Ken Wardrop’s newest short film, he chronicles the new addition to the cow herd on his family’s farm.
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USA, 2008, 23 min.
First screened in 2003, this shape-shifting portrait of Los Angeles examines the “divisions between individual frames arranged one above the other on motion-picture film.” Presented with a fresh soundtrack by Carl Stone and a new 35mm print.
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USA, 2009, 5 min.
In Bill Plympton’s newest canine-themed animation, a lonely pooch falls victim to a bad case of puppy love.
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USA, 2008, 13 min.
Appearances can be deceiving in this disquieting account of animal attraction.
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USA, 2008, 2 min.
A simple idea takes flight.
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USA, 2008, 14 min.
Ten-year-old Mexican émigré Moises is plunged into an English-only classroom, even though he doesn’t understand the language.
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USA, 2008, 10 min.
After receiving a mysterious message, a man must use a bizarre device to confront the forces of his long suppressed guilt.
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USA, 2009, 7 min.
A heartfelt elegy to the last days of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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Ireland, 2008, 17 min.
With his parents’ marriage breaking apart, James reveals his most personal secret to his teacher and only friend.
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USA, 2008, 8 min.
A dismembered head and its body travel divergent paths in search of reunification.
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Japan, 2008, 9 min.
A mysterious bucket transports a father and son into an alternate sci-fi reality.
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Brazil, 2008, 12 min.
A lyrical story about a bride, groom and best man involved in a destructive passion.
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Australia, 2008, 9 min.
Maia reflects on life, work and cleaning silent, empty buildings as we follow her nightly cleaning round.
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Sweden, 2008, 12 min.
For Håkan, the best gift he can share with someone is a Waltz. That is until he meets Isabel and her brother Emil—Is there something greater he might give?
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France, 2008, 10 min.
In this modern parable of Adam and Eve, a couple spends a passionate night in a cheap hotel, only to find afterwards that clothes make all the difference.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 15 min.
Before a moment of extreme compassion and heartbreak, bittersweet memories of Ernest and Angela’s past chart the very depths of their love.
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USA, 2008, 11 min.
William travels north by hot air balloon to find his missing ex-lover Alexia. Together they must come to terms with the memory of their friend and lover Anna.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 15 min.
Two teens discover love to the soundtrack of the Buzzcocks.
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Ireland, 2008, 21 min.
Special Jury Prize - SIFF 2009 Short Film Jury Awards
While trying to escape the boredom of the Irish country side, Lowland Fell comes across two brothers cutting peat. However, the surprise excavation of a bog body leads to a night of further discoveries.
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USA, 2008, 9 min.
A young girl dreams of her future.
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USA, 2008, 4 min.
When mom is away, two girls explore all the different ways they play together.
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Denmark, 2008, 9 min.
While awaiting treatment at a hospital after receiving an injury from a school bully, Peter waits with his Clint Eastwood-obsessed father only to discover his doctor and father share a similar past.
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Germany, 2008, 6 min.
Gigantic dust mites threaten Oma Grete’s home and the world, in that order.
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Switzerland, 2008, 10 min.
Monsieur Selavy’s unique film diary charts his journey through the tangled threads of time and space in the newest short film from Peter Volkart (Terra Incognia, SIFF 2006).
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Canada, 2008, 12 min.
Special Jury Prize - SIFF 2009 Short Film Jury Awards
A dinner party poses challenges to the service when it keeps moving to the next floor.
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Mexico, 2008, 10 min.
A member of a poverty-stricken Mexican family makes a decision that will change their lives forever.
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USA, 2008, 14 min.
In a walled city that knows only the month of November, a girl and her grandfather venture beyond its bounds into winter.
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USA, 2009, 13 min.
A misguided girl’s questionable attempt to connect with someone leads to a surprising turnabout.
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Belgium, 2008, 9 min.
Celebrate the ability to move.
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Ireland, 2008, 15 min.
Spurred on by his grandfather and a mysterious hooded figure, Páidí sets out to protect his family from his soon-to-be stepfather—the most evil creature in Irish mythology.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 7 min.
Winner Animation Grand Jury Prize - SIFF 2009 Short Film Jury Awards
An archivist recounts some of the strange and often downright bizarre inquiries made for photographic images from his agency.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 3 min.
The director of The Apology Line asks, “What do the contents of your pockets say about you?”
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United Kingdom, 2008, 4 min.
Love and romance as played out with the eponymous office supply.
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USA, 2008, 10 min.
A sound recording of Puccini’s “La Boheme” is paired with a continuous hand-held pan, guided by the music, and intercut with shots of flowers and wood fires, exemplifying the lyricism in Puccini's music.
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USA, 2008, 13 min.
An architectural pioneer attempts to create a containerized home that strikes a delicate balance between art and architecture.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 14 min.
Sixteen-year-old Ralph travels to Marseille on a quixotic quest to declare his love for best friend Clare.
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USA, 2009, 10 min.
Two arguing friends catch a late-night ride on the Seattle monorail, but the ride isn’t quite what they expected—nor is the destination.
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USA, 2008, 10 min.
Your boyfriend and mother are pushing you to come out to your Grandma, but her reaction may actually surprise you.
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USA, 2008, 22 min.
Winner Narrative Grand Jury Prize - SIFF 2009 Short Film Jury Awards
A caregiver begins to wonder if he’s no better off than the kids he's trying to help.
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Germany, 2007, 12 min.
An isolated high-security prison in the Mojave Desert—the Secondary Housing Unit, or SHU—is shown at dusk as searchlights are gradually lit, along with other lights in the evening sky, reminding us of the functional mechanisms of Disney and Hollywood.
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Canada, 2008, 5 min.
Love in the grocery store aisle lasts only as long as a step and a sigh.
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USA, 2008, 7 min.
A powerful, pulsating “direct animation” in which slide film is processed with ink, instant lettering and symbols. With music provided by Cabaret Voltaire.
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USA, 2009, 4 min.
Somewhere between a 1950s sock hop and the Wild West, two Technicolor lovers meet to belt out a tune from “West Side Story.”
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USA, 2009, 5 min.
Two friends discover something unexpected in the sun-drenched woods.
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USA, 2008, 13 min.
Four friends. Three suspects. One can of meat. The unbelievably true story of a prank that started at Montana State University, traveled the world, and ended almost a decade later.
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USA, 2008, 24 min.
In Golden Space Needle Award-winner Joseph Gordon-Leavitt’s directorial debut, a former rock and roll queen clashes wits with an arson investigator, based on an Elmore Leonard story.
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USA, 2009, 10 min.
At a small boutique in Brooklyn, the men line up to profess their love to sweet Virginia.
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Canada, 2008, 8 min.
Director Doug Karr directs ten questions to his late grandpa, David Karr—husband, father, White House press reporter, and Soviet agent?
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USA, 2008, 11 min.
After a night of partying, Abby wakes up to face her new, life changing, reality.
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USA, 2008, 14 min.
For Hugh and Lawrence, it’s 13 or so minutes later, and now everything has changed.
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New Zealand, 2008, 12 min.
As she gives birth to her daughter, Evie reveals her family’s future and the six-year-old bitch who ruined it all.
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Brazil, 2008, 18 min.
After Keyt’s husband is badly hurt, she struggles to maintain the passion that they shared.
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Canada, 2008, 16 min.
It’s Christmas time and Peace on Earth reigns, until the world’s Christmas trees revolt.
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Spain, 2008, 13 min.
When two childhood friends meet in a luxurious house in Madrid, a strange and surprising offer is made.
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USA, 2008, 17 min.
When Will meets Eli in a Salt Lake City gay bar, they take the long road home together.
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USA, 2009, 14 min.
A fascinating and disquieting tour of the world’s largest shopping mall in China, built for Vegas-like spectacles.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 29 min.
Winner Best Short Film SIFF 2009 Golden Space Needle Audience Awards
Wallace & Gromit return—this time as purveyors of the Top Bun bakery, despite the fact that 12 other local bakers have disappeared in the previous year. Now it’s up to Gromit to solve the mystery while Wallace woos new love interest Piella Bakewell.
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USA, 2008, 14 min.
Donald is building a time machine to travel into the future... and murder himself.
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USA, 2008, 2 min.
Only the finest vintage materials for this Italian feast.
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United Kingdom, 2008, 3 min.
How to explain to your young daughter the answer to the eponymous question.
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Netherlands, 2008, 9 min.
A 75-year-old German dancer with a secret desire to sire a child chooses a unique wallpapering style.
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