Official Selections 2019

Official Selections & Special Screenings 2019

Please see our schedule for dates and times of screenings!

 

  • 10 Tips to Live a Better Life
    Director: Penny Wiggins, Richard Faverty
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 1 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A satirical series explaining 10 ways to improve the quality of your life.  As a comic and performer, Penny Wiggins has had to learn the hard way how to deal with some of the challenges facing women and, perhaps, some men too.  Penny hopes these tips will make you laugh.

    10 Tips will be running thoughout the festival.

  • 3 Days
    Director: Julie Sharbutt
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Thriller
     | 
    Run Time: 12 minutes
    Synopsis:

    When three women friends sense danger on a camping trip, they keep each other laughing until a horrible twist makes them feel more alone than ever.

  • Am I Pretty?
    Director: Jennifer Proctor
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Experimental
     | 
    Run Time: 10 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A visually silent film appropriating audio from YouTube videos uploaded by tween and teen girls primarily in 2012 as part of a meme. In these videos, the young women entreat viewers to evaluate whether or not they are pretty and post their responses in the comments. Am I Pretty? seeks to call attention to the act of spectatorship invoked in these videos, and what results when the visual basis for judgment is withheld – an acousmatic reduction through the denial of the promised image.

    https://cargo.jenniferproctor.com/Am-I-Pretty
  • Athena - Goddess of Heroic Endeavor
    Director: Chris Hollo
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 14 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A young woman pursuing a career in both welding and modeling reveals the challenges she encounters in each.

    https://vimeo.com/295438619
  • Betty - They Say I'm Different
    Director: Philip Cox
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 56 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Betty Davis arrived on the 70's scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles Davis – startlingly turning him from jazz to jazz fusion on the album she named "Bitches Brew." Despite being banned and boycotted, she then went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself. Then suddenly – she vanished.

    http://www.nastygalmovie.com/
  • Born as a Girl
    Director: Marek Kłosowicz
     | 
    Country: Colombia, Poland
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 61 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Pregnant girls at the age of 13 or grandmothers at the age of 26 are of no surprise in Colombian slums. In the poorest social class, violence against women is especially striking: rape, sexual abuse or sex trafficking of minors happen on everyday basis. Colombia is a country that experienced a brutal 50-years long civil war as well as ruthless drug cartels. The long escalation of violence has caused millions to suffer extreme poverty. The situation in Colombia has forced over 7 million people to leave their homes. Most of them now live in slums. Such a situation is the most difficult for women, who are additionally victims of violence and stigmatization resulting from a characteristic of Latin America machismo culture.

  • Diva
    Director: Maggie Levin
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 10 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A fledgling pop star finds herself chained to the machine of a world tour she can't stop.

    https://vimeo.com/275522028
  • Doormats
    Director: Susana Benaim, Mary Castellanos
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 13 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A short film about two people who are tired of being stepped on.

  • Drive Back
    Director: Cherine Khoury
     | 
    Country: United Arab Emirates
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 4 minutes
    Synopsis:

    When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women driving on June 24, 2018, young Saudi woman Rawan Hamza starts a journey of 800 kms from Dubai, UAE to Saudi Arabia, alongside her brother, to surprise her mom back home.

    http://driveback-shortfilm.tbwaraad.com/
  • The Elephant's Song
    Director: Lynn Tomlinson
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Animation
     | 
    Run Time: 8 minutes
    Synopsis:

    The Elephant's Song tells the true and tragic tale of Old Bet, the first circus elephant in America, as recounted in song by her friend the old farm dog. Their story is portrayed in colorful, handcrafted animation, created frame by frame with clay-on-glass and oil pastel animation.

    https://vimeo.com/248369317
  • The Feels
    Director: JJ Anderson
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 4 minutes
    Synopsis:

    The Feels is a short documentary that explores one maker's beautiful and complex journey in finding balance between her mental health and entrepreneurial spirit.

    http://www.hrdwrker.com/
  • From The Afghan People For Americans
    Director: Esther Hyneman
     | 
    Country: United States, Afghanistan
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 46 minutes
    Synopsis:

    In Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous countries for women, filmmakers explore the progress the people have made in overcoming the social ills that have impeded their country's development, especially the oppression of women and the denial of education to girls. The primary voices in the documentary are those of the Afghan people, who speak for themselves and their country throughout the film.

    https://www.efhfilms.com/
  • Gloria's Call
    Director: Cheri Gaulke
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Animation, Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 17 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Scholar Gloria Orenstein's life is forever changed through her wild journey into friendships with the women artists of Surrealism. As she witnesses the visionary art and personal struggles of Leonora Carrington, Jane Graverol, Leonor Fini and Meret Oppenheim, she discovers her personal calling as a pioneer scholar of Surrealism and ecofeminism. Gloria's Call takes viewers from the cafes of Paris to the mountaintops of Samiland through richly layered art, animation and personal storytelling. This film delightfully reveals an often unseen history of women in the arts.

    http://gloriascall.com/
  • Hair Trigger
    Director: Taylor Schafer
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 8 minutes
    Synopsis:

    School shooting survivor Sadie, her mother Terry, and Sadie's best friend Elyse struggle to reconcile the night before the rest of Sadie's classmates return to school without her.

    https://vimeo.com/256353126
  • The Hanji Box
    Director: Nora Jacobson
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 60 minutes
    Synopsis:

    The Hanji Box is about Hannah, an American mother emerging heartbroken from a divorce, and Rose, her adopted Korean daughter.  When the mysterious Hanji Box—Rose’s precious link to Korea—is broken, Hannah travels to New York’s Koreatown to try to mend it. By chance she meets a charismatic Korean artist, who takes her on a journey of cultural discovery. Nuanced performances by the actors illuminate issues of longing and belonging, loss, mothering, identity and US-Korean history. The Hanji Box was inspired by the autobiographical memoir of an adoptive mother haunted by the origins of her adopted Korean children.

    http://thehanjiboxmovie.com/
  • Happy
    Director: A.R. Kagan
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
    Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror
     | 
    Run Time: 16 minutes
    Synopsis:

    In this "Horro-mance," a socially awkward clown discovers the thin line between love and lust as he pursues a beautiful and sympathetic aerialist.

    NSC Student.

    http://aprilrayne9.wixsite.com/arkagan/development
  • He Said, She Said
    Director: Sara Friedman
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 5 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Sara goes up for a job against a real crybaby in a world where men and women are held to very different standards.

  • Hello Darling
    Director: Anais Thomassian
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
    Genre: Dark Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 12 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A fed up woman transforms after she finds something in an old woman’s closet.

  • I'm Just Here
    Director: Lara Aslanian
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 16 minutes
    Synopsis:

    In an instant, we can make decisions to fly away from it all and give up or stay and fight to thrive. I'm Just Here is a short story that makes us stop, even if it's just for a moment, and realize that we have more in common with those around us than we ever think we do. It shows us just how impactful three small words can be.

    https://www.imjustherefilm.com/
  • Icarus Rising
    Director: Sara Hermann
     | 
    Country: United States, United Kingdom
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 32 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Icarus Rising is the story of two best friend fighter pilots, one in the USAF and one in the RAF, and the aftermath of a friendly fire incident.

    http://icarusrising.com/
  • Impulse
    Director: Jemsen Yumico Bollozos
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
     | 
    Student
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 10 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A documentary about a dancer and her struggles as an artist. A story about how dance influences her life and the people around her.

    "I considered myself an artist; yes a dancer, a performer, someone who's crazy, but I am an artist!" - Kalie Mclaughlin

    UNLV Student

  • Jephthah's Daughter
    Director: Tova Beck-Friedman
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Poetic
     | 
    Run Time: 5 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Based on the biblical story of Jephthah's Daughter, the video-poem is a monument to an unnamed victim sacrificed on the altar of a victorious father, unnamed but not spared.

    https://tbfstudio.com/project/jephthahs-daughter/
  • Keely and Du
    Director: Laurie Colbert, Dominique Cardona
     | 
    Country: Canada
    Genre: Drama, Thriller
     | 
    Run Time: 80 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize nominated play by Jane Martin, Keely and Du is a gripping psychological thriller that explores and humanizes the abortion controversy by taking the anti-choice agenda to a frightening new battleground.

  • Likeness
    Director: Emily Diana Ruth
     | 
    Country: Canada
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 9 minutes
    Synopsis:

    On a rare visit to her childhood home, a young woman is catapulted into the past life of her mother.

  • A Little Bit Pregnant
    Director: Summer Chastant
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Dramedy
     | 
    Run Time: 9 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A dark comedy about a woman trying everything to convince herself that having a baby can save her marriage.

  • Love Always, Mom
    Director: Tricia Russo, Craig E. Shapiro
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 94 minutes
    Synopsis:

    After 3 plus years battling stage 4 breast cancer, Trish Russo and her husband Greg, make the controversial decision to embark on a journey to have a child using an egg donor and a surrogate. The couple pick up the camera and turn it on themselves, initially to provide a resource for others who need to use alternative technology to build a family but it becomes much more than that. With both tears and laughter, we follow Trish and Greg as they get unique offers from friends and family to be surrogates and egg donors, follow them in the OR as they retrieve eggs and transfer embryos, and finally experience all the nerves and joys of pregnancy and birth.

    https://vimeo.com/269262349
  • Moon Rabbit
    Director: Kae Ho
     | 
    Country: Japan, United Kingdom
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 14 minutes
    Synopsis:

    During a visit to her grandparents in Japan, everything changes for 7-year-old Rio, who is obsessed with the Japanese folklore, Moon Rabbit.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBc-MHZACXE
  • Mouchette on East 4th
    Director: Gaby Leyner
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 13 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Lilah and Dan, two film students, go for drinks after their second dinner date. Dan's remarks and his conversation with his friend, the bartender, become increasingly condescending and vaguely misogynistic. Lilah offers, as a rebuke, her inspired reenactment of the climactic scene from a classic French movie about a silenced young woman.

    https://vimeo.com/321161082
  • Mr. Right Now
    Director: Carl Bartels
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 15 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Of course a woman can get sex anytime she wants, right? Right?! Not Amy!

    When you're forty, hot and smart, getting laid should be as easy as a smile, a drink, and 'your place or mine.' Not for Amy! If there are plenty of fish in the sea, what is wrong with her that she can't land even one and what is she willing to go through to get a man into bed?!

    https://www.bellipoma.com/
  • Night Comes On
    Director: Jordana Spiro
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 86 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Winner of the Sundance 2018 Innovator Award.

    Angel LaMere is released from juvenile detention on the eve of her 18th birthday. Haunted by her past, she embarks on a journey with her 10 year-old sister that could destroy their future. Written by Angelica Nwandu.

    VANGUARD SCREENING honoring Jordana Spiro & Angelica Nwandu

    http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/night-comes-on/
  • #NoMore AKA 10 Syllables
    Director: Emily Skyle-Golden
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Reno)
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 16 minutes
    Synopsis:

    With one action, he took away her choice. With one voice, she started a movement.

    After the justice system fails her, Parker sets off on a journey to turn her #metoo into everyone's #nomore.

    Every media sound bite in this film is from an actual sexual assault case. Every #nomore message is from one of the 500+ survivors that bravely shared their story with us.

    https://www.10syllables.com/
  • Paige
    Director: Bjarne Salen
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary
     | 
    Run Time: 22 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Follow the best female big wave surfer on the planet, Paige Alms on her journey in Hawaii to surf the biggest waves in the world while being a great inspiration to the next generation.

  • Plants
    Director: Mike Suchmann
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 18 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Plants is the story of Amy, a weed dealer in New York City, dealing to make ends meet. She's never been failed by her trusty referral system, until she gets a text from Mark, one fateful summer afternoon.

    https://vimeo.com/310681125
  • Razzle My Berries
    Director: Heather Aradas
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 9 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A 1950’s beauty shop holds the town’s secret to youth in a pretty little jar. Sarah, the new holiday hire, learns what some women will do to keep themselves looking razzled and dazzled.

  • Representative
    Director: Kelly Wittenberg
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Native of Nevada
    Genre: Documentary, Experimental
     | 
    Run Time: 9 minutes
    Synopsis:

    1. typical of a class, group, or body of opinion. 2. a person chosen or elected to speak and act on behalf of others in a legislative assembly or deliberative body. 3. serving as a portrayal or symbol of something.

    http://kellywittenberg.com/
  • Rise of the Catwoman
    Director: Markiss McFadden
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Las Vegas)
    Genre: Action
     | 
    Run Time: 13 minutes
    Synopsis:

    An origin story fan web series following Selina Kyle as she rises from orphanhood as a street level cat burglar working for Sal Maroni's gang, to a strong and bold Catwoman set on a journey of revenge.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMBVvFVOEPQ
  • The Riveters
    Director: Kate Felix
     | 
    Country: Canada
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 3 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Fed up with her 'lame duck' status, The Upstart decides to face The Patriarch in a 1940's feminist throw-down.

    https://elokofilms.com/the-riveters/
  • Sarah
    Director: Shanny Chen
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Animation
     | 
    Run Time: 3 minutes
    Synopsis:

    This is a story of a mysterious little girl who collects glass bottles from the ocean. With each bottle she collects she hangs them under a gazebo at the end of a dock.

  • Silver Girls
    Director: Mike Breen
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Nevada Filmmaker (Reno)
    Genre: Comedy
     | 
    Run Time: 13 minutes
    Synopsis:

    What's a best friend for if not some precious meddling?

  • Still Life
    Director: Jennifer Dean
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Animation
     | 
    Run Time: 2 minutes
    Synopsis:

    A short-short film celebrating the art that keeps us sane even when life makes us crazy.

    http://jenniferdean.biz/index.php/projects/still-life/
  • Swift
    Director: Byeo Ri Kim, Hae Deun Woo, Ye Bin Ahn
     | 
    Country: United States
     | 
    Student
    Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
     | 
    Run Time: 5 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Adventure created by students from the School of Visual Arts in New York City who study visual effects.

  • The Summerlands
    Director: Kathryn L Bucher
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Documentary, Dramedy
     | 
    Run Time: 90 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Deeds is 13 and a bit of an oddball. Jill is a caustic 40. Half-sisters but complete strangers, they're not thrilled to be stuck in a car with each other for the next 5 days. The world outside the windows can pass in a blur unless you get out of the car. But then you have to deal with the people. Some are good, some... not so much.

    Road movie, travelogue, experimental documentary, The Summerlands is the story of half sisters on a road trip up Eastern California's Highway 395.

    https://www.straypetsfilms.com/
  • This Is Cindy
    Director: Terance Miller
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Comedy, Horror
     | 
    Run Time: 30 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Real estate agent Cindy Luzak gets stuck with a house she can't sell because it's haunted by the ghost of a little girl.

  • Underpressure
    Director: Lilli Schwabe
     | 
    Country: Austria
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 33 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Clara, an aspiring gynecologist, is enthusiastically supporting her patients, no matter if they are bringing a child into the world or are making the decision to have an abortion. At the same time, she is attempting to be a good wife and loving mother to her two little children. However, with the increasing pressures of daily life, her self imposed belief systems are beginning to falter, her duties in the clinic suddenly seem insurmountable and her family life is slipping away.

  • Veins of Life
    Director: Muslima Gulyamova
     | 
    Country: United States
    Genre: Poetic
     | 
    Run Time: 7 minutes
    Synopsis:

    Veins of Life is a poetic adaptation of a passage from Hermann Hesse’s Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte (Trees: Reflections and Poems) that celebrates life and nature. At the center of the story is Sayuri, who yearns to reconnect with her inner self. This longing brings her back to the forest of her childhood memories and dreams.

    https://elephanttribe.org/
  • What Remains
    Director: Chiara Fleischhacker
     | 
    Country: Germany
    Genre: Drama
     | 
    Run Time: 8 minutes
    Synopsis:

    At the end of her wedding day, the bride Elaha has locked herself in the bathroom with her two closest friends to insert an artificial hymen inside her. But now Elaha is hesitating. The clock is ticking and the bathroom seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

Official Selections 2019 | Nevada Women's Film Festival

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