Made In Reading Films

The Stakeout

Director: Federico Castelluccio
Runtime: 6:24 minutes

Two detectives, one Cuban and one Italian, on a late night stakeout argue about the best mob movie of all time.

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Righteous Sunday

Director: David Speace
Runtime: 7:14 minutes

Righteous Sunday is a poem written by Greg Gaul. The poem reveals the true inhumanity of racism as it tells the shocking story of the brutal murder of Mary Turner in 1918. While this is an actual reading of the poem, the film creates through a window of time a powerful, historical recreation of the event. The audience will be disturbed as it experiences what racism was really like in the Jim Crow south.

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Fire on the Mountain

Director: Patrick Corcoran
Runtime: 8:31 minutes

A young woman must stop a centuries old demon from unleashing hell on a small town after she fails to complete an ancient sacrifice designed to prevent it.

Filmed in one of America’s oldest deep coal mines featuring practical FX from Emmy award-winning makeup artist Santino Ferrese (Star Trek Discovery, Transformers: Dark of the Moon)

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Reading Cares for Puerto Rico

Director: Mateo Toro
Runtime: 45:13 minutes

Follow Me and I Will Be Behind You

Director: Kyle Allison & Taryn Habel
Runtime: 41 minutes

The true story behind the transformative culture of one hotel, the impact of leadership, trusting in the forgotten, and the revitalization of a community.

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Screening Info

Date: Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Shorts Block Remix

I’ll Meet You There

Director: Karl Fernandez
Runtime: 14:46 minutes

A man recounts a trip to his late wife’s childhood home as they prepare for the future.

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Wistful Pieces

Director: Ellany Kincross
Runtime: 18:03 minutes

Nick and Nadia are a successful couple in their 40’s who have been married for 12 years. Their lives have revolved around love and career until Nadia’s ex-boyfriend, Adam enters the picture. Adam is desperate to make peace with the past. As he thrusts himself into their lives, Nick and Nadia’s commitment is tested by otherworldly forces.

Can Nadia forgive Adam? Can Nick and Nadia find their way back to each other?

Wistful Pieces explores how the past isn’t always complete and that the world you see isn’t really all there is.

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Duet

Director: Mika Orr
Runtime: 21 minutes

Duet is the story of one fateful day in the lives of 8-year-old girls May and Shadmit, who dislike each other but learn that their lives have become oddly intertwined forever.

Duet is a multidisciplinary project, uniquely integrating film and music. The story raises questions about loneliness, regret, subject memory and fate that ties two children together for a lifetime.

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The Gangbuster

Director: Mark Adderley
Runtime: 16:30 minutes

A tale of stoic and unwavering determination. Meet OSCAR, an eleven year old boy (with asthma) on a mission to join a “gang”. His strategy is simple: badger an older boy, Kush, who he thinks must be “nice” simply because he “plays in goal.”
Is Oscar irritating? Yes. Is he persistent? Definitely. Is he innovative in his approach? For sure. Is he small for his age? Yes – he has a condition called Ring Chromosome 5 Syndrome. BUT he is also a young boy who quite simply doesn’t see skin color.
Meet The Gangbuster…when NOT seeing a difference… makes you very different.

Life Happens & Then You Cry

Director: Qbah Fernandez
Runtime: 19:53 minutes

A day in the life of busy career woman, Kate (Kate Hughes). Kate finds herself in a pivotal moment of her life where she must make a difficult choice about her relationship with long term boyfriend, Dave (Christopher Morris). With some help from her sassy Latina best friend, Sara (Sara Viteri) she may be able to find a solution to her dilemma.

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Anything 4U

Director: Joshua J Santiago
Runtime: 20:04 minutes

From living the American dream to hitting rock bottom, Damon finds himself struggling with addiction. With help from his nephew Joe, who tries to steer him in the right direction, Damon battles his inner demons to get his life back. However some illnesses are better at hiding in plain sight.

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Jabaril Keating

Director: Stacey Larkins
Runtime: 10 minutes

Upon making a life altering decision, Jabari Keating is a candid first person narrative film that explores his personal reflections, life experiences and trials and tribulations as an African American in present day America.

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Screening Info

Date: Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 12pm
Venue: The GoggleWorks Boscov Theater
Address: 201 Washington St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Shorts Films from Here to There

Let Tonight Pass

Director: Hamed Ghasemi
Runtime: 18 minutes

Elham is an English teacher who is from a traditional family. Tonight is a very special night for her family. Her suitor will come to their home with his own family. She’s been recently in a photo shoot as the model for an underground agency. Now she finds her pictures are being used for blackmail.

Mandatory

Director: Javad Khorsha
Runtime: 15 minutes

The story about a fire squad soldier who is forced to kill a prisoner in the firing squad and he does not know which to choose in the dilemma of ethics and duty.

I’ll Meet You There

Director: Karl Fernandez
Runtime: 14:46 minutes

A man recounts a trip to his late wife’s childhood home as they prepare for the future.

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Throttle

Director: David Ogrodowski
Runtime: 7:28 minutes

A man sets out on his boat for a river journey into the past, mingled with the present. He is deeply affected by an unexpected visitation in the night. Alone on the river with the city looming all around him, he makes a difficult decision.

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The Gangbuster

Director: Mark Adderley
Runtime: 16:30 minutes

A tale of stoic and unwavering determination. Meet OSCAR, an eleven year old boy (with asthma) on a mission to join a “gang”. His strategy is simple: badger an older boy, Kush, who he thinks must be “nice” simply because he “plays in goal.”
Is Oscar irritating? Yes. Is he persistent? Definitely. Is he innovative in his approach? For sure. Is he small for his age? Yes – he has a condition called Ring Chromosome 5 Syndrome. BUT he is also a young boy who quite simply doesn’t see skin color.
Meet The Gangbuster…when NOT seeing a difference… makes you very different.

How Long Until

Director: Jon Rehr
Runtime: 2:44 minutes

Castaway was about a man stranded on a deserted island. This is about TWO men stranded on a deserted island.

Which changes everything.

Just a Taste

Director: Mark L. Mazzeo
Runtime: 2:40 minutes

Do you believe in God?

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Anything 4U

Director: Joshua J Santiago
Runtime: 20:04 minutes

From living the American dream to hitting rock bottom, Damon finds himself struggling with addiction. With help from his nephew Joe, who tries to steer him in the right direction, Damon battles his inner demons to get his life back. However some illnesses are better at hiding in plain sight.

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Time & Place

Director: Matt Dickstein
Runtime: 11:07 minutes

Looking to reignite their love on a weekend retreat, Pete and Ellie find isolation, silence, and finally truth.

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Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 7pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Inspirational Docs

No Time to Waste

Director: Carl Bidleman
Runtime: 51:47 minutes

No Time to Waste celebrates legendary 98-year-old park ranger Betty Reid Soskin’s inspiring life, work and urgent mission to restore critical missing chapters of America’s story. The film follows her journey as an African American woman presenting her personal story from a kitchen stool in a national park theater to media interviews and international audiences who hang on every word she utters.

The documentary captures her fascinating life — from the experiences of a young Black woman in a WWII segregated union hall, through her multi-faceted career as a singer, activist, mother, legislative representative and park planner to her present public role.

At the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, Betty illuminates the invisible histories of African Americans and other people of color. Her efforts have changed the way the National Park Service conveys this history to audiences across the U.S., challenging us all to move together toward a more perfect union.

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Into the Canyon

Director: Pete McBride
Runtime: 84 minutes

In 2016 filmmaker/photographer Pete McBride and writer Kevin Fedarko set out on a 750-mile journey on foot through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. From the outset, the challenge was far more than they bargained for. More people have stood on the moon than have completed a continuous through hike of the Canyon. McBride and Fedarko took a sectional approach, achieving a feat that many adventurers have taken decades to complete. Others have lost their lives trying. But their quest was more than just an endurance test – it was also a way to draw attention to the unprecedented threats facing one of our most revered landscapes.

Throughout their passage, McBride and Fedarko encountered an astonishingly diverse and powerful landscape, rich in history, that is now facing perhaps the gravest crisis in the 98-year history of the Grand Canyon National Park.

Directed by Pete McBride and produced by the award-winning team at Insignia Films, INTO THE CANYON is a story of extreme physical hardship that stretches the bonds of friendship and a meditation on the timeless beauty of this sacred place. It is an urgent warning about the environmental dangers that are placing one of America’s greatest monuments in peril and a cautionary tale for our complex relationship with the natural world.

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The Haircut…or Learning to Let Go

Director: DM (Deanna) Witman
Runtime: 4:51 minutes

The world is experiencing a time of extraordinary ecological loss – of species, habitat, ecological connectivity, and personal connection to the natural world. An increasing number of individuals and communities are experiencing grief and other health effects surrounding these losses.

It could not be more clear that the world is grappling with loss related to climate disruption and its associated impacts from (un)natural disasters, food insecurity, migration, and pandemics. As losses continues to collect globally with losses felt on so many fronts and so deeply, I undertook a video/performance piece to continue my exploration of the phenomena of grief. The piece is a two-channel piece titled “The Haircut… or Learning to Let Go”. In many culture’s cutting one’s hair is an expression of grief.

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Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 6:30pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Women & Politics

Can You Hear Us Now?

Director: Jim Cricchi
Runtime: 87 minutes

Small-town activism. Nail-biting elections. A last-minute power grab. In Wisconsin, where extreme partisanship has become the norm, voters are finding their lives increasingly irrelevant to state lawmakers.

Through the stories of four tireless women fighting to have their voices heard, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW? unravels the ways that years of minority rule by one-party have reshaped democracy in Wisconsin—a state at the heart of American politics.

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Finding Justice

Director: Amanda Owen
Runtime: 18:53 minutes

Part present-day detective story and part a historical account of the movement for voting rights, “Finding Justice: The Untold Story of Women’s Fight for the Vote” tells the story of a band of intrepid women and their one-ton bronze bell that became a celebrated icon of the women’s suffrage movement.

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Women on Both Sides of the Camera

Women on Both Sides of the Camera

Director: Mahshad Afshar
Runtime: 95 minutes

Benefiting from a wide range of rare archive materials, this feature-length documentary focuses on one century of the representation of women in Iranian cinema. Looking at the formation of the Iranian film industry and its relationship with socio-political events, the film narrates the challenges of women who chose this controversial and unorthodox career in Iran’s patriarchal society and the consequences that they were faced as a result of their choice. It also highlights the integral role that female filmmakers have played in Iranian cinema to tell women’s stories, to challenge the tradition, sharia law, and ultimately to overcome the suppression of female authority on screen.

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 4:30pm
Venue: The GoggleWorks Boscov Theater
Address: 201 Washington St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Documenting Art

Voice of Selma

Director: Roya Iravani
Runtime: 30 minutes

The Voice of Selma (Moghaddam Museum) Project is a feature-length documentary film that guides us through the treasures collected over a lifetime of work by Selma Moghaddam and her husband Mohsen. Against a backdrop of government hostility toward Persian works of art that predate the Islamic revolutionary period and a personal dislike of Mohsen Moghaddam for his family’s role in the assassination of a government official, the two highly educated and well-traveled historians embarked on a life journey to find and preserve the art and artifacts that represent Persia and Iran.

Pictograph

Director: Roya Iravani
Runtime: 30 minutes

The pictograph is a documentary that takes a unique and comprehensive look into the relatively unknown world of modern art in Iran. This historical perspective examines an ancient culture that has run the gamut from actively repressing to ecstatically embracing, artists and art itself – Iranian artists have ridden the whirlwind in their quest to express the creative genius within

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 4pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Tackling Politics

We Are All in this Together

Director: Daniel Troia
Runtime: 70 minutes

During divisive times in America, a man sets off on a cross-country bicycle journey, with no food, no money, and the hope of gaining a better understanding of the human connection.

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Vitriol

Director: Mark Clauburg
Runtime: 25 minutes

A short documentary exploring vehement social media interactions from both sides of the political spectrum.

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MEN in Charge

Director: Melanie Kloetzel & Linnea Swan
Runtime: 37 minutes

Tracking the antics of the performance group kloetzel&co., ‘MEN in charge’ documents the development of the satirical dance theatre work ‘It began with watching’. Through a physical and artistic representation of a sector enthralled by alternative facts, ‘MEN in charge’ provokes audiences to reconsider the cunning, and sometimes comical, intersection of art and politics.

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Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 3:30pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Iranian Short Films

Goodbye Olympic

Director: Mojtaba poorbakhsh
Runtime: 18:37 minutes

Maria is a girl whom she is a champion of Kayak; she is waiting for dispatching to the Olympics Qualification which held in France. The schedule of dispatching the kayaking team will be called off because of some troubles.

Synthesis

Director: Mohammad Towrivarian
Runtime: 15 minutes

A poor family has a child with a disability. Due to his inability to pay for medical expenses, the father and his brother decide to kill their child. The father tries to do his job at night, but the mother, who is suspected of his behavior, goes to the road with them.
On the way, the father sees his brother and tells him that he regrets his decision, but his brother humiliates him and makes him miserable and miserable. The brother goes after his brother.
In the morning, he takes care of the woman and puts her to sleep, and picks up the child and puts him on the sidewalk. When she returns to her husband, she is confronted with the scene of her murder.

Inhale

Director: Nasser Zamiri
Runtime: 19:30 minutes

Ebrahim’s chronic insomnia has caused tension between him and his wife, Marziyeh.

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Hermit

Director: Omid Mirzaei
Runtime: 15 minutes

I am American

Director: Omid Mirzaei
Runtime: 15 minutes

ISIS captures an American reporter. He will soon experience the meaning of peace in a different way.

Today is Friday

Director: Mohammad Ahangar
Runtime: 14 minutes

Nader and Saed are arguing with each other because of their problems in the company.
But suddenly something happens which causes some changes to their destiny.

I Come From That Crowded City

Director: Mina Salimi
Runtime: 12:04 minutes

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 2:30pm
Venue: The GoggleWorks Boscov Theater
Address: 201 Washington St, Reading
Tickets: $10

The Remnants of War

Our Feet are Rooted

Director: Krista Imbesi
Runtime: 29:54 minutes

“Our Feet Are Rooted” is a documentary about government sponsored land grabbing in Northern Uganda and the non-violent techniques community members are using to fight for their ancestral land.

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Buddha’s Shame

Director: Morteza Atashzamzam
Runtime: 30 minutes

Bangladeshi local reporter Tamna travels to Myanmar-Bangladesh border to cover Rohingya genocide.

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 2pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10