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.

watch trailer

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.

website | watch trailer | facebook

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.

website | watch trailer | facebook

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.

watch trailer | facebook

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.

watch trailer

Screening Info

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

Bitter Taste of Ginger

Bitter Taste of Ginger

Director: Brandon C. Lay
Runtime: 75 minutes

Ginger, a recent widow, takes up autoerotic asphyxiation to work up the nerve to kill her abusive mother-in-law, Ginny.

website | facebook

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 9:30pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd 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.

watch trailer

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.

website |  facebook

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?

website | facebook

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.

watch trailer | facebook

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.

website | watch trailer

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 7pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd 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.

website

Vitriol

Director: Mark Clauburg
Runtime: 25 minutes

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

website

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.

website | facebook

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.

website

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

Thriller Combo – Don’t Go Hiking, Night at the Eagle Inn

Don’t Go Hiking

Director: Director
Runtime: 4:56 minutes

A young man encounters a mysterious stranger while hiking in the woods.

website

Night at the Eagle Inn

Director: Erik Bloomquist
Runtime: 70 minutes

Fraternal twins embark on a pilgrimage to a remote inn to investigate the last known whereabouts of their father who mysteriously disappeared the night they were born — their exploration leading to shocking revelations as the property’s dark secrets ensnare them in a hellish labyrinth they must escape before dawn.

website | facebook

Female Filmmaker Shorts

Dust

Director: Serena Giordano
Runtime: 6:24 minutes

Rossella and Guglielmo’s older brother, Edoardo, passed away. Death brings the two siblings back together…maybe.

World Cup

Director: Maryam Khodabakhsh
Runtime: 17:42 minutes

On the night of a couple’s migration, the child of their friend who has been entrusted to them gets lost, and then a secret is revealed …

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.

facebook

Offline

Director: Kate Kelsen
Runtime: 7 minutes

A terminally-ill man faces his greatest challenge when he gathers his close friends to plan his funeral.

website | watch trailer | facebook

Inspira

Director: Emma Orelove
Runtime: 5:58 minutes

An exploration of life for one woman living in 2020 through breath. Created by an all-female team.

website

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.

watch trailer

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.

website | watch trailer | facebook

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.

website | watch trailer | facebook

The Fading Moon, Distressed Desert, & Calm Cloud

Director: Rochelle White
Runtime: 3:05 minutes

A raging Desert allows her frustration to grow to the point it almost consumes her! She is scared the moon may never return! But as the cycle of nature unfolds, the Desert soon learns she has no other choice but to trust in its wisdom.

website | watch trailer | facebook

Screening Info

Date: Friday, October 1, 2021 at 7:30pm
Venue: The GoggleWorks Boscov Theater
Address: 201 Washington St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Saturday Shorts Block

Trap Fishing

Trap Fishing

Director: David Helfer Wells
Runtime: 7 minutes

Get up close and personal with one of the last remaining trap fishing families in Rhode Island. Meet Corey Wheeler Forrest, her father Alan Wheeler and brother Luke Wheeler. Learn the art of trap fishing and what it takes to make a living on the water.

Old Man’s Heavy Sleep

Director: Mostafa Rostampou
Runtime: 15 minutes

This film is about the modern human family where loneliness is bold and dominant. We show the life of an old man who’s left alone after his children leave. He desires death because of this deadly loneliness. His only companion is a man who lives downstairs.

Drum Taps

Director: H. Paul Moon
Runtime: 11:32 minutes

A Union soldier awakens in a southern battlefield. Is the war over?
(A cinematic setting of Civil War poems from Walt Whitman’s “Drum-Taps” in “Leaves in Grass.” 2019 is the bicentennial year of the poet’s birth.)

You Went On With Your Dying

Director: Amin Ghashghaiyan Raz
Runtime: 20 minutes

Today my mother died. Maybe I did not know yesterday. I had a phone call from the nursing home. For the first time, after a long time, I thought to my mother, at this moment and at the end of the day will I be survived?

The Angel and The Stockbroker

Director: Kevin Hejna
Runtime: 11:21 minutes

A thief breaks into a Stockbroker’s apartment. She finds her mark about to jump from the roof. Can the most unlikely person talk him down from the ledge?

Punishment

Punishment

Director: Jalal Veisi
Runtime: 11 minutes

A soldier who is in love with a girl in the archives of the garrison who…

Intermedium

Intermedium

Director: Erik Bloomquist
Runtime: 20 minutes

An obsessive-compulsive teenager struggles to learn the value of compromise while adjusting to her new home (and butting heads with the ghost of the boy who haunts it).

Leaps And Bounds

Leaps and Bounds

Director: Jessie Garcia
Runtime: 16 minutes

The athlete and his coach from the University of Pennsylvania who revolutionized track and field by inventing two key techniques in the late 1800’s, and the controversial Olympics that followed.

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, November 2, 2019 at 4pm
Venue: The GoggleWorks Boscov Theater
Address: 201 Washington St, Reading
Tickets: $10

Horror/Thriller Block

Shifter

Shifter

Director: Matthew Marder
Runtime: 12 minutes

When an agent infiltrates a Russian Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia and steals mysterious files, the Russians kidnap a woman they believe to be the culprit. But it may be a case of mistaken identity…

The Hour After Westerly

The Hour After Westerly

Director: Nate Bell & Andrew Morehouse
Runtime: 24:44 minutes

Davis Harwell (Peter Jacobson) is a meticulous man whose life has grown comfortably dull. But when he nods off at the wheel and wakes up a full hour later with no memory of what happened to him, he is presented with a tantalizing mystery. Why does he have visions of a lighthouse, a row of cottages, and a beautiful woman (Shannyn Sossamon) he’s never met before? Davis sets out to find the answer, but what he discovers is far more disturbing than he bargains for.

Until the Wheels Fall Off

Until the Wheels Fall Off

Director: David Hall
Runtime: 8:33 minutes

A tranquil park within the Zombie Apocalypse, finds a withering zombie who can’t catch a meal, until an undead angel comes to his rescue.

PRINCESS

Director: Raylee Magill
Runtime: 9:35 minutes

A girl has a chance meeting of a lifetime….or two.

Pupil

Director: Meysam MUYINI
Runtime: 14:38 minutes

A reverse chronology in five segments about a man who starts his day with a headache like everybody else, but he suffers from some vague flash memories that he does not know where they come from, memories which tell about an abduction.

Women’s Weekend Film Challenge presents… EMPTY

Director: Cameron Morgan
Runtime: 5:33 minutes

Chantal and her partner, Maria, arrive at their daughter’s school for their everyday pick-up and are alarmed when the school is empty. EMPTY follows a mother’s harrowing journey as she tries to find her missing daughter in a Kafka-esque world. 

Screening Info

Date: Saturday, November 2, 2019 at 10pm
Venue: Reading IMAX Theater
Address: 30 N 2nd St, Reading
Tickets: $10