QUEER AS US SHORTS PROGRAM
Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 8:00 PM
SHORTS PROGRAM | 82 min
General Admission $10 | Student + Children $8

ALL IS WELL
SHORT NARRATIVE | 9 MIN | ENGLISH | USA
Directed by Elaine del Valle

Three women come to terms with their world ending.

About the Director, Elaine del Valle

Elaine Del Valle is a Brownsville, Brooklyn-bred Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate filmmaker.
She is the winner of the 2022 SXSW AUDIENCE AWARD (episodic pilot competition), HBO Latinx short film Director award, Seriesfest Caz Matthews award, a Warnermedia 150 artist and was a featured Director in the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Director showcase and the Women's Weekend Film Challenge. Her films have been supported by WarnerMedia, the Knight Foundation, and the Sundance Institute, and screened at top tier festivals including Sundance, Hollyshorts, Urbanworld, SXSW, Seriesfest, Bentonville, Palm Springs, Heartland, Nashville, Catalyst and more.

Elaine regularly lectures at Universities, including Emerson College and UMass Amherst, and spends her free time speaking at youth arts programs in underserved communities...including the one created by her daughter in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Affiliations: WGA, AWD, NYWIFT, NALIP, CSA, SAG, AEA, AWA, Hue You Know

ENOMENA
SHORT NARRATIVE | 19 MIN | ALBANIAN, MODERN GREEK | GREECE
Directed by Phaedra Vόkali

Anna is a gifted but insecure 17-year-old girl who is desperate to belong. During an aquarium school trip, her jockey boyfriend pressures Anna into entrapping his go-to target, tough Albanian classmate Jo, so that they can bully them later on. Anna accepts the mission only to find herself perplexed by her own feelings for Jo. Now Anna needs to decide if she’s brave enough to follow her inner voice or succumb to the need to be accepted.

About the Director, Phaedra Vόkali

Phaedra Vokali studied Piano, Economics and Architecture Theory in Athens and Film in University College London on IKY state scholarship. She has worked in film distribution, criticism and festivals (Athens International Film Festival). In 2012 she took on Marni Films as a managing director, building the slate up until 2019, completing numerous films and videos as a producer. She is an EAVE Producers Workshop alumnus as well as Torino Film Lab alumnus (Script&Pitch, Framework). Her films (Suntan, Afterlov and more) have been awarded and screened in international film festivals like Rotterdam, SXSW, Locarno, Edinburgh, New York, LUX prizes and in many other places around the globe. She is an Artworks fellow and currently completing her first short film as a writer/director, titled Enomena. Since February 2021, Phaedra is the general director of the Hellenic Film Academy.

HYENAS
SHORT NARRATIVE | 20 MIN | FRENCH | FRANCE
Directed by NOLLA

When Lashka finally gets out of jail, she goes straight to find Lena, the love of her life. Together, they wanted to destroy the system. They were called "The Hyenas"...

About the Director, NOLLA

After having studied filmmaking, Nolla started working as an editor for several fictions, documentaries and tv shows. He also directed several documentaries for NGOs « Aide et action » and « Krousar Thmey ». Since 2016, he has been directing numerous short movies and music videos, among them "La fin" ("The End"), which reached official selection in multiple festivals, including Buried Alive Festival, and “Je suis une vanité” (“I am vanity”), which won the Prix Lumière Kombini award. He currently lives between Paris and the mountains of French Catalonia.

HOME
SHORT NARRATIVE | 14.5 MIN | ENGLISH, PORTUGUESE | UK, BRAZIL
Directed by Bárbara Bárcia

On her first day of school, Sofia – a Brazilian teenager who has recently arrived in London – is bullied by a group of British students. Homesick and alienated from the world around her, she meets Lauren, a British-Nigerian teenager who shows her Sun Rah, a world entirely of her own making in a nearby park, where they make their home together.

About the Director, Bárbara Bárcia

Bárbara Bárcia is a Brazilian film director and producer. Bárbara is one of the founders of FLUXA filmes, a women-led production company focused on female-driven narratives and diverse and inclusive crews. In 2021, Bárbara was awarded a Chevening Scholarship and completed a master's degree in Film Directing from MetFilm School in London (UK). She co-created and produced a documentary series named "The Future is Female", a bronze medal at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards 2020. She is the director of the sequels "Women vs Covid", and "The Future is Female II". The short film "Home" is her first work of fiction. Bárbara graduated in Communications Studies - Journalism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), with an extension course on theatre from Sorbonne University (Paris, France).

PORTRAIT OF A CAT LADY ON FIRE
SHORT NARRATIVE | 9.5 MIN | ENGLISH | UK
Directed by Deborah Espect

A lady's life is turned upside down when she meets a charismatic artist with a dubious French accent.

Set in modern-day Brighton, Portrait of a Cat Lady on Fire is an anachronistic parody/tribute to lesbian period dramas.

About the Director, Deborah Espect

Deborah Espect is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in Brighton, UK. Her work focuses on bringing positive LGBTQIA+ stories and characters into the mainstream. She has just completed her first feature documentary and is developing her first narrative feature.

LOVE, JAMIE
SHORT NARRATIVE | 19.5 MIN | ENGLISH | USA
Directed by Karla Murthy

The story of Jamie Diaz, a transgender artist incarcerated in a Texas and the enduring friendship that brought her art of liberation and pride to the outside world.

About the Director, Karla Murthy

Karla is an Emmy-nominated producer and has been working on news documentaries for over 15 years. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers and has been a producer, shooter and correspondent for several news programs on PBS. Her award-winning work was described in the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative and compassionate.”

Her directorial debut, the feature documentary "The Place That Makes Us" screened at numerous film festivals and had its national broadcast premiere on America ReFramed. She is now working on her next feature documentary film called "The Gas Station Attendant," a co-production with ITVS for public television, and a short independent film called "Love, Jamie" about a transgender artist incarcerated in Texas.

Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She grew up in Texas studying classical piano and graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Religion and Computer Science. She is an alum of the Third World Newsreel Workshop, the Documentary Institute at Antioch College in Ohio and is based in New York City. Karla is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia and Film Fatales.