Showcase of the best SHORT FILMS in the world today.
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS:
Best Film: TETHERED, ARE WE THE EXPERIMENT?
Best Cinematography: MEMORIES OF GREEN
Best Sound & Music: THE SPIRAL
Best Direction: THINGS I SHOULD HAVE SAID
Samuel Luna III was born in Anaheim, California. At a young age he gravitated toward music, starting out with the violin then transitioning into guitar. In Luna’s early teens his interest grew in films. Watching directors like Stanley Kurbrick, Dario Argento, and Brian Depalma. Luna’s interest was in dark-noir horror films. At age 27 he was given his first dslr and made his first music video. Luna continued to make more music videos for himself and other artists. Further developing his understanding of how images and sound work together. In the summer of 2020 he teamed up with his younger brother, Lucas to work on a script. They completed their film, “Memories of Green” in fall 2020 and continue to work together. Luna’s passion for pictures is as strong as anyone in the industry today, he hopes to pursue his career as a director and make feature films one day.
Director Statement
I made this film because I wanted to explore the Father and Son dynamic. Growing up my Father was strict. I longed for a deep connection but our relationship remained at a distance. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized this distance was very much learned by the relationship he had with his Father. Making “Memories of Green” provided me a space to dissect and delve into the idea of disconnection. I learned that disconnection is a choice and forgiveness is essential to humanity. “Memories of Green” is primal and circular in it’s narrative. I believe this cycle will continue until the end of time.
This short film was shot as the proof of concept for the feature length drama, “Things I Should Have Said”.
Independent filmmaker since 2004. Earned a B.S. in Film in 2011 and worked as a non-union freelance filmmaker in camera and sound through the end of 2017 in the Greater Los Angeles area. Currently developing the feature length drama “Things I Should Have Said”.
A man struggling with substance abuse after losing his family in a car crash finds purpose in life again after befriending a boy who is being bullied at school.
My name is Igor Buzaev. All my life I was working on the connection between different pieces of knowledge and skills. I was trained in medicine, laws, management, little bit of music, and tai-chi, I was working as a fitness trainer, IT-specialist, and I can even fly a light sports aircraft. I am a Ph.D. and Doctor of sciences in medicine. When I graduated from medical university my dad was literally took holding my hands to teach me all motions and tricks in the cathlab operating room. He was a great artist in interventional cardiology, one of Russia’s pioneers in this field, a photographer, philosopher, and a teacher. I also co-founder of the first in Russia MRGFUS neurosurgery center we opened previous year. https://buzaevclinic.com Now I am the chief of the interventional cardiology department in Republic Heartcentre, professor in Bashkir State Medical university and the highest consultant of interventional cardiology of Republic Bashkortostan Healthcare Ministry. I do not stop my education not only in Medicine, I also study MFA at University of Anaheim Akira Kurosawa school of film now.
Director Statement
The ideas of humanism and the importance of their disclosure in creativity served as the basis for the choice of the University for me. Akira Kurosawa said that when a person dreams, he is a genius. The proposed film is my student film. It tells the story of the eight-year-old daughter of a tremor-suffering artist, who, inspired by science fiction, makes her dreams come true.
The film is based on real events and tells about the path of my beloved wife, who from the very beginning of her acquaintance with neurosurgery believed that there is one wrong moment in surgery: in order to fix a small problem deep in the human brain, it is necessary to get to this area by applying even larger damage. In search of more gentle techniques, Rezida finally found one technology that allows surgery to be performed without incisions at all. Having learned it, she brought this technique to Russia and opened the first center in Russia where such treatment can be carried out.
In my opinion, it is important to instill in children the belief that their good dreams will come true if they believe and go to them persistently enough. I would like people with tremor to know that it is possible to help them now.
I deliberately linked time into a spiral through the picture and slightly violated the linearity of time in order to show that the future, present and past are interconnected in the realization of those good goals towards which humanity is going throughout its existence.
This is my first student film, but in the filming process I applied the same approach that I always use in my life in management – I try to give my team members the opportunity to open up on their own as much as possible. I was warned that making a movie with a child in the lead role can be very difficult. But the star of this film, Ailin Askarova, is an amazingly shrewd girl. She doesn’t need to be told what to do, just tell her a story and ask how she would act in this situation. The music for the film was written by pianist and composer Ruslan Vorotnikov, whose irony and narrative style made it possible to further reveal the contents of the film.
It is important for me that the result of the artist’s work is the improvement of society and the formation of good human values, and I hope that my experience, embodied in this film, will serve these goals.
When I was a little girl, I saw a movie about space, where people of the future could treat painlessly without cuts. It became my dream, which my team and I were able to make true.
Daniel Gartzke is an alumni of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s Radio/Tv/Film Department and an internationally, award winning Director. Dan is the winner of Best Documentary and Best Director awards in India, London, Paris, and Los Angeles for his debut documentary, Light in The Darkness. He brings expertise and vision to the important issue of companion animals and euthanasia in the six time Best Documentary International winner Rescue Story, Saving Companion Animals. This newest film nominated is Tethered, Are We the Experiment? created as an anthem of education and awareness in alignment with the Conscious Content Collective mission. Dan is a valuable contributor to this mission through Shaman Motion Pictures.
Director Statement
Technology has reshaped the way we live our lives. The internet has connected the world. Social media has changed the way we interact with each other. The speed of communication has reshaped the way we do business. So with more connections than ever before, why are depression, loneliness, and mental illness on the rise? This film seeks to discuss the issues caused by the digital integration of our society. The effects of the technology on our brains, the effects of exposing youth to this technology, and the changes to society as a whole are just a few of the many issues we will discuss. The troubling effects of this tech on us and our children raise some rather large questions. Technology itself is neither good, nor evil. It is a tool to be used in a positive, or negative way. One of the biggest questions this film attempts to answer is where the line between the two resides. While the technology seems to be giving us capabilities our ancestors couldn’t have dreamed of, it would seem these capabilities come with a capacity for harm. Is it worth it? Can a happy medium be reached? Are the tools and technology fundamentally changing us as a species? If so, is this a problem? Is it even possible to return to a more tech-less world? Would that be better, or worse? Are we connecting, are we tethered or are we the experiment?
How long has it been since you last checked your phone? 5 minutes? 1 minute? 10 seconds? Did you imagine that last vibration? In 2021, that smart phone of yours – is a fixture of you – and for many in our world, they don’t even know escape is an option. Digital addiction is a hidden illness among us, and it has our society in a vice grip.
DISCOVERY MODE, 58min., USA, Documentary Directed by Andrew Malcolm
Discovery Mode follows two travelers for five months throughout South East Asia as they interview 150 millennial tourists from around the world, to learn about the values of the world’s most misunderstood generation.
Director Biography – Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm is a travel and wildlife documentarian who is actively working with the Wildlife Emergency Fund, a South African based conservation organization, in the development of the wildlife series Saving Giants. He has previously directed a feature documentary titled “Discovery Mode”, filmed over a period of five months in South East Asia, profiling the phenomenon of Millennial travel. His upcoming projects include “Malelane”, the story of the rescue of five African elephants from death, and “Coming Home: The Mpilo and Makhosi Story” about the translocation of two orphaned rhinos in South Africa.
TETHERED, ARE WE THE EXPERIMENT?, 43min., USA, Documentary
THE SPIRAL, 8min., Russia, Drama
THINGS I SHOULD HAVE SAID, 8min., USA, Drama
MEMORIES OF GREEN, 7min., USA, Drama
