2013 Films: Night in a Hotel

Night in A Hotel  by Daniel Kontur
United Kingdom (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 13 Minutes
Screening Time: Juried Films 7pm. Oct 26th
Tickets $10.00  Buy Tickets Here:

 

James seeks nothing more than to make his young son happy. The boy's obsession with getting waved back from the morning train affects his otherwise happy childhood.

James sets off to the nearby town to take the morning train but meets a mysterious old stranger in a hotel the night before.

Trailer

Website

Director Statement
The short story by Siegfried Lenz, which this film is based on, is made up of three conversations and a very brief and distant description of a father’s journey from a hotel to his home village. The short story was written and published in West-Germany in 1947. Although this story is evidently set in a destroyed and defeated Germany, I felt it could be translated to any place in the world. Therefore, the true setting of the film is never revealed, only that there was a war.

What intrigued me, as a filmmaker, was that this story was an old man’s tale of overcoming a very painful past and finding a reason to carry on by waving back to this child from the train.

However, the story is told from the father’s point of view, who acts as a conduit between his son and the old man. Both are at opposite ends of the spectrum: one is an old man who has lost all hope and affection for life (hence the cynical comments on suicide) and the other is a young sensitive boy searching for hope (or, if you like, a tangible sense of generosity: someone to wave back to him from the train).

In order to make this story work in a film, I made the old man’s catharsis on the train the focal point and fi- nal goal of the emotional build up of the film. I did this by adding a train waving sequence into the film which isn’t present in the short story by Lenz.

The reason I believe that this story is still relevant to- day, is because it provides us with an easily transmut- able pathway into what people must endure in times of hardship, but, above all, how they can find hope in times where all hope seems to have vanished.

Screenings
San Jose International Short Film Festival
San Jose, U S A
October 2013 (Film Festival)

Heartland Film Festival
Indianapolis, U S A
October 2013 (Film Festival)

New Orleans Film Festival
New Orleans, U S A
October 2013 (Film Festival)

Thurrock International Film Festival
Nominated for Best Fiction, Best Direction, Best Editing
Thurrock, United Kingdom
September 2013 (Film Festival)

Isle of Wight Film Festival
Ventnor, United Kingdom
August 2013 (Film Festival)

HollyShorts International Short Film Festival
Hollywood, U S A
August 2013 (Film Festival)

North America PREMIERE
Salento Finibus Terrae International Film Festival
San Vito dei Normanni, Italy
July 2013 (Film Festival)

Edinburgh International Short Film Festival
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
June 2013 (Film Festival)

Limelight Film Awards
Winner - Best Drama
London, United Kingdom
June 2013 (Film Festival)

Fastnet International Short Film Festival
Schull, Ireland
May 2013 (Film Festival)

20min|max International Film Festival
Ingolstadt, Germany
May 2013 (Film Festival)

Western Europe PREMIERE
Cluj Shorts International Film Festival
Cluj, Romania
April 2013 (Film Festival)
Eastern Europe PREMIERE

2013 Films: Le Train Bleu

Le Train Bleu by Stephanie Assimacopoulo
Paris, France (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 18 Minutes
Screening Time: Juried Films 7pm. Oct 26th 2013
Tickets $10.00 Buy Tickets Here:

Paris - Gare De Lyon. Elie behaves as a true bounder, Selena, evermore in love, still wants to pick up the pieces. At the bar of 'Le Train Bleu', where they stop to have a last drink, neither one cannot imagine what will happen ...

This is Stephanie Assimacopoulo's first film as a writer, prooducer and director.

Website

Trailer

Facebook page

Screenings
Eichelberger FilmDayton Festival
in Competition
Dayton Ohio, U S A
August 2013 (Film Festival)


Festival International du Cinéma Numérique de Cotonou
Short Films Program
Cotonou, Benin
August 2013 (Film Festival)
Africa PREMIERE


International Author's Film Festival Quest Europe
BEST WOMAN FILMMAKER AWARD
Zielona Gora, Poland
August 2013 (Film Festival)


Zagreb Contemporary Museum of Art
"Best European Short Films" Screening Program
Zagreb, Croatia
July 2013 (Other)


Long Island International Film Expo
in Competition
Long Island, NYC, U S A
July 2013 (Film Festival)


64th Dubrovnik Summer Festival
European Short Films Program
Dubrovnik, Croatia
July 2013 (Film Festival)


60th Pula Film Festival
"Europolis" International Program
Pula, Croatia
July 2013 (Film Festival)


Ischia Film Festival
in Competition
Ischia Island, Italy
June 2013 (Film Festival)


Interrobang Film Festival (Des Moines Arts Festival)
in Competition
Des Moines, Iowa, U S A
June 2013 (Film Festival)


Big Sur International Short Film Screening Series
in Competition
Big Sur & Monterrey, California, U S A
June 2013 (Other)


AsterFest International Short Film Festival
in Competition
Strumica, Macedonia
June 2013 (Film Festival)


Pineapple Underground Film Festival
in Competition
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
June 2013 (Film Festival)
East Asia PREMIERE


Cabriolet Film Festival
Program
Beirut, Lebanon
May 2013 (Film Festival)
Middle East PREMIERE


High Falls Film Festival
in Competition
Rochester, NY, U S A
April 2013 (Film Festival)


Fresno Film Festival
in Competition
Fresno, California, U S A
April 2013 (Film Festival)


Festival Mulhouse Tous Courts
BEST ACTRESS AWARD
Mulhouse, France
April 2013 (Film Festival)

Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival
Program "Shorts VIII : Relationships"
Portland, Oregon, U S A
March 2013 (Film Festival)

Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival
in Competition
Glen Rose, Texas, U S A
March 2013 (Film Festival)

Festivus Film Festival
in Competition
Denver, Colorado, U S A
February 2013 (Film Festival)

Dam Short Film Festival
in Competition
Boulder City, Nevada, U S A
February 2013 (Film Festival)

Short Film Market
Clermont-Ferrand, France
February 2013 (Film Festival)

Lums International Film Festival
in Competition
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
February 2013 (Film Festival)

International Short Film Festival Cinema Perpetuum Mobile
In Competition
Minsk, Belarus
January 2013 (Film Festival)
Eastern Europe PREMIERE

Irvine International Film Festival
in Competition
Irvine, California, U S A
January 2013 (Film Festival)

Festivalloire, Fête Nationale du Court Métrage
Program "Top of the Shorts"
Valloire & St Jean de Maurienne, France
January 2013 (Film Festival)

Jaipur International Film Festival
in Competition
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
January 2013 (Film Festival)
South Asia PREMIERE

NewFilmmakers LA
Program, 15 Dec 2012
Los Angeles, California, U S A
December 2012 (Other)

Crown Heights Film Festival
in Competition
Brooklyn, NYC, U S A
November 2012 (Film Festival)

Festival du Film de St Paul Trois Châteaux
in Competition
St Paul Trois Châteaux, France
October 2012 (Film Festival)

Tallgrass Film Festival
Program "Exclusive : VIP Lounge Shorts"
Wichita, Kansas, U S A
October 2012 (Film Festival)
North America PREMIERE

Lund International Fantastic Film Festival
in Competition
Lund, Sweden
September 2012 (Film Festival)
Western Europe PREMIERE

Short Film Corner
Cannes, France
May 2012 (Film Festival)

2013 Films: Hurricane Bonnie

Hurricane Bonnie by Linda Cieslik
Milwaukee (Milwaukee Premiere)
Running Time: 25 Minutes
Screening Time: Opening Night 6:30pm, October 25th.
Tickets $10.00 Buy Tickets Here:

The story of two thirty-something brothers with issues that have been partially buried in the sands of time. Their mom also known as Hurricane Bonnie, recently passed away and both of them are having a hard time dealing with that and with themselves.

Bonnie took a yearly trip to Lake Wakabeka Wonderland with her boys and her brother Bob where she loved to ride the Big Woody - a legendary wooden roller coaster that was (and still is) better than multiple martinis for release from earthly woes.

At her wake, the boys learn that she wished to have her ashes scattered at Wonderland.

They set off with Bonnie's cremains in a box to honor their moms wish. Unbeknownst to them, that's not all she wanted...

Website

Director Statement

Hurricane Bonnie is "A True Story Based on Fiction". I leave the significance of that statement to your imagination.

Production Notes

"Riding the Big Woody"
We spent a wild two days in Wisconsin Dells at Mount Olympus Water Park and resorts park as befits our story. On day 2 we had one hour to get our shots on the Hades roller coaster before it opened to the public. Hades is one of a few wooden coasters in the U.S. and has quite a reputation among "woody" enthusiasts the world over. In order to get what we needed, Dusty and Jordan had to take the trip three times in a row, while Linda (Bonnie) had to ride twice. Linda gets seasick on an inner tube but nobody can say shes not a trouper. We could not get Dusty off the coaster. He may still be riding it.

2013 Films: Six Letter Word

Six Letter Word by Lisanne Sartor
Los Angeles (Milwaukee Premire)
Running Time: 17 minutes
Screening Time: Oct 26th, 5:15pm
Tickets $10.00 Buy Tickets Here: 

 

Zoe (Rumer Willis) calms Jax (Rio Mangini)

Photo by Samuel B. Kim

Down on her luck Zoe (Rumer Willis) turns tricks to support herself and her bright, odd son Jax but wants a better life for him. She brings Jax to a private school that her estranged mother has agreed to pay for, where an unexpected encounter with one of her johns gradually helps Zoe realize that Jax has autism and needs much more than she alone can give him.

Website

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Director Statement:

When I first started writing “Six Letter Word,” it was about the day my son was diagnosed with high functioning autism. I couldn’t get the images and sounds from that day out of my head: his doctor nodding after I ask her the verdict; my son’s voice saying, “You okay, Mommy?”; the freeway on our drive home as he chatters behind me while I cry silently. As I wrote, I remembered a couple I’d met in an autism parenting class. At first, they seemed more likely to be perps on “Cops” than class participants. They turned out to be the best parents in the room. They loved their kid to exhaustion and instinctively knew what she needed; they were blunt about their shortcomings and dubious about their ability to handle all that life threw at them. Yet their humor, warmth and love for their child rose above their doubts and challenges. When I wrote my protagonist Zoe to embody this couple, I found my true story. “Six Letter Word” isn’t just about autism, me, or even a mom grappling to accept her child’s challenges, though those elements remain. It’s about self-doubt, the discovery of inner strength through surprising sources and the fact that the people who are best at parenting often come in unlikely and very human packages. Most of all, it’s about the multi-faceted ties that bind parent to child.