2017 Films: A Whole World For A Little World

A Whole World For A Little World by Fabrice Bracq
France (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 15 minutes
Screening Time: September 9th 6:45PM
Comedy/Romance

Fabrice had show three other films at our festival, two of which won top honors.

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Director's Bio:

Fabrice Bracq started out filming “making of documentaries” for feature films.

Then he went onto work for the ECPAD (The cinema organization for French Army) where he made a variety of films, for museums, for Ministry of Defense and for TV. During that time he also directed short films and documentaries, of which several Africa. In 2012, he filmed “Love Birds”, a drama set in the near future. Then came the short films “Split Time” and “Time 2 Split” which have now been officially selected in over 180 international festivals and have won several awards.

These were followed by the comedy’s shorts “Diagnosis” and “Dad in mum” selected by 80 and 95 international festivals respectively and the recipients of several audience awards.

All these short films have been bought by and shown on France Télévisions. 

Fabrice won "Best Film" twice at our festival for Split Time, and Time 2 Split.

2017 Films: The Log

The Log by Teemu Nikki
Finland (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 8 minutes
Screening Time: Juried Friday, September 8th 6:45PM
Comedy

An actor balks at baring it all, but the director insists on full frontal nudity. A funny send-up that uses over-the-top humor, exaggeration and absurdity to flip the script on gender roles and power dynamics both in front of, and behind, the camera. 

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2017 Films: Ten More

Ten More by Brad Riddell
Illinois (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 12 minutes
Screening Time: Juried Saturday, September 9th 9PM
Thriller/ Drama

A concert pianist (David Pasquesi) receives a startling omen as he struggles to recover from a traumatic brain injury.

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Director Biography

Brad Riddell has written four feature films for Hollywood studios including Paramount, Fox, and Universal. His first film, American Pie: Band Camp, remains one of the highest-grossing live-action DVD releases in history, and is now syndicated on TBS. His most recent film, Crooked Arrows, was released nationally in theaters in 2012, and is the first mainstream lacrosse movie ever produced. Brad’s other credits include films in the Road Trip and Slap Shot franchises. He is currently writing a skateboarding movie for Branded Pictures Entertainment. He directed his first film, TEN MORE, in 2015. Brad holds a MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he taught for seven years before accepting a post as an assistant professor of screenwriting at DePaul University in Chicago. Find out more about him at www.bradriddell.com, and @bradriddell on Twitter and Instagram. 

Director Statement

After working for thirteen years as a professional screenwriter, TEN MORE is my directorial debut. In the prime of my career, I was struck with a brain injury that left my future uncertain. This film offers a suspenseful glimpse into the moment I accepted my new reality. It was my privilege to work with two incredible actors, David Pasquesi (Veep, Angels and Demons) and Ellie Reed, (Netflix’s GirlBoss), who gave this story life beyond my imagining.

2017 Films: The Bouquet

The Bouquet by Allen & Smithee
France (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 11 minutes
Screening Time: Juried Friday, September 8th 6:45PM
Comedy
 

On a deserted road, driving an antique car, Stephane hurries up to a wedding whom he is the best boy. Terribly late, he realizes that he forgot the bride’s bouquet. Fortune favors him when he has the opportunity to take possession of a funeral bouquet tied on a tree. But fate takes it out on him when his GPS loses signal. Unable to get his bearings, he will have to take with him the only person who crosses his path, and who is able to help : Charlotte… who just placed her funeral bouquet on the tree. 

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Director Biography

Behind the alias Allen & Smithee, of wich the meaning reveals their cinephilia, are Romain and Julien hiding. Since they met in an editing room, where one was editing the movie of the other, their common passion for cinema gathered them. Today they direct films together. After working in feature film production for several years, including some by Luc Besson, Romain launch himself in directing a documentary about autism. When he met Julien, the editor of his film, he discovers a passion for filmic writing. Julien begins to work as a camera operator. He quickly evolves to editing and directing, exploring music videos and short films. Dabbling in everything he naturally writes, fascinating by film dramaturgy as well. In love with unexpected stories and colorful characters, Romain and Julien have always put cinema in their music videos.

2017 Films: Home Invasion

Home Invasion by Ben Mead
Wisconsin (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 5 minutes
Screening Time: Saturday, September 9th 4:30PM
Comedy/Horror

Two serial killers contemplate breaking into a house and murdering a suburban family.

2017 Films: Selva Obscura

Selva Obscura by Elizabeth Wadium
Wisconsin (Wisconsin Premiere)
Running Time: 5 minutes
Screening Time: Saturday, September 9th 4:30PM
Experimental 

In Selva Obscura, director Elizabeth Wadium marries her two loves--film and music--to reflect on the uncertainty and longing in a life's journey.

Director Statement

Selva Obscura is a blend between a silent film and a mood piece, somewhat similar to a music video. However, unlike a music video, the music was composed by the director after the first rough cut of the footage, like a traditional film score. 

The film is largely a metaphor for a quarter-life crisis and both the scenery and the title draw inspiration from the first stanzas of Dante's Inferno.

2017 Films: Do You Love Me?

Do You Love Me? by Michael Viers
Wisconsin
Running Time: 12 minutes
Screening Time: Juried Friday, September 8th 6:45PM
Horror

A short film directed by Michael Viers about a couple slowly drifting apart from one another but who have trouble letting go as events turn violent. Michael's previous film, From The Darkness Theatre won Audience Favorite, Best Director and Best Actor at our festival in 2013. 

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Director Biography:

A man with an encyclopedic knowledge on horror film-making, Michael has directed short films and music videos, most notably FROM THE DARKNESS THEATRE and LOVE YOU STILL. Michael was a featured writer on the popular website Taste of Cinema providing insight into all manner of cinema topics.

2017 Films: Dead Man's Carnival: A Conversation With Pinkerton Xyloma

Dead Man's Carnival: A Conversation With Pinkerton Xyloma by Casey T. Malone
Wisconsin 
Running Time: 15 minutes
Screening Time: Saturday Sept 9th 6:45 
Documentary

Award-winning filmmaker, Casey T. Malone, turns his lens onto Milwaukee's performance collaborative and DIY punk rock circus, Dead Man's Carnival, to create a unique short documentary told through the philosophies and historical tales of Professor Pinkerton Xyloma, ringmaster of the carnival. The film stands as a testament and love letter to those artists who embody the DIY spirit to create something from nothing and a reminder that the world is not one thing.

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Director Biography

Casey T. Malone has been knocking around the TV and film world for a number of years including working on shows for Discovery Channel and PBS. His work has also been seen by readers of Astronomy, Trains, and Discover Magazine. As an independent filmmaker he has several credits to his name including the award-winning "Modern Age Amour," "CLOK," "The Imprisonment of Henry Stoker," and "The Professor."

2017 Films: In America Red, White & Blood

In America Red, White & Blood by James Roufus
Wisconsin (Milwaukee Premiere) 
Running Time: 10 minutes
Screening Time: Juried Friday, September 8th 6:45PM
Drama

In America there are as many guns as there are people... When the wrong people come in possession of those guns chaos ensues, and the saga continues. As our mental healthcare continues to be ignored and more guns are manufactured in America than ever, one has to wonder if we're just waiting for more bad news.

2018 Films: The Deer Queen

The Deer Queen by Brooke Thiele
Wisconsin
Running Time: 7 minutes
Screening Time: Friday, Sept 7th 9pm & Sat Sept 8th 9pm.
Experimental/Asian/Women

Ticket Options

1 Ticket $10.00 USD 2 Tickets $20.00 USD 3 Tickets $30.00 USD 4 Tickets $40.00 USD 5 Tickets $50.00 USD

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We are in the deep Northwoods, where the powerful and fragile Deer Queen reigns. We see a small cabin, filled with trophies of the hunt. On the ground outside the cabin, there is a dead deer. A Hunter emerges from inside the deer. Her quarry is a seductive and dangerous Crane, whom she stalks (and pines for) because the Crane has the freedom to fly away.


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Director's Bio:

Brooke Thiele teaches basic and experimental animation classes. She also manages the Film Equipment Room.

Brooke Thiele is a 2016 Mary Nohl-award-winner.

2017 Films: Rule of Threes

Rule of Threes by T.L. Quach
(Wisconsin Premiere) 
Running Time: 10 minutes
Screening Time: Saturday Sept 9th 4:30
Drama

Rule of Threes is a short film written and directed by T. L. Quach. It serves as a sample of feature length version of the story as it runs through the Film Festival Circuit. So far the film was given an Award of Merit for Women Filmmakers by the Accolade Global Film Competition.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a group of friends must decide who stays and who goes as a sacrifice after their resources are lost. The feature version delves more into the characters' psychologically thrilling, coming-of-age journey as they travel across country, challenging weather conditions and the threats of other survivors, in hopes of seeing their families back home.

T. L. Quach hopes to develop the film more in order for it to be produced after the Film Festival Circuit.

Trailer

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

http://www.tlquachfilms.com/rule-of-threes

SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES

https://www.facebook.com/TLQuachFilms/

https://twitter.com/ruleof3sfilm

https://twitter.com/tlquachfilms

https://www.instagram.com/TLQUACHFILMS

T. L. Quach

DIRECTOR

T. L. Quach has dedicated her life to entertain, inspire, and educate about the complexity of human behavior through filmmaking. She dives in writing and directing stories about normal people in extreme circumstances. As a child of Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants, Quach wants to provide a different lens in tribute to her family and also display a diverse perspective about humanity. Directing has always been her passion, and she is very excited to share her latest film, Rule of Threes, with the world.

Avalonne Hall

PRODUCER

Working on Rule of Threes is Hall's first foray into producing film projects besides her own. There is something very liberating about producing someone else's vision. First you need to believe in the project and next you commit yourself to producing a great project. She has written and directed her own short film Shyness, which is currently in post-production. As she finishes off her own project, she wants to help others produce their films with passion and integrity.

Director Statement

As Walt Disney says, “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something, than educate people and hope they were entertained”, I strive to do the same but with psychological thrillers. I want to share my exploration of human behavior and challenge morale. Growing up as a child of refugees from Vietnam, I heard stories about a foreign world of desperation and poverty and how their environment had shaped their actions, perspectives of others, and decisions in their lives. For example, decisions like abandoning their home and jumping on an old dilapidated boat in hope to make it to a Hong Kong's refugee camp still seems crazy to me. With stories like these, it always kept me thinking about to what choices, to what limits, that normal people do under extreme circumstances. Whether it's positive or negative decisions, I want to put that complication onto film. Hence why I had written and directed narrative films about desperation, understanding of one another, and finding hope - including this one. 

While working in production, I remembered a prop sign on set where it states the "Rules of Threes" where: Humans cannot live 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter in extreme weather, 3 minutes without air, and 3 seconds without hope. I love the last line and had to write around it. The core value of survival is having the will to move on and I feel everyone needs to know that. 

I grown an interest in post-apocalyptic films and TV shows that display life-death situations but still find inklings of hope. Works like The Road, Snowpiercer, and The Walking Dead explore the human rationale under extreme stress and with these influences, I created the short film "Rule of Threes". 

The short film is a snippet of a feature film I'm developing. This film serves as a metaphor about young people struggling to survive in a world they were never prepared for. Not only I want to display human desperation but also express how "thinking inside the box" or within rules can add psychological weight for human survival. For example, these young characters treat their lessons of the "Rule of Threes" as a survival checklist rather than a survival guide. Additionally, nostalgia can add weight in a world of lost. Through audio flashbacks, character's experiences emphasize the character's psychological fight as they live through this desperate, mundane life. 

I hope that this film can ultimately give some perspective of life to adults as they inherently develop these expectations through their upbringing or from society. Regardless of any unexpected roadblocks, we still must find hope to survive; so our jobs in entertainment is to educate and/or remind everyone about that.