Alligator Hunter, The
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
The Alligator Hunter
Directed by Kyle V. James, Mallori Taylor, & Michael Bourne
Narrative Short
U.S.A.| 4 min | 2017
After losing his wife in a traumatic attack, an elderly hunter seeks revenge on the culprit: a massive albino alligator. Months of waiting for the creature to resurface turns his grief into a desperate obsession. However, when the hunter finally has the chance to kill the alligator and obtain catharsis, he feels an unexpected bond. In the monster’s eyes, he sees his wife looking back. Reunited with his love, the hunter decides to leave the safety of his boat and swim with the alligator.
Kyle V. James
Director
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kyle grew up fighting creatures and robots in his backyard with a homemade lightsaber. He now works as a director and film professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. His work spans feature films, TV commercials, and award-winning short films. When Kyle isn’t drawing, he is writing his book on paradoxes: “The Parado’s and Paradont’s of Time-Travel”.
Kyle V. James is best known for his work on Shrek Retold (2018), The Death Drive (2015), and Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2015).
Mallori Taylor
Director
Mallori’s life goal has always been to live “Tarzan style” and protect every animal in the world. After graduating from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Mallori now works as a full-time animator and creative marketing consultant in Milwaukee. She is also a published illustrator and an established storyboard artist. Mallori has a mild obsession with cryptids and cries happy tears every time she’s within 300 yards of a dog.
Mallori Taylor is best known for her work on Shrek Retold (2018), The Death Drive (2015), and Uglies Anonymous (2015).
Michael Bourne
Director
Acting as his guilty pleasure movie, Michael owns 5 copies of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Michael now works as a freelance cinematographer and editor. His video work includes award-winning short lms, music videos, and feature documentaries. When Michael isn’t watching movies or getting lost on 10-hour-long bike rides, he is probably trying to touch an animal he shouldn’t.
Michael Bourne is best known for his work on Jim & Andy (2017) The Death Drive (2015) and Illuminate (2014).
Film Information
Directors: Kyle V. James, Mallori Taylor, & Michael Bourne
Country: USA
Year: 2017
Language: English
Runtime: 4 min
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer: Kyle V. James
Lead Animator: Mallori Taylor, Kyle V. James
Sound Design:Michael Bourne
Backup, The
YES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q & A
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
The Backup
Directed by Carter Green
Narrative Short
U.S.A.| 14 min | 2018
A sick father struggles to continue a family tradition alive
Carter Green
Director
Filmmaker from Milwaukee, WI with interest in the thriller and comedy genres.
Film Information
Director: Carter Green
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 13 min
Rated: R
Credits
Writer: Carter Green
Producer: Austin Rodgers
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Black Tie, The
YES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q & A
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
The Black Tie
Directed by Micah Spayer
Narrative Short
U.S.A.| 14 min | 2018
A writer visits her odd-ball, small hometown to fulfill her dying father’s last wish: to track down his favorite black tie.
Micah Spayer
Director
Today, Micah is an independent filmmaker. He loves Disco, Jazz and speaks with the universe. He currently makes his living as a photographer and director/editor and loves to creatively collaborate.
Film Information
Director: Micah Spayer
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 14 min
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Writer: Micah Spayer
Cinematography: René Castellanos
Editor: Micah Spayer
Key Cast: Kiley B. Moore
Decision
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Decision
Directed by Mary Jo Zefeldt
Narrative Short
USA | 3 min | 2016
Within an expanse of anxiety and faced with a false choice, a decision must be made. Decision is a short animated film that explores one woman’s experience with anxiety and how she handles a perceived false choice.
Mary Jo Zefeldt
Director, Writer
Mary Jo Zefeldt is an animator and user experience researcher/designer from Chicago, Illinois. She is a recovering attorney and currently pursuing a M.F.A. in Animation and a M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction at DePaul University. Mary Jo also teaches Introduction to 2D animation at Loyola University Chicago. She has recently spoken at both CIMMFEST in Chicago and partner festival to the Tribeca film festival, Games for Change. “Decision” is her debut animated film.
Film Information
Director: Mary Jo Zefeldt
Country: USA
Year: 2016
Language: English
Runtime: 3 min
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer: Mary Jo Zefeldt
Sound Design/Re-Recording Mixing: Ryan Sullivan
Deer Lights
YES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q & A
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Deer Lights
Directed by Brian Klewin
Narrative Short
U.S.A.| 13 min | 2018
Charlie ignores the mounting consequences of his opiate addiction while his wife and kids find their own ways to cope.
Brian Klewin
Director
Brian has been a storyteller his entire life. He learned early on about love, life, time, and death after his sister was murdered while he was just 7 years old. He made it his life’s purpose to tell stories that put a light on the daily individual tragedies that go unnoticed.
Brian creates horror/drama/fantasy/sci-fi narrative films that often incorporate elements and characters that are centered around death, drug use, sex, and dreams.
Film Information
Director: Brian Klewin
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 13 min
Rated: R
Credits
Writer: Brian Klewin
Producer: Brian Klewin
Key Cast: Nyssa Greatorex, Sam Kozel
Gloria Talks Funny
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Gloria Talks Funny
Directed by Kendall Goldberg
Narrative Short
U.S.A. | 18 min | 2017
When struggling voice actress, Gloria, discovers her agent failed to tell her that her claim-to-fame cartoon is being remade, she sets her sights on reprising her role as the famous BioBoy.
Kendall Goldberg
Director, Writer
Originally from Chicago, 23-year-old Kendall Goldberg is an LA-based writer, director, and producer. Kendall is fresh off the release of her debut feature WHEN JEFF TRIED TO SAVE THE WORLD, starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and Jim O’Heir (Parks & Recreation). It was awarded the International Film Critics’ (FIPRESCI) Prize for Best Directorial Debut at the 2018 Heartland Film Festival and the Indie Vision Breakthrough Performance Award at the 2018 Twin Cities Film Festival. The film is currently on all VOD platforms via Gunpowder & Sky. Kendall graduated with a B.F.A. in Film Production from Chapman University. While there she was selected as a Marion Knott Scholar and was mentored by Producer Richard Gladstein (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight). She was honored with both the Women of Chapman Endowed Filmmaker Grant and the Zonta Award for her thesis film GLORIA TALKS FUNNY, starring Candi Milo (Dexter’s Laboratory, Astroboy). GLORIA went on to screen at over 50 festivals and won several awards, including a $60,000 Panavision New Filmmaker Grant. Her doc short DEMPSEY THE DIABETIC SUPERHERO was a Student Academy Awards Semifinalist. Kendall recently signed with Chicago-based commercial / music video production company StrangeLoop, and directed a series of six videos for Walgreens and Second City Works. She also directed a music video for Chicago hip-hop artist Appleby, “Lady Sunshine.” She was selected as a mentee for the 2018 Women In Film Mentoring Program.
Film Information
Director: Kendall Goldberg
Country: U.S.A
.Year: 2017
Language: English
Runtime: 18 min
Rated: R
Credits
Producer: Michael Stanziale
Writer: Kendall Goldberg
Sunset Song
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Sunset Song
Directed by Grace Mitchell
Narrative Short
U.S.A. | 5 min | 2018
The sunset multiplies through the tourist’s lens, capturing a keepsake. Here’s the sun, for you, and you, and you. There’s enough for all of us. Sunset Song swells between the dissociation of observation and a tender heart.
Grace Mitchell
Director
Film Information
Director: Mark Allen Davis
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 17 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer: Grace Mitchell
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Tomorrowland
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Tomorrowland
Directed by Directed by Wes Tank
Narrative Short
U.S.A. | 17 min | 2018
Tomorrowland transforms Lisa Samuels’ epic poem into a sci-fi dreamscape of uncharted territories and symbolic figures. In the film, the androgynous Eula floats in from outside the planet to act as our guide to the fateful circumstances of Fasti and Manda, while Jack plays another kind of guide called death.
Wes Tank
Director
Wes Tank is an artist, filmmaker and performer whose work seeks imaginative possibility in day-to-day reality. Combining poetics and rhythm with humor and color, Tank infuses a sense of playful wonder into environments and characters.
Film Information
Director: Wes Tank
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 17 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Writer: Wes Tank, Lisa Samuels
Producer: Wes Tank, Lisa Samuels, Joel Van Haren
Key Cast: Lisa Samuels, Anja Notanja Sieger, Duriel E. Harris
Water Will Carry Us Home, The
YES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q & A
Sat Feb 23, 2019 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
The Water Will Carry Us Home
Directed by Gabrielle Tesfaye
Narrative Short
U.S.A.| 7 min | 2018
Through living ritual and stop motion animation, The Water Will Carry Us Home reveals the story of stolen Africans being thrown off the slave ship whilst sailing through the Middle Passage. Upon crashing in the waves, the unimaginable happens when mermaids dwelling in the waters save these spirits.
Gabrielle Tesfaye
Director
Gabrielle Tesfaye is an interdisciplinary artist versed in painting, animation, film, puppetry and interactive installation. Tesfaye was raised in the United States as a first-generation American, to an Ethiopian father and Indo Jamaican mother. Her extensive international travel and exposure to multiculturalism in her life, echoes itself in her mixed media approach to art making and cross-cultural content. Her work is rooted in cross-cultural diaspora, Afro-futurism, Southeast Asian puppetry practices and cultural storytelling. Tesfaye uses the body in the form of otherworldly mobile puppets, as a vessel to personify ancestral, emotional, and celestial ideas, transforming ancient symbolism into contemporary languages and consciousness. In addition to exhibiting, she uses her puppets in stop motion animation in cultural narrative filmmaking.
Film Information
Director: Gabrielle Tesfaye
Country: U.S.A.
Year: 2018
Language: English
Runtime: 7 min
Rated: PG
Credits
Animator: Gabrielle Tesfaye
Key Cast: Gabrielle Tesfaye
