Blanche
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Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
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Blanche
Directed by Layne Marie Williams
Narrative Short
USA | 7 min | 2021
A night in the life of a modern day Blanche DuBois as she plays host with old friends after isolation in quarantine. As her night unfolds, we are immersed into the fantasy world of Blanche’s obsession with nostalgia
Director Statement
Hello, I’m Layne Marie Williams. I love stories about unique worlds and the fantastic characters that reside there. “Blanche” is a deep dive into the tales we tell ourselves in order to get by. Inspired by Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” as a woman from the Deep South it was a real delight to create a world and character inspired by the one and only Blanche DuBois. Utilizing a memorable color palette and tantalizing language, “Blanche” immerses its audiences into the meaning of social butterfly.
Layne Marie Williams
Director
After arriving in Hollywood, it took filmmaker Layne Marie Williams not even two weeks to land her first LA directing gigs. Not surprising, given the talents of this acclaimed Chicago filmmaker. Prior to arriving in LA, Layne Marie has logged over a dozen credits, everything from writing and directing award-winning shorts to developing web series to producing internationally acclaimed features. All that, and yet this young auteur is just getting started.
Barely 30, Layne Marie Williams has already founded the non-profit film organization Women of The Now and cofounding of The Women’s Film Festival. She recently started her own production company as well, entitled Legacy Marie Pictures. No matter what her endeavor, whether it’s making films on her own, or supporting other filmmakers, Layne Marie cultivates the world of film with brave storytelling choices and enthralling characters and images you’ll never forget.
Film Information
Director: Layne Marie Williams
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 7 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer: Alekandra Martin
Producer: Alekandra Martin
Cinematography: Olivia Aquilina
Editor: Ana Christian
Principal Cast
as Blanche
as Guest
as Guest
Chopping Block
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Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
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Chopping Block
Directed by Tim Schwagel
Narrative Short
USA | 10 min | 2021
A young woman confronts someone too close for comfort after an alarming realization.
Director Statement
The idea for Chopping Block came from thinking about that feeling you get in your gut when you really need to tell someone something important but you’re terrified about how they may react. From there it slowly evolved into a dramedy about anxiety and gnarliness of what is often said in the heat of the moment.
Tim Schwagel
Director
I’m a filmmaker based in Eau Claire WI and I’ve loved movies ever since my dad took me to see “Dinosaur” when I was three years old. Eau Claire doesn’t have a large film community, but it is strong and I feel lucky to be able to do what I love right in my home town.
Film Information
Director: Tim Schwagel
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 10 min.
Rated: R
Credits
Writer: Tim Schwagel
Producer: Tim Schwagel, Zach Staads
Cinematographer: Nick Houchin
Music: Jasmine Janaé Charleston
Principal Cast
as Ellie
as Sam
as Mom
Erosion Project
NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE VENUESYES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q&A
Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
Purchase your ticket either online or at the Box Office
Erosion Project
Directed by Dan Su
Narrative Short
USA | 7 min | 2020
Dan Su’s dance film makes use of one of the most unique structures on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus: the George L. Mosse Humanities Building. A tribute to its stark brutalist architecture, the film combines haunting choreography and a harsh, industrial-techno score to capture the coexistence of the natural human form and the bare concrete exterior of the building. The music of Erosion Project is part of Dan Su’s upcoming debut album, GameO: U Think U R Safe.
“A collaboration between choreographer-musician Dan Su and festival veteran cinematographer-editor Aaron Granat is constructed as a waking brutalist hallucination. Scored by Su’s eerie minimalist techno that recalls Jing Lekker’s recent EPs (Adularescence or Psychiatric Population), Erosion Project draws the arching line from human body to stone body of the George L. Mosse Humanities Building on UW-Madison campus. Featuring an array of technical tricks, shifting aspect ratios, and washed-out visuals the color of concrete and lannon stone, the film’s cumulative effect is one of time distortion and hypnotic osmosis. A trippy triumph of sound and image.” Grant Phipps, Tone Madison
Director Statement
The idea for Chopping Block came from thinking about that feeling you get in your gut when you really need to tell someone something important but you’re terrified about how they may react. From there it slowly evolved into a dramedy about anxiety and gnarliness of what is often said in the heat of the moment.
Dan Su
Director
Dan Su (born in Kunming, China) creates a hybrid of music, dance, film, and visual art, in a “Raw, Pure & Uncompromising” way. To pursue her artistic vision and expression, she is equipped with multimedia practices: body movement, sound generation, analog and digital processes of still and moving images. Since 2017, she has been working independently in U.S. and Berlin. After she produced a number of stage performance “Roots” (2017), “I EYE I” (2018), and “On an attempt of a chicken soup” (2019), she has experimented with the intersection of media, resulting in for example the long durational performance installation “WHITE WRITE 白写” (2020) on dance and calligraphy, and the commissioned site-specific music and dance performance “TU BE” (2020) which happened on the pipes of the backyard of Gaswerksiedlung. Following her own music production practice, she has debuted her electronic single “Today I Am” (2019), successively released the single “Blue Eyes” and EP “Chicken Soup” (2020), and soon the upcoming new album “Game0: U Think UR Safe”. As a sound maker, she attempts to create the dynamic and haunted space that challenges the listeners.
Film Information
Director: Dan Su
Country: USA
Year: 2020
Language: N/A
Runtime: 7 min.
Rated: G
Credits
Producer: Dan Su, Aaron Granat
Cinematography: Aaron Granat
Choreography: Dan Su
Editor: Dan Su, Aaron Granat
Key Cast: Dan Su
Connect With This Film
Gregory Michael Stahl
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Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
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Gregory Michael Stahl
Directed by Ron Johnson
Documentary Short
USA | 23 min | 2021
Fisherman, Blues Guitarist, Photographer – Gregory Michael Stahl lives in Northern Illinois. He enjoys fishing, playing his guitar and taking beautiful pictures of wildlife, fauna and landscapes along the Sugar River near Rockton. Watch this engaging documentary of a man who lives his dreams.
Director Statement
The short film, “Gregory Michael Stahl”, is about an easy going man who enjoys fishing, playing and inventing blues music on his guitar and photography. He’s an easy going man with the determination to just let things happen – and that is exactly what he does.
But one thing was missing. Greg wanted to relate his blues music on his guitar with the wildlife and nature around him while he was fishing. He found a way to capture this environment while fishing along the Sugar River with his camera cell phone. Not only is his camera a very good device for taking excellent pictures, Greg is also very adept at capturing wild animals which live near all of us, but we often fail to notice them.
However, something was still missing. He wanted his friends to experience some of the wildlife beauty he captured with his camera. He discovered that he can make YouTube video programs with his pictures and music.
“Gregory Michael Stahl” is a short documentary which captures Greg’s goal of communicating his love for nature, his blues music and his fishing through his photography.
Ron Johnson
Director
I am a retired high school social science teacher. In the decade of the 1970’s, I taught film study, filmmaking and mass communications at Rolling Meadows High School in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Later, I taught US history until I retired in 1997.
I have a Master’s degree in Film Education from Columbia College in Chicago (1972) and a BS degree in Social Science from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon (1969).
I co-authored: “Understanding the Film”, published in 1975 and every five years through 1995 by the National Textbook Co. The book is now owned by McGraw Hill.
On a whim, I registered to take a couple of video production courses at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois in 2014 and ended up taking more than eight classes in three years.
Wow! The memories, from over 40 years ago came flowing back of using a 16mm Bolex camera to film scenes, then running the developed 16mm film back and forth through a Moviola, editing and glueing scenes together so I could make a film, made me even more determined than ever to create films. But now my dreams of making films were a real possibility because of the digital revolution making the filmmaking process less expensive and easier to use. Thanks to the media production program at my local community college which allowed me to learn how to use digital technology to create films.
I also love watching films. I have led a film discussion class for a local senior citizens organization for 18 years.
I hope to be able to continue to make films of distinction and virtuosity.
I’m married for over 50 years and have four children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Besides making films, I enjoy model railroading, genealogy and photography.
Film Information
Director: Ron Johnson
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 23 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Producer: Ron Johnson
Key Cast: Gregory Michael Stahl
PeloLove
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Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
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PeloLove
Directed by Elohim Peña
Narrative Short
USA | 8 min | 2021
Amid the pandemic, Alexis successfully found her true love despite quarantining alone. Today, for modern love segment, a TV reporter interviews Alexis about the new long distance romance. Our reporter soon finds this love story may not be the “real” story.
Director Statement
We are tribal. Its in our DNA. There’s an expermient called Frederick’s Experiment. I read about as teen and it’s still seared into my mind. If you’re not familiar, back in the thirteenth century, a German king, (Frederick II) conducted an immoral and frankly sadistic experiment designed to discover what language children would naturally grow up to speak if never spoken to.
King Frederick took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were not only forbidden to speak within earshot, but also were not allowed to receive human physical contact. – I have no idea why he added this second rule other than total power often makes monsters of men – To his surprise, Frederick’s experiment was cut short and he never got his answer because the babies died. By the 1940’s researchers would realize this is why orphanages had a 30-40 percent mortality rate.
We literally require human contact to survive and grow into well-adjusted people. Babies just didn’t recieve enough human contact in that environment.
So when the opportunity arrose to shoot and direct a short film about a woman searching for love under quarantine I got excited.
I believe that humans forced into isolation rarely come out the otherside better for it. The character of Alexis offered me the chance to take a look at what happens when we are left alone and examine how it affects us mentally and socially; with a comedic bent of course. I hope you enjoy.
Elohim Peña
Director
Elohim Peña was born in the Dominican Republic. A military brat, he grew up moving all over the U.S. but from 4th grade on, lived in Minnesota. He studied acting at the William Esper Studio in NYC before ending up in Chicago and deciding to try his hand behind the camera. After starring as a lead in the indie film “I Dream of Psychopomp” and being inspired by his director Danny Villanueva Jr. He had the good fortune of meeting Keisha Champagne, the writer and producer of PeloLove. Together they founded A.D. Films (Afro-Dominican Films) production company. Elohim is self taught and a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew. PeloLove is his directorial debut.
Film Information
Director:Elohim Peña
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 8 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer: Keisha Champagne
Producer: Keisha Champagne
Editor: Elohim Peña
Principal Cast
as Alexis Pierce
as Sandra James
as Alex (voice)
Statement – The
NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE VENUES
Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
Purchase your ticket either online or at the Box Office
The Statement
Directed by Owen Imgrund
Narrative Short
USA |15 min | 2021
After investigating an Elder cult’s meeting place, a professor wakes to find himself in an interrogation room with a grotesquely scarred hand.
Director Statement
The opportunity to make films that actually look good is something for which I am extremely grateful. My heartfelt thanks go to my cast, crew, and family who were willing to put up with the whims of a new 19-year-old director.
Owen Imgrund
Director
All my life I have loved movies.
Maybe a little too much.
Born and raised in the Chippewa Valley, I have spent many years goat farming, mowing lawns at cemeteries, and brooding on what makes people tick.
Now I make movies.
Film Information
Director: Owen Imgrund
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 15 min.
Rated:
Credits
Writer:Owen Imgrund
Producer: Owen Imgrund, Nick Houchin
Director of Photography: Nick Houchin
Key Cast: James Finn, Matt Wilhelm, Jeffrey Peterson
Connect With This Film
Principal Cast
as Beth
as Zach
as Lizzie
Transmission
NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE VENUESYES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q&A
Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
Purchase your ticket either online or at the Box Office
Transmission
Directed by Noah Meister
Narrative Short
USA | 9 min | 2021
Barney’s life in a dull apartment takes an interesting turn when he discovers the existence of a hidden camera that has been watching his every move.
Director Statement
Tildypops is a film about a girl navigating her way through the usual anxieties of adolescence – image, boys, self esteem – whilst at the same time struggling to cope with her difficult parental dynamic and her brother’s deteriorating mental health. Intelligently framed, we view these issues though the somewhat skewed view of 16 year-old Tiggy.
As an adult audience, it is clearly Tiggy’s home life that is most problematic and damaging, yet she transfers all of her anxieties onto her feelings for the unreliable Max. As the story develops, Tiggy’s family dynamic becomes harder and harder to ignore, but as she begins to confront this reality and accept that it isn’t her fault, we see her starting to evolve into a an adult who can think for herself. This is a universally recognised transition that, at the same time, feels deeply personal, we as an audience feel a part of Tiggy’s journey.
Noah Meister
Director
Noah Meister is a writer and filmmaker from Verona, Wisconsin. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2021, and is currently based in Milwaukee, WI. Noah’s previous science fiction film, Reality Check, screened locally at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival, and abroad at the Grindhouse Film Festival in the U.K.
Film Information
Director: Noah Meister
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 9 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Writer:Noah Meister
Producer: Noah Meister
Cinematography: Evan Sawyer
Music: Ellen Suhr
Key Cast: Nate Taylor, Sam Sage, David James Slama
Connect With This Film
Principal Cast
as Tiggy
as Lindsey
as Robin
as Max
as Jack
as Yamar
Undecided
NO TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT THE VENUESYES! Filmmaker(s) Attending for Q&A
Sat Feb 26, 2022 – 2:30 pm | Downtown Beloit Association
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Undecided
Directed by Betty Allen & Andy Woodward
Narrative Short
USA | 10 min | 2021
Three women’s different perspectives on motherhood collide in a workplace bathroom while one waits to discover whether she is pregnant.
Director Statement
The writer and producer, Rosa SanMarchi, approached us out of the blue (digitally) to direct this film after a recommendation from a friend. Immediately after reading the script we knew it was something we wanted to work on. It was a thrilling experience to collaborate with someone new, who already had a vision for the film but was looking for other voices and opinions to bring it home. The collaborative spirit of our team really reflected what we were trying to convey on screen, that we are all better when we listen to one another.
Betty Allen & Andy Woodward
Director
Betty Allen has a degree in film from UW-Milwaukee. Her Premiere projects are more organized than your house. She’s worked on projects for Sara Bareilles and Margaret Cho and doesn’t even brag about it. Betty is a full-time badass mom and fearless filmmaker.
Andy Woodward has a degree in Time-Based Media from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. A passionate editor and avid screenwriter, Andy dabbles in After Effects, woodworking and rebuilding their 1982 Yamaha motorcycle. An infinitely curious human being.
Film Information
Director: Betty Allen & Andy Woodward
Country: USA
Year: 2021
Language: English
Runtime: 10 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Writer: Rosa SanMarchi
Executive Producers: Mike Ebert & Rosa SanMarchi
Cinematography: Jon Kline
Sound Design: Sarah Krohn
Editor: Betty Allen
Principal Cast
as Marie
as Emily
as Ruth
