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Ramlod
DIR: Maya Tiberman  Israel, 10 min. Drama, North American Premiere, Student

Heat
DIR: Debbie Tucker Green  United Kingdom, 13 min. Live Action, North American Premiere

Director's Statement
The parts with the children were the greatest challenge as it was not only important to get the best possible talent on screen but to cast actors who looked as if they all came from the same family. After a day of open workshops, a number of children called back for more formal auditions. From that process, newcomers Rahim Marcelle and Shameria Brown were cast. It was a complete – but lucky – coincidence that the two children already knew each other from their drama club as the bonding helped give a greater sense of a sibling relationship on screen.

The montage shots of London were key to the look and feel of the film but were tricky to schedule into the - already stretched - three day shoot. Undaunted, Debbie and DoP Stephan Pehrsson acted as a standby crew, ready at short notice to capture the necessary shots of the city and its population on a scorching summer’s day.  If the forecast was good, Debbie and Stephan were out there, chasing around London, shooting as much footage as they could get. 

The three day main shoot was scheduled for the end of June/early July. The long term forecasts weren’t too bad but as the shoot days got closer it begun to emerge that London was heading for a mini-heatwave. And so it was that Heat was shot on the three hottest days of 2009, in temperatures of 32 degrees.


Fences
DIR: Tim Dean  Australia, 7 min. Drama, North American Premiere
*Filmmakers expected

Director's Statement
Fences is a film about how adults can lose sight of how much damage they can do to their children when they communicate through anger. The script was very strong to begin with and I wanted to give the visual style extra gravitas without losing subtlety. All the performances carry this same weight yet subtlety. Playing each moment for its truth and reality, nothing more, nothing less. The cinematography is very punchy with deep blacks and over cranked, strong colors for the child to inhabit on screen, the world through his eyes, so bold and alive. Our protagonist is merely a boy in a large world trying to understand what is happening around him. His reaction at the end of the picture is a deep but freeing release that he simply can’t control. His parents however know why he has reacted so strongly and this jolts them out of their anger. The final moments of this film will hopefully reach out to audiences in a way that they can empathize with the situation completely. A universal reaction to innocence being damaged.


Wings and Oars
DIR: Vladimir Leschiov  Latvia, 6 min. Animation

Glenn Owen Dodds
DIR: Frazer Bailey  Australia, 16 min. Live Action, North American Premiere

Director's Statement
Everything I have done in my career has led me to this film.

When writer Trent Dalton pitched me the idea for Glenn Owen Dodds I got so excited I told him to go away right then and there and start writing the script. We worked together for over a year making sure the script was perfect: every word; every dramatic turn; every gesture that formed this curious character, Glenn Owen Dodds.

The expertise of Producer, Bec Dakin and generous funding from Screen Australia has ensured that Glenn Owen Dodds is now a reality.

With a mesmerizing performance from one of Australia’s most accomplished actors, David Wenham (Australia, 300, Lord of the Rings), in the lead role of Glenn Owen Dodds, this film is an illuminating comedy for anyone who's ever asked themselves the question, 'Why am I here?'

Glenn Owen Dodds is an uplifting tale of love, faith, the meaning of life and other trivial matters. It is a universal story that is targeted toward a universal audience.


Q&A
DIR: Mike & Tim Rauch  USA, 4 min. Animation/Documentary 

Director's Statement
Outside of entertaining the audience, the most important purpose of film for children and their families is to inform them and encourage them to think about the outside world and themselves. Media for kids should engage and respect them as intelligent people. This tells children that their thoughts, their ideas, and their lives matter. It shows parents and adults that listening closely to what kids have to say is one of the most important things they can do. 

In Q&A, the ideas above are shown in action within the film itself. Twelve-year-old Joshua asks his mother, Sarah, probing questions and gets honest and open answers in return. The dialogue that results helps him grapple with questions of fairness, his mother’s love for him, and his place in the wider world. As the audience witnesses this exchange, hopefully they will grow in their understanding of Joshua and Sarah and be encouraged to have their own conversations with friends and loved ones.

The Queen
DIR: Christina Choe  USA, 8 min. Live Action, Student

Director's Statement
This film is about Bobby’s sexual awakening, as he fantasizes about dancing with the prom queen’s boyfriend in the dry cleaners. While writing the film, I imagined a contemporary update to an 80’s John Hughes movie, this time from the point of view of a closed gay Korean-American outcast who is invisible at his high school.

Home Is Where You Find It
DIR: Alcides Soares  USA/Mozambique, 27 min. Documentary

Director Biography
Alcides Soares was seventeen years old when he directed Home Is Where You Find It.  He was chosen by American TV writer and executive producer, Neal Baer (ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and director Christopher Zalla (Sundance award winning Padre Neustros) to make a film about his life as an AIDS orphan, searching to find a family after his parents have died.  Alcides lives in Maputo, Mozambique and is finishing high school.  He plans to study filmmaking and architecture in college.