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Formic
DIR: Roman Kaelin  Germany, 4 min. Live Action, North American Premiere, Student

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.

Flowerpots
DIR: Rafael Sommerhalder  United Kingdom/Switzerland, 5 min. Animation, U.S. Premiere, Student

Franswa Sharl
DIR: Hannah Hilliard  Australia, 14 min. Live Action, North American Premiere
*Filmmakers expected

Director's Statement
Franswa Sharl is a story about a twelve-year-old boy who, on holidays with two families in Fiji reinvents himself as a French girl so he can enter the Miss Fiji beauty contest – much to his father’s dismay. This film is based on a true story and explores themes of identity, parental-child struggle and emerging sexuality. This story is framed in the foreign but colorful landscape of a Fijian resort in 1980.

The inspiration for the film came from a documentary I made about a gay marriage in South Africa. While interviewing Greg Logan’s family, the story of his childhood reinvention as Miss Fiji emerged. At the time he was focused on the revelation of his marriage to his family through the documentary, but I kept on his case until he agreed to work with me to develop a fictionalized account of his experience into a short drama script. I was captured by the charismatic and vibrant nature of the film’s lead character and the magical world of an exotic environment. I knew this would make a great short film!

This story appealed to me because it was warm, funny and real.  I had made a lot of dark themed high drama short films and was very keen to make a film that was tonally light-hearted and entertaining but which also had an emotional depth to it. I knew that this would be a challenge but I felt that this was the perfect story to put to the test. Franswa Sharl has a fairytale feel to it. Although the darker side to the story relies on the underlying conflict of parental-child relations that to add to the tension and texture of the story, overall the mood of this film is uplifting and one that ends on a winning note.

Alma
DIR: Rodrigo Blaas  Spain/USA, 6 min. Animation

Only One Boss
DIR: Ellen Brodsky  USA, 10 min. Documentary, World Premiere
*Filmmakers expected

Director's Statement
What we hope we’ll get isn’t always what we get.  Not in filmmaking, not in romance, and not in raising kids.  But that’s when the fun really starts.  Eleven years ago, I thought I’d make a film about kids, communication, and language.  I filmed two children, my daughter Mia and her friend, in the playground.  Six months later, I’d show them the video – and with their newly acquired language skills they would explain what they were thinking and doing.  That’s not what happened.  Rather, we watched them fight and make up and fight again.

So I threw the tapes in the back of the closet and gave up. I didn’t get what I thought I’d get.  Eight years later, I looked at the tapes and realized the two children were communicating quite well with one another.  In fact, they looked and sounded a bit like couples everywhere. Just when we think we have something to teach kids, they often teach us.  This time, reminding us how naturally we want to lead the games we play in relationships, how often we don’t get to be the only one in charge, and how not to give up.

Math Test
DIR: Jung Yumi  South Korea, 2 min. Animation, North American Premiere


Nico's Challenge
DIR: Steve Audette  USA/Tanzania, 15 min. Documentary

Director's Statement
Coming of age films have a timeless appeal to the heartstrings of us all. There is a unique mix of joy and sadness as we remember having been there ourselves.  In the film, Nico's Challenge, this maybe felt even greater as Nico struggles and overcomes his own handicaps. I knew I wanted to make this film when I read the story in our local Concord, Massachusetts paper. I was delighted to discover that Nico's father, a long time photographer, shot footage of the climb. One look at the rushes and I knew I had a great film. In an age where men are negatively portrayed in most media outlets, my films give witness to men (and women) in a much more positive light.


A Happier Note
DIR: Hannah Planalp  USA, 4 min.  Live Action