THE ARTISTS FORUM FESTIVAL OF THE MOVING IMAGE: 2017 was a four day event held October 10 – 13, 2017, featuring 31 international shorts from 11 countries: Canada, Cyprus, Brazil, France, Germany, Iran, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States. Additional festival highlights include an opening night filmmakers’ reception, an awards ceremony, and our closing night party.
Screenings were held 7PM to 10:30PM on October 10th, 11th, and 13th at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell (338 West 23rd Street – btwn 8th & 9th Aves) in New York City, followed by a Q&A session. Our special Filmmakers Mixer was held on October 12th from 8PM to 10:30PM at The Chelsea Bell.
Our generous 2017 Festival Partners included: Nancy Manocherian’s The Cell Theatre, Mombucha Kombucha, The Stewart Hotel, The Chelsea Bell, Chelsea Florist Inc., Crunch Fitness (West 23rd Street), and Gourmet Popcorn by Kids I Adore. Our 2017 Media Sponsor was Chelsea Now. Our 2017 Public Relations Firm was Chelsye Burrows PR.
Thank you to our 2017 Festival Jury: Jeff Dorer, David Giardina, Martha Gorzycki, Ronald Gray, Devorah E. Hill, Maureen Mottley, Marishka Phillips, Greg Poole, Djordje Radovanovic, Ilene Rosen, Geoff Shelton, Eddie Shieh, Jonathan Ullman, Jennifer Wager, Amos White V.
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2017 FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM SCHEDULE
DAY 1: OCTOBER 10
SESSION 1: 7PM
SYMPOSIUM
18:30 min (2017)
Director: Tom Grady & Keith Oncale (US)
NY STORIES: NARRATIVE – Margaret Avery (The Color Purple) plays a woman in deep philosophical thought, confounds a service man (Ezra Knight) leading to revelations of a shared secret.
HIGH & TIGHT
15:13 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Luis Servera (US)
NARRATIVE – High & Tight follows a shaggy-haired, mysterious outsider who returns to the sleepy town where he committed a double-homicide to confront the father of the man he killed, the town’s barber.
TALES FROM JELLYFISH NEBULA
05:00 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Julian Olariu (France)
EXPERIMENTAL – The black box of a space station recorded the thoughts of an astronaut who died long ago: a child watches as a steam train passes, a black monster from another world. NYC Premiere
SAM & JO
7:35 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Raquel Cedar (US)
EXPERIMENTAL – After a camping trip with her new girlfriend, Sam begins to feel a horrific itch in her hair that won’t stop. She realizes that some anxieties go deeper than her dark and twisted roots.
LOST IN THE NAMELESS CITY
15:00 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Paul Vernon (UK)
EXPERIMENTAL – An interpretation of London’s urban space with monochrome video and 35mm colour stills. World Premiere
THE MAN WHO FORGOT TO BREATH
15:00 min (2017)
Writer/Director: Saman Hosseinuor (Iran)
NARRATIVE – At odds with his wife and seeking autonomy, a man makes a life-changing decision. NYC Premiere
GOBANG
13:05 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Saebom Kim (Germany)
DOCUMENTARY—6 persons who are the second generation of Korean immigrants in Berlin, tell their story about the object, that let them remember of their past. North American Premiere
SEE TRAILER / SEE WEBSITE
SESSION 2: 9PM
WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!
14:03 min (2017)
Writer/Director: Giorgi Plys-Garzotto (US)
NARRATIVE – Schoolgirls write a comic book about a feminist heroine. During deadlines, a romance blooms. Balancing work and love, can the modern working woman really have it all?
SEE TRAILER / SEE WEBSITE
TOMORROW
03:30 min (2015)
Writer/Director: Michael Seidel (Germany)
ANIMATION – A man at the airport. NYC Premiere
LUNCH TIME
15:00 min (2017)
Writer/Director: Alireza Ghasemi (Iran)
NARRATIVE – A 16-year-old girl deals with the responsibility and harsh bureaucracy of having to identify the body of her mother.
EVENTIDE
20:00 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Muriel Paraboni (Brazil)
EXPERIMENTAL – A man and a woman relive moments of their lives. Past, present and future merge in the cadence of the waters, which come and go revolving memories and old silences. NYC Premiere
THE FIRMEST FRIEND
19:46 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Andrew Fixell (US)
DOCUMENTARY – The Firmest Friend tells the story of human and canine outsiders finding their way into each other’s lives and giving each other hope where previously there had been none.
THE MAN WITH THE WESTERN HAT
13:24 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Cinder Chou (US)
NARRATIVE – Anna encounters the handsome cowboy who appears to have stepped from the screen and onto the streets of Brooklyn. She soon discovers he may not be the hero she expected.
DAY 2: OCTOBER 11
SESSION 1: 7PM
I LOVE NEW YORK
10:54 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Christian Vogeler (US)
NY STORIES: NARRATIVE – A visitor befriends a savvy street girl who takes him on a fantastical ride through the city’s pitfalls. But nothing’s free in NYC, so tighten your hustle or you’ll get hustled yourself.
THE BATHS
12:28 min (2016)
Directors: Anouska Samms & Sofia Pancucci-McQueen (UK)
DOCUMENTARY – Women filmmakers explore masculinity in a unique setting as culturally diverse groups of men meet in an East End steambath.
I DON’T LIKE HER
20:00 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Javad Daraei (Iran)
NARRATIVE – Eli has been involved in a personality dualism and regardless of her constant disagreements with her father, she still seeks her true nature. NYC Premiere
YOUTH 3000
06:31 min (2017)
Writer/Director: ace-A & ace-C (Canada)
EXPERIMENTAL – A new Millennium, a new age.
‘The Age of Emulation’. Mind uploading, copying and transferring of data is being enforced by the Global Government. The only place for inner reflection and truth is found in the mind of Apollo.
BUILDING No. 13
10:40 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Amir Gholami (Iran)
NARRATIVE – The movie is the story of human life in the sewage systems in which people from upper floors make their social environment dirty.
SEE TRAILER / SEE WEBSITE
THE HUA MEI ORCHESTRA
29:12 min (2017)
Director: Adam Engel (US)
DOCUMENTARY – Retired musicians and performers prepare for their debut concert in NYC.
For 20 years, they put aside their music due to struggles of assimilating in America. They discover that there’s room and a stage for music again.
SESSION 2: 9PM
THE LIFE OF MARIE
21:00 min (2016)
Writers Rolf Kasteleiner & Irene Rudolf(Germany)
NARRATIVE – Inspired by Goethe’s Elective Affinities, the film draws a historical portrait of a servant girl in early 19th century Stettin, Poland. It was shot almost exclusively in candlelight. NYC Premiere
WAR OR PEACE
03:50 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Kayvan Sarvari (Iran)
NARRATIVE – What is the influence of fighting
and war on children? North American Premiere
SEE TRAILER / SEE WEBSITE
REFUGE
23:03 min (2016)
Director: Viktor Witkowski (Poland/US)
EXPERIMENTAL – Late 2015: Nearly a million refugees came to Germany from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria. This film highlights an important crisis of our time and examines our empathy towards those displaced. NYC Premiere
MAID
25:23 min (2016)
Writer: Erik Ehn / Director: Raphael Parry (US)
EXPERIMENTAL – The final hours of Joan of Arc transposed to modern-day Marfa, Texas. Joan’s enemies, saints, and the mysterious Marfa Lights converge to chase her toward the fire that will complete her mythic destiny. NYC Premiere
AGRINOUI
19:40 min (2015)
Writer/Director: Alexis Chaviaras &
Writer: Christiana Vasiliou (Cyprus)
ANIMATION – A young mare abandons the race-track frustrated from failure. The mare meets new friends who will help her find her lost courage. NYC Premiere
DAY 3: OCTOBER 12
FILMMAKERS MIXER
LOCATION: THE CHELSEA BELL (316 8th Ave btwn 25th & 26th Streets)
TIME: 8PM to 10:30PM
DAY 4: OCTOBER 13
SESSION 1: 7PM
A SHARE OF SHARE
01:30 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Kaveh Jahed (Iran)
NARRATIVE – A family man in a refugee camp protests the sharing of food.
EXPIRATION DATE
04:31 min (2017)
Writer/Director: “Shwenn” Shunya Chang (US)
ANIMATION – Looking for a lasting love seems like looking for a can without expiration date. A poetic story about searching for an unexpired romance, a mélange of sexy fantasy and innocent love.
REQUEMBARREN
16:00 min (2017)
Writer/Director: Román Rubert Bernat (Spain)
EXPERIMENTAL – Beatrice is a young woman
who leaves home to look for Requembarren. After
listening to the sad man, to the profaner, and to the incestuous man, she reflects on what happens to her on the journey. NYC Premiere
YOURS IS NOT THE TAJ MAHAL
04:06 min (2017)
Director: Shayna Connelly (US)
EXPERIMENTAL – The shadow of grief can descend at any time, mixing current perceptions with memories and crumbling boundaries of objective and subjective truth. North American Premiere
SEE TRAILER / SEE WEBSITE
KATYUSHA
29:02 min (2016)
Director: Stephen Hilyard (UK/US)
EXPERIMENTAL – This piece, based on material collected at Pyramida, a Soviet Union showcase community in the high Arctic. Home to over 1000 coal mining families, it was evacuated in two days in 1998 leaving a ghost town. NYC Premiere
PROJECT 28
06:37 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Brian Breton (US)
MUSIC VIDEO – An employee of a TV station goes about his ordinary daily routine, but gets influenced by the beat of music that turns into an extraordinary adventure with consequences. World Premiere
FATHER
04:48 min (2016)
Writer/Director: Martyna Iwanska (Poland)
MUSIC VIDEO – “Father” blurs the boundary between the real and surreal. It’s a vision full of symbolic meanings and powerful characters entangled in a plot which defies logic. NYC Premiere
JUDGES
Jeff Dorer
Jeff Dorer is a graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. In 2016, his film CAT KILLER was awarded Best Animated Short at The Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
David Giardina
David is a NYC-based filmmaker, activist, and singer. He won Best Director & Audience Choice for Taffy Was Born at NY International, and Best Director & Honorable Mention for Tryptic at NoHu International. As a singer, David has performed at the Rainbow Room, Birdland, and Off Broadway.
Martha Gorzycki
Martha is an award winning animator, filmmaker and media artist. Her work screens globally in festivals, galleries, on LED billboards, as outdoor projections and online. She’s produced animation for 30+ years and teaches digital cinema and animation at SFSU.
Ronald K. Gray
Ronald K. Gray is an American editor, director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.
Devorah E. Hill
Devorah is a multimedia artist and media educator whose taught countless producers the fine art of non-linear editing for television in NYC. Additionally, Devorah has been served as a juror for many metro area film festivals who focus on providing platforms for the emerging filmmaker.
Maureen Mottley
Maureen is an experienced producer, line producer, and production manager for numerous films, TV shows, commercials, and music videos. Living in LA, she’s worked for some of the world’s biggest production companies and distributors (20th Century Fox, Disney, MGM, HBO, Showtime).
Marishka S. Phillips
Marishka is a Brooklyn born actress, dancer, film director, and acting coach. She studied at Alvin Ailey, Broadway Dance Center, and Fordham, and has performed in the musicals Bubblin’ Brown Sugar, Fame: The Musical, The Wiz, and The Me Nobody Knows, and appeared in NBC TV shows.
Greg Poole
Greg is a NYC-based filmmaker. Working at MTV while DJing by night sparked his interest in film. In 2005, he documented Grime artists, creating content for MTV UK. Since 2010, Greg has created art & culture docs for PBS, Brooklyn Museum, Okayplayer, and Simon Preston Gallery.
George Radovanovich
George is an independent scholar with a focus on research and writings on art and cultural criticism. Originally from Serbia, George received his US citizenship in 1995 while studying at New York’s School of Visual Arts, earning his BFA in Film and MFA in Computer Arts in 1997.
Geoff Sheldon
Geoff runs a full-service production company. When not working on his own projects, he works with a variety of clients, such as OK Go, BTS, and Butoh artist Vangeline on the short film Spectral. He continues his freelance work, authenticating of prints with The Salvador Dali Archives.
Eddie Shieh
Eddie Shieh (pronounced ‘Sh+yeah’) is a Native NYer, #Twindad, and Filmmaker. His works have screened at international film festivals garnering numerous accolades in multiple categories. On occasion, Eddie also predicts weather with his surgically repaired joints (no app yet).
Jonathan Ullman
Jonathan is an NYC-based independent filmmaker. He wrote, directed, and produced his debut feature Trouble In The Heights (Viva Pictures), garnering two Imagen Award noms for Best Picture and Best Actor. His film on Paradise Garage and DJ Larry Levan is in development.
Jennifer Wager
Jennifer is an award-winning filmmaker and graduate of Georgetown U. Her honors research (an online annotated bibliography on the work and life of W.E.B. DuBois) was recognized by the Smithsonian. She coordinates several Digital Media programs at Essex County College.
Amos White V
Amos is an inter-disciplinary multimedia artist, event producer, and exhibit designer. A graduate of the College of Human Ecology at the University of Maryland, College Park, Amos bridges his passion for the arts and human relations with the formation of THE ARTISTS FORUM
AWARD LISTINGS
View our full List of Nominees & Award Winners
2017 WINNERS
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT: The Life of Marie (Rolf Kasteleiner, Germany) BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT: Katyusha (Stephen Hilyard, UK/US)
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: The Baths (Anouska Samms & Sofia Pancucci-McQueen, UK)
BEST NEW YORK STORIES: I Love New York (Christian Vogeler, US)
BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Agrinoui (Alexis Chaviaras, Cyprus)
BEST MUSIC VIDEO: Father (Martyna Iwaska, Poland)
BEST SOUND DESIGN: Stephen Hilyard – Katyusha (Stephen Hilyard, UK/US)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jakob Creutzburg – The Life of Marie (Rolf Kasteleiner, Germany)
BEST EDITING: Stephen Hilyard – Katyusha (Stephen Hilyard, UK/US)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Kaveh Jahed – A Share Of Share (Kaveh Jahed, Iran)
BEST DIRECTOR: Stephen Hilyard – Katyusha (Stephen Hilyard, UK/US)
BEST ACTOR: Fereydoon Ansari – Building No. 13 (Amir Gholami, Iran)
BEST ACTRESS: Margaret Avery – Symposium (Tom Grady & Keith Oncale, US)
2017 AUDIENCE AWARD (tie): The Man With The Western Hat (Cinder Chou, US) + High & Tight (Luis Servera, US)
2017 JURORS AWARD: Stephen Hilyard – Katyusha (Stephen Hilyard, UK/US)
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
View or download our 2017 Festival Program
View our 2017 Festival Photo Highlights
View or download our 2017 Official Festival Postcard
View or download our 2017 Official Festival Banner
Watch our 2017 MEET the Filmmakers Interview Videos
