Rest in Peace, Albert Lively

Maggie Miller travels with her ex, Paul Santy, to the funeral of their old friend Albert Lively. They can't quite believe he's really dead. Along the way, memories of childhood bring Maggie and Paul closer, but she still must face the truth about Paul, about Albert, and about herself.

Written by Kelly Genois and directed by Jack Garrett, this 19-minute short from Cape Cod's heavenly village of Hyannis features a young woman's inward struggle at that age when the optimism of youth is replaced by a more melancholy awareness of one's true place in the universe. Maggie can relight an old flame and burn her passions like never before, but now it isn't enough.

You can watch the trailer here: Rest in Peace, Albert Lively Trailer

Decisions

Filmed entirely in New Hope, Decisions follows a woman's frenetic journey as she discovers and then decides what to do with a duffle bag filled with millions in cash. The money had fallen into her abusive husband's hands after a plane crashed in a local field.

Her husband has his ideas about what to do with the windfall, but she has her own. Now she's going to ride a bus cross-country, and she will be followed. Director Mark Harrison's film is gritty and dangerous, but like any good thriller, there's much more at stake than a hunt and chase. The woman with the bag has a higher purpose, and she's willing to risk everything in pursuit of it.

You can watch the trailer here: Decisions Trailer

Three Hours (Drei Stunden)

Martin is a dashing and creative young man who has written a fantasy play about flying pirates, a fiery princess and cloud castles in the sky. His good friend Isabel doesn't know it, but he modeled the lead character after her. She's adorable and equally driven, but their similar, overstretched personalities have left them bumping around each other without truly connecting. 

The problem is, they like each other. A lot. Just as he's about to launch his project to great fanfare, she announces she's leaving for Africa to fight American genetically modified seed manufacturers. What is going to happen to this pair? Her flight is about to leave. They only have hours to spare, and if he's going to be a real man and make his move, he has to do it right now or lose her forever. 

Directed by Boris Kunz, Three Hours (Drei Stunden) is a fresh, highly kinetic approach to comedy romance. It's really a dramedy, because although it's fun and loaded with subtle chemistry, it's also tense, frustrating, and stormier than the clouds emanating from Martin's mind. Both characters live out their fantasies through their work, but his are ethereal and hers are entirely of this world. They are fundamentally the same in disposition, yet their actions conflict. Kunz brings this dynamic to dramatic and insightful climaxes, revealing how their conflicted psychologies are channeled into their work, where both feel at odds and trapped. One of the film's most revealing moments comes when an actress lambasts Martin's script for depicting a man who can't make his play for her. Clearly furious with himself, Martin storms out of the theater. 

The pressurized, time-driven, complex culture they live in only makes matter worse. Just when the fire begins to flicker, something always comes along to snuff it out. Three Hours is reflective on this subject. In the context of a modern world where time is precious and romance requires it, the film cries out for spontaneity, not because rituals and traditions are bad, but by urgent necessity, and further suggests that the future of romance may be more surprising than you think. 

You can watch the trailer here: Three Hours Trailer

Lightheaded

This whimsical comedy is the story of Nora, a woman despondent over the failure of her marriage, who retreats to the safety of her work routine and gallons of ice cream. Filled with despair over a life gone haywire, she's at the end of her rope. 

Enter the guardian angel. Sporting a flat cap and always dressed in a suit, he isn't exactly your average picture of an angel, and he can be rather annoying with his intrusive helpfulness. Still, he bails her out of jams now and then and, well, it's better than being alone—even if you're actually talking to yourself. 

Written by Caroline Collins and directed by Steve Parys, this Pittsburgh production delivers a charming tale that will make you smile, even when Nora isn't. 

You can watch the trailer here: Lightheaded Trailer

Following Shira's Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey

More than 60,000 Greek Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, yet the experiences of Greece's Jewish population remain largely unknown.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, fear, suspicion and civil war relegated the Greek Jewish wartime experience to an attic of denial and neglect. This documentary upends the sorry dynamic through riveting interviews with Holocaust survivors, second and third generation survivors, and other community members, all of whom are fighting to keep their tradition and culture alive.

Co-Directed by Australian filmmakers Carol Gordon and Natalie Cunningham, Following Shira's Journey uncovers a sorely neglected and tragic aspect of Jewish history, yet the film does much more than document the past. Much of the focus is on the present, offering fresh insights into Greek politics and culture, and hope for the country's forward-thinking Jewish community.

All of the voices in this film resonate with a passion not just to survive, but to flourish, even as fringe elements of society continue to echo past prejudice and hate. The indomitable spirit of Greece's Jewry is an inspiration, an example, and a perspective relevant to any time when life's chips are down.

You can watch the trailer here: Following Shira's Journey

Room 731

A Chinese girl wakes up, alone, in an abandoned factory. A doctor and a mysterious nurse appear, apparently wanting to help her. At first she has no recollection of the reason she's in this strange, unsettling place, but as her memory returns, she realizes she's trapped inside the infamous Unit 731 Japanese concentration camp. It's World War II and she is the subject of a medical experiment.... 

Such is the horror of Room 731, a pitch black and deeply expressive film. Stirred with an unnerving mix of history and psychology, this 18-minute short explores the ways in which sins of the past remain traumatic in the present. Student filmmaker Young Min Kim puts her many spine-tingling moments on display in a nightmarish yet true-to-life way, transporting a now-distant, seemingly fantastical reality into our modern-day consciousness. 

You can watch the trailer here (due to its intensity, parental discretion is advised): 

Leaves of the Tree

In this enchanting, feature-length drama, a once powerful patent attorney, hobbled by a life threatening disease, is pushed out of a major pharmaceutical firm. At a meeting with his last client, he unexpectedly comes across the case of a doctor who's studying the possible medicinal value of leaves from a centuries-old olive tree. With time running out, the attorney travels to Sicily, where he hopes to uncover a modern medical miracle—or an ancient Biblical myth.

Directed by Ante Novakovik and featuring actors with substantial film industry credits, including Sean Young, Eric Roberts, Armand Assante and Patrick Gorman, Leaves of the Tree weaves the intensity of a thriller into the timeless beauty and mystery of the Mediterranean. 

You can watch the trailer here: