BOXED

Haunted by memories of their journey to Auschwitz in a dimly lit boxcar, an American couple searches for a refuge from decades of pain. They find this special place on the dance floor, a realm where they can be as intimate as ever while keeping their trajectories, both physical and emotional, under their own control. 

Esteemed director Alyn Darnay brings considerable experience to this indie project from Florida, but BOXED is only his second film about the Holocaust. It's a novel break from many films about this period of history, too, because Darnay's theme is more about triumph than suffering. 

After a nightmarish experience, this husband-and-wife team finds a way to live and move forward. You can watch the trailer here: BOXED Trailer

Call Now

A man is glued to his TV set while the shopping channel touts a whizbang new vacuum cleaner; his own unit is on the blink. The host of the show is one oily pitchman, so the viewer quickly fumbles for his credit card and grabs a phone. 

Too bad that all-important phone number keeps flashing across the screen before he can write it down. Moreover, the emcee is sporting a grin, which is maddening. Needing that gosh-darn vacuum cleaner more than anything, and worried it might sell out, the man persists. 

After a few minutes of this lopsided dynamic, one begins to wonder whether the man on the TV is just messing with a wannabe consumer. That would be impossible, of course, because everyone knows a TV host can't interact with the audience at home. Ahem—the world envisioned by Kutztown University College of Visual and Performing Arts student Cody Hawley is strange indeed. You can watch the trailer here: Call Now Trailer

Raised Up West Side

Many films screened at the New Hope Film Festival are made from a perspective of advancing the culture and improving people's lives, and this documentary is a great example, as it delves into the many challenges facing Chicago's West Side. Known for gun violence and, at least among non-residents, not much else, this predominantly black section of the third largest city in the United States exists in a vortex of mass incarceration, food insecurity and disparate life expectancy. 

But there is hope. Featuring interviews with ex-offenders, social workers and entrepreneurs, Raised Up West Side exposes many kinds of problems, but also offers ideas and solutions. Along the way, the film reveals how pride, clarity and tenacity can exist within a community even as many residents feel overwhelmed and abandoned. 

It's easy to be hardened by the troubles of the world, and certainly many folks in this urban community have experienced hard circumstances. At times, their lives have been pure hell. To his great credit, producer/director Brett A. Schwartz made this constructive film all about the antidote to such numbness: caring, then doing something thoughtful about it. You can watch the trailer here: Raised Up West Side Trailer

The Call of Water

Set in the lush Rocky Mountains of Colorado, this independently produced short film started as an NYU Tisch School of the Arts thesis project until the COVID pandemic shut down educational institutions. From that challenging position, helmer Kaya Tone continued undaunted, drawing from her rich imagination, childhood memories of the area and a talented filmmaking team. The rock-strewn, unpaved road to completing The Call of Water must have informed a storyboard that leads to quite trippy and existential places. 

High on mushrooms and faced with selling the family homestead, lead character Nadia plunges into the astral plane, coming face-to-face with a mythologically inspired creature called The Horned One. A guardian of the land and water, this strange being will release Nadia's soul back into her body only under certain conditions related to its captive's earthly responsibilities. Nadia is trapped inside her own imagination by something that exists outside her mind, and the only means of escape is to do the right thing. 

Tone produced the film with an ethical concern for the environment to the extent of running a green set; love for her Colorado homeland and the ecology in which it resides is evident throughout. Punctuating undercurrents of appreciation and longing with moments of fear, she hints that all can be swept away forever by unwise decisions. You can watch the trailer here: 

For I Am Dead

In the late 19th century, a wealthy bachelor reflects on his barren emotional life while immersed in all the luxuries a man can buy. Courtesans, a maid and a gardener are at his beck and call well into the evening, and the mansion around him is stunning, but Oscar has never fulfilled his deepest desires. His feelings are repressed not just by him, but by others, because his secret passions run for Jude—the gardener—and same sex relationships are strictly verboten.  

Director Patricia Delso Lucas, who is based in Brussels, ignites these sentiments into a slow burn throughout For I Am Dead. Candlelight flickers in a vast room, cascading flames and light into an otherwise dim environment and bringing the facial expressions of everyone into haunting relief. Smoke from nearby fires drifts and rises. There is a looming, gothic sense of death here, as Oscar is both spiritually dead and physically dying. To mitigate the situation, he must confess his love right now. Then Jude enters the scene as the devil or an angel or both, beckoning, as if from the other side. 

So much is opaque and out of grasp, yet clearly felt, in this searing short film from Europe. You can watch the trailer here: For I Am Dead Trailer

2021 Awards and Nominations

Top Jury Awards

Best Picture - Silo (Marshall Burnette, USA) Nominees: Silence, Dreamover, Kings of Mulberry Street, Touch

Best Script - Secret Passage (Paul Teese, USA) Nominees: The Art of Resistance, Running the Bases, Run for Your Life, Forbidden: Once Upon a War, Nine Lives

Film Jury Awards

Best Narrative Feature - Dreamover (Roman Olkhovka, Russian Federation) Nominees: Silo, Silence, Kings of Mulberry Street, Touch

Best Student Film - Last Night in Vegas (J. Nicholas Meese, USA) Nominees: Take a Little Time, Gray, Last Night in Vegas, One Body, Her Mother's Daughter, You Are My Son, Ruby Days

Best Alternative Film - Kings of Mulberry Street (Judy Naidoo, South Africa) Nominees: Dreamover, Silence, Aquamarine, Loving Lenna, Your Wreckless Heart

Best Short Film - Killing Time (P. Patrick Hogan, USA) Nominees: The Keeper, Night Sky, Aquamarine, Loving Lenna, Your Wreckless Heart, Hungry Ghosts, The Dinner Guest

Best Documentary - Uprooted - The Journey of Jazz Dance (Khadifa Wong, USA) Nominees: Subjects of Desire, Bangla Surf Girls, Tsunami of New Dreams, My Sister Hali, Alan Magee: Art Is Not a Solace, Life & Life, For Fear of Kofi

Best Horror Thriller - The Keeper (Bob Celli, USA) Nominees: Aquamarine, Killing Time

Animal Welfare - Desert Flight (John Azoni, Samia Staehle, USA) Nominees: The Last Vaquita

Cultural Spirit - Subjects of Desire (Jennifer Holness, USA) Nominees: Bangla Surf Girls, Life & Life, Detroit Rising: How the Motor City Becomes a Restorative City, Finding Hope - In the Face of Relapse, The Heart of Camden - The Story of Father Michael Doyle

Best Short Documentary - The Heart of Camden - The Story of Father Michael Doyle (Douglas Clayton, USA) Nominees: Vincent Price: The Original Thriller, The Last Vaquita, Finding Justice: The Untold Story of Women's Fight for the Vote, Desert Flight,  Finding Hope - In the Face of Relapse

Best Foreign Film - Silence (Erik Borner, Germany) Nominees: Kings of Mulberry Street, Dreamover

Best Biographical Film - My Sister Hali (Paul Sheriff, USA) Nominees: For Fear of Kofi, Life & Life, Mira Nakashima, Vincent Price: The Original Thriller

Best Experimental Short - Aquamarine (Jack Dentinger, USA) Nominees: Your Wreckless Heart, Bennifer, Her Mother's Daughter

Indie Spirit - Bangla Surf Girls (Elizabeth D. Costa, Canada) Nominees: Tsunami of New Dreams, My Sister Hali, Hungry Ghosts, For Fear of Kofi, Dreamover

Best Animated Film - Mate (Rusty Eveland, USA) Nominees: Hungry Ghosts, Ruby Days

Female Eye Filmmaking - The Dinner Guest (Dale Griffiths Stamos, USA) Nominees: Bangla Surf Girls, Her Mother's Daughter, Finding Justice: The Untold Story of Women's Fight for the Vote, Loving Lenna, Subjects of Desire, The Della Morte Sisters, Touch, The Dinner Guest

Best Sci-Fi Film - Night Sky (Greg Rulfs, USA) Nominees: Gray, Killing Time

Best TV Pilot - Yellow (Sarah Deakins, Canada) Nominees: Stuck!, Ex-Sisters-In-Law

Best Comedy - Stuck! (Omri Anghel, Lauren LeBeouf, USA) Nominees: Life on Pause, Ex-Sisters-In-Law, The Calling, Manifest, Aquamarine, Mate

New Hope - Tsunami of New Dreams (Isaac Kerlow, USA) Nominees: Life & Life, Detroit Rising: How the Motor City Becomes a Restorative City, Finding Hope - In the Face of Relapse

Artistic Spirit - Alan Magee: Art is Not a Solace (David Berez, David Wright, USA) Nominees: My Sister Hali

LGBTQ Spirit - Loving Lenna (Kirstie Munoz, USA)

Best Supernatural Film - Killing Time (P. Patrick Hogan, USA) Nominees: Silence, Dreamover

Best Webisode - The Calling (Brian Lederman, USA) Nominees: Chronicles Of: The Good Reverend, Detroit Rising: How the Motor City Becomes a Restorative City, Ex-Sisters-In-Law

Best Music Video - Stormy (Michael Barnett, USA) Nominees: Seven Dreams, Preserved Vegetables, Hard to Keep the Faith, Livin' in the Light, Knocking on Your Door, Bourbon Street Taps, How Long

Cultural Spirit Music Video - Hard to Keep the Faith (Dane Elcar, USA) Nominees: Livin' in the Light, How Long

Best Director - Marshall Burnette (Silo, USA) Nominees: Erik Borner, Dale Griffiths Stamos, Isaac Kerlow, Jennifer Holness, Greg Rulfs, Alejandra Cadena-Perez

Script Jury Awards

Best Narrative Feature - The Art of Resistance (David Brown, United Kingdom) Nominees: Running the Bases, Secret Passage, At the Mercy of Faith, Good Grief, Land of Light, Go Ahead

Best Teleplay - Forbidden: Once Upon a War (Ron Modro, USA) Nominees: Nine Lives

Best Alternative Script - Triangle 146 (Diane Young Uniman, USA) Nominees: A Need for Something New, Healing Time, Red Sea, Closure, Cottoning, The Chair

Best Sci-Fi Thriller - Healing Time (John Thibault, USA) Nominees: Run for Your Life

Best Action Thriller - Run for Your Life (Gregory JM Kasunich, USA) Nominees: Checkmate, Petrov, The Art of Resistance, About Nelson, Run for Your Life

Best Period Script - Red Sea (Rosalyn Rosen, USA) Nominees: Go Ahead, The Art of Resistance

Best Short Script - About Nelson (Sahlima, USA) Nominees: Petrov, Knock Three Times, Cottoning, Run for Your Life, Triangle 146, The Chair, Closure, Stay

Audience Choice Awards

Best Narrative Feature - Silo (Marshall Burnette, USA)

Best Short Film - Hungry Ghosts (Mark Borkowski, USA) 

Best Documentary - Life & Life (NC Heikin, USA)

Best Short Documentary - The Heart of Camden - The Story of Father Michael Doyle (Douglas Clayton, USA)

Best Webisode - Detroit Rising: How the Motor City Becomes a Restorative City (Cassidy Friedman, USA)

Best TV Pilot - Yellow (Sarah Deakins, Canada)

Best Music Video - Last Night in Vegas (J. Nicholas Meese, USA)

Best Student Film - You Are My Son (Phoenix Logan, USA)

Hungry Ghosts

Set on some of the meanest, most drug-infested streets of Philadelphia, this short film zeros in on a family that has been ripped apart by the opioid crisis. Actor/writer/producer Mark Borkowski, a New York City-based filmmaker with ties to eastern Pennsylvania, chose this setting for its crumbling and shadowy aesthetics, and indeed, the mood is haunting. The weird visions of a psychic lady add to an atmosphere of dark, otherworldly forces preying on lead character Frank Duffy and his wife, who has gone missing due to her drug addiction. On top of it all, their son has been left to his own devices due to their actions. 

Imagination and a touch of surreal would be one way to describe this project, and it might be hard to accept such a strange family drama if the subject matter were not so relevant to the times. You can watch the trailer here: Hungry Ghosts