Not sure what films to catch at ShortFest? Here's what festival programmers recommend
The 29th annual Palm Springs International ShortFest is right around the corner, and with nearly 300 films on the lineup, local moviegoers might be scratching their heads over what shorts to watch.
Have no fear, seven festival programmers have crafted their personal list of five must-see shorts at this year's ShortFest. Audience members will be able to catch these and more when the annual event kicks off June 20 and continues through June 26.
From creepy crawly horrors to heartwarming shorts, here is what made programmers' lists.
Director of programming Sudeep Sharma's picks
1. 'Clean,' directed by Miranda Stern
Screening: Noon June 21, part of the Close-Ups program
Description: A woman’s love letter and final goodbye to heroin as she attempts to come off the synthetic opiates that have kept her clean for the past six years.
What Sharma has to say: “A penetrating and honest documentary portrait of a woman finally saying goodbye to heroin as she tries to wean herself off synthetic opiates.”
2. 'Ecstatic Thing,' directed by Benjamin Nuel
Screening: 5:30 p.m. June 24, part of the Getting It On program
Description: A couple in crisis finds a strange mushroom in the forest, whose aphrodisiac properties lead them to reconnect to each other. Unfortunately, soon they cannot live without it.
What Sharma has to say: “A super fun metaphysical sex romp featuring an erotic mushroom.”
3. 'The Family Circus,' directed by Andrew Fitzgerald
Screening: 2 p.m. June 24, part of the High Anxiety program
Description: A Vietnamese-American family's plan to cover up a drunk driving accident begins to unravel when their emotional baggage spills out in front of the police.
4. 'I See Them Bloom,' directed by Nikita Gibalenko
Screening: 2:30 p.m. June 22, part of the Sibling Stories program
Description: Sisters Eugenia and Nastya are warmly welcomed in Munich after fleeing Ukraine. While Nastya tries to enjoy her new life, Eugenia struggles to adjust while there‘s war at home and worries that Nastya is becoming a stranger to her.
5. 'When You Left Me On That Boulevard,' directed by Kayla Abuda Galang
Screening: 5 p.m. June 23, part of the Life of the Party program
Description: Teenager Ly and her cousins get high before a boisterous family Thanksgiving at their auntie’s house in southeast San Diego in 2006.
Programmer Ash Hoyle's picks
1. 'Ticks,' directed by Sam Max
Screening: 8 p.m. June 24, part of the Thrills & Chills II: Back From the Dead program
Description: A drifter, Jenny, encounters a presence in the woods that causes them to turn against their partner and become thirsty for blood.
What Hoyle has to say: "For those folks seeking a thrill, this is a super inventive and specific spook that you'll have a hard time shaking."
2. 'Four Nights and a Fire,' directed by Alex Nystrom
Screening: 6 p.m. June 22, part of The History of Us program
Description: Robert, a young Ojibwe photographer, stubbornly takes on the responsibility of keeping a sacred fire alive for four consecutive days and nights in mourning of his father. His father’s spirit tries to reach him from the other side.
What Hoyle has to say: "This short deals with grief in such an engaging way and has a visual style that is incredibly precise and singular."
3. 'Pennies from Heaven,' directed by Sandy Honig
Screening: 5 p.m. June 22, part of the Late Night program
Description: Two identical twins stumble upon a pickup truck filled with pennies, sending them on an absurd farcical adventure through the middle of nowhere that only lands them right back where they started.
4. 'Rabobesto - Or How I Saved a Monster,' directed by Mari Mantela
Screening: 11 a.m. June 22, part of the A World Imagined program
Description: On the verge of her marital life, a young woman makes a journey into the night to find out why she has lost her heartbeat and turned golden.
5. '100% USDA Certified Organic Homemade Tofu,' directed by Gbenga Komolafe
Screening: 8 p.m. June 22, part of the Gayla program
Description: Nikki spices things up at her mom’s struggling tofu restaurant while working to afford her breast augmentation surgery.
Programmer Jesse Knight's picks
1. 'A Beautiful Wildflower Meadow,' directed by Emi Buchwald
Screening: 2 p.m. June 22, part of the On the Road program
Description: Emil is a landscaper who has one simple goal: get his daughter to the airport on time. But Emil is incapable of letting daily adversities go, and his attempts to bring the anarchic universe back to harmony only makes reality more chaotic.
What Knight has to say: "If they made action figures of tragic heroes and underdogs, every oddball kid would have one of Emil, the landscaper at the heart of Emi Buchwald’s brilliant corrosive comedy about a dad just trying to get his daughter to the airport on time."
2. 'Coral,' directed by Sonia Oleniak
Screening: 5:30 p.m. June 22, part of the Fever Dream program
Description: The whales have swallowed the moon and without it, people and animals and things have trouble digesting emotions. On this night, a family of strangers pass through a restaurant where their nightmares and dreams become more vivid.
What Knight has to say: "Wondrous, beguiling and transportive, Sonia Oleniak’s world premiere plays like a music video for a song transmitted from another cosmos. There’s nothing else like it, at ShortFest or beyond."
3. 'Presto,' directed by Keyvan Ahmadi
Screening: 2 p.m. June 21, part of the Cons & Consequences program
Description: While on a particularly dangerous assignment, a drug dealer is forced to take along his father, a former famous magician named Presto, who is now living with Alzheimer’s.
4. 'Walk Out Nice and Smooth,' directed by Kerry O'Neill
Screening: 2:30 p.m. June 23, part of the Strictly Business program
Description: 13-year-old Dani and their mother embark on an all-day odyssey to flip a stolen laptop. Pressures mount as the day runs long, forcing Dani to take drastic measures that unexpectedly bring the two of them closer.
5. 'When You Left Me On That Boulevard'
Programmer Stephanie Owens' picks
1. 'Agustina,' directed by Luciana Herrera Caso
Screening: 6 p.m. June 22, part of The History of Us program
Description: When Agustina realizes that the trip to the moon her teacher had promised her is just imaginary, she is torn apart. As conflict develops in Chile, Agustina must find a way to cope with reality.
What Owens has to say: "I was completely absorbed by this endearing story. Agustina is outraged when she discovers her teacher's trip to the moon was just imaginary. I can relate! I was equally outraged when I learned I couldn't fly-jump with an umbrella."
2. 'Confessions,' directed by Stephanie Kaznocha
Screening: Noon June 22, part of the Higher Ground program
Description: After the death of a friend, two elderly nuns confess they’re tired of waiting to die. One confession leads to another and before they know it, they’re embarking on a journey of self-discovery.
What Owens has to say: "I was won over by the vulnerability and unexpected humor between two elderly nuns who confide a shared desire with each other, leading them to self-discovery."
3. 'For Those Who Don't Know How,' directed by Brian Chamberlayne
Screening: 5 p.m. June 21, part of the Coupling & Uncoupling program
Description: After a painful breakup, a fastidious and intellectual college professor, who has trouble expressing his emotions, wrestles with existential anguish as he tries to figure out how to move on.
4. 'I See Them Bloom'
5. 'Step into the Mattress,' directed by Erin Vassilopoulos
Screening: 2:30 p.m. June 23, part of the Strictly Business program
Description: Up against a deadline that could cost them their jobs, rivaling mattress store employees find common ground in latex.
Programmer Dominique O’Neil's picks
1. 'Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó' (Grandma & Grandma), directed by Sean Wang
Screening: 6:30 p.m. June 20, part of the Opening Night program
Description: Nǎi Nai is my grandma. Wài Pó is also my grandma. Together, they are a grandma super team that dances, stretches, and farts their sorrows away.
What O'Neil has to say: "Sweeter than sweet."
2. 'Lay Me by the Shore,' directed by David Findlay
Screening: 11 a.m. June 20, part of the Cinematic Odes program
Description: Drenched in the warm light of long June days and with the intimidating spectre of an uncertain future looming, a trans boy comes to terms with his best friend’s recent passing.
What O'Neil has to say: “An atmospheric, trans-mosaic on film.”
3. 'Animal Transport,' directed by Iván Bustinduy
Screening: 11:30 a.m. June 20, part of the Beneath the Surface program
Description: A man returns to his job in a company that transports animals. On his first trip, one of the cages doesn't seem to be carrying what it should. The mystery lurking in his truck pushes him to the limit of his own sanity.
4. 'Matapang,' directed by Lea-Jade Horlier
Screening: 11:30 a.m. June 23, part of the Growing Pains program
Description: Mary Ann, a 12-year-old child born from sex tourism, survives in the slum of Angeles City, Manila. Determined to make it out, she is ready to do anything to find her father.
5. 'Ecstatic Thing'
Programmer Celine Roustan's picks
1. 'Sisters of the Rotation,' directed by Michel Zarazir and Gaby Zarazir
Screening: 6:30 p.m. June 20, part of the Opening Night program
Description: At Sisters of the Rotation’s convent, the Earth doesn’t spin by itself.
What Roustan has to say: "At the crossroads between dark humor and satire, with striking cinematography, the Zarazirs found the perfect tonal balance to craft a compelling and engaging story."
2. 'Simo,' directed by Aziz Zoromba
Screening: 5:30 p.m. June 21, part of the Codes of Conduct program
Description: Simo and Emad’s brotherhood is filled with competition and jealousy. In a desire to prove his popularity and his capabilities to his older brother, Simo does something that has the effect of a bomb on the whole family.
What Roustan has to say: "Through a specific event, Zoromba poignantly paints the portrait of an Egyptian family living in Montreal, the dynamic between two teenage brothers and their father."
3. 'Idiot Fish,' directed by Hakim Mao
Screening: 8 p.m. June 22, part of the Gayla program
Description: A couple on the way home for the holidays decides to role play their first meeting. Jimmy becomes a lost hitchhiker, Guillaume a lonely driver. Pretending they are strangers, they hope to seduce each other again. Until a third player joins the game.
4. 'Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó'
5. 'Pennies From Heaven'
Programmer Robert John Torres' picks
1. 'Chomp It!' directed by Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen
Screening: 5:30 p.m. June 22, part of the Fever Dream program
Description: Two crocodilian men go to a swimming pool to cool off. One of them is seemingly of a different and special kind; the other is unable to control his desire.
What Torres has to say: "A sweltering 16mm fever dream set in Singapore where two disturbed reptilian men slowly unravel poolside."
2. 'Green Space,' directed by Jamie Fraser
Screening: 2:30 p.m. June 21, part of the Public Spaces, Private Lives program
Description: Private moments become public mishaps over one day in a south London park.
What Torres has to say: "This formalist gem offers a perceptive and playful diorama of unfiltered human behavior — an anthropological comic study."
3. 'I Have No Legs, And I Must Run,' directed by Yue Li
Screening: 6 p.m. June 21, part of the Crossroads program
Description: A competitive runner past his prime struggles with injuries when the arrival of a talented new teammate plants the seeds of dark, obsessive jealousy in his mind.
4. 'Sèt Lam,' directed by Vincent Fontano
Screening: 3 p.m. June 23, part of the Parables, Fantasies & Fables program
Description: A frightened girl listens to her grandmother tell the strange tale of Edwardo, the first of his kin to have seen and fought death. The child is captivated, feeling that there is a reason her grandmother is recounting this story.
5. 'Will You Look At Me,' directed by Shuli Huang
Screening: 11 a.m. June 20, part of the Cinematic Odes program
Description: As a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search of himself, a long overdue conversation with his mother plunges the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love.
Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs ShortFest programmers share their picks for film festival
