Shorts Program

Sand
Director/Executive Producer: Cari Ann Shim Sham
Executive Producer: Kyle Ruddick
10 min. USA

A rhythmic and visual collage, the film Sand takes a close look at sand dance as it is passed down from a father to his son. Sand dance is a quickly disappearing American dance form that stems from turn of the century vaudevillian and traveling shows. With only a handful of people left today still performing it, this film is a rare archive of the transference of sand dance or "passin' the sand", from one generation to the next. Featuring emerging tap dance artist Kenji Igus and his father Darrow. Shot on the Canon 5dMarkii.

Library of Dust
Directors/Producers: Ondi Timoner, Robert James
Producer: Kyle Parker
Interloper Films/NuReality Productions
16 min. USA

Thousands of corroded copper urns containing the cremated remains of unclaimed psychiatric patients were discovered in 2004. A tour of the Oregon State Hospital involving the local press and a State Senator was conducted to uncover the deplorable conditions of the hospital. What they didn't expect to find was a storeroom full of human ashes dating back to the late 1800s. Photos are taken of the mysterious corrosive effect on the canisters, and several histories of these forgotten souls are revealed in this unique tale.

Sun City Picture House
Director: David Darg
Producer: Bryn Mooser
Executive Producers: Olivia Wilde, Maria Bello
RyotFilms
27 min. Haiti

After watching the last of the old movie theaters get destroyed in the Haiti earthquake, a young Haitian man rallies an entire community to build a cinema and make his dream come alive on a hill above a tent city

Poetry of Resilience
Director/Producer/Writer: Katja Esson
Producers: Corinna Sager, Alison Granucci, Sabine Schenk
Executive Producer: Jan Warner
Penelope Pictures LLC
40 min. USA

Poetry of Resilience is a 40-minute documentary about six poets from around the world who survived some of the worst political atrocities of the 20th Century: Hiroshima, the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, the Kurdish Genocide in Iraq, the Rwandan Genocide, the Iranian Revolution. By summoning the creative voice of poetry to tell stories of survival and witness, each reclaims humanity and dignity in the wake of some of history’s most dehumanizing circumstances. With grace and humor, the film explores language as an internal means of survival—for the poet and the readers of poems.