Haunted Horror Halloween Shorts - October 27, 2019

It's a spooky time of the year, and we got a mix mash of spooky, haunted, horror shorts for you this time around.

Featuring:
"Auntie" by Bobby Huntley, Olamma Oprah and Colbie Fray (ATL)
"Budfoot"by Tim Reis and James Sizemore (ATL)
"SPYGLASS" by Chris Hunt (ATL)
"Valero" by Michael Arcos (NOLA)
"Chickens" by Bryian Montgomery Jr. (LA)
"Visits" by Roxy Shih (LA/NYC/Taipei)

On Indigenous People's Day, we are excited to screen 2 films by North American Indigenous directors:

"Dislocation Blues" by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk).

SYNOPSIS: An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock. Cleo Keahna recounts his experiences entering, being at, and leaving the camp and the difficulties and the reluctance in looking back with a clear and critical eye. Terry Running Wild describes what his camp is like, and what he hopes it will become.

"Empty Metal" by Adam Khalil (Ojibway) and Bayley Sweitzer.

SYNOPSIS: EMPTY METAL is a war movie without a war, a nightmare you are ashamed to admit was actually a dream.

Three aimless millennials in a go-nowhere band are recruited as willing pawns by a shadow revolution; an insurrection led by an unlikely cabal of Buddhist sovereign citizens, telepathic Native militants, and Rastafarian computer hackers. The band's mission: to find and execute [names redacted].

Dosed with the nihilistic punk DNA of Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames and Fassbinder’s The Third Generation, EMPTY METAL tosses scraps of our everyday dystopia into its psychic soup, serving up a present that shades into science fiction, studded with details of the daylight world returning with the clarity of a nightmare.

"The Home Team", a film by Camille Pendley and Laura Asherman.

"We've heard a lot about the stadium. This is the residents' story.

The Super Bowl came and went, but the stadium’s next door neighbors are still here. This film shines a light on a subject much more in need of attention than football: The glaring inequity highlighted by a state-of-the-art venue across from a historic neighborhood whose demise we’ve allowed for decades.

We — Atlanta — have let these neighborhoods become an eyesore of the city, the birthplace of the Civil Rights movement. This film explores the culture that saw fit to invest hundreds of millions of public dollars in a sports venue while neglecting the community just across the street."

"Scenes of Sound" is a program featuring music films and music videos:

"Ten Toes Down" by Cedric Umoja (SC). Music by 10th Letter (ATL). [10:49]

"Iron Down a Drain" by Samuel Laubscher (ATL). Music by Hot Air Henry (ATL).
[5:46]

"Blot" by Ben Rousse (Athens). Music by Steven Trimmer.[2:15]

"Lullabay in Yoni" Concept by Stephanie Koziej. (ATL) Production and Direction by Bjorn Veno (ATL). Music by Jordan Rocha and Stephanie Koziej [3:59]

"Cruel" by Foster Addington Smith (VA). Song by Bosco (ATL).
[4:31]

"Keep the Change" by Foster Addington Smith (VA). Song by Mattiel. (ATL) [4:37]

"Blue Jays" by Lev Omelchenko (ATL). Song by Sequoyah (ATL).
[5:03]

"Engine" by S2S Productions (ATL). Song by Dos Global.
[4:20] (NYC)

"New Whip" by S2S Productions (ATL). Song by Clew.
[4:20] (ATL)

"1800Pain" by Tim Reis. (ATL) Song by Breathers. [4:53] (ATL)

"Way Up" by Ebony Blanding (ATL). Music by Luna LotusLove [5:41]

"Bad Night" by Fraser Jones (ATL). Music by Joshua Speers. [3:33]

Unicorn Gardens Cinema is honored to present the Atlanta Premiere of "Uniontown", an award winning documentary by Fraser Jones. The film will be accompanied by several other Southern short films.

Synopsis: A grassroots group of modern day freedom fighters in rural Alabama bands together to take back their town from the hands of industrial polluters and passive politicians, in the midst of high stakes local election.

Short Documentary, 16 minutes.

Made with support from The Redford Center and The Spiritual Ecology Fellowship.

Winner of the Reel South Award and Honorable Mention for Best Short Documentary at Indie Grits Film Festival.

2 short documentaries are accompanying "Uniontown"

"Atlanta from the Ashes" by Andrew Litten
"The Bessemer Cutoff" by Dillon Hayes

Wonderful and Mystifying Southern Tales from the hearts of its inhabitants.

PROGRAM:

"Blue Jays" by Lev Omelchenko (GA)
Blue Jays depicts a young boy discovering and actualizing an expressive energy within himself. Set in the lush forest of Atlanta, Sequoyah Murray embodies an ancient winged spirit calling on the boy (August Murray) to not be afraid, to embrace his desire to dance, to be free. The film offers an alternative to the brutal and dehumanizing imagery that we consume on an everyday basis, and provides a healing vision.

"Rabbit Hunt" by Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas (FL)
In the FL Everglades, Rabbit Hunting is considered a Rite of Passage for young men. The rabbit hunt follows 17yo Chris and his family as they hunt in the fields of the largest industrial sugar farms in the US. The film records a tradition by which migrant farm workers in the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee have been hunting and preparing rabbits since the early 1900s.

"Socks on Fire: Uncle John and the Copper Headed Water Rattlers" by Bo McGuire (AL)
A failed poet takes up cinematic arms when he returns home to Hokes Bluff, Alabama to discover his drag queen uncle locked out of the family home.

"Lucid Noon, Sunset Blush" by Alli Logout (NOLA)
17-year-old bb gay Micha has just moved into The Palace - a basement full of queer femme Dominatrix, lovers and misfits. They are beautiful, carefree and as young as the night.

"Birthday Cake" By Brantly Jackson Watts (GA)
Set in the deep south, Birdie marks the first anniversary of leaving her abusive lover, Donnie, with a ceremonial candle on a cake. One by one, her fellow survivors leave for the night, and Birdie is left to mourn the love she left behind with her abuser. As the evening unfurls, Birdie will be confronted by more than an aching heart in this Southern Gothic thriller. A haunting story of love, survival and the complexities found in relationships, this film examines modern domestic violence in a way that is seldom explored. An important film that promises to linger with viewers, Birthday Cake is as captivating as it is powerful.

YES MA'AM has collaborated with Unicorn Gardens Cinema of local femme filmmakers/

Films:
'C U Later Tuesday' // Anca-Roberta Vlasan
'Are You Anywhere' // Lanese Love
'Q&A' by The House of June
'Soma/tics' //Ace McColl
'Snow Day' // Lea Boulch
'In Silence' // Ruba Mansouri & A.K. Espada
'Leaving Charlie' by Amanda Brooke Avery

Short films which explore the space between intimately familiar and distantly alien.

Featuring:
"Earth Medicine" by Iman Person (ATL)
"257m2" by Thais Dahas (Brazil/ATL) and Marco Rudolf (Brazil)
"Blot" by Ben Rouse (Athens)
"Silver Planet" by Chris Hunt (ATL)
"Royal Jelly" by Stephanie Burbano (Montreal)

"Your Ride Is Here" by ATL filmmaker Fraser Jones. Accompanied by Fraser's short doc "Serotiny".

"Serotiny"
On the 50th anniversary of MLK's assassination, the organization Lead to Life gathered in Atlanta to transform guns into shovels used to plant trees alongside victims of gun violence.

"Your Ride Is Here"
A jaded Uber driver and his starry-eyed apprentice spend their night chauffeuring strangers around Nashville.
Official selection of Atlanta Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Indie Grits Festival, and BendFilm Festival.
Winner of the Big Grit Award for Best Feature Film at Indie Grits Festival.

Fraser Jones is an independent filmmaker hailing from Atlanta. After receiving a B.F.A. in Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, Fraser soon moved to Sydney, Australia to write a children’s television series for Nickelodeon and continues to direct numerous short documentaries for Capitol Records and various non-profit organizations across America and Europe. Whether creating social justice documentaries or improvised comedic narratives, Fraser uses his strong interest and background in poetry, theater, analog photography, and clowning to create honest, personal films, which aim to deliver light to audiences while still maintaining a strong sense of realism and empathy.

Films shot in the far reaches of the world by (mostly) local ATL filmmakers.

Featured Films:
"Pak Anggir" (Indonesia) by Ashleigh Goh (NYC)
"Foreign Fragments" (Vietnam) by Max Siciliano (ATL)
"The Maze of Lanes" (India) by Kalpana Subramanian (Buffalo)
"Rhythms of Ghana" (Ghana) by Brandon Polack (ATL)
"Gomi Maku" (Japan) by Brandon English, Music by 10th Letter (ATL)