2022 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
THURSDAY OCTOBER 20th
7:00 PM - Film Society of Summit and SOMA Film Festival Partnered Screening
Click here for tickets!
RESISTERHOOD / Filmmaker(s): CJ Crim and Joanna Lohman (Washington DC). This multiple award-winning documentary tells an important timely story about the power of women, hope and resistance in modern American politics. With a crucial election imminent, this film captures the stories of everyday Americans who became grassroots activists working tirelessly to defend our democracy and stop the erosion of our civil rights during the previous presidential administration. Runtime: 56:39
FANNIE. Features a dramatic re-enactment of the speech made by activist Fannie Lou Hamie at the National Democratic Convention in 1964 following her unsuccessful efforts trying to register to vote. Runtime: 9:19.
FILMMAKER(S) IN ATTENDANCE
FRIDAY OCTOBER 21st
7:00 PM - OPENING NIGHT GET TOGETHER & SCREENING
SCREENING to immediately follow at approximately 8:00 PM
Click here for tickets!
SATURDAY OCTOBER 22nd
10:00 AM - KIDS PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
SLEEPY / Filmmaker: Richard Webber (UK). When sleep catches up with you. Runtime: 0:01:14
WALTER / Filmmaker: Lorenzo Fresta. A lonely toad pedals his bicycle around a dry, littered landscape. Empty bottles clatter in a crate on the back as he rides. Runtime: 0:06:43
SUM OF ITS PARTS / Filmmaker: Alisa Stern (USA). Sum of its Parts is about mysterious forest creatures that move to the beat of the music. Alisa sculpted and painted dozens of creatures by hand then animated them outdoors over 10 weekends. Scott's music existed first and helped inspire the design of the creatures. Runtime: 0:03:34
COOL FOR YOU / Filmmaker: Sherene Strausberg. “Cool For You”, an animated film based on the book of the same title, explains global warming to children in a friendly way. Incorporating different characters and families, animals and plants, children are introduced to CO2, and positive, easy ways to improve our impact on the earth. Runtime: 0:03:00
MOUSE HOUSE / Filmmaker: Timon Leder. A gluttonous mouse traps himself in a cheese wheel while his starving friend stranded outside must contend with a hungry cat. Runtime: 0:08:29
TODDLER TALKS / Filmmaker: Diana Reichenbech. A documentary animated short based on audio recordings of a toddler-aged boy named Henry. The film is animated in a way that mimics the development of language and emotions—which aren’t always clear and articulated at first. Runtime: 0:03:30
DON’T BE SCARED / Filmmaker: Richard O’Connor. Animals seek solace on a blustery winter’s night. Runtime: 0:02:30
CONCRETE / FIlmmakers: Pirmin Bieri, Aira Joana, Nicolas Roth and Luca Struchen. Troubled by his own reoccurring transformations, a restless backpacker seeks his place in the world. Through a mysterious encounter in a concrete building in the midst of a barren swampland, he hopes to have finally found such a place. Runtime: 0:07:00
BENCH / Richard Webber. A short stop motion film about sharing... Runtime: 0:01:36
BELLYSAURUS / Philip Watts. A tiny dinosaur dreams she is a scary big dinosaur. When danger strikes, she learns it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Literally. Runtime: 0:07:49
A FILM BY M+M /Megan McShane, Matthew Yang. Two wizard friends travel together through a fantastical land in this short, sweet, and delightfully surreal road trip film. Runtime: 0:02:22
ABSTRACT ANIMALS / Dana Sink and Ivica Širanović. An animation created by two unexpected friends on opposite sides of the earth. Created by Dana Sink (United States) and Ivica Širanović (Macedonia). Ivica and Dana corresponded throughout 2019 and 2020 and bonded through their love of animation and the curiosity about each other's culture. Ivica did the stop motion animation from his studio in Macedonia and Dana did the 2D animation from his studio in the US. Runtime: 0:01:17
TOTAL KIDS PROGRAM RUNTIME: 0:50:00
11:30 AM - FESTIVAL FAVORITES
Click here for tickets!
Come screen some amazing films that have great success on the festival circuit.
OFF THE MENU / Filmmaker: Daniele Sestito (Boston, MA). Faced with a unsatisfied client, a perfectionist Italian chef is forced to make a meal he's never made. Runtime: 37:00
DEAR AUDREY / Filmmaker: Jeremiah Hayes (Montreal, CA). Acclaimed activist filmmaker Martin Duckworth has devoted his life to peace and justice. But now he’s put down his camera to fight for the most important cause he’s ever faced—caring for his wife, Audrey Schirmer, through the final stages of Alzheimer’s. Runtime: 1:29:00
2:00 PM - PREMIERE INDEPENDENT PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
Come see amazing indie films good enough to be streaming or showing at any theater only available with us!
CHARTER / Filmmaker: El Houssine Hnine (Morocco). Asso is a religious man in his forties, he's an extremist. He loves his wife and his daughter but has to face the dilemma of choosing between his wife and the Islamic strict and extreme rules. Runtime: 19:57
SHE’S FINE / Filmmaker: Samuel Galarza (New York, NY). A vet tech tolerates her possessive new roommate, Caroline, until she must fight for her life after discovering the bloody secret behind Caroline’s eccentric art. Runtime: 19:45
TEN MONTHS / Filmmaker: Amie Song (New York, NY). A Chinese mother, who comes to New York for a short visit but gets stuck due to COVID travel restrictions, and her Americanized daughter navigate their ten months living together in a small New York City studio apartment. Runtime: 13:51
HEAVY PETTING / Filmmaker: Brendan Post (Canada). An eerie bifurcated character drama about a queer encounter between two lonely cat enthusiasts, and a macabre test of one’s social obscurity. Runtime: 17:30
THE UGLY TRUTH / Filmmaker: Krishna Ashu Bhati (Germany). Mona, her husband Theo and daughter Hanna live in an idyllic villa on the outskirts of Berlin. When the attractive 18 years old daughter of a friend comes to visit, the profound problems and fragility of the small family reveal, as a tragic downward spiral takes its inevitable course. Runtime: 1:36:27
5:00 PM - EXPLORING OUR WORLD PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
LOST CITY / Filmmaker: Brian Neff (New York, NY). A study of the loss of culture and community in the Lower East Side of New York City as the result of unchecked gentrification, as seen from the perspective of artist and activist Clayton Patterson. Runtime: 18;16
GENERATIONAL IMPACT / Filmmaker: Stephanie Wang-Breal. Emily Tianshi is a young woman striving to raise awareness and create solutions for the global water crisis. Runtime: 7:25
THE PRICE OF SAFETY / Filmmaker: Chris Spencer (Vergennes, VT ). Explores national conversations of over-policing and racial bias as they unfold in the quaint community of Vergennes, Vermont, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Runtime: 55:10
7:00 PM - COMEDY DUO PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
BRANDO’S SPOON / Filmmaker: Mac Brydon (New York, NY). Two brothers at odds, bicycle across New York City in hopes of locating a beloved family heirloom. Runtime: 7:10
THE MARSHMALLOW CONSPIRACY / Filmmaker(s): Jeff Beals and Matthew Beals (White Plains, NY) . After landing a gig at a marshmallow theme park, a cameraman uncovers the shocking truth about America's candy land and his own sugarcoated childhood. Runtime: 1:24:00
9:00 PM - LIGHT ON A SATURDAY NIGHT
Click here for tickets!
DUMB IN THE ELEVATOR / Filmmaker: Joe Territo (North Plainfield, NJ). Two strangers 'share' a moment on an elevator. Runtime: 1:55
MARIJUANA MINUTES / Filmmaker: Ryan D. Moore (New Jersey) . An unambitious stoner finds her easy-going life turned upside down when she stumbles upon a vape pen that allows her to travel through time. Runtime: 1:34:00
SUNDAY OCTOBER 23rd
10:00 AM - RISE AND SHINE PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
AUGUST / Filmmaker: Remedios Sola Martínez. A symbolic farewell that the director, her sister and her cousin make to the family home and their grandparents in the month in which they all met: August. Runtime: 15:00
NELLIE AND LEO / Filmmaker: Justin Rubin. For 20 years, a man has returned to this sacred beach to honor the memory of his beloved friend who was killed on 9/11 and the other victims of that tragic day.
OH CRAPPY DAY / Filmmaker: Jon Lance Bacon (Raleigh, NC). An aspiring young filmmaker hopes to find love through online dating -- if he can just keep his OCD on the down low. Runtime: 1:23:25
12:00 NOON - LOCAL FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE
Click here for tickets!
VERAL / Filmmaker: Erin Lane Harper (South Orange, NJ). Haze, “big-city” newspaperman, searches the High Plains for a “country-flavor” story for the Post. Runtime: 18:39.
NICE TOWNS / Filmmaker: Michael Abdul-Qawi (West Orange, NJ). Known for their diversity and proximity to New York City, the two towns of Maplewood and South Orange are constantly on the brink of change. As this small New Jersey community increases in popularity, the struggle to maintain inclusivity grows larger. Runtime: 1:28:34
3:00 PM - SETON HALL PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
6:00 PM - LOCALS ONLY! SHORTS PROGRAM
Click here for tickets!
BY THE WAY OF WATER / Filmmaker: Alexander Spenser. A day in the life of two runaways as they navigate their world and face an uncertain future.
DEAD INSIDE / Filmmaker: Ashley Wimbush. Adam’s girlfriend, Ella, is a zombie, but he doesn’t mind. But are there consequences for loving a monster?
RESERVATION DOGS / Filmmaker: Zak M Mir. When a little girl wanders around the woods on the night of Halloween she suddenly disappears the same time, the hungry reservation dogs are seen prowling for a prey.
VEGAN DIET / Filmmaker: Nina-Simone Brie Crawford. Evaluating attitudes that people express towards different foods.
TWO FACED / Filmmaker: Emily Wetenhall. It’s difficult to not want to adhere to the pressures of American beauty standards as a young girl, and falling victim to it won't necessarily make you any happier either.
WHY YOU HAVE TO BE BLACK AND GAY / Filmmaker: Holly Lehren. Follows internationally renowned drag queen Odidi Odidiva from his formative years to the shaping of his drag persona in the shadow of South African apartheid.
TALK TO ME AND I WILL TALK BACK / Filmmaker: Maky Rupert. A lonely personal advice hotline operator is forced to confront reality when a long-time caller stops phoning in.
AN EXPERIMENTAL EXPERIENCE / Filmmaker: Sandy Eskow. An experimental film that takes a little girl into the unknown.
THE CLEANING LADY / Filmmaker: Nina-Simone Brie Crawford. A psychological thriller about the acts one’s alter ego is capable of committing.
VAMP BROS / Filmmaker: Sabrina Silva. When a douchey frat boy wake up to find he's a vampire, he basks in the awesomeness of it all... until he realizes he's allergic to blood.
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL THERAPY 2 / Filmmaker: Gina Rodriguez. A woman is in therapy, struggling with erotic transference - an attraction to her therapist.
EN SUITE / Filmmaker: Geoffrey Cantor. An emotional glimpse into the personal lives of a seemingly happily married couple following a radical bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction.
AARON WITH TWO A’S / Filmmaker: Michael Goldburg. A man starts his second career at age 65 as an actor, but when he finally manages to land a major role, he discovers he's his own worst enemy as his inner doubts threaten to derail his lifelong dream and his marriage.
LOVE’S BABY SOFT / Filmmaker: Lanie Zipoy. It’s 1976. A feisty preteen desperate to grow up learns how tough it truly is when her world collides with her super cool 16 year old babysitter.
Please note that schedule is subject to change without notice.
All films have not been rated and should be considered improper for children 13 and under, besides The Kids Program, Youth Filmmaker Program, and Locals Only! Program