Short Film Program

Trapped: Uncanny Short Films

Do you dare step into the world of the absurd? (pssst…you’re already here)

$15 at the door

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Sat Jun 10 8:00 PM

Join us for a program of stories most unusual: the meeting of a spaceman and a cave man; an encounter with an alien phenomenon via public access television; and the imagined experiences of the forgotten subject of a famous photograph. This is an amusing and disquieting short film mix-tape of analytic tragicomedies of infinite human desire, terrifying workplace procedurals, and startling cinematic spectacles you won’t soon forget.

The Films

Business

Kati Skelton | U.S.A. | 8

Jonathan is a scared and impressionable young man who meets an older man, also named Jonathan, at a nightclub. After a whirlwind night on the town, Older Jonathan enlists Young Jonathan to take over his business while he leaves town for a couple months. The catch is: Older Jonathan’s business is keeping his wife's hands and feet clean. Young Jonathan does his best at the tricky and intimate task...but is it enough to satisfy his mysterious employers?

The Bulb

Calvin Reeder | U.S.A. | 12

A traveler checks into a cheap motel and tries to enjoy the modest cable package. A different kind of traveler emerges from the restroom and shares his limited knowledge of a mysterious broadcast on channel 76.

See a Dog, Hear a Dog

Jesse McLean | U.S.A. | 18

Taking its title from a sound design maxim and using it as a conceit to grasp the desire for connection, this video probes the limits and possibilities of communication. Algorithms collaborate and improvise. Dogs obey/disobey human commands, displaying their own artistry and agency in the process. Technology, from domesticated animals to algorithmic music to chat rooms, reflects human desires but has its own inventiveness. Can we ever truly communicate with a machine, with a nonhuman animal, with each other? Our anthropomorphic tendencies, our fear of replacement by nonhuman forms, even our interpersonal limitations, can’t foreclose the possibility of connection and understanding, a great unknown sometimes called trust.

Voyage of the Galactic Space Dangler

Evan Mann | U.S.A. | 8

A spaceman meets a caveman.

Estate

Ronny Trocker | France, Belgium | 7

On a sunny Mediterranean beach, time seems to be frozen. An utterly exhausted black man crawls painfully off the sand while around him the holiday-makers seem not to notice him. Freely inspired by a photo taken by Juan Medina on the Spanish beach of Gran Tarajal in 2006.

PYOTR495

Blake Mawson | Canada | 15

PYOTR495 is an award-winning short film set in Russia in the year 2014. The country has invaded the Ukraine, the newly instated LGBT Propaganda Law makes it illegal to present gay life as normal, while Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval rating is at a 6-year high. We begin in the run-down, white Soviet-era tower blocks in the Cheryomushki district of Moscow, and follow our character, Pyotr, as he leaves his apartment and ventures out into the night on his scooter and under the passing lights of the city streets as he is baited into a dangerous scenario at the sprawling apartment of a member of one of Moscow’s financial elite.

Green Screen Gringo

Douwe Dijkstra | The Netherlands, Brazil | 17

Behind a green screen, a foreigner finds his way in an enchanting - and yet turbulent - Brazil. Where the streets are a stage for politics, art and affection, a gringo can only watch. The result is a mixtape-portrait on modern day Brazil seen through the eyes of the visitor.

Performer

Tropical Rock

Tropical Rock is the collaboration of Ka Baird & Camilla Padgitt-Coles, incorporating analog synthesizers, flute, electronics, voice, crystal singing bowls and projections. Together they co-run Perfect Wave, a curatorial platform that ""maintains a committed vision to experimental performance, sound and art with a special interest in creating intergenerational dialogue."" Perfect Wave produces a magazine, releases music and organizes events in NYC.Camilla Padgitt-Coles is a multimedia artist and musician currently working in light, sound, video and audio-visual environments. She has performed music and live visuals across the US and in Europe at music venues, yoga studios, galleries, dance parties, and museums. She utilizes analog and digital synths as well as prepared footage and a variety of D.I.Y. projection methods, more recently incorporating newer technologies in order to fuse light and sound. She plays and records solo as Ivy Meadows and in ambient improv collaborations Future Shuttle, Energy Star and Tropical Rock.Ka Baird is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist living and working in NYC. She is one of the founding and continuing members of the long running avant psych project Spires That In The Sunset Rise. Since relocating to NYC in November 2014, Baird has set off in numerous directions apart from Spires with new collaborations as well as honing in on her own solo work. Her current work explores piano improvisation, electroacoustic interventions, extended vocal techniques, physical movement, and her unusual electronic manipulation of the flute. She has toured extensively both nationally and internationally with performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), MoMA PS1, Roulette Intermedium, Cafe OTO (London) and numerous festival appearances with Spires including TUSK (Newcastle, UK), Incubate (Tilburg, Netherlands), and Festival Of Endless Gratitude (Copenhagen, DK).

Event Details

8:00 PM
Doors Open
8:30 PM
Live Music by Tropical Rock
9:00 PM
Films Begin
10:30 PM
After-Party sponsored by Corona Extra, Tanqueray and Fever-Tree Tonic
***ONLINE TICKET SALES HAVE ENDED. TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR***

No refunds. In the event of rain, show will be indoors at same location. No outside alcohol is permitted.

The show presented in partnership with

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