Category: BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – 2024 ARFF BARCELONA

Original Film Title: Rhomboid Major

Director’s Name: Monica Goldberg

Writer’s Name: Monica Goldberg

Producer: Monica Goldberg

Country of Origin: Australia

Country of Filming: Australia

Language: No Dialog

Runtime: 8 minutes

Film Description:

This surrealistic and highly experimental low budget art film was created as a tribute to the victims of the Nova Music festival massacre which occurred in Israel on October 7, 2023.

The human body contains 8 sacred geometric shapes, formed at birth, and remaining throughout our life. These forms interact with each other regularly.

The rhomboid major is a skeletal muscle of the back that connects the scapula with the vertebrae of the spinal column. Both rhomboids (major and minor) act to retract the scapula, pulling it towards the vertebral

Original Film Title: Fellini Mastorna…A Film Of No Return

Director’s Name: Jennifer Glee Foley

Writer’s Name: Jennifer Glee Foley

Producer: Jennifer Glee Foley

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 25 minutes 6 seconds

Film Description:

Legendary Italian Filmmaker Federico Fellini never made a film he had been commissioned to do in the 1960’s entitled ‘The Journey of G. Mastorna.’ The new short film ‘Fellini Mastorna…a film of no return’ finds Fellini’s actor muse Federico Wardal as the Fortune Teller/Ghost as well as the young actor who is mute and vulnerable and new. The film is a new, fresh tribute to Fellini . It is made in the United States and has an international resonance with the constant attempts within the manifestation of Self and Mask to penetrate to what is, is not, could be, couldn’t be or could be both or even more.

The film is its own ‘vision,’ its own ‘projection’ of the Self, the Mask, the Person, and the Mirror. The Mirror is ever-present, it penetrates the Camera, it is dangerous, as it was for Dorian Gray, Narcissus, and all who have looked into it and seen their ‘own image…covered by the Actor’s Mask…But the mirror is behind the mask and shows his (their) true face…’ –Carl Gustav Jung in _’Archetypes and the collective unconscious.’

The ‘invisible’ governs ‘Fellini Mastorna…a film of no return;’ it is the ‘mystery’ behind the movie. Its music is other-worldly, suggestive of other realms that are not within reach in the diurnal. The silent film tableau brings the film into the discussion of the Avantgarde in cinema; even the camera in the film belonged to silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

Original Film Title: Welcome to the Whimsical Desert! (Going Solo)

Director’s Name: Heidi Elisabeth Appe

Writer’s Name: Heidi Elisabeth Appe

Producer: Heidi Elisabeth Appe

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 14 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

I am building an episodic web series focusing on solo travel and its unique discoveries. This is all a one woman show, from the travel, to the shooting and editing. The web series stands to remind and encourage people that even simple travel can affect a life, and magic awaits, everywhere- expertise and expert equipment not needed. Over the course of the series I explore weird, unique and off-the beaten-path desert landmarks of California, Nevada and Arizona. Episodes are short to give viewers a quick peak into the essence of each spot.

Original Film Title: WEST OF FRANK

Director’s Name: Breton Tyner-Bryan

Writer’s Name: Breton Tyner-Bryan

Producer: Breton Tyner-Bryan

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: No Dialog

Runtime: 2 minutes 21 seconds

Film Description:

WEST OF FRANK explores the metaphysical energy of the Jefferson Market Library, formerly a courthouse attached to the Women’s House of Detention in Manhattan, NY. Through the medium of dance, the characters in the books of the library bear witness to the acts of the American criminal justice system.

Through the medium of dance, West of Frank honors queer culture pioneered by the women and trans-masculine prisoners held in the Women’s House of Detention, including Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur, Andrea Dworkin, and Mae West.

The characters in the books of the Jefferson Market Library-Court House explore the metaphysical energy of the acts of the American criminal justice system, honoring queer culture and the trans-masculine prisoners held in the Women’s House of Detention.

Original Film Title: Belle Isle

Director’s Name: Farrell Huntley

Writer’s Name: Michelle Calloway

Producer: Tim Driscoll

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: No Dialog

Runtime: 2 minutes 21 seconds

Film Description:

Belle Isle is told through the complex viewpoint of our main character, Jessica. The film provides an intimate portrait of a woman riddled with a deep pain she can’t express. Jessica’s narrative begins with a perspective of a woman who appears to be marching out of step with society and unable to claim her full identity.

Original Film Title: CHROMA

Director’s Name: Aysel Hamidova

Writer’s Name: Aysel Hamidova

Producer: Aysel Hamidova

Country of Origin: Turkey

Country of Filming: Turkey

Language: No Dialog

Runtime: 2 minutes 21 seconds

Film Description:

CHROMA is an experimental associational film about a girl living in a monochromic world. Her desire is to make the world more colorful as she sees through her camera but it doesn’t turn out to be a good idea, because no matter how hard she tries to show people how she sees her surrounding, the society doesn’t change and try won’t understand her. She stops trying and gives up, until she meets a person very much similar to her.

Original Film Title: First Refusal

Director’s Name: Courtney Sanello

Writer’s Name: Courtney Sanello

Producer: Courtney Sanello

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

In the surreal world of First Refusal, we follow the emotional journey of a young girl who grapples with grief, forced to confront the pain of loss head-on.

Burdened by the recent passing of her beloved brother, she is haunted by the memories of their shared past, all within a unique sanctuary of her own design– a memory palace where she has trapped her brother’s spirit. Within this ethereal realm, the boundaries of reality blur as she relives cherished moments they once shared.

However, cracks soon appear in her creation, and the line between reality and her memories start to blur. Is she reliving cherished moments or keeping her brother against his will?

In a series of surreal visuals that ebb and flow like a fever dream, we follow them on exploration of grief’s complexity. They gradually come to realize an important truth: in order to truly heal and find solace, they must learn to let go.

Driven by evocative imagery, raw performances, and a hauntingly beautiful original music score that matches the dreamlike quality of the film’s atmosphere, First Refusal takes us on a journey that confronts the natural impermanence of life.

Original Film Title: Feed Back Time 

Director’s Name: Ramon Williams

Writer’s Name: Ramon Williams

Producer: Ramon Williams

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 2 minutes 23 seconds

Film Description:

A terminally ill elderly woman is fed and medicated via a tube that runs through the wall of her abdomen directly into her stomach, as she knits and talks about her hopes and life experiences.

Original Film Title: 《花的影子》

Director’s Name: Ariana

Writer’s Name: Ariana

Producer: Ariana

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 2 minutes 28 seconds

Film Description:

After being sexually assaulted, a young woman is further traumatized by the humiliation of slut-shaming and spirals into post-traumatic stress, reliving the nightmare through repeated flashbacks.

Original Film Title: 地穴

Director’s Name: Kelvin Zhu

Writer’s Name: Kelvin Zhu

Producer: Kelvin Zhu

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 19 minutes 44 seconds

Film Description:

《Whispers in the Subterranean》is an experimental film that combines AI-generated imagery of firelight on cave walls with real-life footage. It explores the state of our existence in the current age, where we are endlessly swept up by fragmented information, and slowly yet calmly accepting this “bed of information.”

Through a video composed of AI-generated image sequences, its infinite expansion represents a visual interpretation of the uncertain variables within its system, constantly stacking on one another. The control over random seeds and the relationship variables between preceding and succeeding sequences is like entering a new parallel universe with every choice. The process can be seen as constructing stable logical clues within ordered chaos.
Even so, through constantly iterating frames, the ending will eventually head towards a predetermined ‘future’ (a determined key frame). This state is akin to Plato’s allegory of the cave, where prisoners in the cave regard the ‘shadow’ as the world, and the ever-changing firelight behind them casts different forms and possibilities onto the wall’s shadows.

Ultimately, the shadow projected onto the wall is still controlled by the projector behind the wall. In today’s age of rapid technological iteration, we have adapted to ‘information cocoons’ and patterned ‘thinking paths’. The firelight reflected on the wall has long become a ‘scenic illusion’ that comforts us in our paradise, and the occasional sounds from outside the ‘cave’ are regarded by us as the ‘delusional whispers’ of our minds.”