The Whistle Stop F.I.L.M. Festival screens 68 films when it chugs into Nashville, TN May 18 – 20 at the Maxwell Harvest House. This is the list, of selected movies. The program may be different if screening copies are not received by close of business April 21.
Check back about the screening schedule.
The program isn’t in a traditional film festival format. The program is a part of the National Cohousing Conference in a salon-style screening room. Movie programs approximately 90 minutes in length will screen and repeat over the course of the conference.
It is not filmmaker – focused, but content focused with the hope that the stories told will stimulate discussion.
Aging Gratefully: The Power of Good Health and Good Neighbors (TRT 0:45:00)
Alan O’Hashi, USA
Does living in a cohousing community where neighbor relationships are a key component add any benefit to physical exercise, which improves brain health and relationship building skills? He interviewed six residents of newly formed Germantown Commons to find out their motivations to living in cohousing and whether living intentionally with neighbors was a positive experience and what physical activities happen in a group setting.
Celebrate Canada Exploring Our National Parks (TRT 0:30min)
Sarah Parker King, Canada
Come and celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. Take a peek at two of Canada’s unique and majestic national parks; Jasper and Elk Island, located in the province of Alberta. Learn about their history, wildlife and ecological preservation as well as exploring beautiful dark sky preserves, camping and O’Tentiks that visitors can experience in Canada’s national parks.
(Cereal)ousy (TRT 0:02:11)
Michael Acosta, USA
As two roommates search for food in a barren house, an epic battle for the last bowl of cereal ensues.
4242 (TRT 0:11:11)
Sara Eustaquio, Portugul
Cristi has just moved to an unknown country, far away from family and friends. At first, she is happy for the challenge. But soon she begins to question her place in this new world that seems to be a lost town, made of absences, distances, silence and indifference. ‘4242’ is the story of a young female immigrant, a story of a teenager’s anguish who is trying to redefine her identity after being forced to leave home.
A Blind Dog (TRT 0:05:30)
Axl Hazarika, India
Every dog owner is familiar to that irresistible and imploring gaze of their dog that yearns for reciprocation. The bond between humans and dogs is very quickly established due to natural body chemistry wherein both the species release the same hormone called oxytocin upon that look of mutual recognition. This unique bond of attraction and love makes the dog man’s best friend. But what if the dog is blind? How does a blind dog still connect with humans as much like a normal dog? Dil Hairaan Hai is a real life based special story of the relationship between a musician and his blind dog.
A Promise of Time Travel (TRT 1:28:00)
Craig Jessen, USA
A chance encounter with an estranged childhood friend draws a bookstore clerk into a plot to steal a time machine. But as she confronts the ghosts of her past, she makes a discovery that has dire implications for her future.
Abraxas (TRT 0:16:49)
Hubert Grzywna, France
Admitted (TRT 0:10:15)
Tony Taliaferro, Uganda
A story about a young girl’s transition in the college life.
All About Emily (TRT 0:07:00)
Valentina Casadei, Italy
A modest housekeeper keeps being bullied by a hysterical bourgeois for no apparent reason. Forced to endure these abuses in order to avoid being sent back to Cuba, she makes a discovery that will change everything.
Banalities (TRT 0:10:00)
Rafael de Andrade and Guillaume Foresti, Brazil
Betrayed and arrears, Jorge deducts all your anger at the bricklayer working at his home. However, at times, banal decisions have unexpected consequences.
Behind the Scenes Look: Live Television Production – Technical Directing (TRT 0:01:30)
Paul Overacker, USA
1 minute in the life of what a Television Technical Director does. Behind the Scenes Look: Live Television Production – Technical Directing is a real-time expose into the fast-paced world of live television sports news. It follows live Technical Director, Paul Overacker, as he shoots the documentary in real-time while switching a live broadcast of sports news.
Birds (TRT 0:12:40)
Giorgi Tkemaladze, Georgia
Grandmother always replies to Luka s curious questions, one answer forces the child to catch birds, which will help him to see his mother. All days the boy spends on the roof with a trap, trying to catch a huge number of birds. Grandmother react calmly to his desire, she only remarks that birds have mothers and they miss them too. Later, a group of older boys takes away his trap and only after that realizes the little boy these words.
Birds With Human Heads (TRT 0:09:50)
Max Wilde, USA
Basking in the wildlife of a handmade universe, a girl receives her first stick and poke tattoo from her best friend before being stolen away by a bird dragon.
Certemente (TRT 0:06:45)
Selina Dimitrova, Bulgaria
A young girl with strange abilities falls into a parallel world, the key to which is in her own self. Certamente is a film about the hidden and unexplored powers that each one carries within oneself. A film about intuition, the ability of the mind to materialize one’s desires and the freedom of the human spirit.
Childhood Dream (TRT 0:04:55)
Mladen Vuk, Montenegro
This animated movie shows the children’s dream.
Copper Wire (TRT 0:10:00)
Hasan Najmabadi, Iran
A child who collects copper wire and sell it to rent a movie.
Deliverance (TRT 0:15:41)
Mariama Slattby, Poland
Short, documentary film about Polish artist from Łódź Piotr Pasiewicz.
Dirty Roses (TRT 0:05:00)
Petra Terzi, USA
“Dirty Roses” is a humanitarian docudrama and deals with the power of the soul of the disabled persons and individuals or families who came from the Arab world in Greece as war or economic or political refugees. Two extreme marginalized groups with the most helpless victims, the one of the countries of the third world with racial and ethnic minorities, and the second one is often socially degraded.
Don’t Think About It (TRT 0:12:12)
Niv Klainer, USA
Ron and Casey are expecting a child, but things get out of hand when they both try to protect each other from an inevitable break-up.
Expectation (TRT 0:04:57)
Amandyk Baitlnov, Kazakhstan
This short movie tells the story of two newlyweds who are trying to create children, but all attempts are vain. All they can do is to wait and ask for God’s help, and wait for a miracle that when the baby is born t .With subjects this movie wants to show the audience that they pass through.
Fermentation (TRT 0:03:29)
Hannah Rosa, Germany
The film is about a transsexual prostitute, who is rejected by the society. While her self-perception and the impression she makes on others drift apart, she tries to improve her looks in order to be perceived as attractive. We follow her through the night until her father picks her up.
Flickering Dimensions (TRT 0:02:42)
Ben Friedman, USA
A seedy underworld gets caught up in a student’s life. Flickering Dimensions is a mysterious short film that deals with issues such as PTSD and corruption.
Fomo Sapiens (TRT 0:07:15)
Viktor Hertz, Sweden
A young couple, suffering from the worst imaginable form of “fear of missing out”, decides to take on a tough challenge.
Fort Nite (TRT 0:13:52)
Holly Seidcheck, USA
There is a raw-ness in everything. In this noir exposition, phrases of terror and destruction overlap with an underlying surge of sensuality.
Global Chilling Project, 2016 (TRT 0:05:00)
Tushar Routh, USA
To reverse global warming, it will require a major behavioral shift. Are humans ready for humanity?
Gone (TRT 0:20:00)
Philippe Wendling, France
Thomas, architect, discovers that he made a huge mistake on a building site. As he tries to make compromising documents disappear, the world around him begins to vanish mysteriously. Nobody seems to escape this uncanny trap, not even Thomas.
He’s Rooftop Afternoon (TRT 0:21:21)
He Xu, Canada
A young man (He) goes to rooftop every day afternoon, to peep a girl who usually dances there. What He does not know is that the girl actually saw him before on rooftop while he was falling asleep. This afternoon, while He is learning to smoke on rooftop, the girl suddenly appears.
Heart Sisters (TRT 0:19:45)
Anton and Kajsa Textur, Sweden
The aim was to produce a movie that would map the patriarchal oppression, but also to give the international feminist movement an opportunity to learn about different thoughts and experiences. We wanted to create a collective narrative about how it can be to live as woman in a male dominated world.
Hoda’s Story (TRT 0:57:39)
Johan Eriksson, Palestine
Twelve years in the life of a girl in Gaza blinded by a bullet. On 1 March 2003, 12-year old Hoda Darwish is hit in the head by a bullet while sitting at her desk in an elementary school in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Hoda miraculously survives, but she wakes up from her coma asking when the daylight comes. The bullet blinded her. She struggles to come to terms with her altered life, doubting her will to live, amidst the endless violence in the Gaza Strip. Her family repeatedly brings her to Egypt in the hope that a medical operation would give back her eyesight.
I Don’t Like Her (TRT 0:20:20)
Javad Daraei, Iran
Eli has been involved in a personality dualism and regardless of her constant disagreements with her father she still seeks her true nature.
Inner Fear (TRT 01:29:40)
Spencer Brod, USA
Three young hikers searching for Indian petroglyphs, find trouble in the rugged canyons.
Journey (TRT 0:07:40)
Radheya Jegatheva, Australia
Alone in space, an astronaut drifts through the empty void. After finding another astronaut in the same predicament, she gives him a Polaroid image of the Earth. They then team up to go on an epic journey across the universe to return to their planet. Will these star-crossed lovers find home?
LUTAH A Passion for Architecture: A Life in Design (TRT 01:05:35)
Melinda Gandara, USA
LUTAH explores the life of a remarkably versatile architect who left an impressive legacy. Initially eclipsed by her male contemporaries in the early 20th century, Lutah Maria Riggs navigated her way through the male-centric world of architecture and brought a freshness to the established architectural styles of Southern California. Riggs blazed a trail for women, relying on the courage of her convictions and a hint of eccentricity.
Mutual Coffin (TRT 0:10:55)
Hassan Mokhtari, Iran
This short film is a drama about Iranian people and their problems and pains.
My Heart Is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of Black Sea (TRT 0:01:40)
Neno Belchev, Bulgaria
A video-art film by Neno Belchev Based on the novel of Bezmer Bagryanov “My last abstract painting” “Everything is meaningless, even in cases when the meaning is obvious! In other words: There is sense even in the most meaningless acts!” My father (an artist)
Reach (TRT 0:08:03)
Stephen Broekhuizen, Ireland
A man makes a visit to a home, but not all is what it seems.
Rebouts Show (TRT 0:02:10)
Saeed Amin Javaheri, Iran
About “out of earth”
Rumor (TRT 0:05:12)
Leila Nouoroozy, Iran
A beast made of a rumor and Swallow the people and bigger and bigger until cover the earth.
Screeching River (TRT 0:02:22)
Kirk Hunter, USA
This experimental horror derge is about a fire along the river near a mental hospital on a Vacuum islands in the near Mindanao Java, where they live away from the rest of us. No one is a Vacuum Island.
Seattle Death Trains (TRT 0:30:00)
Gene Bernofsky, USA
Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railroad run lethal oil and coal trains through the heart of downtown Seattle, Washington. Seattle citizens speak out against the dangerous rail traffic.
SEDE – Thirst (TRT 0:14:00)
Cleiner Micceno, Brazil
The story of a fugitive slave and a landowner plagued by his actions.
September Sketch Book (TRT 0:07:44)
Ronnie Cramer, USA
SEPTEMBER SKETCH BOOK is an experimental film created using old school animation; over 5,400 drawings made with pen and paper. The film is abstract in nature, with sequences based on flags from around the world.
Six Degrees of Separation (TRT 0:27:12)
Sam Vinal, USA
What would your life look like in 2016 if you were born in Mexico? This film invites you to wake up and fall asleep with a humble farmer’s family in the Chiapas jungle, a millionaire hotel entrepreneur in Tulum, an ice cream cart owner in Mexico City and four other unique Mexican families.
Stabilia (TRT 0:04:24)
Sveinung Gjessing, Norway
A massive circular chamber, constructed of steel and heavy concrete. Play of light is created on the wall by an opening in the roof. A woman is laying motionless with her eyes closed on the rough surface, demarcated from the outside world in the rusty room with no exits. She seems small and fragile, but then she opens her eyes.
Strawberry Cheesecake (TRT 0:03:12)
Patrick Pleau, Canada
Stop motion animated music video about a world of sugary stuff and alive cakes. Pop music by Montreal band Plajia.
The Blind of the Cathedral (TRT 0:17:18)
Nadine Asmar, Lebanon
In front of a cathedral, fate led to Hala and Bachir’s meeting. At first sight, they share nothing in common: she is a 15-year-old student, she is Muslim and she sees. Whereas Bachir is 27, he plays the lute, he is Christian and blind. In a country ruled by hatred and conflicts, division and exacerbated sectarianism, and just before the burst of the civil war, two pure souls meet.
The Can (TRT 0:02:30)
Alexey Protsenko, Russian Federation
Young guy walking down the street and drinking soda. Then he throws the empty can in the box and misses. After that, the bank begins to pursue him.
The Condor in Love (TRT 0:06:21)
Daniel Calderon, Ecuador
The Double Cross (TRT 0:17:18)
Mark Brocking, United Kingdom
The Double Cross is a silent black and white comedy short set in the 1920s, where our hero is a young waiter for hire who gets caught up in a murder plot during a party and eventually rescues the damsel in distress.
The Fate (TRT 0:08:30)
Jose Garcia Perez, Spain
This is a story about a “corralled woman.”
The Firmest Friend (TRT 0:19:46)
Andrew Fixell, USA
In August 2014, filmmaker Andrew Fixell ventured into New York City’s Tompkins Square Park to interview four homeless youth about their transient lifestyles and their relationships with the pit bulls who travel with them. Andrew learned that these individuals and their four-legged friends shared a bond that ran deeper than just master and dog.
THE LAST RUSSIAN STEAMSHIP «DOSTOEVSKY» (TRT 0:22:44)
Ivan Magdesyan, Russian Federation
The time jump from 1956 to the present. Everything has changed in that time in Russia, and even the former country ceased to exist. Dostoevsky, a writer and namesake-steamer, was thrown from modernity. The demolition of the “Dostoevsky” – is the destruction of the cultural heritage of a great country, without which Russia here or there, by that way or another, has been destroyed and is destroyed.
The Little Chapel (TRT 0:03:23)
Richard Schertzer, United States
A young girl attempts to bring back the dead in a little chapel.
The Table, (TRT 0:04:31)
Nuno Braumann, Portugul
During one of the breaks of Noroeste (directed by Ricardo Fangueiro), the actor Isaac Penha gave us a wonderful performance!
The Universal (TRT 0:45:00)
Michael Barry, USA
What would happen if humans could understand conflict without creating enemies or fundamentally different “others,” wrongheaded and therefore expendable? What if we could see that soldiers fight for many reasons, ideals, and pressures, but share a universal experience? Would this knowledge change the way we look at current wars in the Middle East? In this film, a young filmmaker, distant from the standard narrative of the U.S. war with Vietnam, uses archival footage and interviews to retell the story.
Tooths (TRT 0:2:26)
Tyler Meyer, USA
A man’s internal struggles play out during a gruesome encounter with an electric toothbrush.
Tricky – Right Here (TRT 0:02:59)
Madison Roma, United Kingdom
Music Video RELEASED – 8 SEPTEMBER 2014 LABEL – FALSE IDOLS PRODUCER – TRICKY
Twiddly Things (TRT 0:04:13)
Adara Todd, United Kingdom
In this short animated film, we are given an in depth view of how Alzheimer’s affects Polly as she shares how dementia has affected her life. Prepare to be taken on an emotional journey as Polly takes us back to memories she remembers and explains how she feels when she starts to forget. The films visuals are a mix of stop motion and 2D.
Unforgettable (TRT 0:12:50)
John Aguirre, USA
An elderly couple’s lifetime of love and memories is tested on Valentine’s Day, when her Alzheimer stricken husband goes missing.
Way Out of Here (TRT 0:01:00)
Kara Tsenov, Canada
wetheuncivilized, A Life Story (TRT 01:40:45)
Lily Rose Sequoia, United Kingdom
Disillusioned by a story of consumption and alienation, a newly married couple are called to action. Carrying with them their unborn child, they embark on a year-long journey around the UK in search of the seeds of a different story, and with it hope for the future.
What the Hell! (TRT 0:04:00)
Sophie Galibert, France
A man and a woman, in the middle of the desert, disagree about what cinema is. Then they start to imagine and to tell a story…
Who Plays Othello? (TRT 0:04:32)
David Fratini, Italy
A crew of italian black boys is studying Shakespeare’s Othello to put it on stage, but when it comes the time to assign the main part…
“Bullet Proof Karma”
“Taken”
Synopsis: Len Barron selects an unconventional cast ‐ eight grandmothers ‐ for his stage production about Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. On stage, the women charm audiences with their wit and exuberance as they reveal untold chapters in the scientists’ biographies. But meanwhile, behind the curtain,their intersecting life experiences create a new narrative of struggle and triumph as a Latina abuela surmounts her struggles with spoken English, an African American grandma reflects on her lifelong fight for civil rights, and an Anglo grandmother recalls being a teenager during WWII. In this documentary film, director Robin Truesdale takes us behind the scenes with the women (who are not professional actors) as they rehearse, laugh, and beautifully emulate the messages they present on stage. The film leads us through a storybook of past and present, illuminating the magic of fairly tales and belief in the impossible. Einstein, Bohr and grandmothers combine for a film whose powerful message extends beyond age, gender, and even science – its an affirmation of the value of playfulness and imagination within us all.
Whistle Stop F.I.L.M. Fest 