17 min.
Director - Steve Kniss
Illinois

To process the death of his wife, a grieving husband embarks on a road trip with his daughter to the place where it all began, the place where he and his wife fell in love.

3 min.
Director - Alex Moy
New York

10 min.
Director - Samantha Sanders
Chicago

Outside of Wrigley Field, a group of die-hard Cubs fans have attended years of games and only rarely entered the park. They spend the innings on the corner of Waveland and Kenmore in the hopes of catching home runs in what they call the far outfield. Their shared passion has led to lifelong friendships and a community spirit that hearkens back to the early days of the game. In the fall of 2016, after a 100-year dry spell, the Cubs will play in the World Series and these Ballhawks have a chance they’ve only dreamed of – to catch a World Series home run ball.

3 min.
Director - Jessica Batson
Illinois

Life as a 5-year old, finding the extraordinary in the mundane.

8 min.
Director - Justin Zimmerman
Oregon

High school student Gerardo Hernandez - raised in the United States since six months of age - was one of over 100 undocumented workers arrested by ICE in Ohio on June 5th, 2018. Gerardo spent almost 2 months in prison before being released… and is now scheduled to be deported in early 2020. THE OTHER BORDER is his American story, told through intimate interviews with Gerardo and his sister, Karime, and shot exclusively on 8mm and 16mm film.

6 min.
Rob Adler, Director

Inspired by Alexandra Petri’s Op-Ed in the Washington Post called “Some Interpersonal Verbs Conjugated by Gender,” “You Too?” is a story about how language can shape us.

10 min.
Diane Weis, Piotr Kabat - Director

A true story written and narrated by the man who lived it --
Edward Field, 95 yrs old and a WWll veteran.
In 1945, at 21 years old, Field was the navigator in the 8th Air Force during WWll. On his 3rd mission over Germany, his plane lost all four engines after being hit by flak and crash landed in the North Sea. Hanging on to one of the two rafts in the freezing cold water, a decision was made that to this day has affected Field.
Field narrates his story.

6 min.
Director - Ian Mullen
Illinois

A couple gets into an argument at an art show and accidentally becomes the center exhibit.

18 min.
Director - Helen O'Reilly
Ireland

It’s 1983, Culture Club are no. 1, everyone’s glued to Knight Rider, and Kelly Harrison is not only experiencing her first crush, she’s going to her first disco. The only problem is that she’s getting train tracks before her big night and becomes besieged by self consciousness. However with the help of her best friend, Kelly realises what’s really important in her life.

10 min.
Director - Timothy Troy
Chicago

Vincent Forrester's biological computer prototype could change the world, but when a virus in the system infects his lab assistant, Abi, it could mean his death.

Just Give Me A Minute To Change

Dan comes home from work on a hot summer day. He wants to change out of his suit, but life has other plans.

15 min.
Director - Elena Bouryka
Italy

Walter, a con artist, drives around the city with his sick guard dog in the back. Sometimes successful, other times less so, Walter keeps tricking people, until an acquaintance dares him to go two minutes without telling a lie.

6 min.
Director - Jack Pochop
Illinois

A gunslinger, four thugs, one suitcase.

7 min.
Director - Madeline Landry
Louisiana

Kim is a stop motion mock-umentary style short about the day in the life of a friendly, outgoing, man eating siren named Kim.

5 min.
Director - Brandon Ciarlo
Chicago

As they move into their new apartment, a couple is confronted with strange happenings in their basement storage room.

11 min.
Director - Eric Weiher, LJ Johnson
Minnesota

A young woman invites her siblings over to see her new rug.

6 min.
Director - Sean Patrick Leonard
Illinois

Kim and Brendan have just come home from a night out when things get a bit out of hand. Kim is left to pick the pieces and find strength during a very fragile time.

16 min.
Director - Dave Ardito
Germany

Vicarious tells the story of the daydreaming office worker Jake Thompson. To escape from his boring reality, he reads exciting books and imagines himself as an action hero who saves the world.
But sooner or later this does not fulfill him anymore. In search of a new way to feel alive again, he finds a new source of inspiration which forces him to a life-changing decision.

13 min.
Director - Ash Barker, Nevo Shinaar, Molly Pease
Chicago

A comedy / horror film following a latinx trans woman, Rose, on her first day as a zombie when she must decide who to eat.

5 min.
Director - Darko Bakliza
Croatia

&Black&White is a language agnostic multiplatform animated project for kids and adults that talks about diversity through history and humor while playing with visual perception. Join Bo, the main character and a curious problem solver whose challenges are always on the funny side.

4 min.
Director Biography - Jessica Batson
Illinois

A mad hatter tea party between two eccentric siblings.

9 min.
Director - Lee Chambers
Canada

Late one night Craig, a mechanic, reluctantly agrees to help Nicole, a desperate young woman with a flat tire, in a car all too familiar to him. Nicole's mysterious incident on the old Copenhagen Road slowly strikes an eerie note for Craig and brings his own shady past rushing forward.

4 min.
Director - Patrick Burke
Chicago

In a city diner, a man shares his thoughts on urban culture while people-watching. But is his thinking in line with the zeitgeist?

6 min.
Director - Andrew Younge
New Zealand

In an attempt to justify why he no longer uses social media, a prospective housemate viewing a flat unknowingly launches into a rant that goes against everything his future housemates stand for.

10 min.
Frank Appache,  Director
Canada

A veteran hard rock DJ must compromise by interviewing and featuring bubblegum music duo to stay on the air.

8 min.
Director - Jonah Saesan
Illinois

Olivia and Sarah are hoping to make a routine stop to retrieve Sarah's favorite sweatshirt from her ex-boyfriend's house. But when Jeff shows no interest in complying with this reasonable request, they are forced to go head-to-head with the one of Chicago's most despicable exes. Jeff takes the sweatshirt as his hostage, leaving Olivia no choice but to negotiate the terms of the hoodie's release.

4 min.
Director - Leslie Alejandro

An over privileged 7 year old bites off more than she can chew when she devises a plan to deceive the Tooth Fairy.

12 min.
Director - Claude KONGS
Luxembourg

In the near future, on board a space mission representing humanity’s last stand, astronaut Lieutenant Schweiger discovers the terrible reason behind his unexpected awakening from cryosleep. He is forced to take decisions with serious consequences. Will he be a hero as the survival of the crew, the cargo and maybe the whole of mankind are at stake?

10 min.
Director - Matthew Brdlik

In the year 2084, a government agent chooses to go without his mandated phone. This begins to open his eyes, as he learns the consequences of speaking out, against the surveillance state he is living in.