2015 UMFF short films

Universe Multicultural Film Festival--2015--Short
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 The 2015 Universe Multicultural Film Festival  short films (59 films from 24 countires)

     3 Russian Words (4 Min.Russia)
Director(s): Vladimir Rutman, Olga Henry
Producer(s): Vladimir Rutman, Olga Henry
Screenwriter(s): Vladimir Rutman
Genre: Short/Documentary
Synopsis: During a 2-week period in the USA, the filmmakers interviewed over 20 people that they met randomly. Almost all readily agreed to speak on camera 3 Russian words unknown to them
    5562 (2 Min.USA)
Director(s): Mehr Chatterjee
Music: Aditya Dutta
Genre: Short/Music/Experimental
Running Time (minutes): 2
Synopsis: This experimental music video explores a bizarre world and creates movement, as well as feeling, through color.
           
    A Piece of Green (6 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Kaori Iwase
Producer(s): Mitsuko Okamoto
Screenwriter(s): Kaori Iwase
Music: Noriko Matsumoto
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: Dwarfs in red, blue and green colors have been working in each dark cabinet in a factory called television. They have kept working without questioning their own identities. Midori, a green dwarf, becomes aware of himself and starts to work on his own creation…
    Alegria - A Humanitarian Expedition ( 29 Min.Switzerland)
Director(s): Christoph von Toggenburg
Producer(s): Christoph von Toggenburg
Genre: Short/Documentary
Synopsis: In 2010, Christoph cycled alone 3200km along the world’s highest tracks in support of leprosy patients and mentally destitute women in India. Crossing Nepal during the Maoist unrests, conflict stricken Kashmir, he encountered wonderful hospitality, found new friends, and saw some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes of this planet
           
    Ali's Letter (23 Min.India)
Director(s): Dhanvignesh Aamuri
Screenwriter(s): Gauri Shanker Govardhan Das Joshi
Cast: L B Sriram, Srikar, Rajesh
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: The movie chronicles the devastating impact of the 1948 riots on Muslims in and around Hyderabad, India.  It narrates the story of Ali who has been ostracized by the rest of the village based on his religion. Ali is waiting for a letter. The letter eventually arrives, but the clerk keeps the letter. What is this letter?
    Armé (4 Min.Sweden)
Director(s): Paul Jerndal
Producer(s): Paul Jerndal
Screenwriter(s): Paul Jerndal
Cast: Alina Devecerski
Genre: Short/Music
Synopsis: Armé is a music video to fight all the hate in this world with love. Eleven children create an army and do what they can to make this world a better place. They face hate with love by action.
           
    Beautiful (4 Min.Australia)
Director(s): Paul Komadina
Producer(s): Laure Bernard, Amanda Clarke
Genre: Short/Music
Synopsis: To watch this video is to come on a journey with me as I prevail over strict oppression. While writing the song required me to go to a dark, vulnerable place, the finished work itself is a beautiful voyage of healing towards optimism and self-belief. Nez Erok.
     Between the Lines (42 Min.Germany)
Director(s): Slavko Spionjak
Producer(s): Slavko Spionjak
Cast: Tobias Licht, Burak Akkoyun, Sanja H. Parmac
Genre: Short/Experimental/Political/18+
Synopsis: Two Soldiers are waking up in a room. Both are chained on feet and hands. They each lay exhausted on their sides after every battle. At one point both start to think: How did they get into the room? What sort of room is this? 
           
    Blue Eyes in Harbor Tale (8 min. Japan)
Director(s): Yuichi Ito
Producer(s): Yuichi Ito
Animator(s): Fumi Inoue
Cast: Maria Kawamura
Genre: Short/Animation/Fantasy
Synopsis: In a port town “Y”, where there are many old artifacts which are animated through a long time, a piece of brick lives as a pilot for the “guests” from overseas. One day, he meets a doll girl came out from a boat house on a river and their story begins.
    Busking in Thessaloniki (15 Min.Greece)
Director(s): Evripidis Tarasidis
Producer(s): Evripidis Tarasidis
Cast: Aida El Gkomati, Giannis Dimas, Elena Vontitsianou
Genre: Short/Documentary
Synopsis: In Greece, and especially in Thessaloniki, street musicians are considered as homeless people. This documentary tries to change the opinion for these very talented musicians who are still illegal..
           
    Can't Give Up on You (3 Min. Australia)
Director(s): Fiona Cochrane
Producer(s): Fiona Cochrane
Genre: Short/Music
Synopsis: 
This music video is about a band which returns to the psychedelia rock music because they just can’t give it up. 
    Carme's Angels  (14 Min.Spain)
Director(s): Students at State School Santa Teresa
Genre: Short/ Fantasy/Horror
Synopsis: The people of the Barrio del Carmen Valencia are terrified when a pigeon shits them and they become zombies who speak many languages 
           
    Chachi's Funeral (18,India)
Director(s): Bal Gaurav Dilip
Screenwriter(s): Ruskin Bond
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: This film is an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's short story. Aunt dies and comes to life again after 20 minutes Later. A restful little boy kills his Aunt, only to realize how much he loves her. The movie is based on the philosophy that anger is temporary insanity, while love is forever.
    D. Asian (10 Min.USA)
Director(s): Sarah Smith
Producer(s): Phillip Guttman; Sarah Smith
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: 4th grade is all about fitting in. For ten-year-old Daniel that means owning a latest in Hello Kitty fashion, liking the cutest boy in class, and convincing yourself if you are Asian when everyone else thinks your are white. Davis Desmond and sari Lennick ( a serious man) star in this short comedy that proves identity is all in the eye of the beholder.
           
    Daily Lives at Daisy Lodge (9 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Manami Wakai
Producer(s): Yuichi Ito
Screenwriter(s): Manami Wakai
Music: Kayoko NAOE
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama/Fantasy
Synopsis: The story of Bear, Acorn, Prawn Fritter, and Reading Glasses, or Specs who live in a flat called Daisy Lodge from summer to a winter morning. And it continues to someday when we look back today. 
    Do As the Fish Tells You (6 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Onohana
Producer(s): Taruto Fuyama
Screenwriter(s): Onohana
Music: Miki Sakurai
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama/Fantasy
Synopsis: "I want to leave home," a pet fish told a boy one day. The boy reluctantly takes the fish out to the sea to "keep his promise," as it says. Their recollections on the way became slightly discrepant.
           
    Doron Coron (3 Min. Japan)
Director(s): Yuichi Ito
Producer(s): Etsuko Iwata
Screenwriter(s): Yuichi Ito
Animator(s): Ikuko Iwatsuki, Mayuko Tazumi, Motoki Ohno Shin Hosokawa, Masato Hayafune
Cast: Yuichi Ito
Genre: Short/Animation/Adventure
Synopsis: Doron Coron is animated in an unexpected way with mud. He leaves the town, meets various kinds of creatures throughout the year, and communicates with them. And then, he returns to the soil eventually.
    Every Day is A Small Life (27 Min.France)
Director(s): Albane Fioretti, Lou-Brice Leonard
Producer(s): Claude Saint Brice, Lou-Brice Leonard
Cast: Kader Bouallaga, Thérèse Roussel, Albane Fioretti, Frank Ferrari
Genre: Short/Drama/Comedy/Family
Synopsis: Rachel 80-years-old woman, dreams of returning to her native Algeria. Her son Simon doesn’t want to know anything about it. Stella, her grand-daughter, describes them as “A really awful family”. Fortunately they are surrounded by the good humour of Yazid, alias Gino, and the entire neighborhood...
           
     Everyday Sins (8 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Yewon Kim
Producer(s): Koji Yamamura
Screenwriter(s): Yewon Kim
Music: Kaoru Kubota
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: Guiltee is an art university student who is slacking off on her school work and feels horrible about it. Plus, she's confused about her family and Christianity, and she can't even get her ex-boyfriend to accept a small present she bought for him.
    Garden's Road (5 Min. Spain)
Director(s): Olga Osorio, Juan Galiñanes
Producer(s): Olga Osorio, Juan Galiñanes
Cast: Escuchando Elefantes
Genre: Short/Music/Fantasy
Synopsis: How many times you have to cross the door of the same room to realize everything you need to leave behind to move forward? Carlos Tajes and Silvia Rábade (Escuchando Elefantes) lead us through the garden’s road in this video full of fantasy and optimism directed by Juan Galiñanes & Olga Osorio.
           
   

Growth Factor (7 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Ryosuke Oshiro
Producer(s): Mitsuko Okamoto
Screenwriter(s): Ryosuke Oshiro
Music: Ayatake Ezaki
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: A middle school boy likes to snap photos of things he fancies, and then draws pictures of them. On his usual route home, he spots the girl he likes with another boy. The balance between his delusions and reality is in constant flux.

     Harbor Tale (18 Min. Japan)
Director(s): Yuichi Ito
Producer(s): Yuichi Ito
Screenwriter(s): Yuichi Ito
Animator(s): Fumi Inoue, Masato Hayafune
Cast: George William, Yuichi Ito
Genre: Short/Animation/Fantasy
Synopsis: A red brick which is a piece of a brick-buit building has watched the changing times of the Harbor for a hundred years. He also has seen “the glittering square thing” from there. One day, he gets out of the building wall to find it.
           
   

Have You Met Miss Jones (30 Min.USA)
Director(s): Tom Shell, James Di Giacomo
Screenwriter(s): James Di Giacomo, David Mattia
Genre: Short/TV Episode/Drama/Comedy
Synopsis: "Widow" ANGELINA JONES, works as a fame-struck Hollywood gossip reporter hell bent on finding a father figure for her teenage son JOE. But Angelina is really Joe's father, who lost his mind after the mysterious disappearance of his wife.

    Head-to-Head (14 Min. France)
Director(s): Lisa Reznik
Producer(s): Anna Prichard
Screenwriter(s): Lisa Reznik
Cast: Marie-Stephane Cattaneo, Baptiste Philippe
Genre: Short/Drama/Romance
Synopsis: Shot on location in Paris, this film is an illuminating portrayal of the intellectual connection between existentialist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre and their vow of essential love.
           
     I Know You (9 Min.UK)
Director(s): Colin Gerrard
Producer(s): Colin Gerrard
Screenwriter(s): Colin Gerrard
Cast: Colin Gerrard
Genre: Short/Fiction
Synopsis: This short film does not push the envelope of cult personality and distortion of media; neither does it break the bonds of false exaggeration. Rather it enfolds it. It's a game of confidence. 
     Letterbox (23 Min.UK)
Director(s): Annabel Allison
Producer(s): Yasmin Khan-Cheema
Cast: Flora Bruce, Yasmin Khan-Cheema
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: Letterbox is the story of Imani, a second generation Muslim girl from Bradford, who lives for her music. When her mother finds her and her brothers’ tickets to Glastonbury Festival, she rips them up, saying the only way she would be going to Glastonbury is in a Burka.
           
    Look No More (12 Min.USA)
Director(s): Gloria Laino
Producer(s): Gloria Laino, Sheila Korsi
Screenwriter(s): Gloria Laino
Cast: Jonathan Kelley, Edwin Craig, Sheila Korsi, Gloria Laino, Alex Bulger, Marc Martin Flores
Genre: Short/Comedy
Synopsis: Two desperately lonely old guys find their perfect sidekicks where they’d never looked before, and it was way easier than they thought.
     Masheenee Alcketiara (5 Min.Kuwait)
Director(s): Ema Shah
Producer(s): Ema Shah
Screenwriter(s): Ema Shah, Adnan Al Sharhan
Cast: Ema Shah, Hassan Karam, Abdullah, Hussain Ali, Dax
Genre: Short/Music
Synopsis: A traditional Kuwaiti girl seeks life beyond her society to achieve her ambitions and dreams in the modern era, to sing, to dance, and to flourish. We don't know for sure if it's a  dream or reality.
           
    Me Buddy, Muhammad (13 Min.Ireland)
Director(s): Eleanor Walsh
Producer(s): Louise Byrne
Screenwriter(s): Eleanor Walsh
Cast: Rúairí Ó Tóibín
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: Me Buddy, Muhammad tells the story of two young boys living in Dublin. Though their religious backgrounds and cultures differ, their idea of friendship remains the same.
     Milk Teeth (10 Min. Austria)
Director(s): Peter Brunner
Producer(s): Matthias Halibrand
Screenwriter(s): Peter Brunner
Cast: Grischa Sauer, Nando Musser, Nuria Musser, Birgit Sauer
Genre: Short/Drama/Family
Synopsis: Grisha decides that it's time to leave home. Having to fill the gap his father left is just too much for him to handle. While his little brother is not able to stop him, his mother knows just the right thing to do. After all, Grisha is just a 4 year old little boy.
           
     My Frame (8 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Yewon Kim
Producer(s): Koji Yamamura
Screenwriter(s): Yewon Kim
Music: Kaoru KUBOTA
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: Suffering from her delusion, K tries to depict her disorder in her paintings. In her dream she finds a frame, which makes her believe that drawing is her destiny..
    My Milk Cup Cow (12 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Yantong Zhu
Producer(s): Koji Yamamura
Screenwriter(s): Yantong Zhu
Music: Asuka Horiguchi
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: Father tells his 4-year-old daughter Nunu that there's a cow at the bottom of her milk cup. Nunu believes him and drinks all of her milk, but there is no cow. Nunu gradually stops believing her father, who constantly tells her various lies.
           
    Not Anymore: A Story of Revolution (15 Min.US)
Director(s): Matthew VanDyke
Producer(s): Matthew VanDyke
Screenwriter(s): Matthew VanDyke
Cast: Nour Kelze, Omar Hattab
Genre: Short/Documentary
Synopsis: The story of the Syrian revolution as told through the experiences of two young Syrians, a male rebel fighter and a female journalist, as they fight an oppressive regime for the freedom of their people.
     Pearl Harbor: December 7 (2 Min. USA)
Director(s): Marianne Case
Producer(s): Marianne Case, Darin Case
Screenwriter(s): Marianne Case
Genre: Short/Music/Documentary/Historical
Synopsis: This is an emotional black and white montage film depicting the time period immediately prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the actual attack and its aftermath. This short film essay displays the chaos and damage of the attack in a graphic nature and the aftermath with the few survivors of the day.
           
    Plastic Glory (7 Min.USA)
Director(s): Ihab Mardini
Producer(s): Ihab Mardini
Screenwriter(s): Ihab Mardini
Genre: Short/Animation/Fantasy
Synopsis: It's just a game, and they are the toys... It is a journey into the life span of toy soldiers with an abstract reflection of reality
    Playground (6 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Ryosuke Oshiro
Producer(s): Mitsuko Okamoto
Screenwriter(s): Ryosuke Oshiro
Music: Juri Ito
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama
Synopsis: A boy is always alone, at school, or at home. One day he finds a sandlot on the way home and thinks of making a "town" of his own. Another boy was watching his play and starts to imitate him..
           
    Praanam (22 Min.India)
Director(s): Hari Mrutyumjaya
Screenwriter(s): Endamuri Veerendranath
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: The film is based on Endamuri Veerendranath’s play. Kukka explores the clash between the strata of society. It highlights the exploitation of the peasantry at the hands of the rich landlords.
    Re÷belief (7 Min.USA)
Director(s): Raymond McCarthy Bergeron
Music: Stephen J. Bullen
Genre: Short/Animation
Synopsis: "re÷belief" is a 3D Printed, hand crafted, zoetropic short-film that asks if recalling memories can break a cycle.
           
    Rice Wine (20 Min.China)
Director(s): Tian Ye
Producer(s): Ping Jiang
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: An impoverished Chinese street peddler on his last leg takes a stand against the City Peacekeepers whose job it is to rid the city of unlicensed vendors.
    Rise (15 Min.UAE)
Director(s): Ali F. Mostafa
Producer(s): Yassin Alsalman 
Screenwriter(s): The Narcicyst, Nizar Wattad
Cast: Yassin Alsalman, Falah Alsalman, Saood Al-Kaabi, Sundus Abdul Hadi, Diala Makki
Genre: Short/Music/Experimental
Synopsis: RISE is a short music film based on the Narcicysts’ upcoming solo album. It is a reflection on Modern Arabia and the relationship between business and art.
           
     Rock is Not an Attitude (6 Min.USA)
Director(s): Xiaoxiao Tang
Producer(s): HUGG
Animator(s): Xiaoxiao Tang
Music: The Gar
Genre: Short/Animation/Stop-Motion/Mixed Media
Synopsis: Four puppeted characters form a happy rock band. Through an interview, there are some flashbacks about what they're doing before this band. Life is short. The band needs to destroy their past before they really build something new. Rock is not only an attitude.
    Run Crab Run! (6 Min.USA)
Director(s): Wei Lu
Producer(s): Wei Lu
Screenwriter(s): Wei Lu
Music: Aaron Kenny 
Genre: Short/Animation/Adventure
Synopsis: Rub Crab Run follows a duo of crabs as they try to escape their fate in the cruise ship's kitchen and their journey towards the ocean.
           
    Something Important (8 Min.USA)
Director(s): NaiWei Liu
Producer(s): NaiWei Liu
Music: Chris Zabriskie, Saito Koji
Genre: Short/Animation
Synopsis: Liu uses an abstract montage style that combines hand-drawn elements with composited photo realistic scenes in tandem with music to express his life experiences filtered through time and remembrance.
    Start A Revolution (4 Min. New Zealand)
Director(s): Dimi Nakov
Producer(s): Dimi Nakov
Cast: Jennie Skulander, Paul Martin, Nail, Nic Martin
Genre: Short/ Music/Fiction
Synopsis: The lyrics are calling for our society to wake up from its mediocre illusion so called life and brake away from the chains of its pitiful existence confined by greed, materialism and hunger for power and control.
           
    Tell Me (5 Min.Slovenia)
Director(s): Domen Lo
Cast: Jure Lesar, Bogdan Sojic
Genre: Short/Animation/Music/Fantasy
Synopsis: Tell Me is an animated love story, set on a surreal train ride. Its purpose was to explore and document the traditional animation techniques that make a digital end-to-end animated film verisimilar - combining principles of composition, narrative, storyboarding, editing, animation, and film aesthetics into one complete whole. ..
    The 40 Martyr of Famagusta (8 Min.Singapore)
Director(s): Jamin Wu
Screenwriter(s): Gul Inanc, Jamin Wu
Cast: Michael Walsh, Gul Inanc, Shashwat Manish
Genre: Short/Animation/Historical
Synopsis:. Boy's father tells him the story of the painting, which is "the forty martyrs of Sebaste", but was disappointed and troubled by the sad story. At night, his mother tells him the same story with a happy ending.
           
    The Beggar (4 Min.Iran)
Director(s): Mohammad Reza Gholami
Producer(s): Gholami
Screenwriter(s): Gholami Saadatmand
Genre: Short/Animation/Comedy
Synopsis: The story of two beggars who will do whatever to get money...
    The Emotional Dimensions of the James River (4 Min. USA)
Director(s): Michelle Marquez
Producer(s): Michelle Marquez
Music: Lincoln Mitchell
Genre: Short/Experimental/Music
Synopsis: This experimental film provides an emotional roller coaster experience that was musically and visually designed based on a neuroscience research project that correlates a mathematical parameter (fractal dimension) of sounds and images with the selective triggering of emotional states
           
    The Man from Jalisco (24 Min.USA)
Director(s): Ryan Brandt
Cast: Genaro Rascon Jr., Luis Medina, Julieta Ortiz, David Villada, Ed Callison, Amelia Rose
Genre: Short/Drama/Suspense
Synopsis: A ghostwriter discovers secret information about a drug cartel wanting to get their hands on California's water by dealing with corrupted farmers who want to fallow their land. However, little does the Man From Jalisco know that his days are numbered. It is up to his father to find out what has happened to his son and if it's not too late to save him
    The Urban World (41 Min. USA)
Director(s): Warren Bass
Producer(s): Warren Bass, Zilan Munas, Howard Spodek
Screenwriter(s): Warren Bass
Genre: Short/Documentary
Synopsis: The India’s fifth largest city is displacing tens of thousands of slum dwellers who have lived all their lives on the banks of the Sabarmati River. The film looks at the move in human terms by following the experiences of one particular family.

           
    The Violinist (9 Min. USA)
Director(s): Suren Tadevosyan
Producer(s): Margarita Khlghatyan
Music: Margarita Khlghatyan
Cast: Vaz Andreas
Genre: Short/Music/Drama
Synopsis: This music video tells an inspiring story of a homeless but talented violinist whose performance on the street is preciated by a kind lady.
    To the Sea (9 Min.Brazil)
Director(s): Alex Araripe
Producer(s): Alex Araripe
Genre: Short/Music
Synopsis: On a desert beach, a woman wandering her desires and thinking about the sea. Suddenly she hears a song. She has her way interrupted and is submitted to the strength of her fate. Film inspired on the music Ao Mar by Sergio Roberto de Oliveira.
           
    Visibility (4 Min.Russia)
Director(s): Vladimir Rutman
Producer(s): Vladimir Rutman
Cast: Vladimir Rutman, Renata Svilayte
Genre: Short/Drama
Synopsis: This is about one woman, one man, one strange country and 3D glasses. They met on the empty beach and talked with each other about their impressions about India.
     Way Back to the Sea (10 Min.Japan)
Director(s): Kaori Iwase
Producer(s): Mitsuko Okamoto
Screenwriter(s): Kaori Iwase
Music: Kaoru Kubota
Genre: Short/Animation/Drama/Fantasy
Synopsis: The catfish can't get back to the sea. A big catfish is stuck on a riverbank, where he lives quietly with a little catfish in a boat packed with memories from back home.
           
  Yokohama Tale (3 Min. Japan)
Director(s): Yuichi Ito
Producer(s): Yuichi Ito
Screenwriter(s): Yuichi Ito
Animator(s): Yuichi Ito
Genre: Short/Animation
Synopsis: This film is collaboration by three artists who love the port town “Yokohama” in Japan. There are three parts in the film, which are “Chat”, “Once Upon A Time in Red Brick
Warehouse”, and “The White Seamew”.