2018 UMFF Student Films

MAYDELEH AND THE PRISONER USA | 27 min Short | Student | Drama Director/Writer Maya Ben Yair Cast NamiPaix, Milt Kogan, Stewart J. Zully As a result of an injury that puts him in a wheelchair, an elderly Holocaust survivor must now learn to trust a non-Jewish caregiver who has no prior knowledge of the Holocaust and its prolonged trauma.     MOVEMENT USA | 3 min Short | Student | Music Video | Documentary Director/Writer/Producer Cady Mariano This music video tells people to enjoy each step along the way.                 MUÑECAS USA | 25 min Short | Student | Drama Director/Writer OsvaldoOzuna Producers Jacob Chacko, Juan Felipe Zuleta Cast Alexis Cervantes, Alexander Villaseñor, Conner Taylor, Amy Sloan, Daniel Mora Teenagers Pablo and Ray are best friends, despite living on opposite sides of the US/Mexican border. Both were born into a life of drug smuggling and are now the two sides of weekly transactions. Inevitably, a deal goes wrong and Pablo must face the horrors of the melting pot culture that rejects who he is…     PELO FUERTE Cuba | 9 min Short | Student | Documentary Director/Editor VictoriaGuillem Through acknowledging that hair and beauty standards are affected by old traditions of racism and oppression, young girls and boys of color are encouraged to embrace their natural appearance and not over exert themselves trying to be something they are not.                 SAND DIARY Brazil | 7 min Short | Student │ Animation Directors Isadora Morales Chaves , Sarah Carvalho Guedes Cast Silvia Goiabeira, Ítalo Mendes, Sarah Carvalho Guedes Erin is a 15 years old girl who has been chosen to be the Guardian of the Nightmares. Her mission is to purify the nightmares that escaped to the human world and thus protect the humanity from its deepest fears, day and night, without respite!     SOMEWHERE IN CHAOS USA | 7 min Short | Student | Drama | Romance Director/Writer Amy B TiongProducers Amy B Tiong, Meline Rosales Cast Lydia Jordan, Tim Torre Two high school students from the 1950s think they know what love is, but it takes unexpected heartbreak in their school auditorium for them to confront the boundaries of their own youthful “love”.                 THE GIRL IN THE BLUE BRA USA | 13 min Short | Student │ Drama │Crime Director/Writer AyeshaAbouelazmProducer Luwen Shao CastJehan Ibrahim, Salam Hemaea In the midst of the 2011 Egyptian protests, a sheltered young woman is forced out of her comfort zone and into the increasingly hostile streets of revolutionary Cairo.     THE LITTLE DICTATOR Israel | 29 min Short | Student | Family | Comedy | Drama Director Nurith Cohn Writer Emanuel Cohn Cast Emanuel Cohn, MeniFlorentin, Ruth Geller Professor Yossi Kleinmann, a religious Jew, gets stuck with a calamitous moustache at the 90th birthday party of his wife's grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. The rest is history.                   THE ORANGE CRAYON USA | 4 min Short | Student | Animation Director/Writer/Producer/Animator Eric Hug Late at night on a table, a box of crayons spills over and the crayons come to life…     TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT USA | 25 min Short | Student | Documentary Director/Writer Dev Banerji Producers Dev Banerji, Charles Musser Cast Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, Tammy Kane, Ria & Nina Krishna Why do people choose to have children? Or choose to not have children? The filmmaker goes on a personal quest and talks to friends, family and others to discover what it's like to be a parent, what it's like to be childfree, and which choice is right for himself.