Short Film Winner
"IN THEIR ABSENCE"
Drama - 8:20
It's 1945. Barbra arrives to a hall full of anxious women to deliver heartbreaking news to the woman she's fallen in love with during her husband's call to war.
Tina Cesa Ward is an award winning director of theatre and film. Her stage work earned her the Jean Dalrymple Award. Her previous film work has merited honors and various screenings in New York City. Currently, Tina is in development on her first feature film "A Minor Second".
Short Film Winner
"MONGREL'S GHOST"
Romantic Thriller - 15:00
Tom, a security guard at Riverdale Psychiatric Hospital, and Cassie, a lock-up patient, discover they have something quite dark in common. Based on experiences of one of the writers, who was a nurse/guard in the 1970s in the criminally insane ward of the psychiatric hospital where Mongrel's Ghost was filmed.
Kim has worked as an actor and filmmaker for 10 years. He has directed, produced and shot several long-form television documentaries, many shown internationally and winning a handful of awards. "Mongrel's Ghost" is his first funded drama; he's now raising finance for a feature developed with the Australian Film Commission.
Documentary Winners
"ORPHANS OF MATHARE"
61:00
Documents the lives of former street children - many orphaned by HIV/AIDS -- now living at the Good Samaritan Children's Home, an orphanage and school in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The film explores the complex relationship between poverty, violence, religion, disease, and the orphan crisis in Kenya.
Randy Bell and Pacho Velez are both recent graduates of Harvard University. Their previous films have screened at film festivals internationally, and have won awards from the New England Film Festival, the Cleveland Film Festival, and the Ivy Film Festival.