Tuesday, November 19, 2024

SFTFF 2024 #3: Music and Animation

“Music and Animation” shorts program
Thursday, November 14, 2024, 9:00 pm Roxie
and streaming online Nov. 18 – 24

  • Fool’s Gold, dir. Che Ortiga, 2023 USA, 4½ minutes 👏
  • The Little Piratemaid, dir. Luke Beatrice, 2024 USA, 6 minutes 💖
  • Ether Or, dir. Zander Constien, 2023 USA, 9 minutes 🙂
  • Butch Dyke, dir. Cai Indermaur, 2024 USA, 4½ minutes 🙂
  • Your Part, dir. Nyah Edington, 2024 USA, 3 minutes 😀
  • Gemini, dir. Jamie Griffiths, 2024 USA, 6½ minutes 🙂
  • No More Longing, dir. Connor Lee O’Keefe, 2022 USA, 16 minutes 👏
  • Si estuvieras aqui [Wish You Were Here], dir. Isa Moreno, 2024 USA, 5 minutes 😐

Fool’s Gold
Fool’s Gold, dir. Che Ortiga, 2023 USA, 4½ minutes 👏

Music video with the Turnback Boyz, with Che Ortiga as “trans-vaquero” Oliver Gold. It’s cute and well done, and it’s wonderful to see country music pushing the boundaries. Plus the horse is nice. Highly recommended.

This film also appears in Program #1 “Locally Brewed.”

• no IMDb • Facebook/Instagram: @TurnbackBoyz • watch on FilmFreeway •
The Little Piratemaid, dir. Luke Beatrice, 2023, USA, 6 min. 💖

cartoon mermaid and pirate
The Little Piratemaid
A mermaid finds a young pirate washed up on a beach, and together they explore the possibilities of who they could become. It’s a play on the experience of discover­ing yourself as a trans person in a cis-normative world … full of pirates and mermaids. It’s a low-budget animated film, but beautifully drawn and well thought out, cute and sweet. MUST SEE.

A shorter version of this film appeared in Program 2 of SFTFF 2023.

• Instagram: @RenTheWarrior_Art • website: LukeBeatriceArt (contact Luke for a password to watch either the original 3-minute version or the new expanded version) •
Ether Or, dir. Zander Constien, 2023 USA, 9 minutes 🙂

Ether Or
Ether, an anxious non-binary person, navigates the surreal world of the grocery store; they can't cope with the societal expectations, and have a panic attack as they leave the store to cool down in the park.

I had never thought about the supermarket as a stressful environment for trans/non-binary people, but evidently it is for many, with the ever-present threat of being “read.” This student film takes us inside that experience. I’m not a big fan of the animation style, with every single line continuously jiggling, but it does convey the feeling of angst. Recommended.

• no IMDb • Instagram: @Zander.Constien •
Butch Dyke, dir. Cai Indermaur, 2024 USA, 4½ minutes 🙂

Butch Dyke
Music video by transgender darkwave and industrial artist A.S. Valentino. 

Transgender darkwave and industrial artist, A.S. Valentino's music video “Butch Dyke” hits hard with a dark and sexy swagger. The music video, shot and edited by videographer/creative producer Cai Indermaur, features a kaleidoscopic carousel of shots of various butch and masculine-of-center people. The track was recorded, produced, and mixed by Valentino and mastered by Jessica Thompson (Bay Area-based, GRAMMY-nominated mastering engineer).

Cai Indermaur is a musician, songwriter, visual artist, and storyteller residing in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.

Not my music style, but very well done. Recommended for butch dykes, their friends, and darkwave/industrial music fans.

This film also appears in Program #5, “Mélange of Shorts.”

• IMDb • Watch the video (YouTube) • Listen to the song (Bandcamp) (Spotify) (Boomplay) •
Your Part, dir. Nyah Edington, 2024 USA, 3 minutes 😀

Your Part
Official music video for “Your Part” by CJ Lawrence.

“Your Part is a strong condemnation of my extended family for not reaching out after my parents rejected me for being trans. It doesn’t mince words and gets real about the harms caused when well-meaning folks don’t stand up for oppressed people against the violent status quo. The music video was shot at a Catholic graveyard in Oakland, California.”

Well done, heartfelt song about playing your part in liberation or oppression. Recommended.

Update: you can now watch the full video on YouTube

Gemini, dir. Jamie Griffiths, 2024 USA, 6½ minutes 🙂

Gemini
Sarah and her two cats go about their separate lives. The cats have strange dreams about their desires, and Sarah develops an unshakable paranoia that something is wrong with them. Sarah's paranoia bleeds into her social life, and her two cats have their dreams come true. Could the cats be off on interdimensional adventures while the woman is away?

Cute, but I’m not a fan of the animation style. Recommended.

• Official website • Instagram/YouTube: @Jamie _ _ _ Steele (3 underscores) • Twitter/Instagram/vimeo: @jjampire •
No More Longing (Chega de saudade), dir. Connor Lee O’Keefe, 2022 USA, 16 minutes, in English and Portuguese, with English subtitles through most of it, and with Portuguese subtitles in large parts. Also appeared in Frameline 47, but the English subtitles have been augmented since then. 👏
musician sits on a tree stump in a park
No More Longing

Jaime Jobim, a transmasculine bossa nova musician, moved from Brazil to California seven years ago to pursue his love of music. Four years ago, he began his transition. Now he searches for his new (metaphorical) voice, as his (literal) voice has changed in the interim. No More Longing is a nice window into the life of an inter­est­ing artist following his dream. Highly recommended.

This film also appears in Program #1, “Locally Brewed,” and appeared in Frameline 47’s Homegrown: The Sun Tarot.

• still no IMDb • Official website • Instagram/vimeo: @ConnorLeeOK • preview • other •
Si estuvieras aqui [Wish You Were Here], dir. Isa Moreno, 2024 USA, 5 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles 😐

Wish You Were Here
[Si estuvieras aquí]
Far into outer space, a lonely cargo driver receives a letter from his estranged child, causing him to relive the memories of their relationship, both good and bad. 

I found it a bit difficult to track the story, and in fact would not have been able to tell you even the capsule synopsis above. Heartfelt and definitely not bad, but I can’t recommend it.

Here’s the longer description from the festival website: “An old cargo driver, named Papi, carries asteroid cargo deep outside our universe alongside his trusty sidekick, Pollito. One day, he receives space mail from someone from his past, causing the old man to panic. Intrigued, Pollito convinces Papi to share more about the curious mail which leads to a musical adventure into Papi's memories. Together, we discover Papi's emotional relationship to his child as well as his questionable treatment of them once he realized their true gender. Does this father still have time to redeem himself?”

• no IMDb • Facebook • Instagram: @WishUWereHere.Film •
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