SFTFF 2024 #5: Mélange of Shorts

“Mélange of Shorts” shorts program
Friday, November 15, 2024, 9:00 pm, Roxie Theater
and streaming online Nov. 18 – 24

• one | another, dir. A.B. Oddman & Rogelio Salinas, 2024 USA, 11 minutes 👏
• Body Varial, dir. Audrey Kerridge, 2023 Canada, 15 minutes 👏🛹
• The Treadmill Switcher, dir. LeeAnne Lowry, 2023 USA, 7 minutes 👏
• All the Words But the One, dir. Nava Mau, 2024 USA, 18 minutes 👏
• Love More, dir. Hayden J Frederick, 2020 USA, 4 minutes 👏
• Saturn Risin9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 11 minutes 👏
• Butch Dyke, dir. Cai Indermaur, 2024 USA, 4½ minutes 🙂
• Falling, dir. Mers Tran, 2020 USA, 4 minutes 👏

one | another, dir. A.B. Oddman & Rogelio Salinas, 2024 USA, 11 minutes 

• 🌉 San Francisco premiere 👏

one | another

As personal and societal pressures accumulate, a nonbinary model and musician find refuge in one another at a house party.

one | another follows an evening in Los Angeles where Violet, a musician, and Frankie, a model, meet for the first time at a house show. With both of them struggling to balance their non-binary identities with the expectations of their friends, families, and careers, the two find comfort in their shared experiences as the night goes on.

A small and simple story, but with multi-layered characters feeling their way through a complex emotional environment. Beautiful and sweet, highly recommended.

• IMDb • Instagram: @RogelioCine •

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Body Varial, dir. Audrey Kerridge, 2023 Canada, 15 minutes 👏🛹

Body Varial

After recently undergoing top surgery, a transmasculine person tries to reintegrate themself back into their daily life. Throughout their recovery, they discover newfound struggles both physically and mentally in life post-operation.

In a series of vignettes, a young transmasculine adult named Remy goes about their daily life while recovering from top surgery. Afraid of judgement from others, they often have a hard time opening up about themself and being honest as to why they are really “injured.” This leads to Remy feeling isolated around various people in their life, be it their mom, Lynn, or a random person at the skatepark. However, the one person Remy can always count on is their roommate Will, who supports Remy on their journey without judgement. Throughout the film, Remy goes through many ups and downs, as they slowly begin feeling more confident in their body. This is only just the beginning of Remy’s journey.

It’s a well made story, and I’m a sucker for anything to do with skateboards 🛹 so definitely highly recommended.

• IMDb • Instagram: _dang.com_ •

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The Treadmill Switcher, dir. LeeAnne Lowry, 2023 USA, 7 minutes 👏

The Treadmill Switcher

The Treadmill Switcher is a comedy set in modern day Columbia, MO. A woman who walks on the same treadmill every day is fascinated by a person (who may be a child, or may be a lesbian) with a unique workout routine. They get on the treadmill, set it to 6.7 miles-per-hour, and run for exactly 30 minutes. Then they leave. When that person switches treadmills and runs directly next to the woman, she begins questioning their destiny in her life and the monotony of her own routine. She fantasizes about their life together, which looks entirely different depending on if this person is a child or a lesbian. She tries to investigate, but when she doesn’t achieve results she turns her own treadmill up to 6.7 and reaps the consequences. 

Mostly the main character is speaking through the fourth wall, voicing her inner thoughts and confusion about someone she can’t stop wondering about. Silly, sweet, fun. Highly recommended. 

• IMDb • Official website • Instagram: @PapaSquatProductions • preview •

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All the Words But the One, dir. Nava Mau, 2024 USA, 18 minutes 👏

All the Words
But the One

Maya and Santiago haven’t seen each other since their explosive relationship ended years ago, so neither is expecting to be seated across from each other at a professional dinner with their new partners. Maya teeters through a minefield of delicate dynamics as she relives her most painful and electric memories. Fighting dissociation and embodied trauma, she must stay focused on showing up for her partner, Jio. As both couples contend with their realities, the past and present collide and Maya faces Santiago at last.

The story has many layers, some of them deeply disturbing, but it’s well crafted and emotionally authentic. Highly recommended.

• IMDb • preview (vimeo) • Instagram: @AllTheWordsFilm • Twitter: @NavaMau • Facebook: @MsNavaMau • crowdfunding •

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Love More, dir. Hayden J Frederick, 2020 USA, 4 minutes 👏 
• 🌊 West Coast premiere

Love and loss and everything in between.

Love More

Filmmaker’s description: This is a film that dives into the depths of darkness. I created this during a time where I felt imprisoned in both my body and mind. Unknowing of how to navigate a long journey of addiction recovery and just beginning my transition. It was a darkness I had not known before. No light at the the end of the tunnel. I was just discovering the ways to break through barriers that had kept me from the world my entire life. 

This is a song that found its way into my orbit at a time when I needed it most, written and sung by one of my favorite artists, Sharon Van Etten. I found solace in this song. A shift in my nervous system when I would listen. Music is a language and I was hearing my experience echoed back to me. I don't always believe in the promise of happy endings or tying things up with pretty bows. But I do believe there is light to be found and witnessed when we can stop. When we can be still. When we can listen. It's there. 

I have learned to embrace the darkness inside of me and honor the parts of my life that it holds. There is no light without darkness. There is no recognition of great love without loss. It all makes me love. It all makes me love more. Love better, love kinder, love softer, love infinitely. Love is at the center of it all. Love is freedom.

My reaction: It’s a beautiful bit of emotionally expressive dance. Highly recommended.

• IMDb (?) • Instagram: @HaydenJFrederick • watch on YouTube •

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Saturn Risin9, dir. Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater, 2024 USA, 10 minutes 👏

Saturn Risin9

Program description: “Queer performance artist and musician Saturn Risin9 returns home to the Bay Area to share their journey of perseverance centering self discovery, healing and creative expansion poetically told through dance, visual narrative, performance, and documentary.”

In a poetic mix of dance, visual narrative, and documentary, Saturn Risin9 follows queer performance artist Saturn on their return home to the Bay Area. We follow their journey of perseverance centering self discovery, affirmation, healing and creative expansion poetically told through fantastical imagery. Using diary style interviews and talk-alongs intercut with high fantasy staged performance, the film portrays Saturn’s creative transformation through their dreams, trials, career and progression. 

The film begins and ends adjacent to one of the most toxic Superfund Sites in the city, Hunter’s Point Shipyard. The nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean after WWII which sickened populations there, were linked to the ships that came back to Hunter’s Point with radioactive debris - the toxic radiation washed into the water and soil. Saturn's journey through this space extends to their own personal struggles, paralleled with environmental and water issues that continue to this day. 

Saturn speaks to their own journey of transformation, healing with community, and finding space to thrive at the edges. This film highlights Saturn both as a storyteller in many different forms (word, dance, music) and as a protagonist through a character driven story of perseverance. Saturn Risin9 as a film exists as a byproduct of love, trust, and the determination to realize dreams, intended to be a never-ending well of visual and lyrical affirmations.

My thoughts: You can lose yourself in the voiceover or lose yourself in the visuals, or bettter yet let both flow over and through you. Highly recommended.

This film also appears in Program #1, “Locally Brewed,” and appeared in Frameline 48’s “Across Time & Space: Black Queer Stories” shorts program.

• IMDb [Ribeaux] [Stillwater] • Official website • Filmmaker • Twitter • Instagram • Facebook • preview (vimeo) • YouTube channel • Saturn Rising

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Butch Dyke, dir. Cai Indermaur, 2024 USA, 4½ minutes 🙂

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

Butch Dyke

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 #3, “Music and Animation.”

• IMDb • Watch the video (YouTube) • Listen to the song (Bandcamp) (Spotify) (Boomplay) •

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Falling, dir. Mers Tran, 2020 USA, 4 minutes 👏

A visual dance interpretation of nenci’s song “Falling” off of her debut EP, Tomorrow, for Sure.

Falling

Falling, a dance visual by Mers Tran, is a movement visual that captures the intoxicating blend of uncertainty, vertigo, and the thrill of new love. Through Old Way Vogue-inspired movements set against rolling foothill landscapes and towering ancient trees, the film explores the disorienting emotions of falling into a connection that feels both exhilarating and precarious.

Beautiful dance short, by a trained environmental chemist! Highly recommended.

• no IMDb [multiple similar titles] • Instagram: @Mers.AKA.Birthday •

Melange of Shorts