A Standing Still is the second feature film from Scott Ballard Films. It revolves around a young woman, Allison, as she struggles with the future in the midst of loss and displacement. Allison works as a fire lookout in the Willamette National Forest. When she is called down early for a medical emergency with her father, she is forced to face the dynamics that have led her to lead such a recluse existence. The film is shot on three formats, one for each act of the film: Super 16mm, HD, and 35mm.
Runtime
01:45:00
Country of Production
USA
Submitted by
John Burgess
Synopsis
Molly Mahoney (Aubrey Dollar) is flying home to Chicago for her mom’s wedding and bringing a ‘Mystery Man’ home to meet her family. When she discovers this Mystery Man has a Mystery Wife, she dumps him at the curbside check-in. She ends up crying on the shoulder of childhood friend Josh Shiffman (Shane McRae), who is flying home for the same wedding. Emotionally drained, Molly passes out in Josh’s arms just as he gets a phone call from his parents. Josh learns that his father is dying and his only regret is that he will not get to meet the woman who will one day become his son’s wife. Desperate to fulfill his dad’s final wish, Josh claims that his dad has already met that woman his close childhood and family friend: Molly Mahoney. When Josh sheepishly confesses his ruse in mid-flight Molly is furious, making him promise to right the wrong the moment they land. Only when they arrive – it’s too late! Word has leaked out and they are swarmed at the airport by BOTH FAMILIES with well wishes and congratulatory banners. Josh convinces Molly to play his fiance by using a deadly combination her Catholic guilt and his Playboy charm. But as they plan their phony wedding the two of them start to fall in love for real. This turns their dating lives, and family’s interactions hilariously upside down tugging on every heartstring in the process.
Runtime
01:15:00
Country of Production
United Kingdom
Submitted by
Rebecca Kenyon
Synopsis
For some, the coastal city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a tourist playground. Beneath the surface however, is a rapidly increasing demand for resources available to those affected by poverty. The face of homelessness is changing rapidly. Former business owner Vince has slept under a stairwell in a parking garage for the past year. Currently sober, he’s determined to turn his life around. After aging out of foster care, Jerome followed in his mother’s footsteps by setting up a tent under a bridge, from which to attend college and perform as a female impersonator. Melody is an educated ex-Marine, who lost her local government job and now fights imminent foreclosure. In desperation, she considers sending away her two sons. Karen and feisty daughter Chemaiyah escaped domestic violence to move between church shelters every week, swallowing pride when belittled by the organizers. Meeting through common goals, we observe the lives of our characters organically interweave. They cast their votes but what can a new term in office really change? As the tough holiday season approaches, tensions and hopes run high. Several months later, has anyone found a solution to their predicament and is it sustainable? What does this growing trend mean for Middle America? Some make the transition to the fragile stability of employment and housing; others fall deeper through the cracks. With touches of dark humour and an intimate, honest style, “Something You Can Call Home” freshly explores what’s essential for physical and emotional survival, and evokes dialog long afterwards.
Category
documentary feature
Runtime
01:34:45
Country of Production
USA
Submitted by
John Coffill
Synopsis
“Healing Magdalene” is a feature film about female genital mutilation (FGM). Female genital mutilation is predominantly practiced throughout Eastern, Central and Western Africa, and also extends to the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, some occupied Palestinian territories, and certain immigrant communities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States of America. Over 130 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM. The story behind “Healing Magdalene” begins in Houston, Texas where Donna L. Valverde, writer and director of the film, learned about FGM from Magdalene, her father’s healthcare provider. Donna’s father had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, hospice was called in as well as round-the-clock care. Magdalene worked long, twelve hour shifts, compassionately providing care for Donna’s dying father. Magdalene and Donna Valverde became close during those intense days and nights. This 96 minute film is intended to generate global awareness about the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in an effort to evoke universal change. The film challenges the viewer to ask whether or not our lives are truly significant and whether or not our actions truly do make a difference. One candle will light a dark space; a multitude will turn darkness to light.
Category
documentary feature
Runtime
00:59:00
Country of Production
Ghana
Submitted by
Alan Thompson
Synopsis
We Stand Alone is a feature-length documentary that follows the Liberian national amputee soccer team from their homes in Monrovia to their championship bid at the 2011 CANAF Cup in Accra, Ghana. The film chronicles the daily struggles and triumphs of these players as they try to prove that they can still bring pride to themselves and to their nation, even after the civil war has drastically altered relationships across the country. By working together, these ex-fighters and casualties of war will overcome the pain of their past and use amputee soccer as a means to improve the future.
Category
documentary feature
Runtime
78 minutes
Country of Production
USA
Synopsis
Amid the bustling world of Central Oregon’s wild mushroom hunting camps, the lives of two former soldiers intersect. Rodger a 75 year old sniper with the US special forces in Vietnam, and Kouy a 46 year old platoon leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Freedom Fighters who battled the brutal Khmer Rouge, come together each fall to hunt the elusive matsutake mushroom, a rare mushroom prized in the Japanese culture and cuisine. However the pair discovers more than just mushrooms in the woods, they find a new life and livelihood and a means to heal the scarring wounds of war. Told over the course of one matsutake mushroom season; The Last Season is a journey into the woods, into the memory of war and survival, telling the story of family from and unexpected hidden place.
Category
feature documentary
Country of Production
USA
Runtime
01:03:50
Submitted by
Bryce Newell
Synopsis
For centuries, survival in the unforgiving deserts of the American Southwest has hinged on one’s ability to locate natural cavities or wind-carved cisterns in rocks called tinajas (tee-NAH-hahs). Capturing rain during rare desert storms, these catch-basins are often only inches across, centimeters deep, and teeming with insects and their larvae and are precious, lifesaving treasures to desert-dwelling animals and desert-traversing humans. It seems reproachfully paradoxical, then, that this region would today host the primary trail of hope for thousands of people seeking gainful work and the promise of a brighter future. It’s a desperate journey, one that has cost the lives, and ended the hopes of hundreds of people per year since 1999. It is likewise a politically supercharged arena; a legal, moral and political maelstrom poised like a flame near a tinderbox of sentiment. For years, volunteers have dropped water and aid containers along popular routes of migration and have searched the desert for dying immigrants. In one case, the Transborder Immigrant Tool presents itself as a technological tinaja: an art project that promises to guide migrants to caches of water placed along migratory trails. To some, these are selfless and inspirational efforts that give new and poignant context to the phrase “the Art of Survival.” To others, such action irresponsibly induces illegal border crossing, tantamount to aiding and abetting unlawful conduct. From the perspectives of both the undocumented migrants and the aid-givers, the Art of Survival provides a compelling tale of life and death on the Tinaja Trail.
Category
documentary feature
Country of Production
USA
Runtime
01:23:00
Submitted by
Geeta V. Patel
Synopsis
MEET THE PATELS is a laugh-out-loud real life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost-30- year-old Indian-American man who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams … and his family. Filmed by Ravi’s older sister, in what started as a family vacation video, this hilarious and often heartbreaking film is a tribute to the aches, the sacrifices, and the overwhelming awesomeness that comes with being in love. In this case, love is a family affair. Directed by siblings Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel, MEET THE PATELS had a sold-out world premiere at Hot Docs and won an Audience Award. Fresh out of a break-up and freaked out that he’s almost 30 and single, Ravi Patel goes on a family vacation to India with his head spinning. Ravi is desperate to find love and is willing to do whatever it takes. Ravi turns to his parents for help they send him on a whirlwind of dates around the country through an Indian matchmaking system called Biodating. You see, Patels marry Patels, and this is the system that’s used all over the world to help people do it. What Ravi has not told his parents is that he just got out of a two-year relationship with a “white girl.” Now the only thing between Ravi and his perfect Indian wife is a redhead from Connecticut named Audrey. Meet the Patels speaks to anyone who wants love, is in love, or wants to hold on to the love they have.
Category
documentary feature
