AFI FEST 2017: Short Films

A jury of 12 from all walks of life come together to deliberate one of the biggest cases in Boston history.

Laëtitia, Roca, Nico and Naël are in a band. As usual, they meet late afternoon before rehearsal in a vacant lot. The group will soon no longer exist; they will be forced to disband because Laetitia is moving away to study. This is the story of four young adults who do not want to say good-bye.

The old boy, who is dissatisfied with their appearance and hereditary, decides to end his life. But his failed suicide creates a new situation in his life.

The city of Cleveland was abuzz on September 27, 1986. Over 1.5 million balloons were about to be released at once, breaking the world record. What could go wrong?

A dark musical enacted in a market place, situated next to a freeway. The employees of the various commercial venues deal with boredom and existential anxiety by performing cheerful musical turns. The apocalypse is a tempting liberator.

A young boy dreams of a moon-rocket and space travel.

Yiwu International Trade City is the world's largest market, selling cheap goods wholesale in a city south of Shanghai. The fake flowers, toys, pens and alarm clocks traded in Yiwu eventually end up in dollar stores across the planet, but I focus on the people who sell these goods that we take for granted. As a character study of the market itself, the film peers into the lives of those who run this global trade. The sellers, full of life and individuality, live against the uniformly oppressive backdrop of their livelihood. A somber man painstakingly counts tiny metal parts on his desk in a pen shop. A business lady sweet talks one of her customers, peppering him with insults and compliments, but in between the buying and selling, vendors all find different ways to pass the time in this gigantic mall. A mother yells at a group of young boys, berating them for losing a toy. A man in a suit hums along to a haunting song waiting for a customer as the clocks he is selling tick away. Two young siblings play a video game while lazily eating KFC from the bucket, licking their fingers. While these stories seem small and insignificant, in the context of the film, the dialogue and actions take on new weight and meaning, elevating the quotidian to a realm of discovery.

This is the story of Copa-Loca, an abandoned Greek summer resort. Paulina is the girl at the heart of Copa-Loca. Everyone cares for her and she cares about everyone - in every possible way.

A single father wants to fulfil his young daughter's wish to throw a slumber party for her friends, but it turns out to be more of a challenge than he thought due to the rules of modern society.

In their remote village, haunted by memories, Atimaley and Devi find themselves faced with a dilemma when a dear friend leaves without saying goodbye.

"I have been scuba diving at sea with my kids, I like it, but I prefer it here. This is my own space, where I can do something for the good of others". Julio Cesar Cu Camara.

Danny, Devin and Duke are about the pull off the heist to end all heists. After all, who else would even think to rob a Dollar Store on Halloween? There's only one problem: they are totally out of their element.

Edge of Alchemy is the third film in a trilogy examining the psychological terrain of women's inner worlds. In this handmade film, assembled from over 6,000 collages, the actors Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor are lifted from their early silent features and cast into a surreal epic with an unending of the Frankenstein story and contemporary undercurrents of hive collapse. Music by Lech Jankowski (Brothers Quay). Edge of Alchemy received major funding from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Creative Capital Foundation. "Edge of Alchemy is the epitome of Stacey Steers' unique vision of collaged re-examination animations, an uncanny way to carry on in the great tradition of surrealist cinema. Max Ernst would refer to Lautréamont's sewing machine and umbrella to define the structure of the surrealist painting as 'a linking of two realities that by all appearances have nothing to link them, in a setting that by all appearances does not fit them.' I would add, making it all feel so seamlessly inevitable and inexplicably right...the 'feeling of form', as Suzanne K. Langer might have put it..." (Phil Solomon)

A young man transports undocumented migrants into the United States. Thinking himself as a "taxi" service, he is forced to confront the harsh realities of human trafficking when one of the passengers is a twelve-year old girl.

A search for the truth behind a fishy tale.

On her way back from work a woman witnesses something happening in the bus and she has to decide if she reveals it or not.

In a nameless Chinese city, a mother with her daughter missing refuses to go gentle into this good night.

A woman gets stuck in a Red Lobster commercial.

The story is about 50 shapes of you drawn by cute nutty human being that stares directly into your soul.

A group of queer and gender non-conforming people in Jackson, Mississippi form a social structure called Rainbow Families. House of JXN follows them as they come together to offer each other support, protection, and love in one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

IFO is about three famous UFO sightings over Mansfield, Ohio, the filmmaker's hometown. One of several recent and upcoming films featuring people, events, and incidents centered in Mansfield.

Characters wander through an erotic maze of love and desire.

Sarah manages Joy Joy Nails with a cheerful iron fist, but she gets her manicured claws out when Chinese manicurist trainee Mia looks to be stealing the boss's son's affections and soon discovers that under the varnish, everyone's a victim.