The 17th annual Sunnyside Shorts International Film Festival takes place in Sunnyside, Queens. It's a 2 day festival comprised of a Mini-Fest on September 15th at Sanger Hall and the Main Festival on Saturday, September 17th at Sunnyside Reformed Church.
On Thursday, September 15th from 7 to 8pm, the Mini-Fest entrance is free if you are at least 21 and order a drink. The following films are on the line-up:
GERI & RICK. From The Bronx. Directed by Vincent and Alena Turturro. 21 min.
Two over-the-hill hustlers turn up in an old Rambler wagon on the outskirts of New York City. No more than superficial acquaintances before, they find themselves sharing confidences, reflecting on past failures, and observing the shifting sands of their neighborhood - and the world at large.
FOR PALOMA. From USA. Directed by Suraj Savkoor. 10 min.
After the traumatic birth diagnosis of her newborn daughter, Ally's world is turned upside down.
LIBERTY. From Iran. Directed by Sara Khosroabadi. 14 min.
A woman decides to terminate her life in her own way but something goes wrong.
The main festival will be Saturday, September 17 with doors opening at 6:45p.m. and films starting promptly at 7p.m. The showing is at Sunnyside Reformed Church. This 100 year old church seats 300 people. The festival received more than 100 submissions and the lineup for this year is as follows:
1. The Sprayer from Iran. Directed by Farnoosh Abedi. 10 min. Animation.
In the land occupied with the Sprayers army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plant either in public or private. So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how to water a plant or what one looks like.
2. Fotos from France. Directed by Arnaud Rivaille. 19 min.
Lucie is about to return to Paris after a weekend in Brussels. She is going to rejoin her fiancé and her monotonous life. Until...
3. this bond i and Bondi from Australia. Directed by Carolyn Saul. 11 min. Documentary. When the once familiar streets and buildings of the place you grew up in becomes something else, how do you reconcile your relationship with that place?
4. Zezinho's Dream from Brazil. Directed by Edmundo Lacerda. 20 min.
Driven by the dream of becoming a filmmaker, a boy from the suburbs invents his way of making cinema.
5. I Mustache You from Kew Gardens, Queens. Directed by Shara Ashley Zeiger. 13 min.
"I Mustache You" is a whimsical magical realistic comedy, inspired by Buster Keaton, Looney Tunes, and NYC about Abby, a woman with social anxiety, OCD and agoraphobic tendencies who receives an invitation to love, self acceptance, and the outside world.
6. Medea from China. Directed by Feifei Zhong. 13 min.
It is a story about a woman struggling between her career and family after finding herself in an unexpected pregnancy.
7. The Poetry of Non-Self from Israel. Directed by Dor Bar Shlomo. 5 min. Animation.
While experiencing beauty, we tend to lose our sense of self. The film animates a poem that describes that notion, showing the hero's experiences while staring into a boiling pot in his kitchen.
8. Titi from Iran. Directed by Marzieh Fakhar. 19 min.
After five years of marriage, she takes all the measures to undergo a transgender procedure when she realizes that she is pregnant and...
9. 4 Ans Apres from France. Directed by Florian Rouviere, Morgane Blanc.20 min.
In an isolated town, a murder takes place, a murder similar to a series of assassinations that took place 4 years earlier.
10. Paradisiac from Belgium. Directed by Quentin Dujardin. 4 min.
An elderly lady remembers the autumn mornings she spent on a vast river in the company of her friends, when they were children. In this immense setting, they row towards an island they had named... Paradisiac.