Movie Night at the Wonder House
WONDER HOUSE @ SXSW 2023:
Screenings of short films
punctuated by lively talks with
young filmmakers
Patio Screen and Stage
Tuesday, 8p.m. – midnight
Join us for an evening of short films from current and past TFTV filmmakers, some of whom you may know as major motion picture producers and directors today. Curated by the University of Arizona's nationally ranked School of Theatre, Film & Television. Punctuated by conversations with filmmakers Roxanna Denise Stevens Ibarra, Zach Lovvorn and Sasha Reist, moderated by Friday Night Movie sibling podcast hosts Becky Korman and Shai Korman.
RSVP Requested.
Director & Writer: Tatum Sailors
Key Cast: Harrison Blair
Short Documentary
At 7 (2022, 8 min 47 sec)
At 7 follows the everyday life of a 7-year-old boy named Harrison as he reflects on his experience with Type One diabetes. Through hyper-active verité footage and intimate interviews, we are introduced to his unique personality and all his charming quirks. Harrison expresses himself with a wonderful carefree attitude one can only have at 7 years old. From begging for his tooth to get ripped out by a motorcycle to babysitting chickens, Harrison truly is one of a kind. “Harrison Blair is my 7-year-old cousin and the absolute sweetest, most caring person I have ever met,” says director Tatum Sailors. “Being a part of his life both before and after his Type One diagnosis has been an enlightening experience. His constant positivity in the face of adversity at such a young age is remarkable. I knew I had to share his strength with others. I still laugh after watching this documentary hundreds of times, and I know Harrison will make you laugh, too.”
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Los Angeles Int’l Children’s Film Festival 2023
Director & Writer: Sasha Reist
Key Cast: Cat Cogliandro, Mae Lever
Crew: Jackson Hayes, cinematographer/ assistant editor/ colorist/ sound recordist/ sound editing & mixing
Short Documentary
Changement (2021, 8 min 54 sec)
Changement explores the experiences of two dancers, Cat Cogliandro, a nonbinary individual within the dance community, and Mae Lever, a queer female dance graduate student. Foundational to many other forms of dance, ballet has remained a highly traditional art form, with most of its movement and pieces revolving solely around heteronormative, cisgendered practices and labels. Changement touches on historical elements of ballet while opening up the discussion around more inclusive and welcoming language, stories, and narratives.
“I have been dancing since I could walk,” says director Sasha Reist. “Dance greatly influenced my childhood and upbringing and I continue to see everything I do through a dancer’s lens. Being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am constantly trying to find ways to advocate for gay rights and challenge peoples’ perspectives on love, gender and their expectations for how others should exist in society. As I began to meet more out non-binary and gender non-conforming dancers, I started to realize all of the privileges I have within this environment being cisgendered. I wanted to learn more and create a space for others to learn what it’s like to be a non-binary dancer and what we need to do to make ballet specifically a more inclusive environment. As I began this process and started looking at traditional gender roles in dance, I also began to notice all of the things that negatively impact me as a bisexual and a female, but that I have just come to terms with. The presence of traditional gender roles and gendering puts pressure on everyone in different ways. I started this film with the hope that it would spark a conversation specifically within the dance community, but as the film came together, my vision expanded. I now hope that Changement strikes a chord with dancers and non-dancers alike, and for all audiences to recognize the universality of the problem.”
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Social Impact Film Festival 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Leeds international Film Festival (Leeds UK) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Loft International Film Festival (Tucson AZ) 2022
NOMINEE, College Non-Fiction Short Film, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Student Production Awards, 2022
Director & Writer, Alexandra Cerna
Key Cast, Lydia Martinez, Alexandra Cerna
Producer, Hunter Snider
Crew, Chance Roberts – cinematographer Victoria Ainza – production designer Jared Grady – gaffer Marin Stewart – assistant director Pancho Ortiz – first assistant camera
Live Action non-verbal narrative short
Treasures Beneath My Tree (2021, 4 min 57 sec)
A child reconnects to her fondest memories through a box of treasures she has kept beneath her tree throughout her life. “This film is the epitome of the happiness I experienced in my childhood,” says writer/director Alexandra Cerna. “I grew up in Arizona, and spent my summers in the tiny mountain town of Concepción de Buenos Aires in Jalisco, the home of my father’s family. Treasures Beneath My Tree honors the beloved patches of nature I knew as a child – both the lone tree in my front yard in the Arizonan desert, and the lush green of the Mexican pueblo – and the power of staying connected to nature and to our younger selves. With this film, my goal was to inspire others to remember the excitement of discovering something new through the eyes of a child. To show how colorful and full of wonder life can be, and to never let go of your inner child.”
>OFFICIAL SELECTION, Chicago International Children’s Film Festival 2021 Official Selection, Social Impact Film Festival 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival 2022 Official Selection, Children’s Film Festival Seattle 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Los Angeles Latinx Film Festival 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, BAMKids Film Festival (Brooklyn NY) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Adventure Festival (Boulder CO) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, ANDKIDS World Film Festival (Notre Dame IN) 2022 Official Selection, Re-generation International Youth Film Festival (Australia) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Festival FILMAR en América Latina (Switzerland) 2022 Official Selection, International Kids Film Festival (India) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Festival Ciné Junior (France) 2023
Director & Writer, Faye Ruiz
Key Cast, Lydia Martinez, Alexandra Cerna
Producer, Ramani Menjugas
Crew, Emma Sinex – editor Zach Lovvorn, Martin Somoza – cinematography
Live action narrative short (Drama)
The Lights Are On, No One’s Home (2020, 10 min)
Mar, a young trans woman, returns to her childhood home. Finding a neighborhood she once knew intimately drastically altered by gentrification, she is forced to reckon with a place that has seemingly changed overnight.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Long Distance Film Festival 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Palm Springs International ShortFest 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Outfest Fusion QTBIPOC Film Festival 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival 2021
ACQUIRED for national theatrical distribution by Kino Lorber & Dedza Films, 2021
STREAMING on The Criterion Channel
About the director, Faye Ruiz:
- 25 New Faces of Independent Film – Faye Ruiz, Filmmaker Magazine
- Sundance Fellows Set For 2023 Screenwriters Lab and Intensive, Deadline
- Meet the Ten Rising Filmmakers of the Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program, Forbes
- Chanel Recruits Annette Bening, Patty Jenkins, Alexandra Shipp and More for Mentorship Program Through Her Lens, The Hollywood Reporter
- Catch this Eclectic Anthology of Shorts by Emerging BIPOC Filmmakers, Hyperallergic
- The Gotham Announces Projects Selected for 2022 Gotham Week Project Market, Filmmaker Magazine
- Film by Graduate Faye Ruiz Garners National Distribution Deal, Arizona Arts News
Director & Writer: Roxanna Denise Stevens Ibarra
Key Cast: Martin Martinez, Victor Garcia Rodriguez, Roxanna Denise Stevens Ibarra, Samuel Bass, Rafael Reyes-Worman, Ramses Stevens
Producers: Andre Carr, Gaby Schatz
Crew: Ramses Stevens – executive producer, Andre Carr – first assistant director, Alejandro Olmedo – director of photography, Andy Zhao – assistant camera operator, Bailey Brown, Roxanna Denise Stevens Ibarra – production designers
Live Action narrative short (drama, romance, Latinx, bilingual)
Tesoro (2020, 8 min)
Riding through South Tucson and through time, an older man revisits the memories of his youth in the 60’s as he prepares to sell his prized car, his tesoro. “You know, I had a very hard time formulating a concept [for a film] that I forgot to realize that I could tell the story I’ve lived through generationally,” says Ibarra. “The stories flow through my veins as water does through roots. They grow. The stories were memories told by my tata while my tios sang about lost loves, they were newspaper clippings my nana saved about 60’s Chicano culture, they were my Mami’s stories about my Tata working in the fields and sending money to his brothers, mama and tia at the age of fifteen. The miscarriages. The romance. The cars. These were snippets of the stories I was told, lived through, and strung together to give as a love letter to my community. To tell the stories I’ve never seen on television or on the big screen, but have heard. I had to make this movie so that these stories would not die with each generation of my Mexican American familia.”
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Official Latino Film & Arts Festival (Palm Springs CA) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Social Impact Film Festival 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Latina Independent Film Extravaganza 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Arizona International Film Festival (Tucson AZ) 2022
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Idlewild International Film Festival (Idlewild MI) 2021 OFFICIAL SELECTION, Urbanworld Film Festival (New York NY) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Latino & Native American Film Festival (New Haven CT) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Latino Film Market (New York NY) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival (Philadelphia PA) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, San Diego Latino Film Festival (San Diego CA) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Phoenix Film Festival (Phoenix AZ) 2021
NOMINEE, Best Drama Short, International Motor Film Awards 2020
Director & Writer: Zach Lovvorn
Key Cast: Alec Errhalt, Elizabeth van Isser, Alex Simpson, Connor Maxwell
Producers: Lana Moltrop, Antonia Maher
Crew: Mason Day, director of photography; Joel Romero, gaffer; Ayla Ahmad, key grip; Alyssa Urgo, first assistant camera; Faye Ruiz, Sam Lulloff, production design; Antonia Maher, casting director
Live Action narrative short (Sci-Fi, Drama, Horror)
IRIS (202, 6 min 22 sec)
In a world where everyone owns a companion in the form of a sentient human eyeball, one rebellious user will rid his life of them or die trying. Writer/director Zach Lovvorn portrays a dystopian future where technology and surveillance dominate humanity.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival (Brooklyn NY) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Phoenix Film Festival (Phoenix AZ) 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Phoenix Shorts Film Festival (Ontario Canada) 2021
WINNER, Best SciFi/Fantasy Short, Phoenix Shorts Film Festival 2021
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Bristol Science Film Festival (Bristol UK) 2022
NOMINEE, Best Science Fiction Short Film, Next Generation Indie Film Awards (Los Angeles CA) 2022
About the director, Zach Lovvorn:
Director & Writer: Tasnim Boufelfel
Key Cast: Azúl Galindo, Faye Ruiz
Producers: Reed Chandler, Mathew Bogaert
Crew: Gilbert Rataezyk, director of photography; Pooja Dutta, Jalon Jackson, first assistant directors
Live Action narrative short
99c Dreams (2019, 9 min 08 sec)
A fragmented exploration of memory, consciousness, and lost time, told through the experiences of a few community members in a small town.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Palm Springs International Shortfest 2020
Director & Writer: Stacy Howard
Key Cast: Erica Anna Green, Gloria Benally, Vali Naakii Yázhí
Producers: Stacy Howard, Savannah Hernandez
Crew: Santiago Bahti, director of photography; Stacy Howard, production designer; Yadira Villarreal, costume designer; Stacy Howard, editor
Live Action narrative short (Native American, bilingual)
Amásání (The Grandmother) (2017, 13 min 52 sec)
>Amásání (The Grandmother) is a short film in Navajo and English about a young rebellious girl who is sent to stay with her traditional Navajo grandma.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, 42nd Annual American Indian Film Festival, presented by the American Indian Film Institute, San Francisco CA 2017
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Red Nation Film Festival Native Cinema, Los Angeles CA 2017
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Sedona International Film Festival, Sedona AZ 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival, Los Angeles CA 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Native Crossroads Film Festival, Norman OK 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Reel 2 Real Film Festival, Vancouver Canada 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Navajo Film Festival, Farmington NM 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Red Screen Film Festival, Flagstaff AZ 2019
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival, Richmond VA 2020
About the director, Stacy Howard:
Director & Writer: Tanya Núñez
Key Cast: Andrea Salazar, Susan Slonaker, Fausto Olmos, Mia Rivera, Paul Loh
Producers: Annika Williams, Zuri Torres, Tanya Núñez
Crew: Ricardo Salcido, director of photography; Annika Williams, editor
Live Action narrative short (drama, Latinx, bilingual)
Dios Nunca Muere (2017, 13 min 09 sec)
An undocumented, single mother risks her freedom in order to support her young daughter.
NATIONAL BROADCAST, PBS “Film School Shorts” program, select PBS affiliate stations nationwide, 2019
Director: Bryan McAdams
Writers: Bryan McAdams & Jordan Mandel
Key Cast: Richie Macy, Camille Prikosovits, Elizabeth von Isser, John Garra
Producer: Jordan Mandel
Crew: Evan Colten, editor; Craig Huston, executive producer; Robert Upchurch, director of photography
Live Action narrative short
B-Bot (2016, 6 min)
After the loss of his best friend, a robot seeks happiness in a world destroyed by the apocalypse.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Festival de Cannes, Court Métrage (Short Film Corner) 2017
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Atlanta Film Festival 2017
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Dragon Con 2017
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Loft Film Festival, Tucson AZ, 2016
Director & Writer: Dom Villarrubia
Key Cast: Dylan Page, Harris Kendel, Kathryn Kellner Brown, Chloe G., Zackry Colston, Charlie Hall, Monte Ralstin
Producers: Marina Greenhalgh, Dillon Ramage, Dom Villarrubia
Crew: Craig Huston, executive producer; Gilbert Rataezyk, director of photography; Matt Decker, editor; Dillon Ramage, first assistant director; Malcolm Critcher, production manager
Live Action narrative short (drama)
Bookends (2016, 11 min 11 sec)
A young woman’s homecoming is complicated by reminders of why she left in the first place.
NATIONAL BROADCAST, PBS “Film School Shorts” program, 2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Loft Film Festival, Tucson AZ, 2017
WINNER, Audience Award, Best Short Film, Loft Film Festival, 2017
Co-Directors: Kaia Placa, Symeon Platts
Writer: Michel Dean
Key Cast: Michel Dean, Ben Dietzel, Brooke Hartnett, Ian Martella, Brendan Guy Murphy
Producer: Austin Aronson
Crew: Symeon Platts, editor; Alexis B. Preston, production design
Live Action narrative short (adventure, comedy, romance)
Breaking Up (2015, 10 min 58 sec)
Two friends take things a little too far when trying to get back at the ones who broke their hearts.
Director & Writer: Christopher Nataanii Cegielski
Key Cast: Marc Anthony Pimber, Alex Quevedo, Jon Proudstar
Producers: Dae Hyun Song, Christopher Nataanii Cegielski
Crew: Damon A. Mosier, director of photography; Christina Marafino, assistant director; Darious Britt, gaffer
Live Action narrative short (family drama)
Bloodlines (2014, 11 min 04 sec)
It is 1988 in Southwest New Mexico. Two Native American brothers, Dustin (14) and Walker (12), are confined by the exhausting routine needed to maintain their father’s ranch. The brothers live in fear of their father’s strict rules and the harsh consequences of failing to meet his expectations. While trying to find his individuality, Dustin constantly finds himself at odds with his brutal father. When a wolf kills one of their calves, the brothers decide to sneak out and hunt the wolf. Gunning down the wolf will reward Dustin with the ultimate prize: his father’s respect. With his finger on the trigger, a kill within his grasp, Dustin unexpectedly doubts his quest. He discovers a mystic beauty in the animal. The wolf is noble and free – everything he is not.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Berlin International Film Festival 2015
NOMINEE, Crystal Award for Best Short Film, Generation 14plus, Berlin International Film Festival 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Cine Las Americas Film Festival, Austin TX, 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION, ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Toronto, 2015
NATIONAL BROADCAST, PBS “Film School Shorts” program, 2017/2018
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Red Screen Film Festival, Flagstaff AZ, 2019
About the director, Christopher Nataanii Cegielski:
- Christopher Nataanii Cegielski - website
- The Directors – Christopher Nataanii Cegielski, Little Black Book
- Indigenous filmmaker strikes playful tone with showcase ad, The Salt Lake Tribune
- Flagstaff Red Screen Film Festival celebrates Indigenous cinema, local filmmakers, Navajo-Hopi Observer
Director & Writer: Rafael Gomez
Key Cast: Iván Gomez, Arturo Del Aguila, Enrique Aviles
Producer: Stephanie Coon
Crew: Casey Bohrnell, director of photography; Rafael Gomez, editor; Colter Ogden, first assistant director; Melissa M Erdman, production designer
Live Action narrative short (drama, Latinx, bilingual)
La Graduación (2014, 9 min 02 sec)
A Mexican doctor fresh from his graduation ceremony gets a different type of life lesson from a couple of police officers.
NATIONAL BROADCAST, PBS “Film School Shorts” program, 2017/2018
Director & Writer: Darious J. Britt
Key Cast: Toreenee Wolf, Darious J. Britt, Kevin Black, Kirsten Long
Producers: Darious J. Britt, Caylee Scott
Crew: Damon A. Mosier, director of photography; Christina Marafino, assistant director
Live Action narrative short (drama)
Seafood Tester (2012, 9 min 21 sec)
A son is tired of bailing his mother out of trouble. In order to save her from herself, he must resort to extreme measures to confront her with the truth. Based on a true story.
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Aspen Shorts Fest, Aspen CO, 2013
OFFICIAL SELECTION, Hollywood Black Film Festival, Los Angeles CA, 2012
About the director, Darious J. Britt:
- D4Darious – YouTube channel (452K subscribers, 26M views)
Directors: Tyler Gillett (Scream, Scream VI) and J. Derekh Froude
Writer: J. Derekh Froud
Key Cast: Jonathan Hicks, William Holst
Crew: Tyler Gillett, cinematography; William Holst, sound design; Matt Jackson, first assistant director; Lindsay Utz, camera assistant
Live Action narrative short
An Animal Automaton (2003, 7 min 18 sec)
Dr. M and Dr. A collaborate to construct the perfect creature in this 21st century take on the Frankenstein story.
About the director Tyler Gillett:
- Website
- How the ‘Scream’ Filmmakers went from YouTube Stars to Horror Darlings, Variety
- Scream Reboot to be Directed by ‘Ready or Not’ Filmmakers, The Hollywood Reporter