Film Synopses

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Mr. Pandora's Box | Eat, Drink, and be Mary | I Kissed a Girl | Going Down Under
Dyke Duos | Mad About the Boy | Snapshots | MENtal Mix | Journeys | Between the Lines
Sapphic Cinebits

Mr. Pandora's Box: Men's Shorts

GLAADIATOR
(US, NR, 2002, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild sexual content.
OFFICIAL SITE:
www.independentfilms.com

"Rome shall be gay!" A gay Glaadiator returns to Rome to avenge the death of his lover, only to find that the evil emperor is waiting to put a damper on his plans. After waging a lifelong battle to rid the earth of Homosexuals, Roman emperor Marcus Aereolus has an epiphany on his deathbed. He tells his most trusted General, Maxipadimus, to return to Rome and undo his wrongs - to make Rome safe for gays. However, upon Maxipadimus' return to Rome, he finds that the Emperor's evil, homophobic son, Eminemus, has taken power and will fight to the death to keep it! In a triumphant climax, Maxipadimus destroys the homophobes and embarks Rome into an Era of sexual liberation.

CYBERSLUT
(US, NR, 2002, 9 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.
OFFICIAL SITE:
cyberslutmovie.com

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila." Cyberslut is the infinitely detailed and riveting confession of one gay man's obsession and fascination with finding sex on the Internet.

BAKING WITH BUTCH Episode 1
(Canada, NR, 5 min, 2001)
Viewer's Guide: Language.

Julia Child on steroids! A hilarious gay twist on cooking shows! It's calamity on the airwaves and in the kitchen when TV Hostess Butch and her femme guest teach audiences how to "seduce her with dessert."

THE SLEEPING MAN
(US, NR, 2001, 5 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature Themes.

A humorous homage to Italian films of the sixties in which a devastatingly gorgeous guy literally sleeps through an entire relationship.

SAPPHO ON FIRE
(US, NR, 2001, 7 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language and drug use.

An experimental mediation about one man's desperate need for love and everlasting faith from his former lover. When Sappho realizes that Paul has now entered into a heterosexual relationship, he summons Aphrodite to help him overcome his grief.

OPEN
(Canada, NR, 2001, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

Temptation and jealousy threaten a gay couple who agrees to an "open" relationship.

EVERYTHING IN THIS BOX 25 CENTS
(US, NR, 2002, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

The mysteries of an old photograph come to life to reveal secrets of moments long forgotten. At the birth of the twentieth century, two men discover their lives forever defined by the few fleeting hours they share together. Would anyone ever understand the value of all that they lost, all that they had to give up, all that they would never have?

ZEN AND THE ART OF LANDSCAPING
(US, NR, 2002, 17 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

All the family skeletons are dragged out of the closets when the lawnmower man is invited inside one fateful day!

THE BOYFRIEND
(US, NR, 2002, 19 min)
Viewer's Guide: Nudity, language and sexual content.

The most innocuous-seeming of the 7 deadly sins-sloth-takes hold when Todd's live-in boyfriend leaves for the weekend. Restless and alone in the city, Todd picks up a cute stranger in a bookstore. Days blend into night as the pair talk, compare their ideals and engage in intercourse. Together for nearly 48 hours and yet fundamentally alone, Rod and Todd demonstrate some home truths about what we're looking for when we make a fantasy real-and what we're trying to avoid facing up to ourselves.

Eat, Drink, and be Mary: Men's Shorts

GUYS NIGHT IN
(Canada, NR, 2001, 7 min)
Viewer's Guide: Nudity and graphic sexual content.

Men arrive, mingle and prepare to eat. The guys are getting together for a potluck. They each have something to offer. By superimposing a collage of images over their bodies, we look into what is being thought, mediated and consumed. What could happen while tossing a salad on a hot summer might like this?

ABENDMAHL (Last Supper)
(Germany, NR, 2001, 17 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild violence.

Karl-Heinz and his good-looking lover David live together in Karl-Heinz' apartment. David enjoys being cooked and cared for, but faithful, which he at one point promised to be, is a thing of the past. Frantic with anger, Karl-Heinz plans his revenge by cooking an elaborate dinner that David misunderstands as a reconciliatory gesture-until Karl-Heinz' plan unfolds.

ROBERTA LOVED
(US, NR, 2002, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

From Allan Brocha, director of Rick & Steve, comes this decidedly one-of-a-kind romance between a troubled woman and a kinky call-boy whose ad promises, "No one is too weird for me."

TOUCH
(Canada, NR, 2001, 29 min)

A poignant drama that details the tragic journey of a physically and psychologically abused teenage boy from early childhood trauma through adolsecent dysfunction.

TAKE-OUT
(Canada, NR, 2001, 38 min)

A coming of age story about Rory, a teenage delivery boy, who develops a friendship with an older client after delivering him chicken. Their platonic friendship proves to be a catalyst: Rory's sexuality forces him to reconsider his small world as his curiosity propels him to take a risk.

I Kissed a Girl: Women's Shorts

DEAR EMILY
(US, NR, 2001, 7 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Sara and Emily have been best friends since the second grade. During their senior year in high school, things started to change. Emily fell in love with Tommy MacAllister and Sara fell in love with Emily. Trying to understand her feelings, Sara pours her heart out to Emily in a letter. But can the closest person in her life love her back?

INTERVIEWS WITH MY NEXT GIRLFRIEND
(Canada, NR, 2001, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A laugh-out-loud short about the fight to win the title of "The Next Girlfriend." Nine women are questioned by an unknown interviewer to see if they measure up.

SIZE 'EM UP
(US, NR, 2001, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.
OFFICIAL SITE:
www.cjrusso.com

Sometimes fitting in is hard to do. At her mother's insistence, teen jock Samantha finds herself in the unlikely hands of the "bra ladies," who help her discover new things about breasts, brassieres, and how to improve her soccer game. An all-star cast that includes Julie Brown, Stella Stevens, Lindsay Felton, Mary Jo Catlett and Magda Harout!

STUCK
(US, NR, 2002, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

From the director of But I'm A Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit, comes this critically-acclaimed short feature about two eighty-year-old lesbians, a pick-up truck, a bicycle, and one innocent bystander! After all, how much can two people learn about each other before there's absolutely nothing left to learn?

BLOCK PARTY
(US, NR, 2001, 23 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

Best friends Len and Joni try to enjoy their very own street party despite jealous ex-girlfriends and ill-directed crushes.

NINE DAYS
(US, NR, 2001, 14 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

When Sara's mother pressures her daughter into a series of heterosexual blind dates, Sara and her girlfriend turn the tables to their advantage in order to have a baby!

TASTE
(Australia, NR, 2001, 22 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

Meet Suz, she's on a rollercoaster ride with Pete. Now meet Danny, a chef with a difference who wants to take her on another kind of ride!

BARE
(Canada, NR, 2001, 9 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language and sexual content.

Keeping up with the Jones' was never this much fun! Dee wakes up with a stranger in her bed while, across the street, her neighbor Paul discovers a new spice in an old relationship. When inner city living finds them living in closer quarters than they might expect, sensual surprises and unexpected desires are the order of the day!

Going Down Under: Men's Shorts
(Australian)

INTO THE NIGHT
(Australian, NR, 2001, 15 min)

In this realistic portrait of teen hustlers, a young rent boy is picked-up by an older man. Is each playing a role for the other?

SATURN'S RETURN
(Australia, NR, 2002, 26 min)
Viewer's Guide: Strong sexual content, language, and drug use.

Barney and Dimi are young and in love. Barney's father, Dan, is dying of AIDS. Dan wants to get out early; he is planning his suicide and wants Barney's blessing. Barney wants him to face up to the mistakes of his past. Dimi, suddenly an outsider, feels like he is losing Barney and wants to connect with his own father. A journey for both of remembering, grief and reconciliation.

SUCKER
(Australia, NR, 2002, 12 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild violence and strong sexual content.

A young man bites off more than he can chew when a sexy guy picks him up one stormy night in this dark thriller!

TANAKA
(Australia, NR, 2001, 24 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Mori Tanaka is sent to Australia from Japan to oversee his uncle's funeral and retrieve his ashes. He is torn between cultures when he discovers a secret about the uncle he never knew.

SHOW ME YOUR PIC
(Australia, NR, 2001, 26 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language.

A clever documentary that offers a glimpse of Sydney's cyber scene that follows five men looking for love on-line.

Dyke Duos: Women's Shorts

THE HOUSESITTER
(Australia, NR, 2001, 5 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Ever come across more than you bargained for when offering to care for a friend's pet? This lesbian couple will run you through the drill of caring for their extensive cat family.

PREEMIE
(US, NR, 2001, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

The story of a nuclear-infused infant born eight months early who tries to save his lesbian sister from mutant houseflies - brazen and intensely wacky!

BITANIC
WINNER! 2002 NCGLFF EMERGING FILM AWARD: BEST WOMEN'S SHORT!
(US, NR, 2001, 10 min)

FILM REVIEW:
from Discover Kate

A hilarious queer claymation retelling of James Cameron's Titanic featuring a stunning performance by Ellen Degeneres in the ship's dining room. A fractured fairy tale! Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

BREAKING UP REALLY SUCKS
(US, NR, 2001, 13 min)
Viewer's Guide: Brief nudity and mild sexual content.

From infatuation to the U-haul move-in to boredom and back again, this clever comedy sends up the foibles and follies of lesbian romance and one woman's search for true love. With Baywatch's Alexandra Paul.

WATCHING LESBIAN PORN
(Canada, NR, 2001, 10 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language and strong sexual content.

One feminist's discourse on lesbian erotica turns into a slapstick pornographic romp for two other women hell-bent on trying every position in the Kama Sutra. Arming herself with feminist texts from the likes of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Laura Mulvey, bell hooks, and Andrea Dworkin, Dayna McLeod describes to her audience how flexible these texts are, and demonstrates how they can be used as foreplay when dating a feminist who is opposed to pornography. Meanwhile, two "Porn Star Lesbians" go at it in a 70's bedroom set behind McLeod during this monologue who is oblivious to their existence. Ginger Discovery and Lucky Chopps give a full-on, over-the-top performance that is charged with campy choreography and cheesy slapstick.

THE CHOSEN FAMILY
(Canada, NR, 2001, 13 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

On the afternoon of their cousin's wedding, these four Canadian siblings must come to terms with their sexuality! But who's straight and who's gay? One thing's for sure…our family has a single aim-to drive us crazy! Volleyball, anyone?

BUTTER AND PINCHES RETURN
(US, NR, 2002)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.
OFFICIAL SITE:
www.butterandpinches.com

Butter & Pinches are "partners" - eccentric, edgy and oddball detectives without a clue! Butter is the brawn and Pinches the brains in this undynamic crime-fighting duo. Called on to solve mysteries and fight crime by comic book-like clients, including Dr. Fenton Meniscus, the evil scientist turned singing messenger and Delilah Parsley the neglected wife and ambitious social climber, Butter & Pinches solve outrageous cases almost by accident. When Dr. Edmund Parsley's valuable formula to freeze time is stolen from his laboratory, everyone is suspect. Butter & Pinches must interrogate and negotiate their way through a string of clues and leads, facing off with colorful and hilarious characters. Come meet Ray the janitor and his surly wife Carmella, the reserved and secretive lab assistant, Bea Sting and Reginald Vanderlust, the plotting and avenging chauffeur/biographer. Nothing is as it seems and it's up to Butter & Pinches to unmask the mystery, on the job and within their own comically ambiguous relationship.

Mad About the Boy: Men's Shorts

SEXY
(US, NR, 2002, 11 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.
OFFICIAL SITE: www.studioprometheus.com/SEXY/

From the creative team of last year's Emerging Film Award Winner, The Rape of Ganymede, comes this charming animated poem. Five friends argue, wax poetic and get nasty when they attempt to answer the question, "What is sexy?" Using traditional cell animation cut-outs, computer generation, pen and ink, collage and illustration, the animation and design of the film is as diverse as the answers.

TARGET AUDIENCE
(US, NR, 2002, 12 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

The parents are away, the pizza's cold, the beer is gone, but two teenage boys learn that you've got to watch out for those late-night infomercials! "It's Great to be Gay!"

BOYCHICK
WINNER! 2002 NCGLFF EMERGING FILM AWARD: BEST MEN'S SHORT!
(US, NR, 2001, 12 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.
OFFICIAL SITE:
members.aol.com/boychickmovie

A hilarious musical adventure about a nice Jewish boy who channels his "inner Britney" to pursue the boy of his dreams! It's Fiddler on a Gay Roof meets Hit Me Baby (One More Time)!

LATE SUMMER
(US, NR, 2002, 25 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language and drug usage.

Set in the lush beauty of Massachusetts in the late 1970's, Late Summer tells the compelling story of a young boy's awakening to the forces of sorrow, art, desire and his own potential. After the death of his father, Adam is sent to spend the summer with his relatives. Initially reluctant to take part in anything fun, he is slowly charmed by his older cousin's penchant for teenage adventures. In befriending his cousin, Adam begins to experience new longings and, ultimately, through a final rendering moment, learns that life's mysteries and brevity can be a force for artistic creation.

BEACHCOMBERS
(US, NR, 2002, 15 min)

A girl is picking up on something her boyfriend quite can't tell her-but there are some things you can't hide.

SAFE JOURNEY
(US, NR, 2001, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Fate brings together a street kid who is struggling to find a way to survive and a man who is losing his eyesight and coming to terms with the loss of his partner.

TOM CLAY JESUS
(US, NR, 2001, 17 min)
Viewer's Guide: Nudity and sexual content.

Tom and Clay engage in a sexual liaison right after meeting each other at a Laundromat. Afterwards, alone on their own, Tom goes on his casual way while Clay begins to yearn for more. When failing to get another date with Tom in their next by-chance encounter, Clay stumbles on a scheme that might uncover the truth about his object of desire.

Snapshots: Women's Shorts

MONOGAMOUS SLUT
(US, NR, 2002, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Stand-up comedienne Julie Goldman has a score to settle with her ex! But how should an artist express herself in these days of Madonna-sized attitudes? Why, by immortalizing the break-up in a music video, of course!

BAKING WITH BUTCH Episode 1
(Canada, NR, 5 min, 2001)
Viewer's Guide: Language.

Julia Child on steroids! A hilarious gay twist on cooking shows! It's calamity on the airwaves and in the kitchen when TV Hostess Butch and her femme guest teach audiences how to "seduce her with dessert."

LETTERS TO MARGOT
(Canada, NR, 2001, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

An experimental exploration of one woman's experiences after the abrupt end of a long relationship with her lover.

SWITCH
(Canada, NR, 2000, 23 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language and sexual content.

Set in 1949 Toronto, Switch tells the story of Isabelle, a telephone operator who is leading a double life. She is having a clandestine affair with another operator, Alice, while her boyfriend Ricky is secretly making plans to elope with her to Niagara Falls. Switch is a camp forties-style thriller in which the desires of a lusty femme fatale lead to double-crossing, broken hearts and murder.

SHAVING
(US, NR, 2002, 20 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Set in 1975, ten-year-old Cassie is a budding butch who worships both Joe Namath and her father. Although Cassie is comfortable on the football field, her mother wishes her daughter could be like "all of the rest of the girls." Cassie is soon scolded by the evil schoolyard monitor who tells her "girls shouldn't play football!" After being scolded by the principal, Cassie musters the courage to invite Amanda, the cute femme down the street, to attend a football game. Cassie's parents, however, are reconsidering whether Cassie can attend the game. Worried, the young tomboy feverishly spends a sleepless night lost in her imagination-from saving the world with the strength and passion of her Seven-Million-Dollar Woman Doll to a mock interview with Howard Cosell-until early the next morning where she dares to bend her gender with her father's shaving equipment!

PASSENGERS
(Canada, NR, 2001, 15 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A moving exploration of the relationship between a daughter and her father as she matures from childhood to adulthood. On the day of his funeral, she draws on the legacy of his love, understanding and compassion…and comes to terms with her sexual identity.

WATCHING YOU
(Israel, NR, 2002, 30 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language.

A magical encounter between two young women who are in a personal crisis leads to an overnight experience that resurfaces hidden emotions. Sharon can't keep her eyes off her beautiful but straight next-door neighbor. She falls in love as she secretly photographs her, and their lives are changed when they finally meet face-to-face.

MENtal Mix: Men's Shorts

MY EX
(US, NR, 2000, 3 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A comedic short about longings for the men who got away.

THE RINSE CYCLE
(US, NR, 2001, 9 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A humorous look at one man's disastrous attempt to appear younger in order to find the stud of his dreams.

LUNCH WITH EDDIE
(US, NR, 2001, 13 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild language.

Long-unseen friends reunite during a park picnic to remember Eddie on the anniversary of his death in this poignant and heartfelt short fantasy.

WAR STORY
(US, NR, 2001, 30 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.
OFFICIAL SITE:
www.warstorymovie.com

1918. Hungry and broke, Metly takes a job at a cafe. While the waiters all stumble over themselves to gain the affections of beautiful Edna, Metly just tries to stay out of trouble... and pursue a handsome soldier named Ronnie. But if the Goliath Eric (E.R.'s Abraham Benrubi) or the soldier's mean twin, Donnie, or the angry Cafe Manager don't ruin his affair, perhaps the Great War will! A sweet love story made in the style of Charlie Chaplin's Mutual Films of the 1920's.

SHOOTING BLANKS
(US, NR, 2002, 21 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language and mild sexual content.

Blood may be thicker than water, but there is something thicker than blood (at least between these two brothers) in this hilarious tale about a kidnapping, pastries, Staten Island and a meat truck! Find out why you can never, ever fulfill your family obligations…no matter how far you run.

Journeys: Women's Shorts

ONE KISS
(US, NR, 2002, 22 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language.

At 23, Zoey finds herself in the middle of Los Angeles and no longer relating to her circle of friends. When a voice from the past wakes her up, she is given a chance to go home and make amends with her first love. As we follow Zoey, she uncovers a life she never knew existed. One moment, one chance, and one kiss is all it will take.

REBEL, REBEL
(US, NR, 2002, 21 min)
Viewer's Guide: Strong sexual content and mild language.

1985. Dolores, a middle-aged divorcee, can't find a reason to get off the couch, let alone go on living. When her angry teenaged second cousin, Maze, is dropped off on her doorstep by the cops, Dolores is forced back into the world. Maze, on her own self destructive path of prostitution and drugs, has been trying to run away from an abusive home life. Together, they re-establish lost ground and discover a deep level of caring and respect.

A BANG OR A WHIMPER
(US, NR, 2002, 22 min)
Viewer's Guide: Language and drug use.

From local filmmaker Nancy Townsend comes this experimental and mysterious tale about a group of gay friends whose existence may be spiraling out of control.

PRETTY LADIES: A SUPER8EXPLOSION!
(US, NR, 2002, 29 min)
Viewer's Guide: Strong sexual content, and language.

This playful, all-girl black and white fantasy is indeed exploding with gorgeous, grainy Super-8 imagery. What begins as a cute send-up of old silent comedies morphs into a deliriously erotic, effects-filled dreamscape, a sapphic take on underground gay-boy filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Guiding us along are a lovelorn cowgirl, two baseball-cap clones, a glamorous femme, and, as the High Priestess of Lesbian Love, director Catherine Crouch herself.

HINTERLAND: THE BISEXUAL
(Canada, NR, 2002, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A hilarious faux instructional tape that sets out to inform the viewer about the perplexing nature of the bisexual.

Between the Lines:
Transgendered Program

JUNK BOX WARRIOR
(US, NR, 2002, 5 min)

Based on a poem of the same title, Junk Box Warrior is a brilliant mesh of spoken word and black and white images over a haunting soundtrack. Written by and starring Trans Slam Poet, Marcus Rene Van this film explores the alienation, frustration and fear of not fitting into society's gender binary.

INTERSEXTION
(US, NR, 2001, 11 min)
Viewer's Guide: Scenes depicting medical procedures.

Evocative, layered and beautifully constructed, Intersextion is an exploration of the profound damage done to intersex children forced to undergo genital surgery.

BLUE HAVEN
(US, NR, 2002, 17 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild violence, language and drug use.

Blue Haven is a classic love story with a kick like Run Lola Run meets Dog Day Afternoon. Two skateboarders journey to find the perfect swimming pool. But $40,000 and a sex change later, they find true love instead.

SHE TURNED IT
(US, NR, 2002, 18 min)

Spend the day with one of New York City's most glamorous nightlife entertainers in this documentary video that follows Drag Diva "Destiny" as she prepares for her big night as nominee for "HX Magazine Drag Queen of the Year." Dress fittings, hair and makeup sessions, and an unforgettable evening proves that Destiny turned us out!

JUST CALL ME KADE
(US, NR, 2002, 26min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

Kade Farlow Collins is a sixteen year old FTM (female to male transgender person) residing in Tucson, Arizona. Kade's parents maintain a supportive and nurturing relationship to Kade regarding the many challenges facing their teenage child. However, it hasn't always been easy. As Kade's body began to transform during puberty, Kade became nearly suicidal. Realizing that the issue was more complex than Kade being a tomboy or a lesbian, the family searched for information. Through a local support group and the Internet, Kade's mother found books and other resources pertaining to transgenderism. Kade and his family agreed to have their lives documented in order to bring awareness to the subject. Just Call me Kade begins during Halloween weekend, 1999. Kade (then "Kate") was fourteen years old and beginning the initial stages of transition. Kate and family share their concerns, and all embark upon the path toward Kate's new identity as "Kade." Just Call Me Kade concludes during St. Patrick's Day weekend, 2001 and Kade, having legally changed his name, is well into testosterone therapy. Friends and family candidly express their feelings about the transition, the changes in Kade and the impact on everyone involved.

IT'S A BOY!
(US, NR, 2001, 30 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

What do people who have lived as women have to tell us about what it is like to live as men? What does it mean to change from being a woman of color to being a man of color? How does it feel to switch from being a hardcore lesbian separatist to being a straight white male? Or to have identified as a Jewish, butch dyke for 30-plus years, to later pray at the male side of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem? In exploring the experiences of three individuals, It's a Boy! broadens our understanding of what it means to be male, female, both and more.

Sapphic Cinebits: Women's Shorts

THORN GRASS
(US, NR, 2001, 8 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mature themes.

A gay Native American recalls life from beyond the grave in this meditation on the untimely death of a transgendered youth. "Now the eagle flies, and the eagle loves his feathers."

HALF MONGREL
(Australia, NR, 2000, 13 min)

Part mysterious inner journey, part bizarre dark comedy about the perils of Catholic guilt.

HEALTH STATUS SURVEY
(Canada, NR, 2001, 12 min)
Viewer's Guide: Brief nudity and mild language.

The power dynamic shifts when one woman has an accident and her lover takes care of her.

THE SISTERS OF LIGHT
(Belgium, NR, 2000, 28 min)

Out of the fascination with astronomy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the brightly lit highways of Belgium (you can even see them from outer space!), The Sisters of Light is a fable about light and its mysteries. The title also suggests homage to two of the founders of the moving image. Two friends--Stella, an astronomer, and Lucia, a salesgirl in a lamp store--that know each other only through correspondence, are separated by death. Lucia, the surviving friend, drives off at night, heading for the Belgium of twinkling motorways, searching for her Stella's angel that should have become Lucia's guardian angel. With an empty heart, she drives, accompanied by strange light phenomena around her (UFO's? angels?) to find enlightenment around her loss.

BETTY ANDERSON
(US, NR, 2001, 40 min)
Viewer's Guide: Mild violence, language and sexual content.

Tamlyn Tomita (Joy Luck Club) stars as Detective Miyamoto who is investigating a possible kidnapping and murder of an infant, but her own past pays a surprising visit. Although there are only two suspects, this thriller presents us with many delicious layers of reality.