Schedule:

Saturday, September 30, 2023

12 Noon – 2PM – Opening Film Maryland Premiere

Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection -- Maryland Premiere, Documentary Feature – USA, TRT: 97.5 min -- Directed by Randy Martin -- – USA, She’d only just begun. Forty years after her death, this captivating, revealing, and unvarnished documentary provides astounding new insight into the singer’s tragically short life and enduring musical legacy. Live

Q & A following the film with Writer/producer Randy Schmidt, Executive Producer Andy Streitfeld and Associate Producer Jon Gann, Beth Anne Dorman, Executive Director of For All Seasons, Behavioral Health Center in Easton, MD moderated by Cid Collins Walker, CFF Festival Director.

2:05 – 2:45PM Documentary Shorts Block

With Love from Truman – Documentary Short, TRT: 29 min, USA Directed by David and Albert Maysles. An intimate meeting with renowned author Truman Capote who shares his personality through hip philosophy and calculated jokes with insights about his book In Cold Blood. Live

Invisible Wounds: The Story of Matthew Fast – Documentary Short, TRT: 4:47 min-- USA Directed by Jon Michael Shink and Michael Skinner. Matthew Fast always wanted to be a soldier. He served tourns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Once he was back home, his wife Jessica, discovered his service had a hidden effect on him. Live

This Actually Happened – Short, TRT: 7:03 min, USA, Directed by Emily Maya Mills. The true story of an adult woman accidentally locked in a car by her mother on the hottest day of summer. Live

2:45 – 3:35PM – Narrative Shorts Block

Coming Out With The Help Of A Time Machine – Narrative Short, TRT: 15 min, USA Directed by Naman Gupta. When coming out to his traditional and God fearing parents, Sid uses his time machine to reset the day trying to make sure everything goes perfectly. Live

Lunchbox – Narrative Short, TRT: 16:15 min-- USA Directed by Anne Hu When a Taiwanese American woman prepares lunches from her childhood, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother. Live

Hedgehog – Narrative Short, TRT: 17 min -- USA Directed by D. Mitry. As the war starts in Ukraine, six year old Nina is sent to her grandma’s remote village. In the shack outside, Nina discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier. Live

3:55 – 5:30 PM -- Narrative Feature

ICEMAN: Book One – World Premiere, Narrative Feature, TRT: 84.4 min, Directed by Harold Jackson, III. Known only as ICEMAN, a newly retired organized crime fixer is pulled back in deeper than he’s ever been. Live Q & A with director Harold Jackson, III, cast and crew.

5:30 – 7:00PM -- Saturday, September 30 -- VIP Reception –– Academy Art Museum – 106 South Street, Easton, MD

7:30 – 9:30PM Environmental Film Opening Night

A Passion for Oysters – Environmental Short, TRT: 45 min -- USA Directed by Dave Harp. Oysters are nothing much to look at. Yet the passion for this humble shellfish has inspired shooting wars, piracy, social and environmental conflict, and libraries of legislation for more than two centuries. Why? Contact: Sandy Cannon- Brown Live

Rob & The Litter Buggie – Environmental Short, TRT: 8 min, USA Directed by Rob Simmons, Maryland filmmaker Rob Simmons rides Caroline County backroads to see just how much litter is out there. Live

WindShipped – Documentary Short, TRT: 39 min -- USA Directed by Jon Bowermaster. For the past three years the 65-foot Schooner Apollonia has been delivering goods along the Hudson River by sail. It turns out buyers prefer the non-polluting, anti-Amazon way of making deliveries. Contact: Jon Bowermaster, Live

Panel Discussion with Dave Harp, Tom Horton, Jon Bowermaster and Rob Simmons moderated by Ryan Conrath, Associate Professor of English in the Film Program at Salisbury University.

Sunday, October 1, 2023

12Noon – 1:20PM

The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall, Documentary Feature, TRT: 60 min.
Directed by Judith Dwan Hallet. Jane Goodall’s life-long work studying chimpanzees, the first in-depth profile on her life. Live
Q & A with Judith Dwan Hallet, director of The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall.

1:20 – 2:10PM Outdoors Maryland – MPT Television Segment, Natural History, TRT: 26:45 min, Three shorts about Maryland’s natural resources: one woman’s quest to revive the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population; volunteers search for historic Mason-Dixon line markers to save them; Maryland’s Monarch Butterflies and efforts to preserve their numbers. Live

Q & A with Sarah Sampson, Senior Producer of Outdoors Maryland/MPT and Irene Magafan, Producer of World Wildlife Fund and CFF Board Member.

2:10 – 3:30PM -- Animations @ Ebenezer Theater

Freedom Swimmer – Animation, TRT: 15 min, United Kingdom. Directed by Olivia Martin-McGuire. One of the most extraordinary mass escapes of the 20th century that tells the tale of a grandfather’s perilous swim from China to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution. Live

Tying The Knot – Animation, TRT: 2:17 min Directed by Ryan Wilton Zlatniski.
A String feels overwhelmed by his tedious life, but finds comfort in a new relationship. Live

Something Fishy – Animated Short, TRT: 3:30 min, Directed by Christina Woo.
Sara is getting ready to go on a date with her new boyfriend, but Jessica, Sara’s pet goldfish notices something not quite right about him. Live

ETC. – Animation, TRT: 6:18 min, Spain, Directed by Pablo Millan. A man gets caught in a rut due to a dominating presence. Live

An Elliptic Expedition, Animation, TRT: 2 min, USA Directed by Kristian Panashe Chitate. A visual music animation showing a ball on a short rhythmic adventure.

The Flying Sailor, TRT: 7:53 min, Canada, Directed by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis. Two ships collide in a harbour, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward. With ears ringing, blood pulsing and guts heaving, he soars high above the mayhem and towards the great unknown. A bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy. Live

Mary, Animation, TRT: 1:30 min, Directed by Wyatt Carson. The hijinx of a cat’s exploration of a bedroom at night. Live

Bug Box, Animation, TRT: 2:30 min, Directed by Kat Navarro. A box full of bugs, snails, and the fleeting childhood memories of summer.

Wish You Were Here – Animation, TRT: 5:42 min, Directed by Colman Hallinan.

A visual poem written as a letter from a brother to his deceased younger sister that explores grief. Live

Q & A with the filmmakers and students including Kristian Panashe Chitate who directed An Elliptic Expedition; and Kat Navarro who directed Bug Box and Wyatt Carson who directed Mary will be on hand to answer questions. Phil Davis, currently a professor of animation and digital art in the department of Art and Design at Towson University and Founder and Director of Programming for the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival will moderate the panel.

3:30 – 4:50PM Student Shorts

A River Called Home – Student Environmental Short, TRT: 26:46 min Directed by Jess Wiegandt. A River Called Home follows the journey and challenges of four women who launch at the headwaters of the James River in Virginia and paddle to the Chesapeake Bay. Live

Lorraine – Student Short, TRT: 9:21 min – USA Directed by Jeremiah Battle. In this documentary, Lorraine Battle speakes on the death of her son, Calvin Antoine Battle. One of the biggest burdens a soul can carry is the loss of a loved one. Live Shifting Tides – Student Short, TRT: 9:18 min, USA Directed by James Mertz. Multi-generational watermen in southern Maryland try to adapt and survive in the face of climate change, rising costs and increased regulation. Contact: James Mertz Live

East of the River – Student Short, TRT: 11:27, USA Directed by Amin El Siwi and Phil Bouknight. The story of the Kenilworth area from its days as a burn-pit landfill to its reclamation as a park. Live

A Reason for Hope – Student Environmental Short, TRT: 4:54, USA Directed by Mason Mirabile. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and how one community is embracing the change. Live

Q & A with the filmmakers including Jess Wiegandt who directed A River Called Home, Jeremiah Battle who directed Lorraine, James Mertz who directed Shifting Tides and Mason Mirabile who directed A Reason for Hope. This panel will be moderated by Kimberly Skyrme, director and producer of Butterfly Films and CFF Board Member.

4:50 – 5:30PM Comedy Shorts Block

In a Funk – Comedy Short, TRT: 6:40 min, USA A film about a character feeling funky. Live

Another Man’s Trash – Comedy Short, TRT: 30 min, USA Directed by John Bukovec. A heartfelt comedy, follows the life of Theodore Fuocco, a successful yet embittered businessman in Philadelphia who comes to terms with his personal issues when he crosses paths with a talented, down-on-his-luck homeless man. Live

5:45 – 7:15PM – Documentary Feature – Closing Night Film

The Automat – Documentary Feature, TRT: 79.3 min -- USA Directed by Lisa Hurwitz. The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. Live

Q & A with director Lisa Hurwitz following the screening moderated by Martin Zell, CFF President.

Virtual Festival Schedule: October 2 - 8, 2023

Environmental Shorts

Chesapeake, A Love Letter to a Watershed – Environmental Short, TRT: 16 min USA
Directed by Eric and Andrew Braker. Fly fishing throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Dear President Biden – Environmental Short, TRT: 39 min, USA
Directed by Jon Bowermaster. As a candidate Joe Biden called climate change an “existential threat” and promised the issue would be part of everything he did as President. Three years into the office…how’s he doing? Front line activists across the country weigh in and ask for the President’s help.

Eroding History – Environmental Feature, TRT: 27:47 min. USA
Directed by Andre Chung. A climate justice story focused on two Black communities on Deal Island that are losing their land and history.

Comedy Shorts

Becoming Lucy – Comedy Short, TRT: 19:17 min.
Directed by Jared Elkin. Confronted by probing questions from her biographer, an elderly Lucille Ball recalls the steps it took for her to realize the iconic television series I Love Lucy.

Documentary Features

Bombers and Masterpieces: Recovering the Art, Life and Diary of Rene Gimpel – Documentary Feature, TRT: 74.8 min
Directed by Greg Faller and Lillian Bowers. The life, times, and diary of Rene Gimpel, a Jewish art dealer and resistance fighter who died in the Neuengamme concentration camp. The film also describes his heirs’ ongoing efforts to recover artworks stolen by the Nazis.

2020: Chaos and Hope – Documentary Feature, TRT: 96.4 min
Directed by June Beallor. A time capsule of a year unlike any other. The film brings us face-to-face with the dramatic and emotional moments of 2020. Where do we go from here? It’s up to us to decide.

Delmarva and the Ground for Change – Documentary Feature, TRT: 89 min, USA
Three family-owned Delmarva farms and the efforts their owners are making to conserve and preserve soils threatened by climate change.

Don’t Put Her Down – Documentary Feature, TRT: 32:07 min, USA
Directed by Julia Golonka. Hazel Dickens’along with her musical partner Alice Gerard, became the first women to front a bluegrass band and reflects on the role of women in bluegrass today.

Mixed – Documentary Feature, TRT: 56:54, USA
Directed by Caty Borum & Leena Jayaswal. What it means to be a bi-racial child living in a mixed-race family in a fraught moment in American life.

Whitman Brook – Documentary Feature, TRT: 65.6 min
Directed by Ben Silberfarb. An abandoned apple orchard, rescued by chance, thrives under the caring hands of the people driven to rejuvenate this Vermont hillside.

Documentary Shorts

By My Side – Documentary Short, TRT: 30 min
Directed by Vicki Topaz, Wynn Padula. By My Side tells a story of a journey and return, of veterans and their families rescued by their service dogs from the pitfalls of PTSD to a promising sense of hope and restoration.

Call in the Creche – Documentary Short, TRT: 10:55 min
Directed by Tim Guthrie. A mini-doc about a creche in Paparoa, New Zealand, focused on saving an iconic species of kiwi, and how that relates to protecting the entire ecosystem.

Drawing & Customs 21 – Documentary Short, TRT: 13:08 min
Iran Directed by Isa Babaei. Nature around us is full of regular and natural lines and shapes, but with the intervention of humans, the natural order is disappearing and irreparable damage is being done.

Kent County’s Storied Landscape: Place – Past & Present – Documentary Short, TRT: 26:46 min
Directed by Frank Batavick and Susanne C Stahley. How is history expressed in a landscape? Kent County, Maryland is unique in its continuity of working agricultural lands and waterways that embody patterns of life from prehistoric time to today.

Mapping Love – Documentary Short, TRT: 29:58 min
Directed by Mary Alice McMillan. Filmmaker Mary Alice McMillan explores the geography of her family past to learn why every woman in her family has developed breast cancer and where her own breast cancer related genetic may have originated.

Outside Line – Documentary Short, TRT: 16:50 min, USA
Directed by Jack Gordon. As one of the only Black drivers and having no connections in the sport, Rath Caruth is a relative outsider in NASCAR. Nevertheless, he has forged an unlikely path from racing to the sports penultimate series, building stardom on the way.

Spokespeople – Documentary Short, TRT: 23:30, USA
Directed by Ryan Mekenian. For Los Angeles natives living in the early 1900s, bicycles and streetcars shared the road as our primary modes of transportation. But the arrival of the freeway effectively wiped them out. Today, a collective of cycling communities fight for protected bike lanes and road safety, determined to bring a new era of mobility justice to the city.

Symphony of Courage – Documentary Short, TRT: 29:45
Directed by Beth Mendelson, Symphony of Courage tells the story of Farida and Zohra Ahmadi. Story of the last students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music to be evacuated from the country after the Taliban takeover.

The Red Creek Sessions – Documentary Short, TRT: 30:20 min. USA
Directed by Justin Harris. Explores the entire Cheat River Watershed, showcasing the world class whitewater and geology offered in this area as a result of the unique geology of Northern West Virginia.

Waves Apart – Documentary Short, TRT: 24:55, USA
Directed by Josh Greene. California surfer Josh Greene faced bullying and anti-semitism even riding the waves. The story here of the surfing culture, its underbelly, and his use of spirituality to overcome it.

Narrative Features

Mickey Hardaway – Narrative Feature, TRT: 105.5 min, USA
Directed by Marcellus Cox. A young sketch artist agrees to an in-home therapy session with a renowned psychiatrist as his life begins spiraling out of control after years of physical and verbal abuse.

Narrative Shorts

A Pink Moon Comes – Narrative Short, TRT: 23:34 min, Netherlands
Director Yannick de Waal. A lonely homeless man searches for a last sign of hope, hidden in a dark world. While the darkness surrounds him more and more, a young deaf girl walks past.

The Code of Family – Narrative Short, TRT: 14:49 min, USA
Directed by Kayla Sun. After the death of her husband, an Asian grandma decides to learn computer science to fulfill his last wish, but almost jeopardizes the relationship with the rest of the family as she tries to keep a secret.

The Conductor – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:30 min, USA
Directed by Graham Goldstein. An inside look into LA’s top waiter – arguably, the world’s.

PICKUP – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:34 min, USA
Directed by Christine Delp. When a rideshare to the airport takes an unsettling turn, both passenger and driver struggle to keep control.

REQUIEM – Narrative Short, TRT:24:54 min, United Kingdom
Directed by Emma Gilbertson. Requiem is set in 1605, against the backdrop of the witch trials. It’s a coming of age story, following Evelyn as she engages in a game of cat and mouse against her father, Minister Gilbert, in order to be with Mary, the woman she loves.

Rolling In The Deep – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:20 min – USA
Directed by Marcellus Cox. The true story of a WWII veteran and decorated member of the Tuskegee Airmen, who returns home to honor his late Father by having a meal at the local ‘Whites Only’ diner.

Unheard Melodies – Narrative Short, TRT: 30 min , USA
Directed by Brenna Mcdonough and Janna Allen. Based on true events, a story of undying love and commitment, albeit brief and bittersweet.

Wrap Me in a Sheet – Narrative Short, TRT: 17:26, USA
Directed by Britt Harris and Molly Muse. Two sisters travel to the Washington coast to unearth a dark family secret.

Student Shorts

Taste of Home – Student Short, TRT: 29:07 min, Germany
Directed by ni Võ. Mai (17), a Vietnamese girl who was trafficked to Germany, has to earn money for her family back in Vietnam but is exploited and sold on by her smugglers. She flees and asks her new friend Linh (11) for help whose mother is part of the system herself. Suddenly, not only Mai but also Linh has to choose between freedom and family.

Trashman – Student Short, TRT: 15:24 min, USA
Directed by Lawrence Green. A Washingtonian contemplates moving his family out of the city in the face of pollution and litter.

Animations

A Letter with my Sword – Animation, TRT: 3 min, USA
Directed by Emma Barany. Through swordplay and commands, our main figure, Emma, explores the structures and challenges of her past relationships. Ultimately, this leads her to the ones most important to her.

Arctic Song – Animation, TRT: 6:25 min, Canada
Directed by Germaine Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher and Louise Flaherty. Animated short about Inuit creation stories from the Iglulik region in Nunavut.

Four Metagraph Animations – Animations, TRT: 1:53, USA
Directed by Colin Goldberg. Four Techspressionist animations from artist Colin Goldberg’s Metagraph collection.

Davey’s Lullaby – Animation, TRT: 9:29 min, USA
Directed by Adam Deyoe. A spirited, middle-aged man with Down Syndrome faces an uncertain future when his mother, is no longer able to help him.

The Lunatics – Animation, TRT: 3 min, USA
Directed by Jim Doran. While searching for “animals of alien origin” in deep space, a crew of astronauts discover it’s all fun and games until someone breaks the gravity generator.

Color – Animated short, TRT: 1 min. USA
Directed by Hetty Ruth White. A whimsical animation about the creation of art.

Dates:
September 30 - October 1, 2023 -- Live Festival
October 2 - 8, 2023

Locations:
The Avalon Theatre – 40 E. Dover Street, Easton, MD
The Academy Art Museum – 106 South Street, Easton, MD
The Ebenezer Theater – 17 S. Washington Street, Easton, MD

Click Here for Live Festival Tickets.
Click Here for Virtual Festival Tickets.

Click Here for more information.