The 4th Annual Norwalk Film Festival Is Happening This Month!

Schedule

Friday, January 19th

7:00PM-9:00PM

Opening Night Party

Saturday, January 20th

Wall Street Theater

Student Shorts

Dance Robert Dance

Director: Dylan Hunter Cole

An off-kilter man wants to enter his life-sized doll into a talent show, but society's cruel treatment towards him leaves his life tearing apart at the seams…

Blue Hour

Director: J.D. Shields

Two personal journeys intersect when a struggling young photographer is hired for a cheap last minute portrait gig. The unfolding photo session, while transient, leaves an indelible mark on both women.

Esmeralda

Director: Jennifer Greco

When a young woman, Esmeralda, returns to her native land to confront her mother about a traumatic childhood memory, the two women forge a newfound bond through a shared experience.

Exodus

Director: Emily Merola

A young nun is slowly converted by a vampire in the woods.

Eye Love You

Director: Sofia Parisotto

A 26-year-old ophthalmologist named Frederick goes on countless speed dates, repeatedly making eye jokes. After repulsing each date with his humor and unsettling personality, he remains alone until one day he stumbles upon a glass eye which, he believes, belongs to his soulmate. Iris, a 28-year-old woman freshly out of surgery, approaches him with a bandage covering one eye. As he discovers she shares his humor and appreciation for eyes, Frederick finally finds his soulmate.

Invisible Ties

Director: Megan Du Plessis

Invisible Ties is a documentary about my back to South Africa due to a family medical emergency.  This trip was all about remembering my grandmother and rediscovering my ties with my grandfather, my family, and a country that captivated my heart.

Marcel The Muscle Man

Director: Michael Joseph Murray

A muscular but meek fella strains under the pressures of masculinity and struggles to find work. After serendipitously landing a circus strongman gig, he proves a talented performer, but is he really man enough for the job?

PTO

Director: Taylor Becker

After receiving news that his vacation request had been denied, a burned-out employee deals with the repercussions of having the audacity to ask his manager for some time off.

Saturday, January 20 - 10:00AM - 12:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Connecticut Documentary Shorts

The Championship Rounds

Director:  John Spinnato

The Championship Rounds is a short documentary highlighting the boxing/workout program for people with Parkinsons and movement disorders that takes place at the Whaling City Athletic Club in New London, CT.

Climate Emergency

Director: Robert Menefee

This film shows ordinary people acting locally by taking to the streets of New Haven to demand that TD Bank stop funding fossil fuels. The climate crisis is an ongoing existential threat; the people’s efforts to fight climate catastrophe deserve recognition. I hope this film will inspire more people to join protests and express outrage.

Don't be Dainty...It's Derby

Director: Alix Speyer Bacher

Don’t Be Dainty..It's Derby, shines a light on the transgressive and alternative culture of the women who play this roller derby.. The sport is a highly athletic, full contact, take no prisoners sport, played on quad skates. 

How to Paint a Peace Sign

Director:  Rick Gomez

How to Paint a Peace Sign is a short documentary about an artist who teaches viewers a technique to paint prominent peace symbols and, in the process, gives his audience the tools necessary to cope with grief.

The Ladder

Director: Christopher Thomas Orrico

Throughout his life, family has been something Tom Orrico stands for. This short documentary takes a look back into his history and his perspective on his family. Multiple events lead him to being the man he is today, passing life lessons onto his own children, one being the filmmaker of this project, Christopher Orrico.

Made in Bridgeport

Director: Agustina Aranda

Constantly working to have a chance in the spotlight, the Bridgeport fashion scene is far from underground. A documentary about the hand-made designs, art, expression, hopes and dreams of an inner city’s fashion community.

Say Something

Director: Agustina Aranda

Say Something is a short experimental documentary where Katie Agustina Aranda explores her relationship with her father, Panfilo Aranda—a Paraguayan immigrant, workaholic, and amateur videographer. 

Tough For A Girl

Director: JD Freda

A new generation of female athletes is taking shape in Norwalk Public Schools - this time on the wrestling mats. National Champion Callie Gilchrist and High School All-American Rylee Donohue are looking to lead that next charge out of Norwalk.

Saturday, January 20 - 12:00PM - 2:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Documentary Shorts

Accidental Artist

Director: Paulo Araujo

Accidental Artist tells the story of Alder Crocker, who at the age of 55 suffered a freak accident leaving him paralyzed and with a traumatic brain injury. Devastated, Alder believed his life was over. Until an encounter with an art therapist revealed extraordinary painting abilities he never had before. Diagnosed with Acquired Savant Syndrome, Alder's new ability transformed him from someone he thought he knew, to someone capable of things he could have never imagined.

Appreciation - Tomiko Morimot West

Director: Michael Dwyer, Chuck Gomez

Tomiko Morimoto West watched from her schoolyard as a low-flying B-29 dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing her mother and other family members. Thirteen-year-old Tomiko searched the devastated city for the body of her grandfather to save him the injustice of a mass burial, cremating him under mountain tree branches. She went on to marry an American GI, become a professor at Vassar College, and at age 90 has only one wish: that world leaders work together for global peace.

The Perfect Shot: Antartica

Director: Quinn Halleck

"The Perfect Shot" is an inventive and captivating documentary that profiles award-winning fine art photographer Artem Shestakov as he attempts to photograph the most remote locations on the planet affected by the climate crisis.

Resurgence

Director: Krushan Naik

Ryan De Vries, a professional canyoneer, encounters a near-death experience in the canyons of Southern Utah. Post the accident, his friends and family witness a changed person as Ryan battles with himself due to the trauma caused by it—crippling his everyday life. The documentary highlights Ryan's struggles after losing his identity, along with the disparity in his journey of physical recovery, mental healing, and emotional resurgence, and how they affect one another.

Self Portrait of Lee Holin

Director: Elliott Atkinson, Brendan Hickey

Lee Holin is a New York Based Street Artist

Unredeemable

Director: Todd Kapostasy

Unredeemable. It was this single word on a Ukrainian state document in the 1990s that would attempt to define and condemn the life of a seven-year-old boy. But through adoption and perseverance, adaptive golfer Alex Fourie overcame trauma and found his purpose. Award-winning actor Liev Schreiber narrates Alex’s story.

Saturday, January 20 - 2:00PM - 4:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Narrative Shorts

A Mind Cannot Touch

Director: Geoffrey Prather

A Mind Cannot Touch is a short film about loss and how one grieving mother will go to any lengths to bring her daughter back from the dead. The film asks, "What if you could bring a loved one back after their physical body has died?" and explores the moral implications of this hypothetical.

Dead Enders

Directors: Fidel Ruiz-Healy, Tyler Walker

A disaffected, young gas-station clerk on the midnight shift must learn to give a damn about something after malevolent mind-controlling bugs are set loose by irresponsible oil drillers.

Eyecatcher

Director: Jun Shimizu

In the heart of Koreatown, Los Angeles, a young woman must protect her ailing father from a sinister entity.

Flounder

Director: Sam Cutler-Kreutz, David Cutler-Kreutz

Two young men journey through a dangerous waterpolo ritual that will test their friendship.

Flutz

Director: Ryan McCown

A rivalry between two figure skaters and their coaches. And a witch.

Fractal

Director: Kiarra Goldberg

Grace experiences a miscarriage after a first date leads to an accidental pregnancy. Fractal follows the story of her struggle across three different realities; memory, present-day, and a dream of what could have been. How do you mourn the loss of something that you never had?

Into the Thicket

Director: Devany Greenwood

A young woman struggles with her fractured home life, failing to find common ground with her volatile yet emotionally repressed mother. Longing for a maternal figure, she continues to be haunted by visions of a mystical woman, and soon, dream intertwines with reality as she discovers a deeper connection to the mysterious lady of the woods.

The Moms

Director: Katie Goodman

5 Moms. 7 minutes. One Prius. And 432 opinions they will die for. Welcome to Moms night out.

Nu Metal Will Never Die

Director: Colter Harris

It's 1999, and an aspiring Altoona, PA nu-metal band practice for their first show on New Year's Eve, Y2K. Derek, their overzealous frontman, desperate to break through and leave his hometown, believes nu-metal is the "music of the future," but his newfound obsession with the genre alienates his bandmates.

Saturday, January 20 - 4:00PM - 6:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Happy Hour - Filmmaker Socializing

Saturday, January 20 - 6:00PM-7:00PM

The Featherweight - Narrative Feature Film

The Featherweight

Director: Robert Kolodny

Set in 1964, a camera crew follows Willie Pep, retired featherweight boxing champion. Down and out in Hartford CT, married to a woman half his age and with a drug-addled son and mounting debts, Pep decides to make a return to the ring.

Saturday, January 20 - 7:00PM - 10:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Saturday, January 20th

Norwalk Public Library 

11:00AM-12:00PM

Film Student/Professional Open Mixer 

Developing Your Doc - Panel

Saturday, January 20 - 12:00PM - 1:00PM 

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Social Media Crowdfunding - Panel

Saturday, January 20 - 1:00PM - 2:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Connecticut Student Shorts

The Audition

Director: Sadie Grey Murphy

A casting call goes wrong when a director calls actors in, but they don’t come back out.

Breaking the Stigma

Director: Jack Muscatello

'Breaking the Stigma', a student-made short documentary, presents the thoughts and opinions of several students and parents about the youth mental health crisis in the United States – and what it means for future generations that will enter an increasingly technologically-dependent society.

The Farmington Land Trust

Director: CJ Calcinari

Established in 1971, the Farmington Land Trust has been dedicated to preserving open space in perpetuity, protecting the environment and natural beauty of the town for future generations. This documentary film follows the inspiring story of the organization's founders and volunteers, who have worked tirelessly over the years to conserve and enhance the local ecosystems, and the impact their efforts have had on the community.

Haunting of Compo

Director: Caleb Martin Berger

Kolin, a student in his late teens, has recently found out that his house is on the brink of getting foreclosed. Out of fear of his family losing his childhood home, Kolin decides to start looking for ways to prevent foreclosure. 

Incoherence

Director: Emily Rodriguez

A birthday dinner reunion devolves into madness when a young painter realizes her closest relationships have changed beyond recognition.

Is That It?

Director: Simon Magnifico

A young writer looks for inspiration in all the wrong places.

To Somewhere, With Me

Director: Sarah Sewell

This is a coming-of-age short that follows the lives of two young women who live in a convent in the 1950s, Lena and Greta. Lena is disinterested in becoming a nun, but for Greta, becoming a nun is her calling. This film explores finding yourself and following your dreams in the face of adversity.

Wesley Part 1

Director: Parker Toth

A burglar enters the wrong home.

Saturday, January 20 - 2:00PM - 4:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Music Videos and Animation

Ghost Song

Director: Crystal Manich

Official Music Video for 'Ghost Song (Memories of Loving You)', by musician Nicole Morton. Shot entirely at Tarquin Studios, Bridgeport, CT, Spring 2023.

Lucky You're Mine

Director: Steven Santoro

A love song on the theme of mortality. The protagonist's mind shuffles through images of his own death, finally coming to peace with the idea.

Mirror Mirror

Director: Johannes DeYoung, Natalie Westbrook

A video collaboration between artists Johannes DeYoung and Natalie Westbrook, this hypnotic three-minute journey across varied topologies of light and shadow conjures an imaginative and unmapped terrain. Animated fragments of faces, spirited eyes, flora and fauna are drawn together in time, through a jungle of line and shape that pulsates to a spellbinding beat. The human experience and the natural world intertwine and breathe as one.

Money Talks

Director: Buster Comaskey

Music video regarding Buster Comaskey’s Alias, Money Talks.

Playboy Lover

Director: Wylie Soltes

Playboy Lover by Eli Larraud

Rattle

Director: Jaina Cipriano

Rattle by Superdown

Resurrection Under the Ocean

Director: Serkan Akta?

"Resurrection under the Ocean" is about the resurrection of a man who was helplessly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, after falling to the bottom of the ocean, with a symbolic narrative.

Saturday, January 20 - 4:00PM - 6:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Sunday, January 21st

Wall Street Theater

International Best of Fest

Correction Fluid

Director: Danial Abroushan

Parsa is in love with his student's sister. He finds out that Sara's family is having lunch with someone who might be a serious rival for him.

Country: Iran

For Child Never Born

Director: Afsaneh Aghanezhad, Vali Bagheri

A girl is seeing the loss of her father and her pregnant mothers effort that faces society problems. The girl is happy for her mother’s pregnancy but it seems to be a mirage because she has to make big decisions.

Country: Iran

Hedgehog

Director: D. Mitry

As the war starts in Ukraine, six years old Nina is sent to her grandma’s remote village. In the shack outside, Nina discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier.

Country: Ukraine

The Librarian

Director: Serkan Akta?

Mazhar, who works in a library and is so fond of books and languages that he knows the location of all the books in the library by heart, lives alone with his parrot, but cannot be at work on time the next morning because he reads until late.  After losing his job, he will not only look for a new job, but will make an inner journey that he will not say ‘yes’ to the result, but that he must accept involuntarily.

Country: Turkey

Our Males and Females

Director: Ahmad Alyaseer

A father and mother are faced with the painful task of washing and shrouding their deceased transgender daughter. Shrouding is an Islamic religious practice that is deemed obligatory to carry out upon death. But when no one agrees to wash her and shame falls onto the family, how far is the father willing to go to make sure his "son" is washed?

Country: Jordan

REM

Director: Muhammadreza Yarikia

The subject of this film is about a 36-year-old man who has an illness and cannot move his body when he wakes up. He is unemployed, lazy and a ****. It makes everything dirty and does not care about cleanliness. His wife suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and at the end of the film, she abuses her husband's illness and decides to kill him.

Country: Iran

You Think Although You are Not

Director: Salaheddin Noori

Navid and Forough are a happy couple who, despite the events that caused them to separate, experience an unusual way to stay together.

Country: Iran

Sunday, January 21 - 2:00PM - 4:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Connecticut Narrative Shorts

Be Nice to Fish

Director: Samuel B Russell

Two roommates fight about whether they should let the pizza delivery man use their bathroom, and the ethics of enjoying anchovy pizza in front of their new pet goldfish.

The Hanover Incident

Director: Charles Alexander Berlepsch

Hanover Project: A bunch of kids fight a monster in 1997 rural Ohio.

Inmate

Director: Enrique Lebron

Within the confines of his prison cell, a father falsely accused delves into the haunting psychological scars left by a rigged system and fractured relationships, forming a connection with a fellow inmate that challenges his perception of reality.

Kumquat

Director: Meeni Hardart

After suffering a heartbreaking loss, Amanda is haunted by hallucinations of the lingling-o- a Filipino fertility symbol.

The Locket

Director: Alec Asten

Charlotte is an influencer whose efforts to debunk supernatural legends catapulted her to internet stardom. Her next subject? Mary Hawthorne, a passenger aboard the S.S. Narragansett on the night it collided with another ship, caught fire, and sank off the coast of Mystic, Connecticut in 1880. Though locals claim that Mary continues to search for her young daughters, Charlotte remains skeptical. A mysterious locket and strange visions, however, transform her life into a living nightmare and force her to find the truth about Mary before she loses her grip on reality.

Not the Same Clarence

Director: Brian Russell

A man must come to terms with his fathers Alzheimer's disease.

Penny

Director: Caroline Duncan

Penny's story is filled with love and laughter but it is missing one thing. We don't often look at the women that are "childless NOT by choice". What does it do to a nurturing soul to be without the thing she always wanted, always assumed would be, where does she fit, will she survive the grief.

The Screens

Director: Erik Champney

When a patient in a psychiatric hospital engages with an unfamiliar visitor, he discovers the two might share a frightening connection.

Sunday, January 21 - 4:00PM - 6:00PM

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

6:00PM-7:00PM

Closing Ceremony -Audience Awards

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Sunday, January 21st

Norwalk Public Library

Family Shorts

Eye Spy

Director: Sarah Gaudoin

Famous detective James Blind can solve any case - if you don’t mind just grabbing the door for him.

The Firefly Jar

Director: Gary Fierro

A magician, some magic, and a wish. A walk down Reverie Rd. brings a young boy on a magical journey as he learns to cope with the recent passing of his mother in this wondrous telling of life after loss.

You Are Not Small

Director: Sherene Strausberg

A short film about how small people can have a big impact on the world.

Sunday, January 21 - 1:00PM - 2:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Becoming a Production Assistant - Panel

Sunday, January 22 - 2:00PM-3:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Artificial Intelligence in Filmmaking - Panel

Sunday, January 22 - 3:00PM - 4:00PM

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

One block away from Wall Street Theater - Ample parking on site

Buy Tickets

Date: January 19th - 21st, 2024

Venues: 

Wall Street Theater - 71 Wall Street, Norwalk, CT 06850

Norwalk Public Library - Upstairs Program Room - 1 Belden Ave, Norwalk, CT 06850

Click here for more information