Eric’s filmmaking captures the beating heart of a story. With a strong background in theatre as an actor/ director/ kids performer/ writer and producer- he knows whether a story should utilize conventional methods or be unleashed with wild imagination.
The film deals with a universal immigrant problem that suddenly enters the life of a woman.
Güzide is a tailor. She has a routine life, strictly adheres to his own rules. One day Leyla comes to Güzide’s house with a little girl. Leyla asks Guzide to take care of the child for a few days, says that she will go out of town for work and will get her back. The tailor does not accept. Leyla leaves the house on the pretext of speaking on the phone and does not return. This little girl (Ecca) touches Güzide’s past and makes sure she doesn’t feel alone. One day Leyla comes back. On that day, Güzide feels her loneliness again.
My name is Ecem Çelik. I was born in Karşıyaka, İzmir. I studied Film and Digital Media at Izmir University of Economics. I decided to study cinema at the university thanks to my interest in cinema which started in high school years. After completing my internship at TRT and Umay Film, I did fashion photography and backstage shots. In parallel to my education, I worked in independent short films such as art direction, directing and assistant directing and photography. I worked with Syrian children in the social responsibility project prepared for Facebook Global Digital Challenge called ‘Look Like a Child’ and I was the social media & production coordinator of the project.
Weeks after Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico, a lonely middle-aged man finds himself obsessing with his squatter neighbor, a young closeted and tormented athlete who insistently pursues his attention. The movie deals with fragility issues of living in a forgotten paradise, in the world’s oldest colony, still half-torn, half-supported, with half-citizens, half-gods, and half-demons.
Semanas después del paso del huracán María por Puerto Rico, un hombre mayor que vive en soledad se obsesiona con su joven vecino colono, un atormentado atleta en el “closet” que lo busca con insistencia. La película revela temas sobre la fragilidad de sobrevivir en una isla semi-destrozada, con apoyo a medias a sus semi-ciudadanos, que habitan en lo que aun es la colonia más antigua y que una vez fuera el paraíso.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Edgar is a UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television alumni. During his years as an actor, Edgar has worked with several theater companies across the USA, including LATEA in NY and the Denver Center Theater Company. He has written and directed a couple of television series in PR, premiered several spanish language versions of well-known theater pieces and most recently directed the awaited revival of the classic Latin American musical La Verdadera Historia de Pedro Navaja, as well as the first bilingual version of Lisa Loomer’s Living Out (Casa Ajena). As a writer, in 2016 Edgar received the IBEREX, a Spain Education and Culture Ministry Grant to become part of the Einstein created Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid and worked with IBERMEDIA to develop a full-length script (Lovely) about political corruption and human trafficking in the Caribbean. Edgar’s short film “La Ráfaga (The Gust) is now being presented in several film festivals around the world, including Roze Filmdagen, Outshine, Reeling Chicago, Rincón International Film Festival, Dances with Films in Los Angeles and Puerto Rico Queer Film Festival, among others.
Saudade is a short narrative film about two women in modern India. Geet is a young small-town immigrant with big dreams, headed to the city. Annie is a city-bred homemaker whose dreams have long since faded. Though they lead starkly different lives, they are brought together by Saudade – the memory of a dream they each once dared to have, and a burning desire to achieve it.
The film is an official selection with several international film festivals across India, the US, Canada, UK, and Italy thus far, and has won awards for Best Original Score and Best Film on Women.
Mark D’Cruz is an artist-entrepreneur and founder of CruZor Productions, an Indie Film Production Company.
‘Saudade’ is Mark’s first short film as Director. Prior to this, he wrote the original screenplay of his first feature film, ‘DaEMON The Mirror Lies’ – a multiple award winning genre film across several international film festivals. Both ‘DaEMON The Mirror Lies’ and ‘Saudade’ have also been produced, scripted, edited and sound designed by him. ‘DaEMON’ also had Mark perform in an award-winning supporting actor role. The film is now streaming internationally on Amazon Prime (except India and Japan).
In addition, Mark has performed in various theatre productions and also owns an online art gallery.
Tanxuan Shi completed his MFA in filmmaking from New York Film Academy. He directed the first commercial short Misdirection in New Academic Style at Beijing Film Academy and devoted himself to explore the localization of “Movie Universal” during his postgraduate stage in Hollywood. His film Lip Reader: Game of Detective won the “Best New Chinese Filmmaker Award” at the 23rd LA Shorts Los Angeles International Short Film Festival which is certified by the Academy Award.
Born in 1991
Graduated from the director of the film from the Iran Broadcasting University
Making several short documentary and story short films
Winner of numerous awards from national and international festivals
Born 1986 in Mazandaran, Iran. 2011- BA in Particle Physics, Mazandaran University. 2015- BA in cinema, Iranian Youth Cinema Society. An interest in cinema led Askarpour to begin studying editing and after effect and work in short film and documentaries. He graduated of cinema in IYCS. His first short film, Frame 2017. To date, he has made four independent short films and work as a Editor and after effect supervising in many projects. Now he teaching cinema in IYCS.
Frame 2017 Selected in Five Continents International Film Festival and South Cinematographic Academy Film & Arts and won award in Apadana Film Festival.
Short Biography: Amin*a Maher (b. Tehran, 1992) is an Iranian queer filmmaker whose works deal with the themes of gender and sexual violence in relation to political power and social taboos. He began his cinematic activity, as the main actor in Abbas Kiarostami’s “Ten” which featured the real-life relationship between his mother and Amin and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes International Film Festival. Since then he has acted on multiple Films worldwide. His first short film was Sweet Gin and Cold Wine, followed by Orange and One Window Will Suffice. His short film, Letter to my mother was selected at numerous film festivals around the world including 36th Kasseler Dokfest, 34th Mix Milano Film Festival and 15th Shorts México. The film won several awards including the best short documentary on Human Right at Venice Intercultural Film Festival and Award of Recognition at Impact Docs Award. Maher currently studies his MA in directing at Babelsberg University Konrad Wolf.
The film deals with a universal immigrant problem that suddenly enters the life of a woman.
Güzide is a tailor. She has a routine life, strictly adheres to his own rules. One day Leyla comes to Güzide’s house with a little girl. Leyla asks Guzide to take care of the child for a few days, says that she will go out of town for work and will get her back. The tailor does not accept. Leyla leaves the house on the pretext of speaking on the phone and does not return. This little girl (Ecca) touches Güzide’s past and makes sure she doesn’t feel alone. One day Leyla comes back. On that day, Güzide feels her loneliness again.
My name is Ecem Çelik. I was born in Karşıyaka, İzmir. I studied Film and Digital Media at Izmir University of Economics. I decided to study cinema at the university thanks to my interest in cinema which started in high school years. After completing my internship at TRT and Umay Film, I did fashion photography and backstage shots. In parallel to my education, I worked in independent short films such as art direction, directing and assistant directing and photography. I worked with Syrian children in the social responsibility project prepared for Facebook Global Digital Challenge called ‘Look Like a Child’ and I was the social media & production coordinator of the project.
Feelings change quickly. Love becomes loss only to become love again. Ionuț and Călin have recently broken up. When they accidentally meet again, their feelings resurface, along with the tensions that drove them apart. Two men coming from different worlds, a relationship that takes them beyond their own limits.
In 2007 Sorin graduated from the National University of Theatre and Cinematography in Bucharest, where he studied Acting. In 2010 he co-wrote with Vera Ion an autobiographical theatre play: “Ich Clown” the story of a young Romanian actor immigrating to Germany to work as a street artist. In 2010, alongside writer Vera Ion, he founded and started teaching in the “Write Yourself” workshop in Bucharest where participants write scripts documenting their personal stories. Here, Sorin started to direct short films, following stories developed in the workshop. In 2015, “A girl I went to school with” won the Villa Kult Residency Award at the Next IFF in Bucharest. In August 2016 Sorin is selected for the Sarajevo Talent Campus. In 2018 “Ionuț and Călin” is selected in the National Competition at the Transilvania IFF in Cluj and Next IFF in Bucharest where it receives the Award for Best Romanian Short Film. In 2019 Ionut and Calin was selected to be screened at the Cannes Court Metrage and received an Official Selection from the PÖFF Shorts Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn and the Pride Pictures Film Festival in Karlsruhe. It was also selected in competition at the Este Film Festival 2019 in Sibiu and the Gay Film Nights Film Festival in Cluj.
The story is about a teenage girl named Delaram who has Down syndrome, and because of the genetic disorder that has caused her particular appearance and limited verbal expression; normal children and society think of her as mentally retarded. Delaram wants their judgments that, in her view, have created a border between them, to be removed.
34 years old resident of Iran – Tehran. Graduated in film directing and I am Iranian filmmaker ,
in the Screenwriting class mr Asghar Farhadi , I was Joe’s art And I saw specialized writing training ,
I work in the field of screenwriting, directing and editing cinema
Valérie Lecomte wrote, directed, played in and co-produced ‘Claire de Lune’, her first Canadian short film. She had already written, directed, played in and produced a short film, in Paris, before immigrating to Canada. Now French and Canadian, she created Iridis Production with a co-producer, in Toronto, their goal being to keep on producing bilingual films, embracing French and Canadian cultures.
Filmography:
À Coeur ouvert (2005)
Claire de Lune (2020)
My name is Justin Rhys Grant I am a Walrpiri/ Jawoyn man and a film director. I began my career in the film industry 11 years ago. Initially as an actor with a Diploma of Theatre Arts from Victoria University; I then went on as a writer and progressed into completing my Masters of Film and T.V. also at Victoria University.
I graduated in 2018 with Honour Marks and won special Recognition Award for my graduating film – A Piece of Us. I was also nominated for a Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Award in 2013 for Dingoes Baby which I acted in.
I was born in Katherine – NT and grew up listening to my Elders sharing with me their dream time stories from a young age. They always taught me that a story is gifted to you and you must honour it’s life and respect it as a gift to you in your life journey. I am now a story teller for Film and T.V.; currently I’m working on five short films in Adelaide and a music video clip in Melbourne. I have started my own company called Witchenini Entertainment. Within this company we offer Indigenous protocol training for all staff in order to gather and collect traditional stories in the right way, following the lore of communities. We hold high the cultural protocols and respect for each and every Indigenous People treating them as individuals.
My name is Ecem Çelik. I was born in Karşıyaka, İzmir. I studied Film and Digital Media at Izmir University of Economics. I decided to study cinema at the university thanks to my interest in cinema which started in high school years. After completing my internship at TRT and Umay Film, I did fashion photography and backstage shots. In parallel to my education, I worked in independent short films such as art direction, directing and assistant directing and photography. I worked with Syrian children in the social responsibility project prepared for Facebook Global Digital Challenge called ‘Look Like a Child’ and I was the social media & production coordinator of the project.
I am an emerging Caribbean director based in Toronto who is focused on creating slice-of-life and fantasy stories within the diasporic community.
NEXT STOP, a four-part anthology series, was made out of a desire to show the day-to-day chaos of living Black in Toronto. The stories we would often come across online were either highly-animated parody videos or overly-serious dramas. So the question was always, “What about the people in-between?” Where were the ‘mandem’ with heavy Toronto accents but could also be silly, serious, and everything in-between? People like us.
Throughout the show’s episodes, characters get into petty arguments about the best TTC station Jamaican Patties or existential crises about finding a job with a liveable wage. What ties them together is the idea of, yes, the silly and serious, but also survival amidst the rising costs of this city. With NEXT STOP, we can express these concerns with a laugh.
Caitlynn was born and raised in the Georgia suburbs and received her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Performance Studies with an acting concentration. After college, Caitlynn moved to Atlanta to pursue a career in film, both behind and in front of the camera. After dipping her toe into many different departments, Caitlynn joined IATSE 479 as an set electrician and continues to book work on union sets. Simultaneously, she looks for independent projects to explore her passion for directing and pursue opportunities to practice different roles in the film industry. With the release of “The Unsuperheroes” web series, Caitlynn made her debut as an indie director, and hopes to pursue other directing opportunities while maintaining her career as a union electrician.
My name is Ecem Çelik. I was born in Karşıyaka, İzmir. I studied Film and Digital Media at Izmir University of Economics. I decided to study cinema at the university thanks to my interest in cinema which started in high school years. After completing my internship at TRT and Umay Film, I did fashion photography and backstage shots. In parallel to my education, I worked in independent short films such as art direction, directing and assistant directing and photography. I worked with Syrian children in the social responsibility project prepared for Facebook Global Digital Challenge called ‘Look Like a Child’ and I was the social media & production coordinator of the project.