2013 Online New England Film Festival

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Mongolia – Mining Challenges a Civilization

Sep 2013

2012 | Directed by Edward Nef

Mongolia is at the cusp of incredible growth, as its enormous mineral wealth is suddenly discovered and exploited by the western world. It has been called the Kuwait of East Asia. Billions of dollars are pouring into this land of less than three million people, whose population until recently was largely nomad. Can this traditional rural civilization, with a love for the land, withstand the muscle of the mining industry, as it tears up the countryside in a helter-skelter effort to maximize its sales, largely to China? Is Mongolia selling its birthright and future to the Chinese market? Greed, graft and corruption are lurking dangers — and yet, no one can deny that, if properly managed, Mongolia’s future has much to gain.

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Back Around: An Animated Ode to Portland, Maine

Sep 2013

Back Around: An Animated Ode to Portland, Maine
2013 | Directed by Shamus Alley

Back Around is an animated music video created by Shamus Alley. A graduate of the Maine College of Art, Shamus has always been looking for a way to marry his two loves: music and art. Portland, Maine landmarks and characters serve as the backdrop of the video with an animated version of the artist meandering through the non-linear landscape. Shamus spent the better part of a year drawing, digitizing, syncing and editing his video using Flash, After Effects and ProTools. The finished product retains a home-made feel with Shamus’ distinctive drawing style.

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Raising Emma

Sep 2013

2013 | Directed by Jeffrey Lin

Raising Emma examines the life of Emma, an adopted Asian American college student. Her story leads us from her experiences in an orphanage in China to growing up with her American family in Chicago.

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Constraints

Sep 2013

2013 | Directed by Eric P. Gulliver

Constraints is the story of a former nude model whose portrait is used to explore notions of exploitation vs. empowerment. While visualizing the tenuous line between “art” and “pornography,” the film extrapolates the details of the model’s former lifestyle: why it started, what happened at shoots, and why it ultimately wasn’t for her. Through aesthetic mystery and underlying tension, the documentary illuminates certain paradoxes of representation — the difference between intent and viewership. Told through the words of a former model, this tale of personal regret is made even more urgent because “what goes on the Internet, stays there forever.”

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Selina Trieff Will Not Stop

Sep 2013

2012 | Directed by Marnie Crawford Samuelson

Artist Selina Trieff haltingly makes her way to her easel and gets ready to paint. And insists she will keep painting and drawing until her brush or pen drops from her hand.

Selina Trieff Will Not Stop is a humorous and touching portrait of a fearless American artist. Trieff has been called an American original by New York Times art critic John Russell.

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Cotton Candy

Sep 2013

2013 | Directed by Daphna Mero

Laundromat. A woman is sitting and looking at spinning laundry drum while she eats a cotton candy. Her hands become sticky and she becomes dirty, a violent encounter with a stranger resurfaces. Her action of eating in the present merges with the past memory; the Laundromat becomes both an interior and exterior space filled with cotton candy. The machine’s repetitive noise fills the Laundromat and dictates the movement inside it. The sweetness becomes too sweet, sticky and soiling. And she is spinning. This non-genre film combines elements from Video-art, Video-dance and fictional-cinema.

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Something Different: A Working Gristmill

Sep 2013

2013 | Directed by Erin Murphy

Over the past half-century, water-powered grain mills in Pennsylvania either converted to electric or shut down completely. In Union County, only one remains. Miller Curt Falck is doing something different — he turns grain into flour and animal feed using water power. This beautifully shot short documentary offers a glimpse into the past through the day-to-day operations of Grove’s Mill on Buffalo Creek. Something Different offers a glimpse into a world that many people will never see in their lifetimes — a working gristmill running on water power.

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Date?

Sep 2013

Date?
2012 | Directed by Kyp Pilalas

Mark tries to figure out if the time he spent with his friend-who-is-a-girl was a date or not.

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Steel Rendezvous

Sep 2013

2011 | Directed by Tim Joy

A private eye is hired to investigate a cheating husband, and nearly becomes ensnared in a trap. This film was made as part of the Cohase Chamber of Commerce 48 Hour Film Slam, and it was conceived, shot, and finished in 48 hours.

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Day By Day

Sep 2013

Day By Day
2013 | Directed by Patrick Jerome

Two boys on a road trip by foot looking for their family after the January 12, 2010 devastating earthquake in Haiti. Every day is a struggle to keep life going. Starring Jouvens Lauture, Dave-Hirry Bellgarde, Rosevelt Prevot and written, directed and produced by Patrick Jerome.