Rhode Island

| | | | |

Influence

Sep 2020

Influence
2019 | Directed by Indy Dang

Sixteen-year-old Cal, a high-achieving student struggling with his identity, begins to explore rebellion after his older brother makes a sudden return home.

| | | | |

Yellow Dress

Sep 2020

Directed by Kristen Johnson

Riss Goodwin is mother, wife, and a reinvented actress who resumes her dreams to get to Hollywood and become a famous actress. She is therefore excited to audition for Medea the Musical in Chinatown, an avant garde iteration with music. However with in-laws coming in five hours with a two hour audition process, counting traffic, she is severely pressed for time.

As she jumps into her work she hears “the wheels on the bus go round and round” and her world alters and she grows younger and younger. In this undesired memory, Riss becomes the child version of herself, Rachel. Rachel and her brother Sang Duk are paid off to be owned by an orphanage. The children scream for their father and the musicality of the screams push Rachel back to reality and Riss’s is surreal. Her eyes land on on the “wheels on the bus.” Riss fiercely turns the program off. She knows she must stay on task.

She looks around the house and grows sick by the mess a toddler can create. But with love for both her husband and son, she does her best to tidy up. Once she enters into Hosu’s (meaning lake in Korean) playroom, she grows envious by the abundance of his toys, books, and play items. She locates a book given to her at her baby shower, titled: BiBimBop – a Korean rice dish and takes a moment to read. She wants to wean away her ghosts.

However as she moves through the pages, she is jerked inside another memory. This time a ghastly series of events leave her naked with black and blue eyes. She is crying and in severe pain. Riss remembers this moment vividly. A friendly outcast brings Rachel clothes and carries her out.

We see Rachel shortly afterwards, staring in a mirror looking at herself in a ripped, tattered and stained yellow dress. She utters yellow dress, growing happier with each utterance. She smiles. Rachel sees herself for the very first time.

| | | | |

Trio

Sep 2020

2019 | Directed by Kevin Giles

Two siblings struggle to coexist with their vice-riddled single mother.

| | | | | |

Creepshow

Sep 2020

2019 | Directed by Marion O'Sullivan

Two filmmakers discuss a newly written horror script, but realize that many of the tropes that are considered to be “classic” are actually detrimental to the genre.

| | | | |

Providence Lost

Sep 2020

2019 | Directed by Oscar d'Angeac

“Providence Lost” is a short nonfiction film that follows a family undergoing an eviction and their subsequent search for a new home. In 2018, the Trottiers were one of more than 8,000 households to be evicted in Rhode Island. Their struggle against soaring rents and a dysfunctional safety net is shared by a majority of renters across the nation. This portrait of a city divided, caught between the promise of glamorous development and the reality of our current housing crisis, forces us to reckon with the human cost of change, and asks us to imagine the possibility of a city for all.

We are very sad to inform our audiences that Madonna Trottier – friend, mother, and main character of Providence Lost – passed away on May 15, 2020. We share this film in her honor, as a testament to her struggle and strength.

Winner 2019 Dorry for Short Film
Directed, shot, and edited by Oscar d’Angeac
Additional footage from Jim Chawki-Sommen and Jennah Gosciak
Executive Producers: Sara Archambault and Denali Tiller

| | | | |

The Killers

Sep 2020

2019 | Directed by Vlad Kozlov

Paolo (played by Franco Nero) is dying of cancer. His grandson Max (Jeff DuJardin) is an attorney for anti-aging companies and a faithful transhumanist, who believes that it is only a matter of time when scientists will learn how to reanimate dead people. He wants to cryogenically freeze his grandfather’s head, so that Paolo will essentially live forever when the technology becomes available. Max’s mother (Sherilyn Fenn) is an alcoholic, wandering Catholic, who sees an immoral side to freezing her father. Enraged, Max accuses Laura of killing Paolo “with her own hands” by standing in the way of the only thing that could save him. A family struggle ensues…

| | | | | |

Curls

Sep 2020

2019 | Directed by Sharon Contillo

A vulnerable little girl believes that her curly hair makes her ugly and that straight hair is ultimate beauty, must summon the courage to embrace her natural locks and accept her true self in order to be happy.

| | | | | | | | | |

The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy

Sep 2020

2020 | Directed by Julie Benko

Inspired by a real self-help book of the same name, “The Newlywed’s Guide to Physical Intimacy” tells the story of a Hasidic couple tasked with consummating their marriage on their wedding night. The trouble is, no one ever taught them how. Starring: Felix Teich and Julie Benko.

| | | | | |

Andrew Raftery: Autobiography of a Garden on Twelve Engraved Plates

Sep 2019

2017 | Directed by Richard Goulis

Eight years in the making, the artist Andrew Raftery, known for his masterful narrative engravings, tells the story of his most recent project, an autobiographical, self portrait on twelve ceramic platters. Each platter represents a month of the year and depicts a task Raftery does in his mother’s garden in Providence, Rhode Island. Fascinated with Victorian era transferware pottery, Raftery developed a new technique with students and fellow faculty at The Rhode Island School of Design for putting his meticulously engraved images onto the ceramic plates.

| | | | |

The Inner Lock

Sep 2019

2019 | Directed by Jared Jorge

A nervous woman visits a hardware store looking to get what she needs to change all the locks on her house. She is assisted by a young unsuspecting clerk who tries follows his normal procedure for dealing with customers despite her questionable behavior.