MAY 2–6, 2018 20 YEARS OF FILM FOR EVERYONE THU MICA MICA PARKWAY PARKWAY PARKWAY MICA LAZARUS MAY BROWN ONE TWO THREE GATEWAY STUDIO 3 CENTER CENTER

4:00 4:00 PM SICKIES 4:30 PM 5:00 MAKING FILMS 4:45 PM 5:00 PM I AM NOT 4:45 PM 5:00 PM GENDERBENDE BLACK A WITCH TBD NARRATIVE MOTHER 6:00 SHORTS

7:00 6:45 PM 7:00 PM MILFORD 7:15 PM SOLLERS GRAVES 7:15 PM 7:30 PM FATHER’S 8:00 POINT CANIBA ON HER 7:45 PM KINGDOM SHOULDERS PSYCHEDELIC TANGO SHORTS 9:00 9:15 PM HUMAN 9:45 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 AFFAIRS 10:00 PM MADELINE’S SHAKEDOWN NEVER 10:00 PM 10:15 PM MADELINE GOIN’ BACK TBD COMEDY 11:00 SHORTS 11:30 PM 12:00 WTF SHORTS 1:00

First Screening

Second Screening

Third Screening

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ii FRI MICA MICA PARKWAY PARKWAY PARKWAY MICA LAZARUS MAY BROWN ONE TWO THREE GATEWAY STUDIO 4 CENTER CENTER 11:00 11:00 AM 11:15 AM 11:15 AM CHARACTER 11:30 AM 11:30 AM AMÉRICA ¡LAS STUDY 12:00 SICKIES 11:45 AM ON HER SANDINISTAS! SHORTS MAKING FILMS I AM NOT SHOULDERS A WITCH 1:00

1:30 PM 1:45 PM 2:00 2:00 PM THE ISLAND 2:00 PM 2:15 PM 1:45 PM DOCUMENTARY GREAT AUGUST AT STRANGE DAMSEL SHORTS PRETENDER AKIKO’S 3:00 COLOURS

4:00 3:45 PM CHARGED 4:30 PM 4:15 PM 4:15 PM SPACES SHORTS FATHER’S ANIMATED 5:00 BLACK 4:45 PM 4:30 PM KINGDOM SHORTS MOTHER ALANIS CHARM CITY 6:00 6:15 PM FIVE FINGERS 7:00 7:00 PM 7:00 PM 7:00 PM FOR 7:00 PM PAIN OF CLARA’S JOHN WATERS MARSEILLES UNORTHODOCS OTHERS 7:30 PM GHOST 8:00 PRESENTS SHORTS I, OLGA NANCY

9:00 9:00 PM WTF 9:15 PM NEVER 9:30 PM 9:45 PM SHORTS WOBBLE 9:45 PM 10:00 GOIN’ BACK 9:55 PM TIME TRIAL MISEDUCATION PALACE COMEDY OF CAMERON SHORTS 11:00 POST 11:30 PM 12:00 PSYCHEDELIC 11:45 PM TANGO SHORTS LET THE CORPSES TAN 1:00

MDFILMFEST.COM iii SAT MICA MICA PARKWAY PARKWAY PARKWAY MICA LAZARUS MAY BROWN ONE TWO THREE GATEWAY STUDIO 5 CENTER CENTER 10:00 10:00 AM LAND BEFORE TIME 11:00 11:00 AM 11:15 AM DOCUMENTARY 11:15 AM HUMAN 11:45 AM SHORTS 11:30 AM UNORTHODOCS 12:00 12:00 PM AFFAIRS CANIBA PAIN OF SHORTS MILFORD OTHERS 1:00 GRAVES

1:30 PM 1:30 PM AUGUST AT 1:45 PM 2:00 DIVERGING 2:00 PM AKIKO’S MADELINE’S 2:00 PM FORMS SHORTS CHARGED 2:30 PM MADELINE TIME TRIAL SPACES SHORTS 3:00 MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. 3:45 PM 4:00 4:00 PM ¡LAS STRANGE SANDINISTAS! 4:30 PM 4:30 PM 4:30 PM COLOURS 5:00 THIS IS WE THE NARRATIVE 5:15 PM HOME ANIMALS SHORTS 6:00 FIRST REFORMED

6:45 PM 6:30 PM 7:00 7:00 PM AMÉRICA SHAKEDOWN 7:15 PM 7:00 PM SICKIES CHARACTER CHARM CITY MAKING FILMS 8:00 STUDY 8:00 PM SHORTS 9:00 DAMSEL 9:00 PM PSYCHEDELIC 9:30 PM 9:30 PM TANGO SHORTS 9:55 PM LET THE 10:00 ALANIS 10:00 PM CLARA’S CORPSES TAN WTF 10:45 PM GHOST SHORTS 11:00 DON’T LEAVE HOME 11:30 PM 12:00 TBD 11:45 PM TBD 1:00

iv SUN MICA MICA PARKWAY PARKWAY PARKWAY MICA LAZARUS MAY BROWN ONE TWO THREE GATEWAY STUDIO 6 CENTER CENTER 10:00

11:00 11:00 AM ALLOY ORCH. 11:15 AM PRESENTS 11:30 AM THIS IS 11:30 AM 12:00 A PAGE OF FIVE FINGERS DIVERGING 12:00 PM HOME MADNESS FOR FORMS SHORTS GENDERBENDE MARSEILLES 1:00

2:00 1:45 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:00 PM 2:15 PM 2:30 PM CHARM CITY ANIMATED FIRST THE ISLAND NANCY 3:00 REFORMED GREAT SHORTS PRETENDER 4:00

4:30 PM 4:45 PM 4:30 PM 4:45 PM 4:45 PM 5:00 WE THE WON’T YOU BE 5:00 PM SOLLERS DON’T COMEDY WOBBLE ANIMALS MY NEIGHBOR? POINT LEAVE HOME SHORTS 6:00 PALACE

7:00 7:15 PM CLOSING 8:00 NIGHT: ALL SQUARE 9:00

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MDFILMFEST.COM v 2018 Executive Sponsors

The Maryland Film Festival is proud of its continued partnerships with supporters worldwide and in our community who have made our 20th annual event possible.

Festival Map ON INSIDE BACK COVER Photo Credit: Jason Putsche Photography, LLC

Last year, we brought a rare 100-year-old movie theater and adjacent buildings back to life, and as the SNF Parkway is about to become one year old, I thought you’d like a few highlights:

• 35,000 admissions have been generated for over 200 films, most of which would never have been in Baltimore without this new movie theater • Hopkins and MICA film students and others have attended daily classes and other events 12,000 times • Over 3,400 people attended free screenings of short films during Artscape 2017, bringing free film back to this great arts festival • We have had capacity screenings of traditional favorites like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Shining, and exciting premieres like King in the Wilderness • 5 of the 15 documentary films shortlisted for the Oscars had already played the Parkway, none of which would have screened in Baltimore without us • Partnerships with Pride, Everyman Theatre, Bikemore, WTMD, the Walters Art Museum, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and local restaurants like La Cuchara have already been formed • Student showcase films have been presented in each academic semester, highlighting work from college filmmakers, as well as middle and high-schoolers from across Baltimore • We have hosted numerous filmmakers who have interacted with audiences and met with emerging, locally based filmmakers • We have started a new Latin American Visionary Cinema series • We have established a base for regular series events, celebrating parts of the movie art form seldom seen in Baltimore: Sweaty Eyeballs (animation, curated and hosted by MICA animator and recent Oscar nominee Max Porter and Towson University professor and animator Phil Davis); Sight Unseen (experimental film series curated & hosted by filmmaker, Margaret Rorison).

This is just the beginning. We are launching a series of wonderful movies for young audiences called Generation Parkway at this festival and we are excited to be part of the national distribution of Matt Porterfields’sSollers Point next week. Film for Everyone.

Jed Dietz • Founding Director MDFILMFEST.COM 1 2018 Official Sponsors

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2 Program Table of Contents

1. Director's Note

6. Feature Length Film Listings

47. Short-Film Programs

77. Friends Of The Festival Information

80. Volunteers List

83. Index Of Short Films

84. Venues And Walking Times

85. Festival Map

Special Screenings

4. Opening Night Shorts

6. Closing Night Film All Square

23. John Waters Presents I, Olga Hepnarová

25. Generation Parkway The Land Before Time

35. Silent Film With Live Score By Alloy Orchestra A Page of Madness

MDFILMFEST.COM 3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 8:00 PM PARKWAY 1

Opening Night Shorts 66 MINUTES

MdFF is a proud champion of Short Films, an exciting part of moviemaking that still has limited commercial reach. Bradford Young, one of our leading cinematographers, is a particularly apt host to open MdFF 2018. He was here for MdFF 2013 Closing Night film,Mother of George, directed by Andrew Dosunmu, and since then he has been the cinematographer for a series of extraordinary films: Pariah, Selma, Arrival, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (directed by David Lowery, MdFF 2013 Opening Night host) and most recently Solo: A Star Wars Story. They’re usually called “music videos,” but Young’s series of work with Common, like Letter to the Free and Black America Again (which Young directed and is set in Baltimore), are beautiful and powerful short films.

–JED DIETZ

ACCIDENT, MD AGUA VIVA 19 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 7 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Dan Rybicky DIRECTOR Alexa Lim Haas

ACCIDENT, MD is a survey of attitudes about A Chinese manicurist in Miami attempts to America’s healthcare crisis filmed in and around describe feelings she doesn't have the words for. the small town of Accident, Maryland.

4 WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 8:00 PM PARKWAY 1

Opening Night Shorts CONTINUED 66 MINUTES

END TIMES HAIR WOLF 9 MINUTES • USA 12 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Bobby Miller DIRECTOR Mariama Diallo A man finds a dying squirrel in a park and has In a black hair salon in gentrifying Brooklyn, the a comedic existential crisis about it. local residents fend off a strange new monster: white women intent on sucking the lifeblood from black culture.

THE JUMP OFF MILK 5 MINUTES • USA 14 MINUTES • CANADA DIRECTOR Jovan James DIRECTOR Heather Young

A gay young man struggles for legitimacy with A young employee of a rural dairy farm is his closeted lover. experiencing anxiety regarding her unexpected pregnancy. She finds it difficult to ignore her feelings as she is surrounded by pregnant cows on the farm whose milk she helps to collect after they give birth.

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 5 SUN. MAY 6, 7:15 PM PARKWAY 1

Closing Night Film: ALL SQUARE

USA • 2018 • 93 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR John Hyams ACTOR/HOST Michael Kelly CAST Michael Kelly, Jesse Ray Sheps, Josh Lucas, Pamela Adlon, Tom Everett Scott, Isiah Whitlock Jr.

SYNOPSIS John Zbikowski has seen it all, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. A small town bookie who isn’t very capable of collecting debts, he’s also losing customers to the Internet. He installs drywall to have a legitimate source of funds and as one way to cover bad debts. He’s not cynical so much as wise; he’s learned that people like him don’t get much out of life and they’re likely to get hurt trying for more. After reconnecting with an old flame and reluctantly getting involved with her young son, Brian, John helps the boy learn some of the fundamentals of baseball and masculinity. A promising baseball player in his youth, Zbikowski also begins to see real betting opportunities in Brian’s Little League games, given the intense parental emotion surrounding the sport. It works, for a while. Michael Kelly, most recognizable for his portrayal of Doug Stamper in House of Cards, brings John Zbikowski to vibrant life with a beautifully layered, and subtly humorous, performance. Young Jesse Ray Sheps more than holds his own as Brian, and the rest of the cast includes wonderful actors like Josh Lucas, Pamela Adlon, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., and Harris Yulin. Timothy Brady’s script delivers bristling and often outrageously funny dialogue and director John Hyams and his team have skillfully portrayed a very real part of America that rarely makes it to the screen. All Square recently won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award at SXSW. (Jed Dietz) BIOGRAPHY Michael Kelly’s 20-plus year acting career includes his three-time Emmy Nominated role as ‘Doug Stamper,’ in David Fincher’s Netflix original seriesHouse of Cards. Kelly has had recurring roles on hit shows The Good Wife and The Sopranos, and starred in David Simon’s HBO miniseries Generation Kill. His film credits include Clint Eastwood’sChangeling , the 2004 Dawn of the Dead reboot and Man of Steel. Most recently, Kelly produced and starred in the indie filmAll Square, which won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2018.

6 SPONSORED BY FRI. MAY 4, 4:45 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 9:30 PM PARKWAY 3

ALANIS

ARGENTINA • 2017 • 82 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Anahí Berneri CAST Sofía Gala, Dante Della Paolera, Dana Basso

SYNOPSIS In a portrait both compassionate and harshly naturalistic, director Anahí Berneri’s Alanis tracks a small period of immense significance in the life of a young Buenos Aires mother and sex worker, caring for her toddler son on the fringes of the city. The film, which landed awards for both Berneri and her lead Sofía Gala at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, sees the titular Alanis combat unsympathetic and inconsistently applied prostitution laws, which take away her home and strain her ability to care for her son Dante (Gala’s real-life child). With her newest feature, Bernari has infused stark realism into a genuinely engrossing narrative, resolute in its affront to bureaucracy's deceptive guise of altruism. The film’s story is set across a mere handful of days, wherein Alanis’ daily routine is suddenly disrupted only moments after being established. She lives with friend and fellow sex worker Gisela in a small flat, where they alternate shifts of tending to Dante and their respective customers in a seemingly controlled environment. However, when police disguised as hostile Johns force their way into the apartment, that veil of security is lifted, thrusting Gisela into prison and Alanis into the street with Dante in toe. Alanis finds harbor with an aunt, but the struggle to earn in an unfamiliar environment presents new—and newly hazardous—obstacles. Alanis is a work of immense affect, conjuring the master rhythms of Dardenne-brand realism, while reserving space for the sensitive lensing of Lynne Ramsay’s pre-2000 works. And like those works, Berneri’s film stands amongst the most exciting of international cinema today. (Mitchell Goodrich)

MDFILMFEST.COM 7 FRI. MAY 4, 11:15 AM PARKWAY 2 • SAT. MAY 5, 6:45 PM PARKWAY 2

AMÉRICA

USA • 2018 • 77 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTORS/HOSTS Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT The Serrano family

SYNOPSIS Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside’s breathtaking documentary América focuses on a young family who has to put their dreams on hold to tend to the realities of their ailing nonagenarian grandmother. The film premiered at True/False and went on to Full Frame Documentary Film Festival where the directors picked up the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award. América, is the 93 year old matriarch of the Serrano family. She is suffering from dementia and has recently fallen out of her bed, sustaining injuries which cause her son to be jailed for neglect. Diego, one of her grandchildren who works as a circus performer in a distant seaside vacation resort, must return home to help his brothers care for the deteriorating América. Diego has grand notions about his grandmother’s injury being an act of fate to bring estranged brothers back together. However, these fanciful notions quickly give way to the harsh realities of caring for someone in their 90s. Tensions rise as the three young brothers face challenges they may find themselves unready to face. They are now responsible for making some very big decisions about the fate of their beloved grandmother and their own immediate futures. América is a film that will hang with you days after you leave the theater, with its haunting and poetic approach to documenting lives in transition. Stoll and Whiteside's work captures indelible moments of tenderness and rage, joy and sorrow, and the blood ties that bind a young family faced with one of life’s biggest quandaries: how to cope with the inevitable mortality of loved ones. América is as touching and vital as any non-fiction film as you’re likely to see this or any year. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Erick Stoll and Chase Whiteside co-founded the political web series New Left Media, which documented conservative and progressive movements under the Obama presidency; and co-directed the doc short Lifelike, a dispassionate reconstruction of the taxidermic process which premiered at True/False and won Best Doc Short at DocuFest Atlanta. This year, Stoll and Whiteside were featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

8 SPONSORED BY FRI. MAY 4, 2:00 PM MICA GATEWAY • SAT. MAY 5, 1:30 PM PARKWAY 3

AUGUST AT AKIKO'S

USA • 2018 • 75 MINUTES • DCP • NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE DIRECTOR/HOST Christopher Makoto Yogi CAST Alex Zhang Hungtai, Akiko Masuda

SYNOPSIS If Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon had a love child inside of a Wong Kar Wai film, it might feel something like Christopher Makoto Yogi’s first feature, August at Akiko’s. Have no doubt about it, this is a mystical film. It is a film that lives in the seams between dream, reality, and memory with a time-signature all its own. Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches, Last Lizard) returns home to the Big Island of Hawai’i having been away for nearly a decade. Amidst possessed sax solos and brooding strolls, Alex stumbles upon a Buddhist bed & breakfast run by an older woman named Akiko (Akiko Masuda). Hungtai’s wild sax and Akiko’s Buddhist bells form the base for a rich soundtrack that wraps around the audience like a sonic web surrounding the unexpected new friendship. Though Yogi took a very visceral and intuitive approach to the production of August at Akiko’s, the film is deeply informed by his sustained meditations on cinema as cultural memory and the Hollywood erasure of the local Hawaiian voice. However, as an intervention into cinematic experience, August at Akiko’s does not set itself in opposition, but rather sets itself apart. There is a quest for healing love, a quest to make sense of losses and transitions, big and small, manmade and earth-made, that courses through the film. August at Akiko’s offers up not just a visual product but a porous skin through which we may, if we allow ourselves to, get a tingly feeling as we experience the expansive flow of Big Island time. (Keisha Nicole Knight) BIOGRAPHY Christopher Makoto Yogi was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. He is a Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellow and a Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab Fellow. He has extensive experience editing documentaries for film and television. His work has been nominated for an Emmy, a GLAAD award, and has been awarded a Student Academy Award.

MDFILMFEST.COM 9 THU. MAY 3, 5:00 PM MICA GATEWAY • FRI. MAY 4, 4:30 PM PARKWAY 1

BLACK MOTHER

USA • 2018 • 77 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Khalik Allah

SYNOPSIS Khalik Allah’s first documentary,Field Niggas (MdFF 2015), was an extraordinary chronicle of the people who flow through an iconic corner of Harlem during multiple summer nights. Constructed using formal photographic portraiture technique, and forging new documentary filmmaking ground, Allah pulled the viewer intimately close to individuals that most of the world ignores. For his latest film, Allah focuses on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, the homeland of his mother, and a place he’s visited regularly since his youth. He knows it intimately and embraces its complexity. There isn’t much formal documentary structure, but startling nude images of a pregnant woman delineate the three sections of the film. Using a variety of film formats, and matching sound and image in a hallucinatory manner, Allah digs deep into the Jamaica he knows. The overhang from its horrific colonial past, powerful and sometimes misogynistic sexuality, intense afro-nationalism, and deep-seated communal spirituality, are all part of this island, and in fact feed each other. The result is a fiercely personal portrayal that is unimaginable in a medium other than film. Often when one travels there is a sense that, though you may have enjoyed yourself and experienced things you never had before, you never really got to know the place. Allah’s unique tribute to the island of his mother and his youth does just the opposite; it gives a bit of insight you could never get just by visiting. (Jed Dietz) BIOGRAPHY Khalik Allah is a New York based photographer and filmmaker who describes his work as Camera Ministry. Allah exploded on the film scene in 2015 with the documentaryField Niggas, shot at nighttime on the corner of 125th St. and Lexington Avenue in NYC. His first photography book,Souls Against the Concrete, whose images were also shot on this street corner, was published by University of Texas Press in 2017.

10 SPONSORED BY THU. MAY 3, 7:15 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 11:30 AM MICA BROWN

CANIBA

USA • 2017 • 92 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTORS Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT Issei Sagawa

SYNOPSIS In 1981 Paris, Issei Sagawa (then a 32 year-old student at the Sorbonne) gained international infamy when he was discovered discarding two bloody suitcases containing the remains of a classmate he had murdered, defiled and partially consumed, several days earlier. Considered unfit to stand trial for reasons of insanity, Sagawa was extradited back to Japan where he has lived freely in the care of his brother Jun ever since. He has managed not only to remain free, but to make his living off his crime; writing novels, drawing manga, appearing in innumerable documentaries, sexploitation films, and perhaps most confoundingly as a sushi critic. While he has escaped incarceration and profited from his crime, he has created a psychological prison of sorts for himself—and perhaps even more so for his caretaker brother. Indeed, the story is not Issei’s alone; his brother Jun has been deeply affected by the ghastly choices his brother has made during their shared journey. While Issei gets all the attention for his horrendous desires, Jun may be the more fascinating character. Anyone familiar with Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor—the groundbreaking directors behind MdFF 2013’s Leviathan—is likely unable to imagine a more compelling duo to tackle the sensational and oft superficially handled subject of cannibalism. Paravel and Castaing-Taylor (who also head Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab) shoot their film in unceasing close-up, that never allows the audience to escape the suffocating reality of the subject’s shocking past. While unsettling in its relentlessness, this approach forces the viewer to confront the rather frail human being behind such a heinous act. Seeking, in the filmmakers’ words, to avoid “predictable moralistic pieties,” the film does not ask the viewer to feel sorry for its subject, but rather to attempt to have empathy where normally there would be none. It asks one to look beyond the grisly act itself and confront the conditions that helped to shape these horrific urges, particularly the society that in many ways condones these acts through its voyeuristic fascination with them. Caniba is a study of the human condition as much as it is a piercing portrait of a man who has committed an unspeakable act. (Scott Braid)

MDFILMFEST.COM 11 FRI. MAY 4, 4:30 PM MICA BROWN • SAT. MAY 5, 7:00 PM MICA BROWN • SUN. MAY 6, 1:45 PM MICA BROWN

CHARM CITY

USA • 2018 • 106 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Marilyn Ness DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS INCLUDE Mr. C, Brandon Scott, Captain Monique Brown, and Baltimore

SYNOPSIS If you’re from Baltimore, it will be impossible for you to watch Charm City without having a strong reaction. The film, started before Freddie Gray and continuing afterward, takes an observational cinema vérité approach to life, and death, on the streets of Baltimore. In East Baltimore, the camera watches as Mr. C and his team at the Rose Street Community Center take the care and safety of their community into their own hands. The Community Center volunteers work diligently and persistently each day to support each other and their block in the face of a system and infrastructure that seems to have abandoned them. In South Baltimore, the camera watches as officers like Captain Monique Brown, a 16-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, make their rounds. The camera watches as politicians, like Councilman Brandon Scott, challenge the status quo in attempts to make some kind of systematic change. The camera watches as citizens, police, and government officials navigate the fault lines of the complicated issues facing the city. Director Marilyn Ness and her team construct the Charm City narrative in such a way that the diverse and often conflicting stories the camera has captured can interact on their own terms. That is to say, the documentary is not a thesis statement about police violence and systematic oppression in Baltimore (and by extension nationwide) but rather it is a patchwork of realities on display for the audience to negotiate and engage with as it sees fit. (Keisha Nicole Knight) BIOGRAPHY Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont Award winning filmmaker, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and works as a producer and a director. Her most recent film,Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson) premiered at Sundance 2016, was released by the Criterion Collection, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Awards.

12 SPONSORED BY FRI. MAY 4, 7:00 PM MICA GATEWAY • SAT. MAY 5, 9:55 PM MICA BROWN

CLARA'S GHOST

USA • 2018 • 80 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Bridey Elliott CAST Paula Niedert Elliott, Chris Elliott, Abby Elliott, Bridey Elliott, Haley Joel Osment

SYNOPSIS Tensions flare and hilarity ensues at the Reynolds household, when a dinner—called on the occasion of the family dog’s birthday—erupts into ego-bruising jabs at the expense of Clara, the seemingly docile mother who’s been shocked to life by a recent encounter with a ghost. Director and MdFF Opening Night alum Bridey Elliott casts her actual kin in the dysfunctional family meta-comedy. While her father Chris Elliott (Groundhog Day) and sister Abby Elliott (SNL) are names that ring familiar, it’s Bridey’s mother Paula who takes center stage, showcasing a secret well of deadpan genius from the only face not familiar to the screen. Clara’s hilariously aloof, infinitely relatable, and most importantly: nothing like the rest of the self- absorbed flock. Her husband Ted’s waning fame is getting the better of him. He’s escaped to Connecticut with Clara, but the wounds of irrelevance are torn back open when their child-star daughters come into town. Julie is a cut-throat careerist, while Riley is content to exploit her has-been status. All together they’re a blaring cacophony of toxic egoism and bitter sarcasm. On this night, while the trio is busy with their absurdly trivial arguments, Clara fraternizes with the neighbor boy Joe (Haley Joel Osment) and embraces her sinister side… whilst enjoying hefty amounts of wine and vodka. Coming off its world premiere at Sundance,Clara’s Ghost is a darkly comic meditation on vanity and strained family dynamics, showing notes of the anxiety-soaked quips of Albert Brooks’ Modern Romance, refreshingly updated for the rhetoric of 2018. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Bridey Elliott is an actress, writer and director. After graduating from the National Theater Institute at Eugene O'Neill Center, she began performing stand-up in New York City where she became a regular at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Elliott starred in the SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Fort Tilden, which was released by Orion Pictures in 2015. She can currently be seen in Battle of The Sexes starring Emma Stone, as well as Steven Soderbergh’s HBO series Mosaic.

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 13 FRI. MAY 4, 1:45 PM MICA BROWN • SAT. MAY 5, 8:00 PM PARKWAY 1

DAMSEL

USA • 2018 • 113 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTORS David Zellner and Nathan Zellner HOST Nathan Zellner CAST Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner

SYNOPSIS The Zellner Brothers are no strangers to MdFF audiences, having brought their lively and offbeat body of work to our screens numerous times over the last decade-plus of the festival’s history. Their unique approach to storytelling and quirky sense of humor are the driving force behind such MdFF classics as 2008’s Goliath, 2012’s Kid-Thing and 2014’s Kumiko, Treasure Hunter. Damsel, their latest dark charmer which premiered at Sundance 2018, is another precious gift from this remarkable duo; another chance to ride along with the idiosyncratic characters of the Zellner’s wild cinematic universe. Samuel (Rob Pattinson), a handsome young traveler enlists the help of tippler, Parson Henry (played by co-director David Zellner, who is “ordained” during an unforgettable cameo scene with the great Robert Forster) to save his beloved Penelope (the fierce and fantastic Mia Wasikowska) from her kidnapper. While this may seem like the perfect set-up for a classic Western revenge yarn, that just wouldn’t be the Zellner way. The brothers are much more interested in asking bigger questions and exposing the inner workings of their characters than they are in any conventional shoot ‘em up. Damsel is a distinctly postmodern parable, a feminist Western that loads a simple genre framework with big ideas about human relations, most particularly a timely critique of the way men relate to women. Damsel is chock full of surprising plot twists, character revelations, and a heaping dose of dark, offbeat humor that is such a big part of the Zellner’s wonderful stock-in-trade. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY David and Nathan Zellner are Austin-based filmmaking siblings who have written, produced, directed and edited numerous films and music videos that have screened at festivals worldwide. Their work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale and has been nominated for a Gotham Award and Independent Spirit Award.

14 SAT. MAY 5, 10:45 PM PARKWAY 1 • SUN. MAY 6, 4:45 PM MICA GATEWAY

DON'T LEAVE HOME

USA/IRELAND • 2018 • 86 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Michael Tully CAST Anna Margaret Hollyman, Lalor Roddy, Helena Bereen

SYNOPSIS Baltimore-born, Austin-based director Michael Tully’s gripping sixth feature Don’t Leave Home is his first foray into the thriller genre. The director of such MdFF favorites as music documentary Silver Jew (MdFF 2007), cult filmSeptien (MdFF 2011) and Ocean-City-in-the-80s set comedy Ping Pong Summer (MdFF 2014), Tully seems to have the rare directorial gift of being right at home working in any mode. Artist Melanie Thomas (multi-MdFF alum Anna Margaret Hollyman) has latched onto a series of strange disappearances in the Irish countryside as inspiration for her latest series of sculptures. With a big gallery show for these works looming, she receives a bit of bad news that upends her forthcoming opening. As the gallery show falls apart, a phone call from a mysterious would-be patron in Ireland offers a chance for escape and a much needed bit of money. It may be more than a coincidence that Melanie will also be very near the site of those strange disappearances she is so fascinated by. Will her research bring her further inspiration or something much more sinister? Both in its setting and its filmmaking chops,Don't Leave Home calls to mind the likes of Robert Altman’s woefully underrated 1972 filmImages , continually building on a slow-burn sense of dread as it works its way towards an eerie climax. Featuring fantastic performances from supporting cast Lalor Roddy and Helena Bereen (both from Steve McQueen’s 2008 filmHunger ), Don’t Leave Home is a tightly constructed supernatural smolderer that mesmerizes with each frame. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Michael Tully's other directorial credits include Ping Pong Summer (2014), Septien (2011), Silver Jew (2007), and Cocaine Angel (2006). He is the founding editor of Hammer to Nail, a website devoted to championing ambitious cinema.

MDFILMFEST.COM 15 THU. MAY 3, 7:15 PM MICA GATEWAY • FRI. MAY 4, 4:15 PM MICA GATEWAY

FATHER'S KINGDOM

USA • 2017 • 94 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Lenny Feinberg DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS Father Divine and the International Peace Mission Movement

SYNOPSIS “Why do people believe what they believe?” “What does it mean to believe?” “How can belief inspire change?” These questions form the heart of Lenny Feinberg’s fascinating documentary feature, Father’s Kingdom, a film about Maryland-born evangelist, Father Divine. Born George Baker in 1877 in a small black ghetto of Rockville derogatorily referred to as “Monkey Run,” Father Divine was a self-professed messiah who rose to prominence in the 1930s as the leader of the International Kingdom of Peace Mission, a multi-racial celibate order of devoted religious followers. Stalwart champions of interracial living and early integrationists, Father, his wife Mother Divine, and his fellow believers challenged segregation during the Jim Crow era by promoting large-scale communal living in a number of U.S. cities and at Woodmont, Divine’s 73-acre estate in Gladwyne, PA. Decried in his day as a fraud and a charlatan, Father is now regarded by many as an early pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Falling somewhere between Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, Jr., his group chipped away at the social, political, and psychological chains of racism and bolstered black enterprise. Steadfastly committed to race equity, Father made justice and compassion cornerstones of his work and preaching. Ironically, it is likely the very prejudice and intolerance that Father railed against all his life, that has kept him out of many historical accounts. Until now. Feinberg’s nuanced, intimate portrayal of Father and his worldwide congregation shines a spotlight on the organization’s significant contributions to promoting equality in America at a time when the country was intensely divided over the issue of race. The film also expertly pulls back the curtain on the handful of Father's followers who remain, living and working together at Woodmont, devoted to preserving their leader's legacy and way of life. A deeply satisfying film,Father’s Kingdom leaves us with lessons as relevant today as they were a century ago. (Camille Blake Fall) BIOGRAPHY Lenny Feinberg began his documentary career by producing the acclaimed documentary The Art of the Steal, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and played the New York Film Festival before being acquired by IFC Films. Father's Kingdom is his feature directorial debut. SAT. MAY 5, 5:15 PM PARKWAY 1 • SUN. MAY 6, 2:00 PM PARKWAY 1

FIRST REFORMED

USA • 2017 • 108 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Paul Schrader ACTOR/HOST Philip Ettinger CAST Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Kyles, Philip Ettinger

SYNOPSIS Paul Schrader is a legend among film lovers of all stripes. A writer and director whose body of work spans five decades, he is the force behind some of cinema’s most revered works. His writing with Martin Scorsese produced the legendary filmsTaxi Driver and Raging Bull, while his directorial efforts include notable cult filmsBlue Collar and Affliction. Schrader strikes cinema gold once again with First Reformed, a gift of a film that further solidifies his reputation as a master of the screen. Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a pastor at a small church in upstate New York. As the church prepares for it’s Sestercentennial, he is approached by young parishioner Mary (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) is in need of counsel. No stranger to difficult situations, Toller wants to help and pays them a house call. Inside, he’s thrust into an intense theological debate with a visibly on-edge Michael. The radical environmentalist feels uneasy bringing a child into a corrupt world. Preacher Toller wants to reassure Michael that while the world has problems, we must endure. Michael isn’t buying it and his dire appraisal clearly strikes a cord with Toller. As the two part, we know the conversation has had a more profound impact on the counselor than on the counseled. This tense exchange is a pivotal moment in the plot and it is also one of the most riveting, brilliantly acted scenes to grace the screen in years. From this early moment, First Reformed takes flight. The increasingly haunted Toller finds that the limits of his conviction are tested by his own demons and the increasing resonance of Michael’s words. Toller’s journal entries, which narrate the film become increasingly despondent as he gropes for answers to the unsettling questions and realities facing him. Finally, his morose appraisals lead to a disturbing crescendo in the action. A taught exploration of Toller’s crisis of faith in the face overwhelming doubt, First Reformed is undeniably one of the year’s finest and most surprising films! (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Philip Ettinger will soon star in the CBS series $1. He features in Sebastián Silva’s 2018 Sundance filmTyrel , opposite Michael Cera, and received acclaim for his role in Craig Zobel's Compliance. His TV credits include the HBO hit Girls, Mercy, and The Good Wife.

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 17 FRI. MAY 4, 6:15 PM PARKWAY 2 • SUN. MAY 6, 11:30 AM PARKWAY 3

FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES

SOUTH AFRICA • 2017 • 120 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Michael Matthews CAST Vuyo Dabula, Hamilton Dhlamini, Zethu Dlomo

SYNOPSIS If Stand By Me were a Western that began in apartheid South Africa, it might look like Five Fingers for Marseilles. That is to say that at the heart of Five Fingers for Marseilles is a story of boyhood friendship. The coming-of-age thread in this tale is cut short when an episode of violence shatters all traces of innocence and sets in motion a rebellion that leaves no party untouched. If Black Panther is a Hollywood reimagining of Africa, then Five Fingers for Marseilles is an African—South African to be precise—reimagining of the Western. At present, corporate Hollywood sees dollar signs when it thinks about the representation of people of color. It is important as audience members (and filmmakers) to be clear about what types of representation we want to see. Assuming we all agree that tokenism is just the 21st century version of blackface and yellowface, we must actively seek out, support, and encourage films that don’t just RE-present but layer and explore the multitudes of meanings and reverberations in the frame. The audience is active! The audience can create space for the kind of cinema it wants to bring into being with the simple act of offering attention. We present Five Fingers for Marseilles to you as part of a larger conversation. Rooted in the Western, there is the expected violence, machismo, caricature, and bravado in this tale, but as with the most skillful Westerns, there is also heart, forgiveness, social commentary, and a scarred melancholy filled with the awareness that violence is never a happy ending. (Keisha Nicole Knight)

18 THU. MAY 3, 4:45 PM PARKWAY 3 • SUN. MAY 6, NOON PARKWAY 2

GENDERBENDE

NETHERLANDS • 2017 • 68 MINUTES • DCP • NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE DIRECTOR Sophie Dros

SYNOPSIS This visually expressive documentary focuses on five genderfluid people living in the Netherlands, weaving intimate interviews with scenes of direct observation, while also reserving room for impressive spells of aesthetic flight. Each subject is granted the room to express themselves fully, telling stories of self-discovery as well as of social hardships, but seemingly always on their own terms. Brimming with humility, director Sophie Dros’ Genderbende unites form with content in a delicate approach, resulting in an enthralling work of admirable purpose. The connective tissue of Genderbende is the taut curation of interviews, which always manages to cultivate a more intimate space and never feel routine. However, it’s the scenes of observational cinema that reveal the true depths of each subject’s experience. Every gesture of confidence seems undermined by the scrutinizing eyes of strangers, and how each person contends with such an interaction speaks bounds about their character. In a particularly striking scene, one of the subjects visits a salon where there’s a beautician who can’t resist indulging in her curiosity. An unexpectedly candid, yet tenuously balanced conversation follows that serves to exemplify the sort of battle for unquestioned legitimacy with which each person wrestles. Though Genderbende is saturated with brighter pastel hues, it has a certain kinship to the similarly stylish Dark Days. Rhythmically flowing and supremely personable, Dros’ concise study emanates that same praiseworthy air of cool. (Mitchell Goodrich)

WE FORGOT TO BREAK UP 16 MIN • CANADA • DIRECTOR Chandler Levack

After a few years absence, Evan unexpectedly returns one night to face his now-famous former bandmates. The surprise reunion is bittersweet, in this intimate depiction of the knotty complexities of relating to old friends after everything has changed. FRI. MAY 4, 2:00 PM PARKWAY 1 • SUN. MAY 6, 2:30 PM PARKWAY 2

THE GREAT PRETENDER

USA • 2018 • 72 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Nathan Silver CAST Esther Garrel, Keith Poulson, Linas Phillips, Maëlle Poésy

SYNOPSIS Nathan Silver (MdFF 2017's Thirst Street) returns with another darkly humorous melodrama worth celebrating. The Great Pretender—a vivid stunner teasing comparisons to Fassbinder—chronicles a complex love triangle between a theatre director, her ex-boyfriend, and the two actors she casts to portray them. Employing a playfully chaptered assembly and contrasting modes of narration, the film hilariously pokes at each character’s self-indulgence en route to a gripping, dramatic finale. Mona is a French playwright struggling for legitimacy off-off-Broadway. She’s mounting a performance based on the dissolution of her relationship with Nick—a brash character who woos her by interspersing vitriolic critiques of her work with mouth-open chewing. Mona tries to distract herself with her vapid lead actor Chris, but his co-star and personal obsessor Thérèse quickly becomes jealous. Packed with impasto visuals of nostalgic inspiration, Silver's film borrows saturated hues from ‘70s cult favorites and draws hazy glares reminiscent of Berlin Alexanderplatz’s drunken fourth episode. What keeps Pretender surprising however, is its wry sense of humor, which casts After Hours absurdity with the stoicism of Egoyan’s earliest, like Next of Kin. The result is an astute chorus of romantic misfires, as well as an exciting showcase of Silver’s maturing directorial sensibility. Don’t skip it. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Nathan Silver graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2005. Since then, the filmmaker has directed four short films and eight feature films. His films have played festivals around the world, including New York Film Festival, Venice, Mar del Plata, Locarno, Rotterdam, and the Viennale. MAGIC BULLET 19 MIN • USA • DIRECTOR Amanda Lovejoy Street

Parallel losses push strangers Rachel (Molly Parker) and Lia (Rosemarie DeWitt) into self-soothing rituals and self-destructive hazes, only to collide unwittingly on a regional Florida shopping network. THU. MAY 3, 9:15 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT. MAY 5, 11:15 AM PARKWAY 3

HUMAN AFFAIRS

USA • 2018 • 78 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Charlie Birns CAST Julie Sokolowski, Dominic Fumusa, Kerry Condon, David Harbour

SYNOPSIS Potent gestures reign in this deceptively simple melodrama, about a surrogate mother’s precarious relationship with the parents-to-be and her growing ambivalence about her pregnancy. Julie Sokolowski (of MdFF 2014’s Young Bodies Heal Quickly) takes an attention-demanding turn as Genevieve, mustering a performance possibly unmatched by anything else in our lineup. Cemented by yet another showcase of stunning cinematography on the part of Sean Price Williams, Human Affairs is an arthouse delicacy for lovers of the sentimental. By the open of the narrative, a secret romance has already sparked between Genevieve and the future adoptive father of her child, playwright Sidney (Dominic Fumusa). So when she heads to New York City to stay with him and his wife, a talented actress named Lucinda (Kerry Condon), the space is loaded with anticipation of an affair. As Genevieve gets to know the couple however, she discovers aspects of their personalities that both surprise and frustrate her, altering her perspective on the trio’s relationship and sending her into an existential crisis that floods the screen with emotion. What unfolds from there is a work of emphatic beauty, which blooms into a singularly rich display of complex interiority and deep romantic yearning. The final minutes of the film alone, are worth the price of admission. With his feature directorial debut, Charlie Birns has located the aesthetic bridge that unites classic French cinema’s old guarde with the New Wave; producing a film that has just as much in common with the visual control of Autant-Lara’s Marguerite de la nuit as it does with the delivery of Malle’s The Lovers. It’s a work of impressive tenderness and a work worth enjoying. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Charlie Birns was born and raised in New York City, son of a ticket broker and a Kabbalistic spiritual healer. His shorts films have screened at many venues, including Lincoln Center and Anthology Film Archives. He coproduced Liza Johnson’s debut feature Return, which premiered at Cannes.

MDFILMFEST.COM 21 THU. MAY 3, 4:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • FRI. MAY 4, 11:45 AM PARKWAY 3

I AM NOT A WITCH

UK/FRANCE/GERMANY • 2017 • 93 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Rungano Nyoni CAST Maggie Mulubwa, Henry B.J. Phiri, Nancy Mulilio

SYNOPSIS Zambian/Welsh Director Rungano Nyongi’s debut feature I Am Not a Witch is a moving feminist film that is: 2 PARTS manifesto – one manifesto indicting the dangerous groupthink of superstition and one manifesto indicting 21st century cultural imperialism and its purveyors (men in suits who say things like “Don’t be allergic to comfort!” to old women tethered to ribbons and toiling in the dust). 1 PART surreal slapstick – there is a comedic thread that runs through I Am Not a Witch reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Quartier Mozart while the production design, stark framing (shot by Embrace of the Serpent's David Gallego), and idiosyncratic acting style seem a nod to Djibril Diop Mambéty. As the film progresses, the comedic and absurd become unlaughable tools of abuse. 1 PART pure sonic transmission – the film employs a sound design strategy that hypnotically moves between sonic vortexes which highlight the main character’s isolation as well as (via robust classical interludes and a bit of pop) the complex persistent presence of European culture as a frame for the African story. Accused of witchcraft, 9-year old Shula is sent to a witch camp instead of an orphanage. The witches at the camp are tied to the ground with ribbons so they won’t fly away. As the only child witch, Shula quickly becomes a star and the object at the epicenter of adult greed. Newcomer Maggie Mulubwa’s captivating performance as Shula hearkens back to Subir Banerjee’s effortless performance as Apu in Satyajit Ray’s first featurePather Panchali. Like Satyajit Ray, Rungano Nyongi is on track to become a luminous voice of her generation. Having won the BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut, I Am Not a Witch is a must see for anyone interested in incisive feminist narratives and new African Cinema. (Keisha Nicole Knight)

22 FRI. MAY 4, 7:00 PM PARKWAY 1

I, OLGA HEPNAROVÁ PRESENTED BY JOHN WATERS

CZECH REPUBLIC/POLAND/FRANCE/SLOVAKIA • 2016 • 105 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTORS Petr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb HOST John Waters CAST Michalina Olszanska, Martin Pechlát, Klára Melísková

SYNOPSIS This is the 20th year in a row that John Waters has gifted MdFF audiences one of his signature “John Waters presents…” screenings, where he champions often provocative and sometimes criminally underappreciated works. From last year’s screening-turned-furry-convention, Roar, stretching all the way back to his inaugural presentation of Joseph Losey’s camp classic Boom!, (a film which John summed up as, “so genuinely beautiful and awful that there's only one way to describe it, and that's perfect.”), John has brought us an eye-opening assortment of his personal favorite films. With an array of works ranging from recent international arthouse cinema to nuggets from the 60s and 70s and everything in between, “John Waters presents…” offers an insightful and often hilarious analysis of the films and their makers. It’s a unique and wonderful screening experience that only Baltimore’s own Mr. Waters could provide. This year’s selection, I, Olga Hepnarová, made John Waters’ Best of 2017 list in Artforum. In this year-end roundup, he calls the film “a hypnotic black-and-white docudrama based on the case of a pretty, twenty- two-year-old chain-smoking lesbian from Prague who in 1973 hopped in a truck and mowed down twenty pedestrians on a sidewalk. Deadpan indeed.” On point as always, this tongue-in-cheek appraisal of the film tells you all you need to know, which is that you have to see this film! Olga suffers at the hands of everyone. From a mother who mocks her for not having a strong enough will to succeed at suicide, to a girlfriend that tells her she’s too frumpy and smells too much like oil to keep dating, to a brutal beating at the hands of fellow inmates at a state hospital, Olga was born to suffer. Until she has had enough and decides to turn all that suffering into one brazenly violent act. Shot in stark black-and-white photography that mirrors the character’s inner turmoil, I, Olga Hepnarova is certainly no joy ride, but watching it with the singular John Waters is sure to be fun! (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Legendary filmmakerJohn Waters is the writer/director of such iconic films asPink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame. Waters is also renowned as a visual artist, public speaker, and author. His books include Shock Value, Crackpot, Role Models, Carsick, and 2017's Make Trouble. SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 23 FRI. MAY 4, 1:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SUN. MAY 6, 2:15 PM PARKWAY 3

THE ISLAND

ISRAEL • 2017 • 60 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Adam Weingrod DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS The patients and employees of the St. Louis French Hospital

SYNOPSIS Adam Weingrod’s feature documentary debut is a stirring look at the inhabitants and workers of the St. Louis French Hospital—a Hospice for terminally ill patients—situated on the tense border between East and West Jerusalem. Employing a Frederick Wiseman-esque observational style, Weingrod’s soulful film inhabits this centuries old hospital over a period of two years as its workers tend to the critically ill inhabitants housed there, helping them to live out the remaining days of their lives with dignity. While the film’s focus revolves around end-of-life care, it is far from dreary. Instead, finding great warmth, resonance and even joy in human interaction, even in this unlikeliest of places. This is a film that relishes the quiet moments of life, working from the assumption that these little moments—a shared laugh, an anecdote between workers, a hug, a routine act of kindness—build to something greater than the bigger milestones by which we often judge our lives. The world outside the hospital is fraught with divisions, tensions and even war between the various religious and ethnic factions that inhabit the city. Within the walls of St. Louis French Hospital, Jews, Christians, and Muslims work together, finding meaning and camaraderie in their mission to bring comfort to those living out their final days. One exits this deeply moving film wishing that the caring dynamic on display inside hospital walls could be replicated outside its confines. (Scott Braid)

CHING MEI'S HANDS ( 青梅的手 ) 14 MIN • TAIWAN • U.S. PREMIERE • DIRECTOR Rina B. Tsou

Ching Mei’s hands have been roughened. As a Chinese mainlander in Taiwan, she works long hours at home as an unauthorised masseur to feed her two sons and sick husband. All this could change with a job opening at a public service center. These hands have waited a long time. SAT. MAY 5, 10:00 AM PARKWAY 1 © 2017 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

THE LAND BEFORE TIME PRESENTED BY GENERATION PARKWAY

USA/IRELAND • 1988 • 69 MINUTES • 35 MM! DIRECTOR Don Bluth CAST Pat Hingle, Gabriel Damon, Judith Barsi

SYNOPSIS “Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.” These are the words of wisdom that echo through the 1988 animated adventure The Land Before Time. Littlefoot, Ducky, Spike, Petrie, and Cera, five dinosaurs, lost and alone, must come together to find their way across a desolate and dangerous landscape to the Great Valley where food is abundant and other dinosaurs await them. The Land Before Time was directed by Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH, An American Tale) and included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas among its executive producers. After its initial release on November 18, 1988, thirteen direct-to-video sequels followed. The film has an innocence and fairness that maintains a distance from the gimmicky wise cracks that are ubiquitous in present day kids’ films. Unlike animated films based on the damsel in distress model,The Land Before Time is about community, friendship, and overcoming prejudice and fear making it as relevant today as it was when first released. We are very excited to screen The Land Before time as the first film in our new Generation Parkway youth programming series. (Keisha Nicole Knight)

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 25 FRI. MAY 4, 11:15 AM MICA BROWN • SAT. MAY 5, 3:45 PM PARKWAY 3

¡LAS SANDINISTAS!

NICARAGUA/USA • 2018 • 96 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Jenny Murray DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS INCLUDE Dora Maria Téllez, Sofia Montenegro, Daisy Zamora, Gioconda Belli

SYNOPSIS The history of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is a history inseparable from the many fearless and dedicated women who helped lead the group to its revolutionary coup over the totalitarian government of Nicaragua’s Somosa dynasty. The Sandinistas would never have succeeded in overthrowing this corrupt regime without the efforts of the thousands of women who fought, organized and led the movement to victory. As the Sandinistas took over the government, male leaders whose revolutionary attitudes evidently do not extend beyond the boundaries of their zippers, tended to tow the chauvinist line of female inferiority, forcing many critical female voices to the margins of the FSLN leadership. Forty years later, these brave women are largely written out of official accounts and official business by the men who continue to hold power. Beating back decades of misogynist rhetoric, ¡Las Sandinistas! works overtime to set the record straight by letting these inspiring and incredible women tell their own story. Digging deep into a wealth of archival footage and modern day interviews with the surviving Sandinista women, director Jenny Murray offers them a platform to reveal the truth about their struggles. The truth that Sandinista women were (are) often left to fight on two fronts, putting their lives on the line to battle injustice and government oppression, only to face the same struggles within their own revolutionary movement. Five decades on, these insuperable revolutionary heroes continue to fight the good fight, now against a Sandinista government that looks eerily similar to the one that they overthrew in 1979. Murray’s rousing documentary encompasses a thorough account of their beautiful struggle to equality, while offering deep insights into the past and present of a Nicaragua grappling with turmoil. Most importantly though, the film offers hope, in making it abundantly clear that the past, present and future of true revolutionary change is indeed female. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Jenny Murray is a graduate of Columbia University in New York. After working as a licensed Associate Trader on Watermill Trading’s stock trading desk, she directed three short films, and multiple social satire comedy videos. Her most recent short narrative film was selected to screen at Anthology Film Archives in New York City as part of New Filmmakers New York Winterfest. FRI. MAY 4, 11:45 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 9:30 PM MICA GATEWAY

LET THE CORPSES TAN

BELGIUM/FRANCE • 2017 • 92 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTORS Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani CAST Elina Löwensohn, Stéphane Ferrara, Bernie Bonvoisin

SYNOPSIS Belgian directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s first two features (2009’sAmer and 2013’s indelibly titled The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears) were international festival phenomena, garnering worldwide acclaim and broad-reaching theatrical and home video release. Each film is a highly stylized and beautifully crafted homage to the Giallo films of the 70s and 80s most notably associated with Italian maestro Dario Argento. With their follow up, the sensationally titled (and just plain sensational!) Let The Corpses Tan, the duo has again put their mark on the world of cinema with this modern twist on another classic style of international genre fare. This incredibly stylish and riveting tribute to the bloody poliziot- teschi crime capers of the 1970s looks and feels like an undiscovered classic of the period, only better! Although the directors root their films in the style inherent to the 1970s golden era of international cinema, they refine and amplify that style, elevating what might in lesser hands be a tired genre rehash, to a masterful ode to one of the most exciting periods in cinema history. Taking showy techniques of the time and perfecting them into a glorious mise en scène all their own, every frame bursts with stylish sophistication. Each bit of choreography with the actors, each camera movement, each lighting scheme, each foley sound, and each jump cut is meticulously planned to achieve the highly stylized and fun-as- hell-to-watch results. After making off with a truckload of stolen gold bullion, a gang of thieves becomes embroiled in a daylong shootout with pursuing cops among the ruins of their remote Mediterranean hideout. This premise provides the perfect set up for Cattet and Forzani to go off, taking the audience on a delirious sensory journey through a beautifully constructed day of carnage. If you are a fan of international cinema particularly Giallo, spaghetti westerns, poliziotteschi, and other Euro-crime films of the 70s, I implore you not to miss this incredible nostalgia-inducing-but-wholly-its- own cinematic adventure, complete with a soundtrack featuring gems from Ennio Morricone’s revered ouvre! (Scott Braid)

MDFILMFEST.COM 27 THU. MAY 3, 9:45 PM PARKWAY 1 • SAT. MAY 5, 1:45 PM MICA BROWN

MADELINE'S MADELINE

USA • USA • 90 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Josephine Decker CAST Helena Howard, Molly Parker, Miranda July

SYNOPSIS Art and artists fascinate Josephine Decker (director of MdFF 2013's Butter on the Latch and 2014's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely) because she believes there is something holy in the process of creating and potentially transformative in the result. In Madeline’s Madeline, which premiered at Sundance 2018, she explores the process of creation through the eyes of a fragile young performer, Madeline. Newcomer, Helena Howard, plays Madeline and it is one of those legendary debut performances that will be noted at every future step of her exciting career. Madeline is part of an improvisational theater group working under the guidance of leader Evangeline, played beautifully by Molly Parker. There is psychic danger in giving yourself over to this process, and Evangeline senses Madeline’s vulnerability but is intrigued by her talent. The groundbreaking writer, director, musician, and actor Miranda July plays Regina (Madeline’s single mother) who worries about the process, but it is unclear whether that comes from concern for Madeline, or fear of her growing artistic power. Facing both Evangeline and Regina, Madeline gains strength by trusting her ability to take chances, both artistically and in her own life, and that frightens both women. Decker’s process is itself improvisatory and collaborative and this work with her longtime cinematographer, Ashley Connor, and the rest of her team has served this artistic quest well. It’s high tribute to the power of the creative process and the strength of the artistic spirit. (Jed Dietz) BIOGRAPHY Josephine Decker is part of Time Warner's 150 incubator, Sundance Institute's New Frontier Lab, and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She was said to be ushering in a “new grammar of narrative” by The New Yorker.

28 SPONSORED BY SAT. MAY 5, 2:30 PM PARKWAY 1

MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A.

SRI LANKA/UK/USA • 2018 • 95 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Stephen Loveridge DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT Maya Arulpragasm (aka M.I.A.)

SYNOPSIS This is a film about a wild-hearted little girl, Matangi, forced to flee her war-torn country and resettle, a refugee, in a foreign land. This is a film about a rebellious young woman, Maya, throwing down beats all over London. This is a film about an international superstar, M.I.A., adored and vilified for speaking her mind. This is a film about the childhood experiences that grow us, the adolescent forge that shapes us, and the gravitas of adulthood that asks us to take a stand then watches while we decide what to do. Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., this film is about them, as different as they are, they are one and the same. Edited from 900 hours of home videos and 500 hours of archival footage, Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. took 7 years to finish. In its early incarnation, funded by MIA’s record label and involving her management, the film had the feel you might expect from aVH1: Behind the Music-esque celebrity profile. This was not the film director Stephen Loveridge wanted to make. With the help of NY non-profit Cinereach, Loveridge was able to take the film in a different direction and eventually to completion. Throughout the film, M.I.A. often asks the questions you didn’t know you were allowed to. For example: “What do female Tamil Tiger soldiers do when they have their periods?” Or more generally: In the face of a repressed and repressive power structure, smugly wedded to misogyny, violence, racism, xenophobia, and addicted to hypocrisy, why ever be a “good girl?” (Keisha Nicole Knight)

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 29 THU. MAY 3, 6:45 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT. MAY 5, NOON PARKWAY 1

MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS

USA • 2018 • 91 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Jake Meginsky CO-DIRECTOR Neil Young DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT Milford Graves

SYNOPSIS Cast in a form as rebelliously free-flowing as it’s subject’s music,Milford Graves Full Mantis is an inspiring journey through the life and mind of an experimental jazz pioneer with a truly singular persona. In it, the legendary Queens-based percussionist recalls family stories, shows us around his bountiful garden, and frames revelatory footage of past performances with vigorous discussions of polyrhythms and bioacoustics. For dedicated Graves fans and the uninitiated alike, Full Mantis is an utterly fascinating and mold-breaking musical biography. It begins with a long zooming take that scans the interior of the drummer’s eclectic home, accompanied by music that slowly builds to a simmer, before suddenly erupting into one of the high-energy sequences of archival footage that will become the kaleidoscopic doc’s binding substance. When the film settles back down, we find Graves’ in his garden. He talks of growing up in South Jamaica, philosophizes on the cosmic harmonies of the senses, and introduces us to a mix of martial arts and African dance he calls “Yara.” Later, he descends into his basement laboratory to introduce us to his latest artistic efforts: recording the rhythms of the human body and manipulating them sonically as well as sculpturally. His energy is captivating and his jargon both puzzling and deeply incisive. Graves’ long-time student/friend Jake Maginsky directs, along with collaborator Neil Young, an intense debut feature that reinvigorates the musical documentary genre. Docs as special as Jem Cohen’s landmark Instrument sit adjacent, but a more apt comparison might be to the unrelenting energy of free‑jazz‑infused narratives like Black Sun or Go, Go Second Time Virgin. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Jake Meginsky, a New Music USA award winner and Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in filmmaking, has collaborated and performed with an extraordinary range of musicians including Milford Graves, Alvin Lucier, Joan La Barbara, Vic Rawlings, Greg Kelley, Bhob Rainey, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, William Parker, Daniel Carter, Paul Flaherty, Arthur Brooks, and Bill Nace. Art in America magazine says, “Meginsky’s digital concrete takes percussion to outer extremes."

30 FRI. MAY 4, 9:55 PM MICA BROWN

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST

USA • 2018 • 110 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Desiree Akhavan EDITOR/HOST Sara Shaw CAST Chloë Grace Moretz, Jennifer Ehle, Marin Ireland, Sasha Lane

SYNOPSIS Maryland was the first state to approve marriage equality by popular vote several years ago, so it seems incredible that “conversion therapy” was emotionally debated during the 2018 Maryland legislative session, but it was. Adapted from a book of the same name by Emily Danforth, and published in 2012, this funny and warm‑hearted film tells the story of a girl who gets sent to the Christian camp God’s Promise, to pray away her sexual feelings, or at least to get them back in the closet. Cameron of course meets and bonds with many other “misfits,” like an amputee who uses her prosthesis to hide marijuana and insists her name is Jane Fonda. Even the camp leaders, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.) and his crazed sister, Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle), are not stereotypical monsters. Led by a wonderfully strong and tempered performance by Chloe Grace Moretz as Cameron, the whole cast, under the guidance of co-writer and director Desiree Akhavan (MdFF 2014's Appropriate Behavior), finds something specific and convincing in each character. Spirited and funny, this film is a forceful reminder that the human spirit is hard to repress, though there will always be those who try out of a fear of sexual desires they don’t understand. (Jed Dietz) BIOGRAPHY Sara Shaw attended NYU's Grad Film program and has edited a number of films, including Adam Leon's Tramps (Toronto '16), Desiree Akhavan's Appropriate Behavior (Sundance '14), and Frances Bodomo's Afronauts (Sundance '14). TOOTH AND NAIL 22 MIN • USA • DIRECTOR Sara Shaw

A sister makes a bargain with her terminally ill brother. He agrees to give her his sperm for future use with a partner if she comes out to the family that night. FRI. MAY 4, 7:30 PM MICA BROWN • SUN. MAY 6, 2:00 PM MICA GATEWAY

NANCY

USA • 2018 • 87 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Christina Choe CAST Andrea Riseborough, Steve Buscemi, Ann Dowd, John Leguizamo

SYNOPSIS Nancy, a 30-something loner played with incredible restraint by Andrea Riseborough, is a pathological liar who seeks connection with people under false pretenses. Her only lasting human connection is with her overbearing mother (Ann Dowd). We first encounter the extent of Nancy’s lies when she pretends to be pregnant to lure a depressed father out from behind his internet avatar. After the truth is revealed and this situation implodes, Nancy comes across a news story of two desperate parents whose daughter disappeared 30 years ago. She immediately sees an opportunity and maybe even convinces herself that she could in fact be their long lost daughter. Nancy reaches out to Ellen and Leo, the wounded parents of the missing girl, played by J. Smith-Cameron and Steve Buscemi respectively (both in wonderfully understated performances). The hopeful couple quickly finds themselves ensnared by the promise that this mysterious woman may just be their long lost daughter. She’s the right age and she bears a striking resemblance to the digitally aged photo that local authorities are circulating, but something just doesn’t seem quite right about Nancy. Christina Choe, an MdFF 2012 Opening Night Shorts alum with her filmI Am John Wayne, returns to the fest with this stunning feature debut. The film premiered at Sundance 2018, where the director/ screenwriter took home the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Choe has said in interviews that she set out to create a morally ambiguous female anti-hero in Nancy and she succeeds mightily with this complex and brooding character study of a troubled woman seeking connection through fabricated histories. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Christina Choe’s short films have screened at dozens of festivals, including the Telluride Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, and Slamdance Film Festival, where her short I Am John Wayne won the Grand Jury Prize for best short film. Choe's honors also include an HBOAccess® Directing Fellowship; an artist residency at The MacDowell Colony; a Sundance Institute Fellowship; and a Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation Fellowship, which was awarded at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

32 THU. MAY 3, 10:00 PM MICA BROWN • FRI. MAY 4, 9:15 PM PARKWAY 3

NEVER GOIN' BACK

USA • 2018 • 86 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Augustine Frizzell PRODUCER/ACTOR/HOST Liz Cardenas CAST Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Kyle Mooney, Liz Cardenas

SYNOPSIS The beaches of Galveston, TX may not make for a very glamorous destination, but for Never Goin’ Back’s stoner besties Angela and Jessie, the Gulf Coast city sounds like a dream respite from their dead-end waitressing jobs and man-child roommates. Before they get there however, the duo will have to contend with a home robbery, a stint in juvie, and perhaps toughest of all… making rent. Augustine Frizzell’s new semi-autobiographical comedy is a downright audience charmer, immensely entertaining and sure to draw laughs. The film opens on an exciting note, when Angela (Maia Mitchell) manages to book the perfect vacation for Jessie’s (Camila Morrone) birthday at a cut-rate price, but they’ll have to work extra shifts at the local diner to make-up the difference on rent. Unfortunately, the pair of teenage dropouts aren’t the only miscreants in the house, and when they find out that aspiring drug-dealer Dustin (Joel Allen) and genuine creepster Brandon (SNL’s Kyle Mooney) don’t have their shares either, they’re forced to hatch some less‑than‑legal plans. From there a hilarious collection of mishaps follow, replete with drug‑induced setbacks and unexpected gross‑outs. With her first feature, opening night alum Frizzell has dropped a raucous caper that blends a sweet and supportive friendship with a narrative that’s unapologetically raunchy. The outcome is something of a vision of Ghost World, but with the degeneracy of Spring Breakers and a Dude, Where’s My Car? sense of adventure. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Liz Cardenas is a filmmaker and actress from Dallas, Texas. Additional producing and acting credits include David Lowery’s A Ghost Story (Sundance ‘17), starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, andJules of Light & Dark, a SFFILM and Austin Film Society grant recipient feature film in post production. She also produced Augustine Frizzell's two previous short films. A former reporter for The Dallas Morning News, Liz has written and directed two award-winning short films (both of which Augustine produced) and co-created a successful series of children’s films.

MDFILMFEST.COM 33 THU. MAY 3, 7:30 PM MICA BROWN • FRI. MAY 4, 11:30 AM MICA GATEWAY

ON HER SHOULDERS

USA • 2018 • 94 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Alexandria Bombach DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT Nadia Murad

SYNOPSIS On Her Shoulders follows 23‑year‑old Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a young woman who, in August of 2014, lost 18 members of her family during the Sinjar massacre in Iraq. Murad is Yazidi, a minority ethno-religious group that has been targeted by ISIS and the focus of their genocidal campaign. Murad was a young student who spent her time farming before ISIS came and killed nearly half of her town, kidnapping her and other young women, raping them and using them as sex slaves. Since her escape, Murad has committed her life to speaking out and providing a voice for millions of Yazidis who are still imprisoned and cannot speak up for themselves. The film documents Murad as she travels throughout the world, speaking to British Parliament, media and public officials on behalf of the Yazidi population. Footage of Murad’s navigation through the Western World, as she relays her experiences, is powerfully juxtaposed against the superficial gestures of media and time-consuming bureaucratic procedures. Some of the most powerful scenes occur when Murad speaks directly into the camera, expressing her opinions and reflections on this process. The film works towards the day Murad will present to the UN General assembly, asking for accountability and acknowledgement. (Margaret Rorison). BIOGRAPHY Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning cinematographer, editor, and director from Santa Fe, New Mexico. For On Her Shoulders, Alexandria won Best Directing in the US Documentary Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary,Frame By Frame, follows the lives of four Afghan photojournalists who are facing the realities of building Afghanistan's first free press. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2015, went on to win more than 30 film festival awards and screened in front of the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani.

34 SPONSORED BY SUN. MAY 6, 11:00 AM PARKWAY 1

A PAGE OF MADNESS PRESENTED BY ALLOY ORCHESTRA

JAPAN • 1926 • 78 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Teinosuke Kinugasa HOSTS Alloy Orchestra CAST Masao Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa

SYNOPSIS The title A Page of Madness can also be translated from the original Japanese to mean something more like "A Page Out of Order." This secondary meaning of the title points to the non-linear approach to narrative the film employs. Based on a treatment written by Nobel Prize winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata, A Page of Madness is ostensibly a simple tale about an ex-sailor who takes a job as a janitor in a psychiatric hospital in order to be close to his wife. However—inspired in part by the films of Abel Gance, German Expressionist masterpieces like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligiari, Dadism, and Benraku puppetry—director Teinosuke Kinugasa’s film is anything but simple. Having just recently watched Masaaki Yuasa’s 2004 animated fever dream Mind Game, I can’t help but feel the similarities between that film andA Page of Madness—formal dissolution of time and space, a singular and surprising narrative logic, a patchwork of psychic snapshots aimed at the subconscious rather than the overtly emotional. In the case of A Page of Madness, in its traditional presentation, the film would have been accompanied by a narrator (a benshi) who would create dialog and give backstory as the film screened. We don’t have a benshi narrator, but we do have Alloy Orchestra with their new and expressive score to guide us through this avant-garde tour de force. (Keisha Nicole Knight) BIOGRAPHY Alloy Orchestra, comprised of Roger Miller, Terry Donahue, and Ken Winokur, have performed numerous times under MdFF sponsorship, including the world premiere of their score for Phantom of the Opera, December 2010's remarkable screening of the restored Metropolis, and the first U.S. performance of the restored Man with a Movie Camera. They continue to write new scores, and revise their existing scores as new versions of films become available.

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 35 FRI. MAY 4, 7:00 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 11:45 AM MICA GATEWAY

THE PAIN OF OTHERS

USA • 2018 • 71 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Penny Lane DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS "Morgies"

SYNOPSIS In her new found-footage documentary about sufferers of a disease only rumored to exist, Penny Lane (director of MdFF 2016’s Nuts!) offers a complex and deeply challenging study, unique in its power to confront your capacity for empathy. Culled almost entirely from YouTube videos, The Pain of Others is at once a documentary body-horror and an exegesis on performing suffering for the internet. Truly ambitious filmgoers take note. Lane’s epic is harsh, but also distinct, offering-up the most unique vision at this year’s festival. The subjects of the documentary unite on YouTube as victims of a rare skin condition named Morgellons, and for the sake of skirting spoilers, their symptoms are best left described by the film. It is apparent that these vloggers have built a community and find solace in sharing their respective methods of relief from their condition. Away from their corner of the internet however, they feel ostracized by the medical community and, in some instances, by their families as well. In one stark display of suffering, a woman tearfully pleads for her audience to simply try and understand how it feels to be second-guessed at every turn. It’s a powerful moment, and like so many other scenes, it stays with you long after the film ends, fermenting and expanding in your memory of the work. Not quite like any other movie, The Pain of Others is perhaps best compared to those late‑night, blue‑light‑fueled excursions into the recesses of the internet. As with the best of what you discover, from Lane’s new film grows an indelible thread for discussion. Cinephiles, unite. (Mitchell Goodrich) BIOGRAPHY Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2012, Penny Lane has been making experimental nonfiction films since 2004. She has been awarded grants from Creative Capital, the Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg, Cinereach, TFI Documentary Fund, Jerome Foundation, LEF Foundation, Rooftop Films, Catapult Film Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Experimental Television Center, IFP and the Puffin Foundation.

36 THU. MAY 3, 9:30 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 6:30 PM PARKWAY 3

SHAKEDOWN

USA • 2018 • 72 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Leilah Weinraub DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS INCLUDE Ronnie-Ron, Egypt, Jazmyne

SYNOPSIS “Shakedown” was a series of parties that took place in the early 2000’s as part of LA’s underground black lesbian stripper scene. Director Leilah Weinraub’s documentary, made of over 400 hours of exclusive footage, intimately documents a space that cultivated a community and freedom of expression for queer culture. After receiving a Shakedown flyer, Weinraub attended one of the parties and immediately connected to the experience and its community. She began shooting footage soon after, in 2002, when she was 23 years old until the parties were shut down by police in 2004. The experience of Shakedown is in the footage; incorporating candid moments of the dancers (known as the Shakedown Angels), live recordings of emcees, and eclectic show flyers. Weinraub’s material transports viewers, supplementing the trip with interviews of former Shakedown dancers who reflect on this particular era in time. We follow three main characters, Shakedown CEO Ronnie Ron, and dancers Egypt and Jazmyne, as they recall their labor and experiences birthing a unique performance culture while bringing to life their fantasies and alter egos. Shakedown presents us with an informative look at a unique and historic community; Weinraub places us into a past that is at risk of being forgotten. (Margaret Rorison) BIOGRAPHY Leilah Weinraub is an artist and director living in New York. A short version of her film Shakedown was recently included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. She is the CEO of Hood By Air, the New York-based fashion collective known for luxury ready-to-wear. STRANGELY ORDINARY THIS DEVOTION 27 MIN • USA • DIRECTOR Dani & Sheilah ReStack

SOTD is a visceral exploration of feral domesticity, queer desire, and fantasy in a world under the threat of climate change. Utilizing and exploding archetypes, the film offers a radical approach to collaboration and the conception of family. THU. MAY 3, 4:00 PM PARKWAY 1 • FRI. MAY 4, 11:30 AM PARKWAY 1 • SAT. MAY 5, 7:00 PM MICA GATEWAY

SICKIES MAKING FILMS

USA • 2018 • 84 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Joe Tropea DOCUMENTARY SUBJECTS Mary Avara and the history of film censorship in Maryland

SYNOPSIS Until it was disbanded in 1981, the Maryland Board of Censors was the longest standing state‑specific film censorship agency in the U.S., with a 65‑year grip on the industry. Sickies Making Films is a fascinating look at the history of that board and the resultant legacy of film censorship in Maryland. The film finds its focus in the powerful players on all sides of the debate, who forever changed the course of filmmaking. This colorful cast of characters and their sometimes baffling behavior intrigue and entertain throughout. On one end of the spectrum, we have the staunchly righteous champions of morality; chiefly Mary Avara, a formidable, if slightly deranged, bail bondswoman with a seventh grade education. Avara became one of the state’s chief film censors, serving on the board for 21 years, hammering out seemingly unreasonable demands and making embarrassing public appearances along the way. On the other, we have peddlers of “filth” like our hometown hero John Waters, who in spite of his culturally constrictive surroundings created an entirely new and delightfully trashy genre of film smack dab in the middle of Avara’s reign. Sickies Making Films thoughtfully and thoroughly examines the reasons behind the unique tenacity, longevity and immense power censors had over creative output in Maryland. Enhanced by regional archival footage, classic film segments and interviews, the perplexing and often downright absurd story of how Maryland went from being one of the most culturally conservative states to the birthplace of the “Prince of Puke” is told with candor, humor and compassion. (Emily Slaughter-Delano) BIOGRAPHY Joe Tropea earned a Masters in Historical Studies with a concentration in Public History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He currently works at the Maryland Historical Society where he is the Curator of Films and Photographs and a co-founder of the Preserve the Baltimore Uprising Archive Project. In 2013 he co-directed the award winning documentary Hit & Stay: a history of faith and resistance.

38 SPONSORED BY THU. MAY 3, 7:00 PM PARKWAY 1 • SUN. MAY 6, 4:30 PM MICA BROWN

SOLLERS POINT

USA • 2017 • 101 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Matthew Porterfield CAST McCaul Lombardi, Zazie Beetz, Jim Belushi

SYNOPSIS Sollers Point is a story that is uniquely Baltimore, although many of its themes are universal. The film is importantly set around Sollers Point Road, which runs from Holabird Avenue almost to Broening Highway. It is in this stretch of Dundalk that Keith (McCaul Lombardi) once again finds himself. He’s just out of prison and is still under house arrest, living with his Dad (Jim Belushi). He is struggling to adjust to life on the outside as he attempts to get reacquainted with his ex Courtney (Zazie Beetz) and the dog they shared, not to mention his family, the grandmotherly Ladybug (Lynn Cohen) and even some of his buddies. Director Matt Porterfield has always been fascinated by the details of place, the way filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Vittorio De Sica, Jean-Luc Godard, and John Waters are. In Sollers Point, Porterfield has brought together a stellar group of professional actors and non-professionals who live in the community, all of whom give rare performances. Lombardi (who was recently seen in Andrea Arnold’s Cannes Jury Prize winner American Honey), anchors almost every scene and is a revelation. But every character counts in this film of intimate moments; take careful note of Marin Ireland (playing Keith’s sister) during her beautiful, gentle moments with Keith. A great open-hearted spirit and an energetic artistry define this film. Porterfield knows and cares deeply about his characters; he wants the audience to leave the movie wondering about what may come next. The film premiered at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival, bringing audiences in distant lands the opportunity to get to know Keith and many of the other inhabitants of Sollers Point. We’re proud to finally be able to bring them home to Baltimore. (Jed Dietz) BIOGRAPHY Matthew Porterfield has written and directed four feature films. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Harvard Film Archive and has screened at the Whitney Biennial, the Walker Arts Center, Centre Pompidou, Cinémathèque Française, and film festivals such as Sundance, the Berlinale, and SXSW. SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 39 FRI. MAY 4, 2:15 PM PARKWAY 3 • SAT. MAY 5, 4:00 PM PARKWAY 2

STRANGE COLOURS

AUSTRALIA • 2017 • 85 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Alena Lodkina CAST Kate Cheel, Justin Courtin, Daniel P. Jones

SYNOPSIS Strange Colours is a sensitive, observational portrait of Milena, a young woman who travels to New South Wales, Australia to visit her sick father upon his request. Milena begins navigating this foreign landscape, a place she has never been—both physically and emotionally. She finds herself befriending the locals while working to come to terms with her estranged relationship with her father. The narrative takes place in the opal mining township of Lightening Ridge. Stagnant flies, bleached rocks, dark caves, and lush vocal patterns of insects form a distinct ambience. Descriptive camera perspectives that fixate upon uniquely detailed moments establish a sensitivity, a sensation of disconnect, allowing viewers a space to breathe and immerse themselves into this world. Premiering last year at the Venice Film Festival, Strange Colours is the first feature film by Russian‑Australian director, Alena Lodkina. It is a sweet, meditative piece that is sensitive to the intricacies and complexities of estranged parental relations. Using mainly nonprofessional actors who move naturally through the desert landscape, Lodkina creates a memorable portrayal of a young woman and her immediate surroundings with a unique tenderness, sculpted in a direct and refreshing manner. (Margaret Rorison). BIOGRAPHY Alena Lodkina is a Russian-born filmmaker based in Melbourne. She has made fiction and documentary short films that have played at festivals around the world. She writes about film and has worked as an editor, editing Amiel Courtin-Wilson's performance filmThe Silent Eye (2016). DAHLIA 4 MIN • USA • DIRECTOR Ana Mouyis Through a metaphorical narrative about love, Dahlia explores a relationship between two people which is burdened by mental illness. Journey through a colorful and ever-changing world; a hand painted realm that shifts and morphs to portray a darkened state of mind. SAT. MAY 5, 4:30 PM MICA BROWN • SUN. MAY 6, 11:15 AM MICA BROWN

THIS IS HOME

USA • 2018 • 91 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Alexandra Shiva

SYNOPSIS Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, over five million people have fled the country. Of those, 21,000 have been accepted into the USA, with 372 finding themselves in Baltimore. Created by award winning filmmaker Alexandra Shiva,This is Home follows four Syrian families who have left their country and are taking their first steps towards a new future in Baltimore. The film documents their initial experiences working with The Baltimore International Rescue Committee (IRC), an organization that provides families with 8 months of assistance to become self- sufficient. This is Home captures the intimate and varied struggles faced by Syrian refugees coming to a foreign city in a foreign country. We follow the families as they navigate new lives, from wading through- endless yogurt options in the supermarket or coming to terms with four hour commutes on public trans- portation, to dealing with racism and new gender roles. A moving, informative film for not only Americans but for Baltimoreans,This is Home examines the systematic operations, bureaucracies and lack of social services that we are not often conscious of from the inside. In the midst of the travel ban that Trump imposed in January 2017, one IRC employee expresses with grief, "We want to be the greatest country in the world, but we don' treat people like we're the greatest country in the world." Alexandra Shiva has delicately balanced the challenging refugee experience of relocation and displacement, cultural differences, and the PTSD symptoms of war with a sensitive reflection of humanity, strength, and the power of community. (Margaret Rorison). BIOGRAPHY Alexandra Shiva is an award-winning filmmaker with over 15 years of experience crafting intimate, character-driven cinema vérité documentaries. Her previous films include the Peabody Award winner How to Dance in Ohio; Stagedoor (Sundance Channel, 2006 SXSW Film Festival); Bombay Eunuch (best documentary at New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and Special Jury Award at the Florida Film Festival, 2001).

SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 41 FRI. MAY 4, 9:45 PM PARKWAY 1 • SAT. MAY 5, 2:00 PM MICA GATEWAY

TIME TRIAL

UK • 2017 • 81 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Finlay Pretsell COMPOSER/HOST Dan Deacon DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT David Millar

SYNOPSIS In this content-heavy age of ESPN, HBO and Netflix (to name but a few), there is certainly no shortage of great sports documentaries, but rarely do those films cross over from snazzy well-produced storytelling into pure cinema. Time Trial, while a riveting and powerful sports film in its own right, is also a pure work of art. From its opening interview with subject David Millar—a once‑disgraced cyclist who fought his way back into the good graces of his beloved sport after a two year suspension for using PEDs— Time Trial shows itself to be a wholly different kind of documentary experience, made all‑the‑more remarkable by a haunting original score by singular Baltimore-based composer Dan Deacon. A complete and total audio-visual immersion, the film posits viewers directly into the grueling world of the peloton. As Millar’s team trains for the Tour de France, we ride along, up impossible hills, through pouring rain, under brutal sun, pushing through fatigue, injury and self doubt to keep the wheels rolling as fast as they can go. The film, with its indelible soundtrack, succeeds mightily at engrossing viewers in the peloton to the point that we can almost taste the blood, sweat and tears of these determined competitors. The physical ride isn’t the only one we’re on though. As Millar—an athlete who has risen to cycling’s heights only to fall to its depths and rise again—looks for a final qualifying victory to take him, one last time, to cycling’s main event. Akin to 2013 doc sensation Leviathan in its visceral immersion into subject, Time Trial layers on a bold exploration of the inner workings of a complicated human. Millar is an athlete whose complexities demand the film’s unique approach. Director Finlay Pretsell doesn’t just offer a peek behind the curtain, but rather tears it down as David Millar lays himself bare. The seasoned cyclist allows us total access as he attempts to transcend his aging body—and the emotional heft that comes with the knowledge that he’s in the twilight of his career—to seek out one final victory lap in his beloved sport. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Finlay Pretsell is a BAFTA award-winning filmmaker who once set out on the long road to becoming a professional cyclist. He has directed six shorts and produced many others. Most recently he produced the feature filmNorfolk for BBC Films, BFI, Creative England. Time Trial is his first feature. SAT. MAY 5, 4:30 PM MICA GATEWAY • SUN. MAY 6, 4:30 PM PARKWAY 3

WE THE ANIMALS

USA • 2017 • 90 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Jeremiah Zagar CAST Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian, Josiah Gabriel, Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand

SYNOPSIS We the Animals is a poetic and honest depiction of Jonah, a young child who encounters the difficulties of reality at far too early an age. Our relationship to Jonah naturally develops as we experience his soul grow and form strength to combat the disconnecting forces around him. Adapted by directors Jeremiah Zagar and Dan Kitrosser from Justin Torres’ semi-biographical novel, We the Animals is a uniquely constructed, coming of age story, told through the eyes of Jonah (Evan Rosado), a sensitive and introspective individual who realizes that he does not quite see the world the way his brothers do. We follow Jonah and his two older brothers, Manny (Isaiah Kristian) and Joel (Josiah Gabriel), as they explore the world amid a tumultuous and unstable household environment. Their young parents struggle to stay afloat, unable to conceal or work through the realities of job stresses and violent, emotional outbursts. The film transitions between third person observational footage of the parents’ heated, emotional lives and the perspective of Jonah. The incorporation of hand drawn journal entries, which communicate Jonah’s emotional stances, and the vigorous, percussive score by Nick Zammuto create a memorable expressions of Jonah’s efforts to try and make sense of these formative experiences. Cinematographer, Zak Mulligan does a beautiful job of capturing the crisp colors of Upstate New York’s lush landscape, casting lyrical light that shifts over fallen eyes and heavy tears. The visual imagery powerfully conveys the characters’ sensibilities, creating a singular and evocative experience. (Margaret Rorison) BIOGRAPHY Jeremiah Zagar's first feature documentary, In a Dream (HBO), was shortlisted for an Academy Award and received two Emmy nominations, including best documentary. It screened at theaters across the U.S. and festivals around the world, winning awards at the SXSW Film Festival and others. His second, Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (HBO), premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 43 FRI. MAY 4, 9:30 PM MICA GATEWAY • SUN. MAY 6, 5:00 PM PARKWAY 2

WOBBLE PALACE

USA • 2018 • 86 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR/HOST Eugene Kotlyarenko CAST Dasha Nekrasova, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Jack Kilmer, Paige Elkington, Vishwam Velandy

SYNOPSIS To reiterate what I said back in 2015, when we had the pleasure of screening Eugene Kotlyarenko’s second feature filmA Wonderful Cloud, it is the goal of every film festival (or at least the ones worth their salt) to discover and nurture emerging talent and singular visions. MdFF was lucky enough to find Kotlyarenko's ambitious and timely first feature,0s & 1s in our call for entries 8 years ago. We immediately recognized a unique mind at work, with bold ideas and the guts to commit to them. Three features later, this unconventional, multi-talented filmmaker continues to create ever-deeper and more resonant films. His work remains eye-popping and uniquely contemporary, offering-up achingly real and darkly comic insight into the world of millenial dating in the technological abyss. Wobble Palace is a grimly hilarious and unexpectedly poignant look at one couple’s attempts to navigate a failing relationship on the eve of the most traumatic election in history. Eugene (director Kotlyarenko) and Jane (co-writer Dasha Nekrasova) decide to open up their faltering relationship and divide time in their shared house. Before the weight of their decision has time to sink in, Eugene is prowling his Tinder feed looking for a hook-up to ease the transition. And before his Tinder-depleted battery hits low power mode, Jane is off courting a Trump-loving tech bro who will likely treat her worse than Eugene ever has. As these two unhappy characters wend their way through this wild weekend and several outrageous situations, their discontent only increases. Eugene’s fragile ego is tested by his newfound freedom while an equally fragile Jane seems alarmed at the prospect of being basic after failing a crucial internet personality test. With their lives continually revolving around the virtual kicks their respective phones provide, it’s no wonder these two erstwhile lovebirds flew smack dab into a wall of miscommunication. What the confused pair find at the end of their weekend-long experiment is that even in the Google age you just might have to put your phone away once in a while to find real answers. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Eugene Kotlyarenko's debut film0s & 1s was called "the ultimate has‑to-be-seen- more-than-once movie” by the NY Times. His most recent feature A Wonderful Cloud was deemed a "21st‑Century Annie Hall" by Variety. The past is prologue...excited for the future! SUN. MAY 6, 4:45 PM PARKWAY 1

WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

USA • 2018 • 93 MINUTES • DCP DIRECTOR Morgan Neville PRODUCER/HOST Nicholas Ma DOCUMENTARY SUBJECT Fred Rogers

SYNOPSIS Every so often a film comes along that is timed so perfectly for the moment it enters the world that it is unimaginable that it wasn’t divine providence that brought it to us. In this particularly dark and divided moment, when the world feels as though it is in a perpetual slide, it’s easy to imagine the hand of some divine force gently nudging us towards the beacon of kindness and empathy that is Fred Rogers. A Presbyterian minister whose beautiful brand of television teaching inspired the lives of millions (this programmer included) over his 30-plus years on the air, Fred Rogers certainly seems to be of divine stock. But as tempting as it is to ascribe Mr. Rogers and his seemingly inexhaustible love and kindness with a god-like divinity, it misses the point of his teachings. Each day his program showed that it is not beyond humans to show a godly kindness and love but rather something that each and every one of us is capable of giving and receiving, and what’s more, we should. For many children growing up between the late 60s and early aughts, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood provided a place (for some the only place) where this simple concept was put into practice day in and day out. Rogers is famously quoted as saying, “Love is at the root of everything, all learning, all parenting, all relationships, love or the lack of it.” These lines send chills when spoken by Rogers in the film, because they are devastating in the simplicity of their truth. Why is it that a concept as simple as loving one another, remains so elusive for mankind as a whole? While no film can solve the world’s problems, the multi-talented team behindWon’t You Be My Neighbor had the prescience to bring us this stirring account of the late Rogers lasting legacy of love and the myriad lives he touched to the big screen, at this particular moment, when we just may need it most. (Scott Braid) BIOGRAPHY Nicholas Ma is a writer, director and producer based in New York City. He is currently in development on a documentary series on diplomacy. A graduate of Harvard College, he previously worked in Washington, D.C. for then-Senator John Kerry, overseeing his global economic portfolio on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. SPONSORED BY MDFILMFEST.COM 45 FILMMAKER PANELS MDFF PITCH COMPETITION Please join us for panel discussions The Baltimore Filmmakers Collective in between local and visiting filmmakers association with the Baltimore chapter of on Friday May 4, Saturday May 5, and Film Fatales is sponsoring the first ever Sunday May 6, from 2–4 PM. Maryland Film Festival Pitch Competition.

Panels take place inside the main space at The event is on Friday, May 4 at 7:PM at the Red Emma's Bookstore & Cafe. Impact Hub (10 E. North Ave) and is open to the public. All panels are FREE and open to the public. Individuals interested in taking part in the competition should go to: www.baltimorefilmmakerscollective.com

Cash prizes will be awarded at the completion of the event.

46 FRI MAY 4, 4:15 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO Animated Shorts

A rich collection of animated shorts produced using a broad range of techniques, from the painstakingly handmade to the meticulously digital. These films bring visual pleasures and splendors unique to their respective mediums. AIRPORT 11 MINUTES • SWITZERLAND, CROATIA DIRECTOR Michaela Müller

Airports. The pinnacle of modern society, places where the limits of borders, security, and tolerance are constantly tested. 94 MINUTES

APPLIED PRESSURE THE BIGGEST WAD IS MINE 6 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 3 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Kelly Sears DIRECTOR Sam Gurry

Ease the pain from past physical and mental Junior High is one sticky situation. distress. The body remembers. Aches may linger. Lay prone, breathe deeply, release tension, let go of the pain.

MDFILMFEST.COM 47 FRI MAY 4, 4:15 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO

Animated Shorts CONTINUED 94 MINUTES

A BRIEF SPARK BOOKENDED CICADA BY DARKNESS 4 MINUTES • USA 4 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Clarissa Gregory DIRECTOR Brent Green Teenage cicadas procreate, a nymph burrows underground, the world above still turns... a lyrical A handmade tale of love in an increasingly passage of time unfolds in the life of a cicada. dark world.

DOWN ESCALATION THE DRIVER IS RED 7 MINUTES • JAPAN 15 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Shunsaku Hayashi DIRECTOR Randall Christopher

Falling down, it feels ecdysone is filling up its Set in Argentina in 1960, this true crime body. Delving into the deeper layers of itself, the documentary follows the story of secret agent flesh is melted down in the shell until the form is Zvi Aharoni as he hunted down one of the no longer. highest ranking Nazi war criminals on the run.

48 FRI MAY 4, 4:15 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO

Animated Shorts CONTINUED 94 MINUTES

THE ELEPHANT'S SONG NEVADA 8 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 12 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Lynn Tomlinson DIRECTOR Emily Ann Hoffman An old farm dog recounts the true tale of Old Bet, A young couple's romantic weekend getaway the elephant at the start of the American circus. is interrupted by a birth control mishap in this Their mournful melody is hand-crafted using stop-motion animated comedy. both oil pastel and painterly clay-on-glass animation techniques.

PHOTOTAXIS SANS CHLOROPHYLL 7 MINUTES • USA 3 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Melissa Ferrari DIRECTOR Phil Davis

Rooted in nonfiction,Phototaxis draws parallels An experiment in animated choreography with between Mothman, a prophetic and demonized autumn leaves. Consisting of hundreds of scanned creature in West Virginia lore, and Narcotics and photographed leaves animated to a banjo Anonymous, the primary treatment program in soundscape. A celebration of the vibrant burst West Virginia’s addiction epidemic. of seasonal beauty.

MDFILMFEST.COM 49 FRI MAY 4, 4:15 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO

Animated Shorts CONTINUED 94 MINUTES

TRAIN MAN UGLY 2 MINUTES • USA 12 MINUTES • GERMANY DIRECTOR Alex Barsky DIRECTOR Nikita Diakur A man makes a home for himself inside of a An ugly cat struggles to coexist in a fragmented train car. and broken world, eventually finding a soulmate in a mystical chief. Inspired by the internet story ‘Ugly the Cat’ and animated with computer simulated marionettes.

50 FRI MAY 4, 11:00 AM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 7:15 PM MICA STUDIO Character Study Shorts

This captivating assortment of shorts focuses on incisive, character-driven narratives, showcasing an array of personalities and varied lives on screen.

ANIMAL 15 MINUTES • IRAN DIRECTOR Bahram and Bahman Ark

A man who wants to pass the border, disguises himself as a ram.

99 MINUTES

BEAN CARRO 15 MINUTES • USA 12 MINUTES • BRAZIL, USA DIRECTOR Irina Prokhorenko DIRECTOR Gustavo Rosa

Vika, a 10 year old Russian-American girl tries to An undocumented Brazilian immigrant living in connect with her father who can't assimilate to the Boston area decides to buy a car in an effort to American culture. better his life before returning home.

MDFILMFEST.COM 51 FRI MAY 4, 11:00 AM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 7:15 PM MICA STUDIO

Character Study Shorts CONTINUED 99 MINUTES

COLE DO MORE OF WHAT MAKES 10 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE YOU HAPPY DIRECTOR David Call 15 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE Cole tells the story of a US combat veteran DIRECTOR Dylan Pailes-Friedman recovering from the effects of a traumatic & Dakota Pailes‑Friedman brain injury as he attempts to find a job in the Chum steals off the shelf pharmaceuticals in civilian world. order to provide for her terminally ill best friend Luna. Everything changes when she meets Shortcut, a traveling punk on their way west.

DRUGSTORE LIPSTICK HERCULES 17 MINUTES • USA 8 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Lizz Astor DIRECTOR Lisa Duva

2005: The pope is dead and Ava, a 16-year-old A one night stand threatens to turn into a real Catholic schoolgirl, is still a virgin. After meeting a relationship, maybe. I dunno. It’s whatever. charming sleazeball, and being taunted by her best friend’s own deflowering, Ava is forced to decide whether or not her own virginity is a cross she wants to continue to bear.

52 FRI MAY 4, 11:00 AM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 7:15 PM MICA STUDIO

Character Study Shorts CONTINUED 99 MINUTES

I WAS IN YOUR BLOOD 7 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Joseph Sackett A little boy falls in love with his babysitter.

MDFILMFEST.COM 53 FRI MAY 4, 3:45 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO Charged Spaces Shorts

These dramatic gems envelop characters within contentious and powerfully resonant scenes. In them, figures combat physical threats, rehashed memories, and awkward exchanges. Punctuated by dashes of laughter, Charged Spaces is high on drama, but also CAROLINE vibrantly human. 12 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Logan George & Celine Held When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.

93 MINUTES

EMMY GAZE 9 MINUTES • CANADA 14 MINUTES • IRAN DIRECTOR Hannah Cheesman DIRECTOR Farnoosh Samadi

An iPhone obsessed gym-rat overdoses on a On her way back from work, a woman witnesses muscle relaxant and makes an unlikely connection something happening on the bus and she has to with a stranger. decide whether to reveal what she's seen.

54 FRI MAY 4, 3:45 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO

Charged Spaces Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

A GENTLE NIGHT GREAT LIGHT 15 MINUTES • CHINA, FRANCE 11 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Qiu Yang DIRECTOR Tony Oswald In a nameless Chinese city, a mother whose When the matriarch of a rural Kentucky family daughter is missing, refuses to go gently into takes issue with the behavior of her daughter's the night. boyfriend at a gathering to view the total solar eclipse, she's forced to confront her own mysterious past.

HAIRCUT KRISTA 7 MINUTES • USA 9 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR David Brundige DIRECTOR Danny Madden

A modern couple can't connect over Lindsey's In a high school theater class, Krista uses her new short hair. scene study as catharsis.

MDFILMFEST.COM 55 FRI MAY 4, 3:45 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 2:00 PM MICA STUDIO

Charged Spaces Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

LUNCH TIME 16 MINUTES • IRAN DIRECTOR Alireza Ghasemi A 16-year-old girl has come to the hospital to identify the body of her mother. Due to her young age, the people in change of the hospital won’t let her into the morgue.

56 THU MAY 3, 10:15 PM MICA STUDIO • FRI MAY 4, 9:45 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 4:45 PM MICA STUDIO

Comedy Shorts

After the laughter comes tears. Sometimes those tears are from laughing so hard you cry, and sometimes they're from crying so hard you eventually have to laugh. Whether fueled by chuckles found in the absurd, or the painful truths hidden BOTANICA in dark humor, these shorts are sometimes funny haha 13 MINUTES • NETHERLANDS and sometimes funny oh no! DIRECTOR Noël Loozen A garden-center employee fears his possible infertility and realizes that sometimes you have to swallow your pride to let love overcome. 90 MINUTES

EARTH IS A PARADISE EDUCATORS 13 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 4 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Jessica Garrison DIRECTOR Jason Giampietro & Fabianne Gstottenmayr Over mushroom barley soup and ketchup In the quest for emotional dominance, two laden kasha, two educators in a New York diner strangers impose seemingly innocent games complain about being abused at school. When on each other, but the rules are rigged, and the conversation turns to Trump, an opportunity the winners unclear. for a history quiz arises.

MDFILMFEST.COM 57 THU MAY 3, 10:15 PM MICA STUDIO • FRI MAY 4, 9:45 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 4:45 PM MICA STUDIO

Comedy Shorts CONTINUED 90 MINUTES

HASHTAG PERFECT LIFE MAGGOT BRAIN 11 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 20 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Mike Paulucci DIRECTOR Ivan Albertson Maddie Applegate goes on TV to clear her name. When Robert's vinyl goes missing, he sets out on an obsessive quest to recover it.

MAUDE NIGHT FAT 10 MINUTES • USA 8 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Anna Margaret Hollyman DIRECTOR Dolan Chorng

Teeny thought it was just another routine An old loner and a pizza delivery boy take a trip to babysitting job… until she meets the client. As the the supermarket one night. day goes on, Teeny decides to become the woman she had no idea she always wanted to be—until she gets caught.

58 THU MAY 3, 10:15 PM MICA STUDIO • FRI MAY 4, 9:45 PM MICA STUDIO • SUN MAY 6, 4:45 PM MICA STUDIO

Comedy Shorts CONTINUED 90 MINUTES

( كلاح ىلع دش ) PUSH 11 MINUTES • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DIRECTOR Khalid Jabaly

Push is an emotive film that follows the journey of Hussam, who is going through mental and physical constipation after experiencing a break up with his ex-partner.

MDFILMFEST.COM 59 SAT MAY 5, 1:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SUN MAY 6, 11:30 AM MICA STUDIO Diverging Forms Shorts

This program of short films presents unique angles in the exploration of surface, portrait and pattern. The narrative is a personal puzzle — a reimagination of passage, line, and landscape.

BLOSSOM 11 MINUTES • CANADA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Jesi Jordan

Blossom is an animated diary documenting the director's experiences over the past 4 years, drawn and presented in chronological order. 93 MINUTES

DEMONSTRATION FANTASIES 4 MINUTES • USA 13 MINUTES • ICELAND, USA DIRECTOR Mary Billyou DIRECTOR Robert Todd

Self-defense techniques demonstrated and Warmth in the foreground, in the shadow of ice. repeated to the creeping pace of Billy Joel's An homage to the fantastic, provided by others in "Just the Way You Are." Self-aware performers art and life. remix violence into complementarity, inspiring movement into the promise of a dance. A pink print directs informed movement, now as it was then.

60 SAT MAY 5, 1:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SUN MAY 6, 11:30 AM MICA STUDIO

Diverging Forms Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

GREEN WATER MAHOGANY TOO 2 MINUTES • USA 3 MINUTES • USA, GHANA DIRECTOR Marnie Ellen Hertzler & Beth Hoeckel DIRECTOR Akosua Adoma Owusu Easter is here and things are starting to get strange. The spirit of Tracy Chambers, the struggling fashion student performed by Diana Ross in the 1975 Motown filmMahogany , is re-imagined by the Nigerian actress Esosa E.

NUTSIGASSAT ONE FOR THE ROAD 20 MINUTES • GREENLAND, CANADA, DENMARK 12 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Tinne Zenner DIRECTOR Fernanda Faya

"Go outside. The lovely mountains two, Sermitsiaq As she moves from Brazil to New York, the and Kingittorsuaq, look at them.” The landscape filmmaker looks back at her grandma's migration acts as a scenery for collective nostalgia and city as a way to find traces of her own identity. development in Nuuk, Greenland, as the film studies glitches in translation of language and culture in a post-colonial modernity.

MDFILMFEST.COM 61 SAT MAY 5, 1:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SUN MAY 6, 11:30 AM MICA STUDIO

Diverging Forms Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

SOLAR WALK VERA 21 MINUTES • DENMARK 7 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE DIRECTOR Karen Yasinsky DIRECTOR Réka Bucsi A character created over the time of animating Solar Walk shows a journey through space and the cobweb and thinking about "Mississippi Mud" the process of creation within an animated by Bix Beiderbecke. Additional music by Andrew cosmic chaos. Bernstein; with Gillian Waldo.

62 FRI MAY 4, 1:45 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 11:00 AM PARKWAY 2 Documentary Shorts

In this eclectic array of short-form non-fictions, a rich tapestry of American stories unfolds, mixing loving familial portraits with haunting recollections of past tragedies. Alternating between touching and disturbing, this affecting BABY BROTHER collection of works both surprises and inspires. 14 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Kamau Bilal A look at a young man experiencing a summer impasse after moving back in with his parents.

85 MINUTES

FOOTPRINT JOHN & JAMES 19 MINUTES • USA 11 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Sara Newens DIRECTOR M. Holden Warren

Footprint is a purely observational meditation John & James is an intimate portrait of the on how different people engage with the World cross-cultural bond between Baltimore's iconic Trade Center Memorial, exploring the ways we Arabbers and a community of rural Pennsylvania choose to commemorate tragedy in the age of Mennonites. United by a love of horses and technology, social media, and changing attitudes decades of doing business at the New Holland toward patriotism. auction, they finally break bread together.

MDFILMFEST.COM 63 FRI MAY 4, 1:45 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 11:00 AM PARKWAY 2

Documentary Shorts CONTINUED 85 MINUTES

A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN THE PAINTINGS PAINT 7 MINUTES • USA THEMSELVES DIRECTOR Marshall Curry 6 MINUTES • USA In 1939, over 20,000 Americans rallied in New DIRECTOR James Hollenbaugh York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the For the past 20 years, New York based, self-taught rise of Nazism. artist Bill Mayer has been creating an exuberant and startling body of work. Mayer invites us to his studio for an intimate look at his art as formal practice, expressive therapy, and a way to create the worlds he wants to see.

TOMNODDY WHILE I YET LIVE 13 MINUTES • USA 15 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Charles Poekel DIRECTOR Maris Curran

Pioneer soap bubble entertainer Tom Noddy has Five acclaimed African American quilters from taken his act around the world for over thirty Gee’s Bend, Alabama, talk about love, religion years, conjuring fleeting beauty as he tries to stay and the fight for civil rights as they continue true to himself and his art. the tradition of quilting that originally brought them together.

64 THU MAY 3, 5:00 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 4:30 PM MICA STUDIO Narrative Shorts

This dynamic, globetrotting collection of shorts offers supremely enjoyable episodes of storytelling in brief. Those on the hunt for engaging tales told from beginning to end, need not look beyond this showcase of narrative skill and rigor. BABS 12 MINUTES • UK DIRECTOR Celine Held & Logan George An estranged son discovers an alarming purchase made by his late father.

97 MINUTES

MIN MIN A PLACE I'D LIKE TO BE 13 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 15 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Stephanie Ellis DIRECTOR Paige Gresty

Sisters, Libby and Nina, return to the site of their A Place I'd Like to Be follows 16­-year-­old Sarah, mother’s grave in the Australian Outback, in desperate to grow up as quick as she can by any search of a family heirloom that was buried along means necessary. with her.

MDFILMFEST.COM 65 THU MAY 3, 5:00 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 4:30 PM MICA STUDIO

Narrative Shorts CONTINUED 97 MINUTES

RETOUCH THE SMELL 20 MINUTES • IRAN 10 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Kaveh Mazaheri DIRECTOR Jesse Ruuttila Maryam's husband has an accident at home and, Three people struggling to stay alive after the rather than saving him, she stops helping and collapse find their humanity tested in the worst watches him die. possible way. Lit entirely by candlelight, The Smell is a naturalistic and terrifying look at an all too possible future.

STILL WATER RUNS DEEP VERSNEL (ACCELERATE) 15 MINUTES • USA, NIGERIA 12 MINUTES • SOUTH AFRICA DIRECTOR Abbesi Akhamie NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE DIRECTOR Dian Weys Within his family, a Nigerian father is the patriarch and protector of his flock.Still Water Based on real and current events in Cape Town, Runs Deep tells the intimate story of a man whose two paramedics stare death in the face while concealed emotions begin to stir when faced with attempting to save a patient's life. the portent of a missing son.

66 THU MAY 3, 7:45 PM MICA STUDIO • FRI MAY 4, 11:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 9:00 PM PARKWAY 2

Psychedelic Tango Shorts

This transcendental collection of transdimensional shorts blurs the lines of space and time, challenging our notions of reality with a perplexing panoply of puppetry, partiality, parthenogenesis, parody, paradox, and predetermined prospects. 86'D Inside an array of kaleidoscopic peculiarities await. 12 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Alan Palomo “Full Moon, all the crazies are out." Four seedy stories transpire over the course of one late-night order at a 24-hour deli in Koch-era NYC. 95 MINUTES

ANANTA YATRA CLEAN BLOOD 15 MINUTES • NEPAL 11 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Sunil Pandey DIRECTOR Jordan Michael Blake

An old woman is caught in an earthquake A Christmas movie about family, The Apocalypse resulting in a journey towards eternity. and an IMMACULATELY PREGNANT MAN.

MDFILMFEST.COM 67 THU MAY 3, 7:45 PM MICA STUDIO • FRI MAY 4, 11:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 9:00 PM PARKWAY 2

Psychedelic Tango Shorts CONTINUED 95 MINUTES

COMMERCIAL FOR THE IT FEELS LIKE FOREVER QUEEN OF MEATLOAF 18 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 10 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Albert Birney DIRECTOR Dina Fiasconaro Hi. I’m glad you’re here. I don’t get too many visitors these days. But I'm not lonely. In a surrealist 1950s commercial, a housewife prepares meatloaf for dinner. What emerges is “The Queen of Meatloaf” incarnate, who invades the homes of consumers and wreaks havoc on set.

KIDS' TABLE: WHAT TALK ABOUT YOUR DREAMS HAPPENED TO ALICIA? 14 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 15 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Robbie Barnett DIRECTOR Greg Bowen Locked out of her apartment and on a pill that turns anxiety-triggering situations into happy Alicia was just starting to like middle school. hallucinations, a virtual reality porn star and a When a rumor starts spreading, she learns dejected assassin sent to kill her get drunk and how hard it is for a girl to write her own story. sing karaoke. An experimental opera about shame, betrayal, and puppets.

68 FRI MAY 4, 7:00 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 11:15 AM MICA STUDIO Unortho-docs Shorts

This innovative collection plays in the gray, showcasing works on the cusp of multiple genres. Beyond mere documentary, these works astutely blend aspects of narrative, animation, comedy, or the avant-garde into markedly nontraditional frameworks. AN EXCAVATION OF US 11 MINUTES • HAITI, FRANCE, GREECE NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE DIRECTOR Shirley Bruno The shadows of Napoleon's army fall upon a boat traveling through the mysterious cave named after her legend Marie Jeanne, a female soldier 89 MINUTES who fought in the Haitian Revolution. It is this battle inside her cave that will become the most successful slave revolution in history.

HALF A CHICKEN MIEDO DE MONOS 8 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE (FEAR OF MONKEYS) DIRECTOR Sarah Ginsburg & Will Lennon 6 MINUTES • USA Bryan struggles to keep to his chicken alive. DIRECTOR Michael Arcos My father told me a story about why he is afraid of monkeys. His fear dates back to 1958 in Ecuador. This is what happened......

MDFILMFEST.COM 69 FRI MAY 4, 7:00 PM MICA STUDIO • SAT MAY 5, 11:15 AM MICA STUDIO

Unortho-docs Shorts CONTINUED 89 MINUTES

MY DEAD DAD'S PORNO TAPES OPTIMISM 14 MINUTES • CANADA 15 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Charlie Tyrell DIRECTOR Deborah Stratman Filmmaker Charlie Tyrell seeks to better Draw down the sun. Sift up the gold. understand his emotionally distant, late father The urge to relieve a winter valley of permanent through the personal belongings he left behind... shadow and find fortune in alluvial gravel are part including a stack of VHS dirty movies. of a long history of desire and extraction in the far Narrated by David Wain. Canadian north.

PALENQUE PUMPKIN MOVIE 25 MINUTES • COLOMBIA 10 MINUTES • CANADA DIRECTOR Sebastián Pinzón Silva DIRECTOR Sophy Romvari

Guided by motifs of life and death, PALENQUE is On Halloween, the director and her friend Skype an ode to a small town that has greatly contributed each other with creepy stories of a particular bent. to the collective memory of Colombia: San Basilio de Palenque, the first town in the Americas to have broken free from European domination.

70 THU MAY 3, 11:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • FRI MAY 4, 9:00 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 10:00 PM MICA STUDIO

I Spit on Your WTF Shorts

Hilarious, perplexing, and boldly transgressive in equal measure, MdFF's signature WTF Shorts offer a uniquely invigorating ride that won't easily be forgotten. As is our tradition, the block adapts its name from a cult cinema landmark, which celebrates the ALLEN ANDERS - LIVE AT THE equally singular and frequently unclassifiable films within. COMEDY CASTLE (CIRCA 1987) 7 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Laura Moss The fever dream of a 1980s stand-up comic who is either having a nervous breakdown or the best 93 MINUTES set of his life.

BFF GIRLS ENTROPIA 14 MINUTES • USA 15 MINUTES • USA DIRECTOR Brian Lonano DIRECTOR Marinah Janello

Three dorky American girls magically transform Loneliness and an obsession with vanity has into beautiful Japanese Superheroes and fight pushed one woman to take unconventional a tampon monster as they begin their journey measures to find happiness. Symbols of birth, into womanhood. death and rebirth grace the film and asks the audience to ponder the question: How far would you go to turn back time?

MDFILMFEST.COM 71 THU MAY 3, 11:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • FRI MAY 4, 9:00 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 10:00 PM MICA STUDIO

I Spit on Your WTF Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

HOUSE OF AIR ISLANDS (LES ÎLES) 4 MINUTES • UK, AUSTRALIA 24 MINUTES • FRANCE DIRECTOR Brian Fairbairn & Karl Eccleston DIRECTOR Yann Gonzalez

House of Air is a sexually explicit study of hanky Characters wander through an erotic maze of codes, visual signifiers, and gay fetishes set against love and desire. the backdrop of 1970s San Francisco.

MY EXPANDED VIEW SALMON 8 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE 6 MINUTES • USA • WORLD PREMIERE DIRECTOR Corey Hughes DIRECTOR Pablo Jones

A YouTube Yoga tutorial. A collapsed body. A lighthearted conversation between two friends An expanded view. about a family salmon recipe gone wrong reveals more than expected.

72 THU MAY 3, 11:30 PM PARKWAY 2 • FRI MAY 4, 9:00 PM PARKWAY 2 • SAT MAY 5, 10:00 PM MICA STUDIO

I Spit on Your WTF Shorts CONTINUED 93 MINUTES

WE SUMMONED A DEMON WHO'S THE DADDY 6 MINUTES • USA 9 MINUTES • HONG KONG DIRECTOR Chris McInroy DIRECTOR Wong Ping They just wanted to be cool. Instead, they got A Tinder tragedy. a demon. An unexpected child. A journey finding my root of shame.

MDFILMFEST.COM 73 MEMBERS OF THE MDFF SCREENING COMMITTEE AT OUR 2016 OPENING NIGHT SHORTS GALA

Photo Credit: Ira Silverberg Maryland Film Festival BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Tad Glenn Daniel A. Cronin Karen Lorenzo Board Chair Designated Member, Doug Mann Executive Comm. Gwen Davidson Elissa Blount Moorhead Vice President/Treasurer Stephanie Carter Adam Riess Michael Mandel Ronald J. Daniels J. Michael Riley Vice-Chair and Ramona Diaz At Large Executive Comm. Jerome D. Smalley Jed Dietz Lynn Rauch Founding Director John Waters Vice President Suzan Garabedian Paula Rome Ex Officio: Vice President/Secretary Arnie Graf Jack Gerbes Andrew Schuleman Samuel Hoi Debbie Donaldson Dorsey Vice President

ADVISORY BOARD

Gordon Becker Edward Norton Eduardo Sanchez Rick Hess Marc Platt Steve Schwartzman Mark Johnson Kelly Ripkin Sharon Weiss Barry Levinson James G. Robinson Dan Myrick Tom Rothman

74 MdFF Staff

FOUNDING DIRECTOR DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING PARKWAY DIRECTOR Jed Dietz Scott Braid OF OPERATIONS Evan Rogers

PROGRAMMING ASSOCIATE EVENTS MANAGER PARKWAY HEAD PROJECTIONIST Mitchell Goodrich Jessica Baroody & THEATER MANAGER Brian Denny PROGRAMMING DEVELOPMENT & ADMINISTRATOR MEMBERSHIP MANAGER THEATER MANAGER Keisha Nicole Knight Mary Helen Shaughnessy Greg Golinski PROGRAMMING CONSULTANT ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR FILM CONTENT COORDINATOR Margaret Rorison Christine Wertz Albert Birney

2018 Festival Staff

FESTIVAL COORDINATOR FILMMAKER VIP MERCHANDISE MANAGER Anna Hanson LOUNGE CONCIERGE Jennifer Burdick Camille Blake Fall VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR OPERATIONS ASSISTANT Michael Reilly VENUE MANAGER Aurora Lagang Karol Martinez-Doane TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY ASST. VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR BOX OFFICE MANAGER COORDINATOR Ginevra Shay Ken Wallace Tori Markham PRESENTATION MANAGER BOX OFFICE SUPERVISOR FESTIVAL CONSULTANTS Bri Merkel Karen Gordon Charlie Frankel Rob Lundquist PRINT TRAFFIC/PROJECTION BOX OFFICE SUPERVISOR COORDINATOR Phil Lentocha Chris Hogan-Roy

INTERNS PROJECTIONISTS A/V TECHNICIANS Robert Proctor Kayla Williams Brian Denny Charlie Morris Shane Spruill Kendall Laughton Eric Maira Dakota Milam Shuang Wu Eric "Styles" Soublet Noel Gregos Rory Tell Zaida Souissi Robert Deutsch

GRAPHIC DESIGN & PHOTOGRAPHERS Darrée Hyun Ira Silverberg CONCEPT David Anderson Jen Mizgata Josh Sisk Post Typography Casie Chilcoate Jason Putsche Ana Tantaros Danielle D’Amico Jena Richardson

SCREENING Kevin Coehlo Kirsten Haley Matthew Strudwick COMMITTEE Eric Cotten Eric Hatch Joe Tropea COORDINATOR Danielle Criqui Alexa Hauck Colin Zweifel Scott Braid Lucas Cullen Marnie Ellen Hertzler Skizz Cyzyk Jessie Hughes Special thanks to Eric SCREENING Emily Slaughter-Delano Tim Kabara Cotten for the hundreds COMMITTEE Lauren Du Graf Keisha Nicole Knight of hours of viewing and Sumaiya Ananna Jared Earley Brooks Long invaluable feedback Albert Birney Lee Gardner Andy Markowitz he gives the screening Camille Blake Fall Mitchell Goodrich Samantha Mitchell committee each year. Dankwa Brooks Amy Grace Meredith Moore Winona Caesar Julia Gunnison Margaret Rorison John Cardeliino Siobhan Hagan Dominic Salacki MDFILMFEST.COM 75 MdFF Annual Fund The MdFF Annual Fund was launched in 2015 to help grow the Maryland Film Festival and support the general operating budget. All Annual Fund donations are fully tax deductible. Donors as of April 12, 2018:

$100,000+ $20,000+ $15,000 Anonymous Citizens of Baltimore County Bertha Foundation The Charlesmead Foundation Martha and Tad Glenn Johns Hopkins University

$10,000 $8,000+ $5,000 Bank of America In Memory of Ian Driskill Nancy Dorman Kay and Buck Goldstein Melanie and Rob Lundquist T. Rowe Price Foundation Transamerica

$2,000 - $3,000 $1,000 - $1,500 $200 - $500 Gwen Davidson Deborah Armstrong Anonymous The Hecht-Levi Foundation Jennifer Burdick Cheryl Casciani Mary and James Miller Emile Bendit Easy-Ware Corporation Jackalyn A. Noller Rick Berndt Mark Fetter The Rouse Company Foundation Gordon Crandall Suzan Garabedian Jodi and Andrew Schuleman Daniel A. Cronin Arnie Graf John Waters JoAnn and Jack Fruchtmann Troy Hill Sherry Haber and Michael Mandel Gina B. and Daniel B. Hirschorn Barbara Hecht Fund Lynn and Philip Rauch Samuel Hoi Paula Rome Terry Morgenthaler and Patrick Becky Swanston Kerins Monica and Arnold Sagner Mike Schecter

Maryland Filmmaker Fellowship, underwritten by The Charlesmead Foundation: Established in 1997, each year MdFF awards pre-production funding to a script developed at the Sundance Labs. Thanks to this early support, 16 films have been made and distributed, often launching a distinguished film career. Marielle Heller’sThe Diary of a Teenage Girl was released in 2015, Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals premiered at Sundance this year and is in MdFF 2018, and Olivia Newman’s First Match premiered at SXSW 2018 and is now available on Netflix.

76 Friends of MdFF Membership Join the MdFF community and help support the Maryland Film Festival’s mission to bring quality films, filmmakers, and audiences together in an atmosphere that is both comfortable and totally fun! Friends of MdFF enjoy ticket discounts at the SNF Parkway, special access at our annual festival, members‑only discounts at our Parkway Perks Partners, and dozens of FREE screening opportunities year-round! Groundbreaking films. Independent films. Classic films. Big studio pre-release films. You’ll have opportunities to experience them all and see something that’s truly different. Support the work of the Maryland Film Festival by joining Friends of MdFF today! Stop by the Information Table at Festival HQ and sign up for a new membership during the Festival. We look forward to meeting you!

Membership Levels & Benefits

($75) SINGLE LEVEL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS: • Ticket discounts at the SNF Parkway YEAR-ROUND ($2 off admission to regularly priced films) • Opportunities to see free movies YEAR-ROUND via special screenings • FREE films before 6pm on Friday of the Festival (as tickets are available) • Discounts to local Parkway Perks Partners in Station North • 10% discount on Festival and SNF Parkway merchandise • Members Only MdFF Programming Preview event w/ Jed Dietz & MdFF Programming Staff • “Behind the Screens” newsletter with all the latest industry and MdFF news and updates

($135) DUAL LEVEL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS (ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS): • Share your membership with a friend or family member! Purchase a Dual membership with a fellow film fan and you will both receive the special discounts at the SNF Parkway and other Single level member benefits!

($250) BRONZE OR BRONZE DUAL LEVEL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS (ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS): • FREE films on Thursday of the Film Festival for you and a friend (as tickets are available) • Five (5) screening vouchers for Film Festival ($75 value) • Name recognition in the MdFF program and website

($500) SILVER OR SILVER DUAL LEVEL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS (ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS): • Ten (10) screening vouchers for Film Festival ($130 value) • Logo or name recognition in the MdFF program and website

($1500) GOLD OR GOLD DUAL LEVEL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS (ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLUS): • Two (2) tickets to Maryland Film Festival Closing Night Film and After-Party • Access for two (2) to Filmmaker VIP Lounge, featuring food and beverage throughout Festival

MDFILMFEST.COM 77 Friends of MdFF Members AS OF APRIL 10, 2018

GOLD ($1500) Deborah Armstrong Lois Feinblatt Monica Sagner Wade Brown Martha Glenn Emily Saneski Jennifer Burdick Tad Glenn Andrew Schuleman Teresa Cotton Dianna Koch Jodi Schuleman Eric Cotton Becky Lichtenstein Sharon Tufaro Stephanie Czyryca Michelle Pasternack David Tufaro Larry Doyle Gary Pasternack Connie Wheeler Matthew Dudley Arnold Sagner

78 Friends of MdFF Members CONTINUED

SILVER ($500) Gregory Bergey Al Honick Christy Macy Taylor Branch Qayum Karzai Paula Rome Marc Chidester Patricia Karzai Jerry Schaefer Suzanne Cohen Jonna Lazarus Barry Vaughan Francesca Compagnone Fred Lazarus Haven Ward Tom Crusse Peter Leffman Sevil Yasar Nancy Dorman Bryan O’Keefe

BRONZE ($250) Carla Alexander Jan Halle Rachael Neill Emily Sienicki Taunya Banks Jack Hollon David Noble Larry Singer Don Bartling Jane Hollon Nina Noble Lenel Srochi Rheda Becker Terry Hollon Jackie Noller Meyerhoff Jay Berg Jacob Hovind Greg Otto Paul Tramonte Thomas Blanpied Katharine Hudson Leslie Plotnick Joe Tuttle Gerard Burns Leah Irwin Gary Plotnick Megan Warren Joel Cohen Allen Irwin Michele Pucak Peter Warren Norma Cohen Matthew Itkin J. W. Radabaugh Meadow Lark Anita Criswell Roslyn Jaffe Phil Rauch Washington Daniel A Cronin Susan Katzenberg Lynn Rauch Andrew Whiteside Dorothy Cronin Julia Keller Dotty Reynolds Tricia Whiteside Leanne Curtin David Koch John Reynolds Lauren Williford Robert Dietz Ann Koch Adam Riess Julie Dietz Christine Matiash Nancy Riess Berger Cookies Richard Fairman Wendy Matt Lynn Rubin Brown Rice Korean Grill Sheila Frank Christopher Maurer Michael Schalow Charm City Chocolate Joel Gaydos Cathy Mcdermott Brian Schmidt Huckle's Hot Sauce Carol Geidt John Meyerhoff Christianne Park Cafe Joan Goldman Robert Meyerhoff Schoedel Pixilated Jonathan Goldman Charles Neill John Segal

MDFILMFEST.COM 79 Volunteers

Lana Adams Shelby Chapman Kate Ewald Kate Hogan Alexandra Ade Tyrone Chapman Geraldine Ezigbo Jonathan Hogue Titilaya Akanke Paul Cherry Camila F. R. Gomide Sailor Holobaugh Kescia Alexander Lindsay Chestnut Kamau Fahie Andy Horbal Ashley Allen Marybeth Chew Aaron Feggins Ashton Horne Sydney Allen Dondrea Clark Ann Feild Monique Howard Daniel Allman Taelor Clay Allison Fischbach Joanna Iacobucci Fami Almiligi Nicole Clyde Monique Fisher Grafton Iler Dale Alston Wendy Cohan Kelsey Fitzgerald Ray Iturralde Camila Alvarez Bisbe Gabriella Colarusso Julia Flanagan Steven Iverson Daniel Anderson Jeremy Collins Daniel Flannery Osamuede Iyieweka Susan Anthony Juliana Colon Sheila Frank Randi Jackson Barbara Archer Tuna Coluk Corey Frier- Ritsch Drew Jefferson Hanna Atsebha Jim Considine Kaitlyn Furey Zoe Jefferson Juliette Bailer Enoch Cook III James Galdamez Ashley Jeffries Hilary Ballin Kyrstin Cooksey Patty Gallivan Yu Jiang Stephen Bartosz Jennifer Cossentino Emily Gamma Cassidy Johnson Mary Baxter Seth Crawford Owen Gardner Michelle Johnson Nicole Baxter Deborah Cremen Laquan Garrison Patricia Johnson Keith Beatty Keryl Cryer Alexandra Gates A'shonte Jones Gerie Bell Justin Cuthbertson Allie Gerstley Darian Jones Malkah Bell Emma Dacol Gabriella Giannini Deja Jones Amy Belton John Dagen Ieesha Gillis Malcolm Jones Matthew Bendon Lisa Daigle Kara Gionfriddo Tamara Jones-Short Kelley Bennett Elke Darling Julia Golbey Stacy Kane Kyle Bickoff Matthew Datcher Vonnie Gowe Suzanne Kang Brandon Block Jacob Davenport Joan Grabowski David Kanter Andrea Blohm Ellen Davis Denise Graves Abbe Karp Alyson Bonavoglia Julia Delaluz Azure Grimes Cassandra Kasparian Khiné Bonner Pat Denholm Linda Gross Deja Keemer John Borah Benjamin Derlan Benjamin Gruzs Clarke Kelly Ryan Bowens Valerie Derricks Forrest Gu Jamie Kemp Brittany Boyd Brandon Desiderio Kathy Hackett Kija Kennedy Wendy Bridges Patrick Dieter Joe Hager Allison Kenyon Cathy Brill Anthony Diggs Zoe Hammel Joe Kim Johnny Brockenwitch Mary Dobrzynski Dwight Hargrave Randy Kimble-Marvel Carlye Brooks Kaila Dodd Estelle Harris Julia Kipnis Carolyn Brown Jen Doll Tiffany Harris Eric Lee Klingman David Brown Jessica Dortch Devin Harsch Dianna Koch Jonathan Brown Shon Downing Leo Hartman Julian Koch Stephanie Brown Kira Drewery Lisa Harvey Levetta Koehler Stephanie Buckley Charles Dryden Lezlie Hatcher Imogen Kone Albert Bulson Stephen Dupal Barbara Heazel Rita Koss Zachary Byrd Maria Eberhart Jasmin Henderson Jordan Kyler Karen Carter Adrienne Edwards Rebecca Herrick Kayleen Lacey Katya Castro Willarda Edwards Donald Hershberger Latosha Lane-Richardson Tanya Catus Monica Ellis Brandy Hodgson Ashley LaRose Soo Young Chang Miles Engel-Hawbecker Alison Hoffberg Matthew LaSalvia Dorian Chapman Tyrin Epps Jill Hogan Bob Latta

80 Volunteers CONTINUED

Elizabeth Leik John Morris, Jr. Chip Rittenhouse Chakia Street Sosi Lepejian Tiffany Morton Johnathan Rivera Matt Strudwick Allie Liberman Zakiya Murphy Catherine Roberts Maureen Sullivan Trisha Lindsay Michelle Nasab Justin Robinson Cristal Tadeo Margaret Locklear Irving Nestor Lincoln Robisch Yinka Taiwo Gina Lofaro Hai Nguyen Anna Romaniuk Ted Tak Elizabeth Lord Karl Nguyen Mary Romeo Rahel Teka Jordan Loux Richard Nguyen Philip Romero Adrienne Thomas Peiyao Lu Xiaoyue Niu Melissa Rothstein Darria Thomas Daniel Luckenbach Dan O'Dea Delores Zola Rowlette Lamont Thomas Crystal Lunkin Miceal O'Donnell Dominic Salacki Lyn Townes Bill Lynch Lisa Oelfke Gina Salacki Julien Tribotte Marti MacKenzie Paul Oh Connie Sanabria Sandy Triolo Geralyn MacVittie Hannah Oneda Colleen Sandoval Priscilla Tse Terrell Maddox Ololade Onilogbo Ololade Sanusi Nicholas Tucker Paul Marengo Kelsey Oppenheimer Kelsey Saunders Debbie Turner Tristan Markham Patrick Oray Nakiah Saunders Loralee Tyson Victoria Markham Helen Orme Melanie Schaffner Towanda Underdue Nadja Martens Lawrence Owens Ruth Schoonover Maureen Vallette Zarin Marvi Julie Oxenhandler Sarah Schreib Charlene Varlack Shawn Massie Starr Page Martina Schwartz Jill Venezian Mantrell Maurice Farhad Pashakhanloo Madeline Scott Stephanie Wallace Devin McBay Kiersten Patron Eric Seaberg Sarah Warner William McBride Dawnjal Patterson Minetta Seaberg Glenn Washington Nick McCombs Monica Patterson Dana Seibert Mitchell Watkins Dan McCulley Dan Paugh Autumn Shackleford Michelle Wegman Lindsey McCulley Teri Paul Lauren Shanks Connie Wheeler Gloria McGehee Rebecca Penner Carol Sharp Sika Wheeler Calum McKinney Kelisha Perry Emmet Sheehan Rachel Whiteheart Jonna Mckone Rob Perry Elizabeth Sheehy Lauren Whittaker Delores Mclaurin Sally Pfeiffer Tim Shieh karen whittington Lisa McMillan Gwendolyn Phillips Nancy Shipp Teshana Wilkens Elan Medoff Lucie Poirier Evan Shisler Archie Williams Quinn Meistrich Nicolette Polek Jessica Short Cheryle Wilson Tony Mendiola Kyree Pope Andrea Shreiner Genevieve Wilson Veronica Menefee Robin Poponne Kristine Sieloff Cat Wityk Pat Meyer Jonathan Porter Ira Silverberg Rosemary Wong Bonnie Miller John Price Jordin Simpson Michelle Wood Cynthia Miller Trenita Purdie Kate Smikova Stephanie Woodson Diane Miller Rhea Ramakrishnan Clifford Smith Diane Worsley Douglas Miller Brittney Rankin Ellen Smith Elijah Wright Shelly Mintz Sarah Rauscher Tekoa Smith Ilya Yablochnikov India Mitchell Marie Razulis Rajiene Snell Patricia Yevics Steven Mitchell Michael Reilly Alexander Snider Eve Yitagesu KJ Mohr James Reynolds Meredith Snow Paulina Yu Jacob Molter Khristina Rhead Andrew Sobel Dan Zink Christina Moore Alec Richker Susan Soohoo Debbie Zink Jean Moore Matisse Rifai Judith Sorgen-Borgnia Ed Morman Colin Riley Connor Stambaugh

MDFILMFEST.COM 81 Special Thanks

A24 Russell De O’Campo Sam Juengel Steve Saada Advance Printing Dan Deacon Bob Keal & Juniper Keal Margot Saunders Rahne Alexander Riel Roch Decter Kate Khatib Sam Saunders Susan Allenback Bob Deutsch Sara Kiener Alex Scally Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez Rob Dickerson Nellie Killian Dan Schoenbrun Theo Anthony Debbie Ally Dickerson Tom Knowlden Trish Schweers Okan Arabaciouglu Liz Donadio Amy Lefenfeld Matt Selander Baltimore Whiskey Debbie Dorsey Victoria Legrand Mavi Shahid Company Caitie Dougherty Rob & Melanie Lundquist Mary K and Dennis Jackie and Sam Baroody Molly Dressel Magnolia Pictures Shaughnessy Dave "Secret Weapon" Colleen Dunn Mark & Angie Max Todd Shelar Barresi Jared Earley Abi Maxim Emily Slaughter-Delano Garrett Berberich Angie Elliott Dick McClary Barry & Annie Solan Christian Best The Eyeslicer Jeff McGrath Alex Tobey Southwick Albert Birney Factory 25 Meredith McHugh Nick Springham Christian Bjornard Andy Frank Memory John Standiford Neal Block Charlie Frankel Zach Michel Nolen Strals Ziggy Otter Braid Sara Gerrish Jennifer Mizgata Joe & Kris Swanberg John & Carol Braid Melina Giorgi Meredith Moore Taste This! Bill & Andy Braid Lara & Geoff Grace Allen Moore Sarah Templin Mariel Braid Zoe & Omer Grace Elissa Blount Moorhead Thread Coffee Michael Hess Webber Joe Tropea Braid Matt Grady Cody Nenninger The True Vine Reuben Hess Webber Clarissa Gregory The New Wyman Park Braid Noel Gregos Restaurant Bonnie Veronda Pamela Braid Cecilia Grimm Emmanuel Nicolaidis Beyond Video Kevin Brown Kirsten Haley Normal's Dominic Wagner Brown Rice Eric Hatch Kari Nye Meredith Ward Bill Callahan Alex Haworth Miceal & Eileen O'Donnell Troy Warner Lydia Cannen Samuel T. Herring The Orchard Troy Warner Thomas Cannen Marnie Ellen Hertzler Jay & Valerie Orr The Webber Family Carma's Cafe Scott Hess Jay Orr Dick & Lynn Webber Fran Carmen Mark & Sue Hess Ozu Megan Webber William Cashion Stephen Hill Dan Pardue Lezlie Webber Charmington's Ben & Louis Hill Parts & Labor Kerri Webber Andy Cheng Katherine St. Paul Hill Adrienne Peres Randy Webber & Heidi Hess-Webber Clavel Graham & Amanda Hill Matt Porterfield Za & Gerrit Welmers Kevin Coelho Himmelrich PR Gerry Quinn Blue Pit BBQ and Whiskey Adrienne Conn Nadia Hironaka Hannah Ragan Bruce Willen Andy Cook Russell Hite Lindsay Raspi Sean Price Williams Eric Cotten Brockett Horne Zez Ready Sarah Winshall Monique Crabb Ray Iturralde Red Emma's Nick Wisniewski Criterion Collection Steve Iverson Chris Llewellyn-Reed Patrick Wright Brian Crossman Ellen Janes Jimmy Joe Roche Karen Ysainsky Skizz Cyzyk Natalie Jenison Katie Rose David Zimmerman Jack Danna Elena Johnston Molly Rose Phil Davis Jeremiah Jones Kyle Russell

82 Index of Short Films FEATURE FILMS APPEAR ALPHABETICALLY

86'd. 67 Elephant's Song, The...... 49 My Expanded View...... 72 ACCIDENT, MD...... 4 Emmy . 54 Nevada...... 49 Agua Viva . 4 End Times. 5 Night at The Garden, A . . . . .64 Airport...... 47 Entropia...... 71 night fat. 58 Allen Anders - Live at the Excavation of Us, An...... 69 Nutsigassat...... 61 Comedy Castle (circa 1987). . . 71 Fantasies. 60 One for the Road...... 61 Ananta Yatra...... 67 Footprint. 63 Optimism...... 70 AniMal...... 51 Gaze...... 54 Paintings Paint Applied Pressure...... 47 Gentle Night, A...... 55 Themselves, The...... 64 Babs...... 65 Great Light...... 55 PALENQUE...... 70 Baby Brother . 63 Green Water...... 61 Phototaxis. 49 Bean...... 51 Hair Wolf...... 5 place i'd like to be, a...... 65 BFF Girls...... 71 Haircut...... 55 Pumpkin Movie . 70 59 ...... ( كلاح ىلع دش ) biggest wad is mine, the. . . . .47 Half a Chicken. 69 Push Blossom...... 60 Hashtag Perfect Life...... 58 RETOUCH...... 66 Botanica...... 57 Hercules...... 52 Salmon...... 72 Brief Spark Bookended House of Air...... 72 Sans Chlorophyll . 49 by Darkness, A. 48 I Was In Your Blood...... 53 Smell, The . 66 Caroline...... 54 Islands (Les îles)...... 72 Solar Walk. 62 Carro. 51 It Feels Like Forever...... 68 Still Water Runs Deep. . . . . 66 Ching Mei's Hands ...... 24 John & James...... 63 Strangely Ordinary cicada...... 48 Jump Off, The...... 5 This Devotion...... 37 Clean Blood. 67 Kids' Table: Talk About Your Dreams. . . . 68 Cole...... 52 What Happened To Alicia?. 68 tomnoddy...... 64 Commercial for the Krista...... 55 Tooth and Nail. 31 Queen of Meatloaf...... 68 LUNCH TIME. 56 Train Man . 50 Dahlia...... 40 Maggot Brain. 58 Ugly...... 50 DEMONSTRATION...... 60 MAGIC BULLET. 20 Vera ...... 62 Do More of What Mahogany Too. 61 Versnel (Accelerate)...... 66 Makes You Happy...... 52 Maude. 58 We Forgot to Break Up . 19 Down Escalation...... 48 Miedo De Monos We Summoned A Demon. . . . 73 Driver Is Red, The...... 48 (Fear Of Monkeys). 69 While I yet Live...... 64 Drugstore Lipstick. 52 Milk...... 5 Who's the daddy...... 73 Earth is a Paradise . 57 Min Min...... 65 Educators...... 57 My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes . 70

Festival Program Credits Festival Trailer

EDITOR CONTENT PROVIDERS ANIMATION Scott Braid Jessica Baroody Albert Birney PROGRAM DESIGN Camille Blake Fall Scott Braid Post Typography Jed Dietz LAYOUT Mitchell Goodrich Mitchell Goodrich Keisha Nicole Knight LAURELS DESIGNED BY Margaret Rorison Mitchell Goodrich Mary Helen Shaughnessy Emily Slaughter-Delano

MDFILMFEST.COM 83 Festival Venues

SNF PARKWAY 5 W. North Ave. The newly restored and expanded 3-screen, year-round home of MdFF at the SW corner of Charles & North. (Seats 414, 85, 85) Tickets for all venues will be FESTIVAL HQ & MAIN BOX OFFICE 1901 N. Charles Street available from the film festival In the Bank Building at the NE corner of Charles & North. box office at the Festival HQ. MICA BROWN CENTER - FALVEY HALL 1301 W. Mt. Royal Ave. Tickets for individual Our largest venue. Located on the MICA campus. (Seats 520) screenings can also be purchased at the venue. MICA GATEWAY BUILDING 1601 W. Mt. Royal Ave. At SE corner of W. North & W. Mt. Royal. (Seats 200)

MICA LAZARUS STUDIO CENTER 131 W. North Ave. The free Charm City Circulator On south side of North, 1 block west of Parkway. (Seats 135) bus runs between downtown Baltimore and 33rd St. via RED EMMA’S (FILMMAKER PANEL DISCUSSIONS) 30 W. North Ave. Charles St. and Saint Paul St. NE corner of North & Maryland, west end of Tent Village block. Monday–Thursday: 7am–8pm WINDUP SPACE (FILMMAKER/VIP LOUNGE) 12 W. North Ave. Friday: 7am–Midnight Directly across from Parkway on north side of North. Saturday: 9am–Midnight Sunday: 9am–8pm THE YNOT LOT (FOOD VENDORS) 4 West North Ave. At NW corner of Charles & North. Download the app or see charmcitycirculator.com for For general information please call 410-752-8083 full schedules and routes. or visit mdfilmfest.com

Approximate Venue Walking Times

TIMES IN MINUTES CENTER CENTER PARKWAY RED EMMA'S MICA BROWN MICA BROWN FESTIVAL HQ & FESTIVAL MICA LAZARUS MICA GATEWAY WINDUP SPACE MAIN BOX OFFICE MAIN BOX

PARKWAY 1 10 10 2 2 1

FESTIVAL HQ & MAIN BOX OFFICE 1 10 10 2 1 1

MICA BROWN CENTER 10 10 4 6 7 8

MICA GATEWAY 10 10 4 8 9 10

MICA LAZARUS CENTER 2 2 6 8 1 2

RED EMMA'S 2 1 7 9 1 1

WINDUP SPACE 1 1 10 10 2 1 2018 Festival Map

Filmmaker Filmmaker MdFF / SNF Festival HQ & Panel & VIP Parkway Theatre Main Box Office Discussions Lounge VOLUNTEER CHECK-IN, RED EMMA’S THE WINDUP MERCHANDISE, SPACE FRIENDS OF MDFF, Food Vendors GENERAL INFO THE YNOT LOT BANK BUILDING

I–83 (JONES FALLS EXPRESSWAY)

20TH ST P P

NORTH AVE NORTH AVE

LAFAYETTE ST MICA Gateway P

HOWARD ST AVE MARYLAND LANVALE ST

CHARLES ST CHARLES P MICA Lazarus PENN STATION Graduate MT. ROYAL AVE P Studio Center ST. PAUL ST PAUL ST. P

OLIVER ST MICA Brown Center

MT. ROYAL AVE

Recommended Walking Routes Light Rail Station WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE NOT WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE Food/Dining P Parking Stairs VIP/Staff/ Volunteer Parking Charm City Circulator Stop METERED STREET PARKING ALSO AVAILABLE (PURPLE ROUTE) NEAR MOST LOCATIONS

N 1000 FEET 1/4 MILE #MDFF2018 • MDFILMFEST.COM • 410–752–8083 34 E. 25TH ST. BALTIMORE, MD 21218