Coolie Gyal, Renata Mohamed, 7min20, 2004, Brampton, Super 8, Ontario, Canada
In this coming out story, an honest and sincere letter is read from a daughter to her parents. A familial montage is incorporated with a heartfelt narrative filled with the expectations and anxieties of a young woman.

Ladies Room, Kate Bernstein, 14min, 2003, super 16mm and dvcam, Brooklyn, NY
Ladies Room reveals young women in their most intimate environment -- the bathroom. From sterile public schools to underground warehouse raves and glitzy hotel rooms, this short film relays an insightful, playful, and provocative story of a group of girls in a variety of situations -- always from the perspective and intimacy of the bathroom. Seen through the lens of fiction, documentary, and satire, their range of experiences and emotions -- straddling strength and vulnerability -- defines growing up female.

The Invisible Hand, Lori Hiris, 12min, 2003
The Invisible Hand is a hand-drawn history of corporate corruption from Enron, to Halliburton to Marthagate. Hiris uses her stunning craft to reveal new connections between some of the worlds' most powerful conglomerations.

We Are The Littletons, Penny Lane, 11min, 2004, mini-DV, Kingston, NY
We Are The Littletons presents a tangled web of found objects, intercepted correspondences, reenactments, and total fabrications centered around Eve Portia Littleton Rodriguez, an artist with “movie star good looks” who was mysteriously banished from her postcard-perfect American family. Video artist Penny Lane spent a year in Eve's former bedroom, poring through the detritus of her life in the Littleton family. The deeper Penny dug into their family history, the more bizarre and compelling the story grew… and the more she came to believe that she and Eve shared a baffling connection.

Breaking The Silence: Silent World (2min20) and Shana Chooses (3min9sec), mini-dv, 2003, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia
Teen filmmakers: Kdi Jn Pierre, Juane St. Brice, Iva Stanislas, Jeanell Smith, Ginelle Jn Charles, Julietta Gonzague, Kerdisha Lucien, Nadeige Smith, Camillia George, Marla Smith, Ria Herman, Shana Marius, Tara Edward.
A unique project that came out of a six-week media production program (the first youth in St. Lucia to ever do this), a group of girls 14 – 18 years old with no media production experience created original projects from beginning to end to address the fact that the Caribbean is the most AIDS-infected region in the world outside of Africa and that girls are the hardest-hit demographic. Their projects are honest and straightforward, imaginative and moving. Here we have chosen 2 pieces to represent their work.

It Could Happen To You, Elizabeth Henry, 8min35sec, 2004, Englewood, CO, 16mm
The great divorce: What we're left with. What haunts us. An experimental collage piece using vintage footage that is so well-crafted that it flows and creates rhythms and meanings effortlessly, engaging us before we realize it.

Who Killed Target 1967, Angie Kwong, 2004, 11min12, Super 8, Vancouver, Canada
Who Killed Target 1967? Is a sci-fi requiem for Jean-Luc Godard's star actress and muse, Anna Karina. Drawing on the myths of Frankenstein and Narcissus, the film sets out to deconstruct contemporary cinema's voyeuristic obsession with female beauty. A vengeful female scientist, outraged by Godard's victimization of Anna Karina, constructs a beautiful female robot to seduce and destroy lovers attracted soley by physical beauty. Conflict arises when the robot begins to outgrow her creator's intentions.

Stranded, Maureen Bradley, 3min52, 2004, 16mm, Victoria, Canada
Stranded explores a narrative of compulsion and fear about Charlotte, who is repulsed by her hair. She is also terrified of dust – both remind her of her fragile mortality and fill her life with dread. Her story is animated by a succession of oddly organic images, metaphoric in their relationship to Charlotte's fear of dead skin cells.

Ananke, Kirsten Slungaard, 14min30sec, 2004, mini-dv, St. Paul, MN
“Ananke is a Greek word meaning the influence of fate on one's decisions. At 5:51pm on one fateful day, five people are faced with a choice, not knowing that their decisions in that moment will forever change their lives and others'. Energetic and imaginative, the quality of production belies the filmmaker's age of just 16 years old.

The Hypnosis of Red, White, and Blue, Alexandria Searls, 2min40, Super 8, 2004, Charlottesville , VA
The Hypnosis of Red, White, and Blue examines the physical memory of patriotism in the bodies of the audience as we are lead on a guided meditation by a narrator who accompanies the red, white, and blue landscape of Arizona, disrupting identification and disconnecting ownership of the land in the minds of viewers.

Ann's Hoard, Ellen Lake, 7min30, 2003, mini-dv, Berkely, CA
Confessions of a hoarder. Ann considers herself more of a hoarder than a collector. She buys vases, covered glass dishes, hats, wigs, clothes, and loads of junk jewelry from eBay. She stashes her purchases in her garage, attic, under beds, and in closets. This is an analysis of the compulsion to collect, and hoard, to fill a void, fascinating as it comes from the perspective of one who does it yet says that it all ways her down.

Stringwork, Ellen Lake, 3min, 2003, pixel vision and mini-dv, Berkely, CA
A short meditation on Graciela Carrillo's daily string work – knitting, crochet, and embroidery.

Why Are You So Sad?, Heidi Phillips, 7min, mini-dv & beta sp, 2004, Winnipeg, Canada
Why Are You So Sad? Is a Super 8 hand processed film. This collage of textures, loops, and rhythms is an exploration of self. The footage of a walk in downtown Winnipeg during winter of trees, a bridge and traffice is mixed with clips where chemical was left on the film. These organic shapes of the chemical resemble internal and bones. When slowed down they mimic a journey through the inside of the body. This triggered questions of internal thoughts and emotions. The constant rhythms of the projector sounds which in slow motion are similar to a heart beating build and change as the viewer is asked questions.

Butcher, Melanie Ansley, 4min48sec, 2004, mini-dv, Melbourne , Australia
When jess falls pregnant to her younger married lover, she finds he isn't thrilled about the possibility of becoming a father. But fate and Jess's quick thinkingteach her that a man's body isn't just good for conceiving children, it's good for feeding them too. Combining macabre humor with an irreverent “what if” imagination, Butcher is a tonue-in-chek romp through pregnancy, fatherhood, and cannibalism.

Loud and Clear: Voices of Kentucky's Mountains, Madeline Walter, 13min10, Durham, NC, 2004, mini-dv
A documentary about activists involved in Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a grassroots organization that actively organizes around anti-strip mining advocacy. The film views the issue of strip mining (mountaintop removal) through the lenses of these seven activists who discuss their personal experiences with the coal industry, their struggles in activism and their will to continue fighting this uphill battle.

Autodisintigrate, Adriene Wyse, 8min30, 2004, Winnipeg, Canada, 16mm
Dora walks alone through an impersonal city that moves to the beat of traffic lights and the ring of isolating cell phones. A flirtation with death results in a campy musical dream where perfect strangers offer advice to reconnect with a personable reality.

Vancouver 37, Elizabeth Murray, 12min, 1995, Vancouver, Canada, 16mm
An encounter between two strangers on a dark, stormy night.

A Little Life, Elizabeth Murray, 5min, 2003, mini-dv, Vancouver, Canada,
Part poetry, part science, A Little Life, is an up-close look at phaenicia sericata, the magnificent green bottle fly.

Rape is a Thing You Can Own, Sarah Gottesdiener, 14min, 2003, VHS, San Francisco, CA
This movie combines found footage and testimonials to explore the impact of rape on womens' lives. Artist statement “I taped people giving their testimonials and then asked them to choose what sorts of images they wanted their voices meshed with. It ends up not being a definitive voice for survivors, but hopefully a piece that everyone can take something from.”

Nocturna, Amanda Finn, 6min30, 2004, mini-dv, Savannah, GA
A quirky silent film that plays with the power of magic in the style of the 1920s.

Tips for Talking to Strangers, Fiona Otway, 2004, 6min22, mini-dv, Seattle, WA
In a media-saturated and mediated world, what happens when neighbors start talking to each other. A short documentary bout the growing phenomen of conversation cafes and their impact on our lives/ the possibilities that open up when we talk with strangers.

French Ship, Carole O'Brien, , 3min30, 2003, 16mm, Winnipeg, Canada
In a fishing village, a woman waits anxiously. Will her man return safely? She summons visions of past expectations and calls on her courage.

And Happiness Everywhere, Shannon L. Silva, 7min, 2004, Super 8, 16mm, mini-dv, Iowa City, IA
And Happiness Everywhere is a four-month, intimate journal in which I was able to consider my conflicting emotions about being a newly married, thirty-something woman trying to negotiate between being an artist, being a wife, and potentially, becoming a mother.

Car Wash, Sharon Mooney, 3min, 2003, mini-dv, Brooklyn, NY
The simple process of a carwash is restructured using sound elements and abstract images. The mechanical process of the machinery reveals a double meaning. Short audio clips of pornography mixed with the synced sound of the machinery and water erotices that which is mundane and mechanical.

Chubby Buddy (The Last Castrato), Erika Yeomans, 13min, 2003, super 8, 16mm, mini-dv, New York City, NY
An experimental narrative based on the memories of a man who gave up his career and marriage in order to act upon some peculiar impulses.