Film Night

An evening dedicated to incredible stories captured on film and the premieres of animated shorts by UCF students. Film Night will include three independent documentaries: Stories of the Harvester; Let My People Vote; and Después de María, las 2 orillas/After Maria, The 2 Shores: a documentary on PR’s reconstruction and the migration to Orlando.

Schedule

7:30 p.m. | Después de María, las 2 orillas/After Maria, The 2 Shores
Intermission
9:00 p.m. | Character Animation Shorts from the School of Visual Art & Design
9:30 p.m. | Let My People Vote and Stories of the Harvester

 

Después de María, las 2 orillas/After Maria, The 2 Shores:

a documentary on PR’s reconstruction and the migration to Orlando

View the trailer

After 8 months of Hurricane Maria, various community projects emerged around the island, such as the diner in Las Carolinas, the rescue of fish traps in Naguabo, a hydroponic farm in Lares, as well as the “Catharsis” project by many artists.

It captures the reconstruction and agency by people of NOGs in different parts of PR, the separation of families who migrated to Orlando, family enterprises and the aid by the diaspora.

 

Créditos

Dirección y producción	Composición de la música e interpretación
Sonia Fritz	Enrique Bayoán Ríos Escribano
Productor ejecutivo	Canción “Me voy me voy”
Gabriel Paizy	Madera Fina
Productor asociado	Investigación Puerto Rico
Luis Alberto Ferré Rangel	Sonia Fritz
	Maritza Maymí
Cinematografía Puerto Rico
Carlos Zayas, SPC	Investigación Orlando
	José Javier Pérez
Cinematografía Orlando	Sonia Fritz
Brendaliz Negrón
	Asistente de cámara Puerto Rico
Sonido Puerto Rico	Brian Rodríguez
Margarita Aponte
	Tomas submarinas Naguabo
Sonido Orlando	Buzos y ConCiencia de Reymond Espinosa
Benjamín Curet
Editor
David Moscoso

 

Artist Statement: Sonia Fritz

This documentary was my response as a filmmaker to the difficult situation we were living on the island after Hurricane Maria. I also wanted to give a voice to people and organizations that normally are not covered by the media and show how people were taking their lives into their hands and moving forward collectively since the government’s help seemed to take forever. I also want to explore what was happening to Puerto Ricans leaving for the US and the new situations they were facing in the US.

As a migrant myself, I have been interested in why people leave their homes and the new circumstances they face in a foreign place. So even if Puerto Ricans have the US passport, the consequences of migrating, and leaving the family and their culture b behind, has stirred my interest because of the human factors involved. Once you leave, you will always miss your place of origin, while trying to adapt to the new one, while making the best out of those circumstances.

I was also interested in exploring the importance of arts as a process of recovery and the benefits it generates to people and therefore including this topic was also part of the original idea specially because I am part of the artist community on the island.

 

LET MY PEOPLE VOTE

Directed by Gilda Ann Brasch

This is the story of one man, Desmond Meade, trying to get voting rights back for all. Filmed in Tampa, 2 days before the 2016 presidential election, this verité short covers a day-in-the-life of civil rights activist, Desmond Meade.

It’s Sunday, “Souls to the Polls,” the last day of early voting. Desmond is canvasing door to door.

His mission? Assisting people in voting – something our “forefathers marched and died for.”

What begins as an upbeat day of faith in our democratic process, ends with a heartbreaking realization. Jim Crow is not dead.

 

STORIES OF THE HARVESTER

Directed by Yovanna Pineda

Co-editor and Co-writer: Scott Launier

Graphic Design: David Plotkin

During the twentieth century, Argentina is best known for its beef, tango and social and economic crises! But in the rural regions, townspeople created their own cultural landscape. Stories of the Harvester documents people’s memories and stories of how they created an identity around their farm machinery to maintain work, pride and nationalism.

 

CHARACTER ANIMATION SHORTS

Presented by the School of Visual Arts & Design (SVAD), visitors will experience student-created animation from over the past five years. SVAD currently has two unique animation tracks: Character Animation and Experimental Animation. Both program tracks, which are a part of the Art, BFA – Emerging Media Track, allow students to integrate the multiple domains of art, storytelling and technology while providing a solid foundation in techniques and theory. These films were created by students in UCF’s Emerging Media BFA Character Animation Track as part of SVAD. The Character Animation Track is a limited access program where students work as a team-based cohort over a 2-year period, mimicking the animation industry studio environment. Graduates of the program have gone on to land internships and jobs at Disney Feature Animation, PIXAR, Dreamworks Animation, Lucasfilm, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts and others.

Throughout the festival, the Character Animation student films from the School of Visual Arts and Design will precede events. Check arts.ucf.edu to see which films precede each performance! You must have a ticket for the corresponding performance to see the films.

On Saturday, April 13th at 8p.m., two featured animated films, Ukelayla (2018) and Night Light (2018), will be screened with an introductory talk by the Faculty Director, JoAnne Adams and a Q&A following the films.

Film Night Premieres:

Ukelayla (2018): Layla, a young girl with a speech disability, has high hopes for her first day of school, but her differences make it difficult to connect to others. Where speech fails, music speaks. Follow Layla and Kiki into a world of music, magic and friendship in Ukelayla!

Night Light (2018): A wide-eyed, newborn sea turtle named Fin finds himself on the illuminated beaches of Miami. It is a perilous time to be a hatchling, with hazards of artificial light and debris present at every turn. With the help of Abueluna, his caring, celestial guide, Fin will make the daring trek from his cluttered nest to the open seas.

The following will be previewed throughout the festival before events at the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater:

Cuddlefish (2017): The story of Viktor, a daring Viking on the adventure of a lifetime. His travels come to a grinding halt when he meets the adorable love-sick kraken, Kaimana, who falls in love with the anchor on Viktor’s mighty ship. The two face off in an epic conflict of wit which teaches both of them that love is blind as far as the eye can “sea.”

Dreamweaver (2017): The Chippewa tribe believes that Asibikaashi, the spider woman, protects children from bad dreams at night by weaving dream catchers to hang above their heads while they sleep. In Dreamweaver, she teaches Namid, an eight-year-old Chippewa girl who suffers from nightmares, to overcome her fears.

Farmer Glorp (2016): An animated short presenting the daily life of Glorp, an alien farmer caring for sunflowers on the sun. On a day like any other, the field is invaded by Flip, an excitable creature seeking food. Farmer Glorp must stop her accidental chaos before his crops are destroyed by her playful nature. Original score composed by Dr. Stella Sung.

The Moth Effect (2016): The story of a tidy young woman named Anh who believes everything has a place. One day, she meets her new roommate, a party-loving moth. Anh immediately realizes that she and this moth are opposites.

Snacktime (2015): An adventurous comedy about a mischievous spirit’s hunger for gold, a pompous conquistador who has come to steal it, and an angry guardian determined to protect her treasure.

Enchanted Ink (2015): The story of May, a young Persian girl learning the magic of writing for the first time. Along the way she discovers that a simple mistake can make the magic go awry.

Yours, Mime, and Ours (2014): A heartwarming tale of a clown father trying to understand his mime daughter. Hilarity ensues.

Celestial (2014): A short science fiction 3D animated film about a supernatural being’s destructive obsession to replicate a beautiful distant star.

Featured Animation: “Ukelayla” (class of 2018)

 

National Awards:

• Bronze Award for Best Children Short of the 2018 Independent Shorts Awards
• Award Winner of the 2018 European Cinematography Awards
• Finalist of the 2018 ONIROS Film Awards
• Finalist of the 2018 DaVinci Film Festival
• Semi-finalist Best Animation Film of the 2018 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards
• Semi-finalist Best Student Film of the 2018 Festitgious Film Festival
• Semi-finalist of the 2018 Top Shorts
• Semi-finalist of the 2018 Hollywood Just4Shorts Film and Screenplay Competition
• Semi-finalist of the 2018 Los Angeles Film Awards

Featured Animation: “Night Light” (class of 2018)

International Awards:

• Best Animation Short for July 2018 of the London Independent Film Awards

National Awards:

• Best Student Film Award of Excellence of the Summer 2018 Southern Shorts Awards Film Festival
• Semi-finalist Best Animation Film of the 2018 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards
• Finalist of the 2018 ONIROS Film Awards

International Screenings

• Official Selection of the 2018 Waterford Film Festival, Ireland
• Official Selection of the 2018 Barbados Independent Film Festival
• Official Selection of the 2018 Kinofilm Manchester International Short Film Festival, England
• Official Selection of the 2018 Kinofilm at the Poly: Animation Programme
• Official Selection of the 2018 Shorts on The Beach Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada

National Screenings

• Official Selection of the 2018 Supernova Digital Animation Festival
• Official Selection of the 2018 Short Film & Video Festival at Arts on the Riverwalk
• Official Selection of the 2018 Hollywood Just4Shorts Film and Screenplay Competition
• Official Selection of the 2018 ONIROS Film Awards
• Official Selection of the 2018 Los Angeles Film Awards
• Official non-screening Selection of the 2018 Catalina Film Festival

Regional Screenings

• Official Selection of the 2018 Key West Film Festival