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2023 Virtual Chesapeake Film Festival

9 AM EDT Monday, October 3 through Midnight EDT Sunday, October 9

Environmental Shorts

Chesapeake, A Love Letter to a Watershed – Environmental Short, TRT: 16 min USA
Directed by Eric and Andrew Braker. Fly fishing throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Dear President Biden – Environmental Short, TRT: 39 min, USA
Directed by Jon Bowermaster. As a candidate Joe Biden called climate change an “existential threat” and promised the issue would be part of everything he did as President. Three years into the office…how’s he doing? Front line activists across the country weigh in and ask for the President’s help.

Eroding History – Environmental Feature, TRT: 27:47 min. USA
Directed by Andre Chung. A climate justice story focused on two Black communities on Deal Island that are losing their land and history.

Comedy Shorts

Becoming Lucy – Comedy Short, TRT: 19:17 min.
Directed by Jared Elkin. Confronted by probing questions from her biographer, an elderly Lucille Ball recalls the steps it took for her to realize the iconic television series I Love Lucy.

Documentary Features

Bombers and Masterpieces: Recovering the Art, Life and Diary of Rene Gimpel – Documentary Feature, TRT: 74.8 min
Directed by Greg Faller and Lillian Bowers. The life, times, and diary of Rene Gimpel, a Jewish art dealer and resistance fighter who died in the Neuengamme concentration camp. The film also describes his heirs’ ongoing efforts to recover artworks stolen by the Nazis.

2020: Chaos and Hope – Documentary Feature, TRT: 96.4 min
Directed by June Beallor. A time capsule of a year unlike any other. The film brings us face-to-face with the dramatic and emotional moments of 2020. Where do we go from here? It’s up to us to decide.

Delmarva and the Ground for Change – Documentary Feature, TRT: 89 min, USA
 Three family-owned Delmarva farms and the efforts their owners are making to conserve and preserve soils threatened by climate change.

Don’t Put Her Down – Documentary Feature, TRT: 32:07 min, USA
Directed by Julia Golonka. Hazel Dickens’along with her musical partner Alice Gerard, became the first women to front a bluegrass band and reflects on the role of women in bluegrass today.

Mixed – Documentary Feature, TRT: 56:54, USA
Directed by Caty Borum & Leena Jayaswal. What it means to be a bi-racial child living in a mixed-race family in a fraught moment in American life.

Whitman Brook – Documentary Feature, TRT: 65.6 min
Directed by Ben Silberfarb. An abandoned apple orchard, rescued by chance, thrives under the caring hands of the people driven to rejuvenate this Vermont hillside.

Documentary Shorts

By My Side – Documentary Short, TRT: 30 min
Directed by Vicki Topaz, Wynn Padula. By My Side tells a story of a journey and return, of veterans and their families rescued by their service dogs from the pitfalls of PTSD to a promising sense of hope and restoration.

Call in the Creche – Documentary Short, TRT: 10:55 min
Directed by Tim Guthrie. A mini-doc about a creche in Paparoa, New Zealand, focused on saving an iconic species of kiwi, and how that relates to protecting the entire ecosystem.

Drawing & Customs 21 – Documentary Short, TRT: 13:08 min
Iran Directed by Isa Babaei. Nature around us is full of regular and natural lines and shapes, but with the intervention of humans, the natural order is disappearing and irreparable damage is being done.

Kent County’s Storied Landscape: Place – Past & Present – Documentary Short, TRT: 26:46 min
Directed by Frank Batavick and Susanne C Stahley. How is history expressed in a landscape? Kent County, Maryland is unique in its continuity of working agricultural lands and waterways that embody patterns of life from prehistoric time to today.

Mapping Love – Documentary Short, TRT: 29:58 min
Directed by Mary Alice McMillan. Filmmaker Mary Alice McMillan explores the geography of her family past to learn why every woman in her family has developed breast cancer and where her own breast cancer related genetic may have originated.

Outside Line – Documentary Short, TRT: 16:50 min, USA
Directed by Jack Gordon. As one of the only Black drivers and having no connections in the sport, Rath Caruth is a relative outsider in NASCAR. Nevertheless, he has forged an unlikely path from racing to the sports penultimate series, building stardom on the way.

Spokespeople – Documentary Short, TRT: 23:30, USA
Directed by Ryan Mekenian. For Los Angeles natives living in the early 1900s, bicycles and streetcars shared the road as our primary modes of transportation. But the arrival of the freeway effectively wiped them out. Today, a collective of cycling communities fight for protected bike lanes and road safety, determined to bring a new era of mobility justice to the city.

Symphony of Courage – Documentary Short, TRT: 29:45
Directed by Beth Mendelson, Symphony of Courage tells the story of Farida and Zohra Ahmadi. Story of the last students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music to be evacuated from the country after the Taliban takeover.

The Red Creek Sessions – Documentary Short, TRT: 30:20 min. USA
Directed by Justin Harris. Explores the entire Cheat River Watershed, showcasing the world class whitewater and geology offered in this area as a result of the unique geology of Northern West Virginia.

Waves Apart – Documentary Short, TRT: 24:55, USA
Directed by Josh Greene. California surfer Josh Greene faced bullying and anti-semitism even riding the
waves. The story here of the surfing culture, its underbelly, and his use of spirituality to overcome it.

Narrative Features

Mickey Hardaway – Narrative Feature, TRT: 105.5 min, USA
Directed by Marcellus Cox. A young sketch artist agrees to an in-home therapy session with a renowned psychiatrist as his life begins spiraling out of control after years of physical and verbal abuse.

Narrative Shorts

A Pink Moon Comes – Narrative Short, TRT: 23:34 min, Netherlands
Director Yannick de Waal. A lonely homeless man searches for a last sign of hope, hidden in a dark world. While the darkness surrounds him more and more, a young deaf girl walks past.

The Code of Family – Narrative Short, TRT: 14:49 min, USA
Directed by Kayla Sun. After the death of her husband, an Asian grandma decides to learn computer science to fulfill his last wish, but almost jeopardizes the relationship with the rest of the family as she tries to keep a secret.

The Conductor – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:30 min, USA
Directed by Graham Goldstein. An inside look into LA’s top waiter – arguably, the world’s.

PICKUP – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:34 min, USA
Directed by Christine Delp. When a rideshare to the airport takes an unsettling turn, both passenger and driver
struggle to keep control.

REQUIEM – Narrative Short, TRT:24:54 min, United Kingdom
Directed by Emma Gilbertson. Requiem is set in 1605, against the backdrop of the witch trials. It’s a coming of age story, following Evelyn as she engages in a game of cat and mouse against her father, Minister Gilbert, in order to be with Mary, the woman she loves.

Rolling In The Deep – Narrative Short, TRT: 12:20 min – USA
Directed by Marcellus Cox. The true story of a WWII veteran and decorated member of the Tuskegee Airmen, who returns home to honor his late Father by having a meal at the local ‘Whites Only’ diner.

Unheard Melodies – Narrative Short, TRT: 30 min , USA
Directed by Brenna Mcdonough and Janna Allen. Based on true events, a story of undying love and commitment, albeit brief and bittersweet.

Wrap Me in a Sheet – Narrative Short, TRT: 17:26, USA
Directed by Britt Harris and Molly Muse. Two sisters travel to the Washington coast to unearth a dark
family secret.

Student Shorts

Taste of Home – Student Short, TRT: 29:07 min, Germany
Directed by Âni Võ. Mai (17), a Vietnamese girl who was trafficked to Germany, has to earn money for
her family back in Vietnam but is exploited and sold on by her smugglers. She flees and asks her new friend Linh (11) for help whose mother is part of the system herself. Suddenly, not only Mai but also Linh has to choose between freedom and family.

Trashman – Student Short, TRT: 15:24 min, USA
Directed by Lawrence Green. A Washingtonian contemplates moving his family out of the city in the face of
pollution and litter.

Animations

A Letter with my Sword – Animation, TRT: 3 min, USA
Directed by Emma Barany. Through swordplay and commands, our main figure, Emma, explores the structures and challenges of her past relationships. Ultimately, this leads her to the ones most important to her.

Arctic Song – Animation, TRT: 6:25 min, Canada
Directed by Germaine Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher and Louise Flaherty. Animated short about Inuit creation stories from the Iglulik region in Nunavut.

Four Metagraph Animations – Animations, TRT: 1:53, USA
Directed by Colin Goldberg. Four Techspressionist animations from artist Colin Goldberg’s Metagraph collection.

Davey’s Lullaby – Animation, TRT: 9:29 min, USA
Directed by Adam Deyoe. A spirited, middle-aged man with Down Syndrome faces an uncertain future when his mother, is no longer able to help him.

The Lunatics – Animation, TRT: 3 min, USA
Directed by Jim Doran. While searching for “animals of alien origin” in deep space, a crew of astronauts discover it’s all fun and games until someone breaks the gravity generator.

Color – Animated short, TRT: 1 min. USA
Directed by Hetty Ruth White. A whimsical animation about the creation of art.