2021 / United States / 97 Minutes
DIRCTOR: Josh Ruben
PRODUCERS: Jason Altman, Margaret Boykin, Andrew Lieberman, Natalie Metzger, Matt Miller, Benjamin Wiessner, Sam Richardson
WRITER: Mishna Wolff
The WYO Film Festival was honored to screen these films as part of the programming for our festival in 2021. We're proud to consider these WYOFF alumni part of our festival family and continue to celebrate the projects that have made the WYO Film Festival what it is today.
Dry Refuge
Short Film
After declaring the confinement due to the Covid 19 health crisis, Mikel lives day to day immersed in a forced monotony. The memory of good times and the dream of new adventures give him the dose of energy he needs to face the unusual situation.
2021 / Spain / 5 Minutes
WRITER & DIRECTOR: Ruben Crespo
PRODUCER: Ander Iriarte
Fugetsu-Do
Short Film/Documentary
An intimate portrait of a sweet shop that has been an anchor for the Japanese-American community in Little Tokyo since 1903. The ingredients of the brightly-colored pieces of mochi-gashi that line Fugetsu-Do’s wood-paneled cases include so much more than rice flour and sweet bean paste. Mixed inside are stories of joy and pain, tradition and racism, legacy and loss. Survival is never easy; it’s complicated and messy, full of contradictions and surprises. In the three generations that the Kito Family has been running Fugetsu-Do, the store has become a memory bank for the community and the stories that line its walls could not be more relevant in today’s America.
2020 / United States / 12:31 Minutes
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER & EDITOR: Kaia Rose
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Eric Mann
SOUND DESIGN/MIXING: Jasmin Klinger
COLORIST: Michele Zarbafian
COMPOSER: Dominic Pitt
Garage Romantic
Short Film/Documentary
A big dreamer from the small town of Togliatti, Russia ponders life while building a rocket powered sled made from discarded trash.
2021 / New Zealand / 12:35 Minutes
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER: Dan Sadgrove
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alexander Alexandrov
EDITOR: Ben Elkaim
MUSIC COMPOSER: Houston Fry
SOUND DESIGN: Morgan Johnson
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Maru Kuleshova
VFX: Anita Ward
Ghost Dogs
Short Film/Animation
An absurdist dance and animation extravaganza about when cult followers turn on their leader.
2021 / United States / 5:15 Minutes
MUSICIANS: Black midi
DIRECTOR: Nina McNeely
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Maavven
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Coleen Haynes, Caitlin Westerman
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Zachariah Dalton
PRODUCER: Megan Gutman
Happily
Feature Film
A dark romantic comedy. Tom and Janet have been happily married for years. But a visit from a mysterious stranger leads to a dead body, a lot of questions, and a tense couples’ trip with friends who may not actually be friends at all.
2021 / United States / 96 Minutes
DIRECTOR & WRITER : BenDavid Grabinski
If I Tell Them
Short Film/Documentary
James Sampsel, a plein air painter and fly-fishing guide, comes to terms with his past and a bi-polar diagnosis that hangs over his future.
2021 / United States / 12:26 Minutes
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER & EDITOR: Oliver Sutro
PRODUCER: Orvis
COLORIST: Brian De Herrera-Schnering
SOUND MIX: Mike Henderson
MUSIC: Chapelier Fou, Henry Wolfe, WITCH
In a Dark Place
Short Film/Timelapse
Where the sky is darkest, the stars shine the brightest. Far away from light pollution, the wonders of the universe are on full display. Meteor showers, northern lights, the Milky Way, comets, satellites, and more captivate those who look up. Even in a chaotic world, the heavens still bring peace and inspire awe and wonder. In this film approximately 60 hours of night sky footage is compressed into 15 minutes. Consisting of more than 6 years of photography across numerous states and countries, this is my biggest time lapse project to date.
2021 / United States / 15:12 Minutes
DIRCTOR: Kevin Palmer
MUSIC: Be Still the Earth, Caleb Etheridge
Mariah: A Boxer’s Dream
Short Film/Documentary
Sixteen-year-old boxer Mariah Bahe is a six-time national champion with her sights set on competing in the Olympic Games 2024. The only girl amongst four brothers, she was born and raised on Navajo Nation in Chinle, Arizona (population. 4500). Growing up, Mariah watched her father train her siblings to succeed in and out of the boxing ring while longing for her own chance to compete. At the age of six, she began training with her father, stepped into the ring, and never looked back. Now, a new short documentary, Mariah: A Boxer’s Dream, follows Bahe –throughout 2020 en route to her National Silver Gloves tournament championship – in the quest of her Olympic dream.
2020 / United States / 15:47 Minutes
DIRECTOR: Nina Meredith
WRITERS: Nina Meredith, Sean Lynes, Alvaro del Val
PRODUCER: Sean Lynes
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Simon Elborne, JT Taylor, Yiannis Exarchos, Mary Byrne
SUPERVISING PRODUCER: Mariano Amiune
Sisters Rising
Feature Film/Documentary
Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. 1 in 3 Native women report having been raped during her lifetime and 86% of the offenses are committed by non-Native men. These perpetrators exploit gaps in tribal jurisdictional authority and target Native women as ‘safe victims’. Sisters Rising follows six women who refuse to let this pattern of violence continue in the shadows: a tribal cop in the midst of the North Dakota oil boom, an attorney fighting to overturn restrictions on tribal sovereignty, an Indigenous women’s self-defense instructor, grassroots advocates working to influence legislative change, and the author of the first anti-sex trafficking code to be introduced to a reservation’s tribal court. Their stories shine an unflinching light on righting injustice on both an individual and systemic level.
2020 / United States
DIRECTOR & PRODUCER: Willow O’Feral, Brad Heck
CO-PRODUCER: Jaida Grey Eagle
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Tantoo Cardinal
TGR: Stoke the Fire
Feature Film
TGR’s 26th annual film release STOKE THE FIRE explores our athletes’ evolution within skiing and the pure joy that manifests from that process. The stoke means different things to different people based on where they are in their evolution. For some it is about committing to a new world, a lifestyle, and the friendships that blossom from that commitment. The choice to enter this world is a spark, and with every new experience the fire grows. With more knowledge comes more exploration, both physically and geographically, that helps to understand what those raw experiences connected with nature do for the soul. With more experience an examination of our shared history becomes important, and ultimately some of us might want to test our limits at the upper echelon of what is possible by drawing upon the sum of our knowledge and experiences. While the answers we find are different for everyone the pursuit of this evolution is something sacred, the pursuit is what stokes the fire.
2021 / United States
The Golem
Feature Film with Music by Wyoming Baroque
Widely recognized as the source of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the ancient Hebrew legend the Golem provided actor/director Paul Wegener with the substance for one of the most adventurous films of the German silent cinema.
Suffering under the tyrannical rule of Rudolph II in late 16th-century Prague, Talmudic scholar Rabbi Judah Loew receives a vision of imminent danger and creates a giant warrior to protect the Jewish people. Sculpted of clay and animated by magic, the seemingly indestructible juggernaut performs great acts of heroism. However, when the rabbi’s assistant takes control of the Golem, the powerful protector runs rampant, abducting the rabbi’s daughter and setting fire to the ghetto.
Sheridan-based composer Mark Elliot Bergman composed a new score for this film, performed live with the movie. Composed for instruments used at the time to the film’s setting (strings and harpsichord), the score accentuates the film’s drama and brings the rich story to life in new and compelling ways.
1915 / Germany / 91 Minutes
DIRECTED BY: Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
WRITTEN BY: Paul Wegener, Henrik Galeen
The Palisades Project
Short Film/Documentary
The Palisades Project focuses on the intersection of motorized and mechanized recreation, wilderness conservation and the conflict that has arisen there. In northwest WY this story is playing out on the Palisades Wilderness Study Area (WSA), one of the most contiguous wild landscapes in the Lower 48 states not designated as Wilderness. The Wyoming Wilderness Association has created this film as a tool for moving divided sides towards a solution for the Palisades WSA and other wildlands like it.
2021 / United States / 20 Minutes
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Wyoming Wilderness Association
Werewolves Within
Feature Film
After a proposed pipeline creates divisions within the small town of Beaverfield, and a snowstorm traps its residents together inside the local inn, newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Milana Vayntrub) must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that has begun terrorizing the community.
