Question & Answer session after festival screening with filmmakers from the April 10, 2025 Festival at the Carlton Cinemas, in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Filmmakers in Attendance:

Filmmaker/Animator Elizabeth Lewis (AUTUMN LEAVES)

Filmmaker W.E. Overton (REEF)

See the full lineup of films:

ELIZA, 11min., USA
Directed by Bianca Roth
After hitting rock bottom, 23 year old MIA, updates her home AI system to help turn her life around. What start out as small “life improvements” slowly begin to control her.

https://www.instagram.com/biancarothfilms

C-gr...

When the paths of the 11th Pennsylvania Civil War regiment and an American Staffordshire Terrier pup intertwine, the men of the 11th's lives are changed in ways they never could've predicted.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Hannah Ehman
R. Coulter: Shawn Devlin
Captain Terry: Geoff May

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Faced with itself
humanity once again reveals its boundless capacity for destruction.
How hardened must our hearts grow
to endure the inhumanity we choose for ourselves?
The black clouds gathering in the east are more than a storm;
they carry the promise of a future...

Performed by Val Cole

Hope and Carl meet each other one night and things move pretty quickly, they fall in love and things are as great as they can be, until Carl drops the truth on Hope and she needs to decide if she wants to spend the rest of her life with him or not.

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your novel about?

My updated version of Shakespeare's classic has the "cool" factor; it is 2023 and Tony, the Merch King of the Kappa House, will do anything for his favourite Frat Bro Baz, even if it means a sketchy business loan wit...

Performed by Val Cole

Read POEM:

There are many different children around the world,
some little boys and some little girls,
Different languages and culture,
But all have their peacocks and all have their vultures,
Finding beauty can be hard, before a lullaby makes a wish upon a star.
Earth yo...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The ice is gone, the seas are high,
But hey, at least your stocks won’t die.
The forests burn, the rivers choke,
And billionaires? They buy more coke.
They told us, “Recycle! Do your part!”
While drilling Earth down to its heart.

The oil spills? Just close your eye...

Performed by Val Cole

See the full lineup of films:

Black People Don’t Tango, 14min., USA
Directed by Robert Xavier Clark
An African American man learns to tango after a trip to Argentina.
Based on a true story.

https://www.instagram.com/llucindajclark2

Pisho, 16min., Pakistan
Directed by Aun Ul Haider
Journey of ...

Plastico, 5min., UK, Documentary
Directed by David Harriman, James Bettney
In Almeria Province in Spain, a sea of plastic sheeting covers the land creating the the largest collection of greenhouses in the world. The invernaderos (as they are called in Spanish) cover upwards of 150 square miles an...

See the full lineup of films:

Nibbling of the Night, 10min., UK
Directed by Gabi Bania
Suzy and Billy are an unhappy middle-aged couple whose affection has long faded away. Suzy feels used by her careless husband, enslaved by the role of a subordinate housewife. She escapes from her worries and...

Qaqsoss naka Wahantuhsis (Fox & the Tiny Demon), 80min,. Canada
Directed by Tara Audibert
Qaqsoss naka Wahantuhsis is an animated allegory about Qaqsoss, a fox who is haunted by Wahantuhsis, a tiny demon. Set in an enchanted forest, the film explores themes of mental illness, trauma, and generati...

See the full lineup of films:

Fereydouns Sons, 7min, Iran
Directed by Hossein Moradizadeh
Fereydoun divides his lands into three parts and gives each one to one of his sons. Salm is the land of Arabs and Romans, Tur is the land of Turks and China, and Iraj is the land of Iran.

http://www.morad...

Parents in the Wild - Mating Games and Birth Days, 52min., Germany
Directed by Moritz Mayerle, Annette Scheurich
In this film, directors Annette Scheurich and Moritz Mayerle offer a captivating glimpse into the love lives of Parents in the Wild worldwide. Highlighting the universal goal of prov...

After the Spread, 3min., Canada, Musical
Directed by Ash K Tysowski
A group of teenagers navigate their night-life, and their emotions, to the song "After the Spread" by "the Idea of machines"

https://www.ashtanimation.com/animation/after-the-spread\

https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-fe...

A single person, Chyhenu, meets a potential partner
In a beautiful and surrealistic collision of Nordic and Japanese cultures. These two eccentric characters share an inner connection that parts their clouds and returns blue skies to their lives.

Directed by Marlon O Lee

Cast: Liam Mayhugh, Ste...

WATER, 58min., USA
Directed by Gary Beeber
Like most people living in Ohio I never thought much about water because there s so much of it here. All I knew was that Ohio has large aquifers, but had no idea how we get our drinking water. I thought that the aquifer was a huge body of water under...

FRAGILE, 3min., Germany, Experimental
Directed by Lucas Buchholz, Bernd Brink
Every day, millions of packages are shipped, billions of messages are sent—our world seems more connected than ever. Even in the most remote corners of the planet, we are within reach. But have we truly come closer to o...

Making Emmie Smile, 5min., USA
Directed by Abby Vo, John Vo, Ken Yoffe, Ellen Weisberg
In "Making Emmie Smile," family members attempt to make the child happy by offering her different material things, only to succeed in getting the child to smile by offering personal attention. The basic them of...