https://youtu.be/0LufixXAwoA

POEM:

Summer arrives
in a dazzle
of pink blooms.

The gardener admires
my petals with his fingers.
Reach for the sky!

Seasons pass. Rivers slow. The gardener comes in shadow — a small flask
of rain.

A brutal cutting!
Tendrils reach out for him, asking
“Why?” as th...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

I am a lost soul,
Blighted, bruised,
Condemned to wait
For what will never come.

But still, I am not idle;
I drift, aimless, through desolation—
A desert, cold and cracked,
A barren land devoid of life.

Here, hope is an illusion.
Time—wasted and worn,
A currency t...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My body isn’t a protest.
It’s a betrayal.

I’ve been trapped in here for years,
buried inside a harp seal,
wide-eyed with hakapiks overhead.
It was silent when I wanted to scream.
It froze when I wanted to fight.
It stayed when I should have fled.
My body isn’t a pr...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

T’was my last caper, a risky but weighty score:
Safe dial whirred, door popped at speed,
No chance to focus, time to take a shot,
In n’ out in minutes, so why’d I get caught?

Cops cuff’d me, then questioned me, but I didn’t break,
The files stashed, they couldn’t c...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

She climbed to the top of the mountain
In her ascent
She failed to see
Red roses blooming, so fair, so sweet
Grass green growing there
Purple lilacs, stalks so bright
Pink glowing sky
Turning white clouds red by and by
Blue fading into black
Her steps show her track...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

professor says,
“picasso had a blue period, which was later followed by a rose period.
people tend to associate the blue period with melancholic sentiments.
& the rose period, with its opposite.”
but professor, i sense lingering melancholy
in his rose period, too.

...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your short story about?
An unnamed and unidentified narrator talks to a young man about the Dump Lands, where they work as a shoveler. "The Big Guys" eat what they like, they dump it without care, and leave the mess to be cleaned up by t...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

“I’m so fucking broke it’s absurd,” Floyd noticed the tear inside his jacket pocket. There are miserable times and there are the best of miserable times. Weeks had gone by and his dog Sue had been eating from the hand that fed him, trolling along on a loose rope. An...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your short story about?

How political discourse has gotten in the way of relationships and how to cope with this through love and compromise.

2. What genres would you say this story is in?

Political.

3. How would you describe this s...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Capri is framed by the east window,
Mount Vesuvius centers in the west. Chandeliers
suspend high, trapeze artists erupting their crystal
blooms to guide a Mardi Gras of painted clay and gesso
far below ceiling

vaults. Do you recall sunset velvet splayed across marb...

Type of Story: Historical Fiction

Two children, who are forced to deal with the start of World War II and its struggles and loss of life consistency, seek a finer meaning of life and how to continue love. Despite both these sudden massive changes, they eventually recognize their mother's dete...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

The horses of Gaza—the stallions, colts, mares
the donkeys too—and mules, and jennies
who once tugged the people
on their carts, across the streets and intersections
for twenty centuries and maybe thirty,
now they scramble, the neighs, the braying,
the gallop in dru...

See the full lineup of films:

HELLBOUND FUGITIVE, 5min., USA
Directed by Christopher Patrick Vallone
In a desperate bid for freedom, a convict seeks refuge in a decaying fortress within the mountains. He inadvertently enters a nightmarish arena where ancient demons punish the wicked, and surviv...

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

Filmmakers on stage:

Data – The New Oil
Director Spencer Maurice

WHAT MAKES AN ARTIST?
DIrector Raafat Abou Daka

VISITATION RIGHTS, 81min., South Korea
Directed by JuA LEE
‘50% of all marriages end in divorce.’
It’s so true in Korea. Divorce rates are increasing in Korea and around the world. Parents in divorced families with minor children are divided into custodial parent and non-custodial parent. The cus...

“The Boston Bulldogs” is a 90-minute documentary film interviewing 5 people from a running club for addiction recovery, interconnected by one woman’s story from finishing the Boston Marathon after her first full year of sobriety to her relapse 24 hours later, and now her recovery 10 years later. ...

See the full lineup of films:

BAD DEALS, 23min,. USA
Directed by Jospeh Taz Garcia
Bad Deals touches on 3 important facts that everyone should speak more about and be aware of.

http://www.malkiarelations.com/
https://instagram.com/baddeals_film

Watch the Audience Feedback Video:
https://www....

Script movie of the winning short screenplay.

Haunted by a mesmerizing woman, a preacher begs his congregation for forgiveness...

See the full lineup of films:

BEFORE THE BEES ARE AWAKE, 13min., Denmark
Directed by Dariya Cheremisina
An unfolding story of urban beekeeping factory in the heart of Copenhagen. A place that sees honey as an invitation but not a product. It is a home for a community of local beekeepers, volunt...

SEE THE LINEUP OF FILMS:

Data – The New Oil, 15min., Canada
Directed by Spencer Maurice
A young filmmaker-turned-law student takes us on a dark tour, revealing a clandestine ecosystem hidden from public view – a digital underworld that threatens democracy and civil society by ‘hacking’ our brain...

The Second City - A Documentary, 34min., USA
Directed by Samson Ziegelman
My goal with this documentary is to share the magic of The Second City and the art of improvisation with actor and writer Bob Odenkirk and Second City Vice President Kelly Leonard. We discuss their Second City experiences, ...

See the full lineup of films:

ARGIE BERMAN, 9min., USA
Directed by Fon Davis
A recovering alcoholic uses her coming out story in her stand-up act and her therapy sessions to explain her addiction and her relationship with her mother.

http://www.entityeye.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ArgieBerm...

See the full lineup of films:

THE LAST GUARDIAN, 3min., South Korea
Directed by Visionary Y
In a world devastated by environmental destruction and resource scarcity, water has become the rarest and most precious resource. A 7-year-old boy, Kai, and his humanoid guardian, Ethan, embark on a jour...

HELLBOUND FUGITIVE, 5min., USA
Directed by Christopher Patrick Vallone
In a desperate bid for freedom, a convict seeks refuge in a decaying fortress within the mountains. He inadvertently enters a nightmarish arena where ancient demons punish the wicked, and survival means fighting hell itself.
...