Films & Comedy

Name of Film: Witchy

Director: Liz Manashil

Director’s Bio: Liz Manashil is an independent feature filmmaker who works in artist support. She managed Sundance's Creative Distribution Initiative during its entire tenure and now consults with her fellow filmmakers (independently and through The Film Collaborative) on how best to navigate the labyrinthine-like world of distribution. She is incredibly proud to have contributed to both the Distributor Fact Sheet and the Distributor Report Card and is in the process of making and documenting the making of her third feature - a horror comedy called BEST FRIENDS FOREVER- and has just produced her second child. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner, son, daughter and dog, Laura Palmer. Learn more about Liz’s work at www.lizmanashil.com.

Director of Photography: Liz Yarwood

Screenwriter: Liz Manashil

Short Synopsis:

Current Logline: A broken hearted teenager learns an important lesson about fidelity and family from an immersive Halloween experience that may or may not be organized by an actual witch.

During an immersive Halloween experience, brokenhearted teenager and her grieving widow father encounter a witch who
decides to take natural law into her own jurisdiction.

Where has it screened: Foggy Isle, Screamfest, Abertoir, Popcorn Frights, Atlanta Horror, Cleveland In'tl, Tallgrass, Pittsburgh Shorts, Phoenix Film Festival, Cinequest, Cordillera

Your Youtube Channel/Social Medial Links: @LizManashil or @LizManashilFilm for Twitter/Instagram.

Name of Film: Green Thumb

Director: Michael Palmer

Director’s Bio: Indy-darling with an over-the-top smoulder, who relocated from the west to Hollywood North with hopes of collaborating with like-minded creative folk. Michael creates content that is serious and thoughtful, but also playful and serendipitous.

Director of Photography: Aaron Schmidt

Screenwriter: Michael Palmer

Short Synopsis: An eccentric botanist gets her hands dirty on a blind date.

Why did you choose to explore this topic? During the pandemic, the friends in my bubble and I decided to use what the things we had to make a movie. My girlfriend had a lot of plants. And she's also a psychopath.

Where has it screened: New West DilmFilm Fest, Huldra Film Festival in the Nottingham Forest, and the great Foggy Isle Film Festival.

Your Youtube Channel/Social Medial Links: @mkeplmr @freshyfiendfilms

Name of Film: Nomophobia

Director: Corey Nikolaus

Director’s Bio: Corey Nikolaus is a filmmaker based in Montreal. His films are influenced by 80s horror with their own modern spin and usually have sprinkle of comedy. He is 1/3rd the film making trio Monster Circus and has recently started experimenting with animation.

Director of Photography: Chris Monteiro

Screenwriter: Corey Nikolaus

Short Synopsis: A man is haunted by his cellphone.

Why did you choose to explore this topic?

I was sick of people (including myself) being addicted to their cellphones. It’s only gotten exponentially worse since I made this, so I guess the message wasn’t received!

Where has it screened: It played at a few festivals, nothing prominent really. Shock Therapy was by far the best festival it screened at and one of the best fests I’ve ever attended. Seriously, great line up of carefully chosen Canadian films.

Name of Film: The Woodsman

Director: Kyle Kuchta

Director’s Bio: Kyle Kuchta is a filmmaker based out of New London, CT. After graduating from Syracuse University’s (VPA Film ‘13), he spent years in Los Angeles working as an assistant director on projects for companies such as Screen Junkies, Nerdist, and Megaforce Records. He returned to Connecticut in 2018 to focus on directing, starting with the feature-length documentary Survival Of The Film Freaks. He has directed music videos for Magana and Certain Self, and is a producer at OTC Industries.

Director of Photography: Jonathan Henderson & Bill Fulkerson

Screenwriter: Kyle Kuchta

Short Synopsis: Bernie Davis (John R Smith Jnr), a Christmas tree salesman, has three trees left to sell on Christmas Eve. As the night progresses, his anxiety (and alcohol) leads him to take unconventional measures to ensure that his lot is sold and his soul is safe.

Why did you choose to explore this topic?: I think I’ve always battled this generational need to "be enough" that broke (somewhat) in my adulthood when I came to the realization that my father and my father before me also fought that battle. Plus I was watching a lot of Tales From The Crypt at the time of writing this so that "morality tale" comed approach mixed with some folk horror was just so appealing to me.

Where has it screened: Premiered at Chattanooga Film Festival, won Best Actor at Bridgeport Film Festival, also played Charlotte Film Festival, Foggy Isle Film Festival and Mystic Film Festival among others

Your Youtube Channel/Social Media Links: @krkuchta on Instagram, @kylekuchtafilm on YouTube

Name of the Film: Cancelled Stamp

Director: Joyce Kline

Producer: Jocelyn Russell

Director of Photography: Daniel Carruthers

Screenwriter: Joyce Kline

Starring: Lynda Raino, Angela Henry, Mur Meadows

Composer | Sound Designer: Gilles Maillet

Costume Designer: Diane Madill

Synopsis: When sex comes between aging conjoined vaudevillians, each sister must make her own life & death choice. Set in the 1920s, "Cancelled Stamp" is a short film drama that explores themes of intimacy, solitude, and independence.

Where has it screened: Victoria Film Festival (2022), Short Circuit Film Festival (2022), Foggy Isle Film Festival (2022)

Awards: 2022 WINNER: Metropol Audience Favorite Short @ the Victoria Film Festival (Victoria, BC - Canada)

Name of Film: Brigitte

Director: Gabriel Auclair-Doucet

Director of Photography: Evangelos Desborough

Screenwriter: Gabriel Auclair-Doucet

Short Synopsis: Jean-Guy is madly in love with Brigitte, his new inflatable doll. What he doesn't know, is that something wicked may come...

Where has it screened: Fantasia International Film Festival, Courts Mais Trash, Chilliwack Independent Film Festival, Foggy Isle Film Festival, Stuff MX Film Festival, Nickel Independent Film Festival, Cine Underground

Name of Film: The Phone Interview

Director: Kassy Gascho & Melissa Jones

Melissa Jones Bio:
Melissa is an expressive and inventive filmmaker, based in Toronto. Melissa's work, despite crossing all boundaries of genres, has a distinctly surreal quality. Her work on short films is led by her unique eye for art, often having a key hand in the set design of her films. Melissa has a strong background as an editor, and her influences from multiple genres bleed into her work. Recently Melissa took home the award for Best Director for her short film Cordelia! at the Sin City Horror Festival in Los Vegas.

Kassy Gascho Bio:
Kassy Gascho is a very goofy filmmaker and film programmer whose work has been screened at various film festivals around the world since she was 16 years old. She’s been making movies way longer than that but you won’t ever see them. Kassy’s DIY filmmaking approach is informed by working in various roles over her time on this planet and having a strong background in editing, camera, and producing numerous DIY shorts since she was 12 years old. Her short, The Phone Interview has received rave reviews such as "Can there be enough pink?” and “This looks like it was shot in Claire's store” as well as received multiple awards from festivals around the world. Her new short #BOSSBABE started its festival run with its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal where it took home the Bronze Audience Choice Award for Best Canadian Short.

Director of Photography: Kassy Gascho

Screenwriter: Kassy Gascho

Short Synopsis: After being rejected from her dream sorority, a determined girl kidnaps a local cashier in hopes of achieving community by working at a boutique grocery store.

Why did you choose to explore this topic?

The Phone Interview stemmed from my desire to create a film to personally pull me out of my current reality, and into a universe that wasn’t the one we’re living in. I wanted deeply to make something fun, bright, and vibrant but I wanted it to be a thrill ride at the same time. I wrote this script to follow along with the protocols around shooting during a pandemic, but I wanted the film to be structured in its universe separate from that, a little bit less digital, but not entirely analog.

I always like to believe that not everyone has bad intentions, and this film is a hyper-exaggeration of that concept. Daphne embodies the idea of having a multitude of feelings for a character as her actions are incredibly immoral but she has reached a point in her emotional span where they feel very necessary and stemming from a toxic culture of exclusion, which we all know too well.

When I wrote the film I knew exactly how I wanted to make it, style it, shoot it, and edit it. The Phone Interview was created with such a small crew that this vision was able to be completely cohesive from the beginning to the end of the shoot. I hope you have as much fun watching it as we did making it!

Where has it screened:
Blood in the Snow Film Festival (2021)
Deep Cut Film Festival (2022)- Winner of the Visual Award
Nightpiece Film Festival (2021)
Foggy Isle Film Festival (2021)
Toronto Indie Horror Festival (2021)
Anomaly Film Festival (2021)
Hamilton Film Festival (2021)
Videodrunk Film Festival (2021) - Winner of the Evangeline Canadiana Prize

Social Media Links:
Instagram: @itskassywithak @babymelsi

Name of Film: The Purgamentum

Director: Julie Bruns, Steven Kammerer and Major
Director’s Bio: Julie Bruns is driven to bring stories to life that leave an impact and keep audiences thinking long after the credits roll. She has lived all over North America, went to theatre school in London, UK, and you'll usually find her writing, re-writing or skulking around a set somewhere.
Steven Kammerer is a filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada. He has written and directed several short films and is currently working on his first feature.
His short film "Ada" has screened around the world, pulling in a Best Performance Award at the Assurdo Film Festival in Milan, Italy and was the Platinum Award Winner for the Best Actor Award New York.
He won the Best Director award as co-director of the eco-horror film "The Purgamentum" at Vancouver's 48-Hour Run 'n Gun festival in October 2020.

The Purgamentum is Major's directorial debut. He is currently producing the indie feature Outrunners. Among many other things, he is also an actor, production designer, and accomplished diver.

Director of Photography: Marc Yungco
Screenwriter: Julie Bruns, Steven Kammerer and Major

Short Synopsis:
A dark tale of retali-ocean.
Amy (Julie Bruns), a marine biologist stationed in a remote float house on the rugged Pacific Northwest coast, is chilled when disturbing sounds begin to whisper through her underwater microphone. She calls in the help of Stan (Major), an underwater technician, to try to understand what may be causing it, but what lurks underneath is no easy fix.


Why did you choose to explore this topic?
Horror offers such a brilliant lens through which to tell stories, as it infuses its subject with such a sense of suspense and dread. This feels doubly true for stories about our ecological crisis: minimized and ignored for far too long, its true urgency flashes starkly before us in a horror setting. By creating a literal trash monster in this film, we got to bring an eerie sense of awareness to the real horror coming.
Where has it screened:
Foggy Isle Film Festival
Blood in the Snow
iHorror Film Fest
Ethereal Horror Fest
Hellifax Horror Fest
Austin After Dark Film Festival
Vancouver Badass Film Festival

Your Youtube Channel/Social Medial Links:
X: @ThatJulieBruns
Instagram: @julie.bruns - @stevekammerer - @majoractor

Name of Film: It's Time for Tea

Director: Matthew J. Kaplan

Director’s Bio: Matthew J. Kaplan is a Brooklyn, NY-based writer, filmmaker, musician and actor. He wrote, produced and directed the award-winning, internationally-screened short film IT'S TIME FOR TEA. Matthew has produced one-act plays for The Chain Theatre and Emerging Artist's Theatre in 2022, and The Secret Theatre and the Players Theatre in 2023. He is a playwright with NYC's The PlayGround Experiment and Brooklyn’s Flatbush Community Theater. Matthew is a songwriter and bass player with indie-rock band THE BRIGHT SPOTS.

Director of Photography: Jake Horgan

Screenwriter: Matthew J. Kaplan

Short Synopsis: After the death of their young daughter, all that remains in Rebecca and Allen’s home is an extensive toy collection and profound grief. Both are attempting to process their loss: Rebecca chooses to repress her pain, while Allen regresses to their child's age to replace her. When an unconventional therapist visits with them, he assures Rebecca he can bring her husband back. But first, she must enter into Allen’s land of make-believe.

Why did you choose to explore this topic? I consider myself a storyteller first but not every story should be told through the same medium. I wanted to make a short film and I felt that "It's Time for Tea" would be the perfect story to tell through that medium. It's the right length for a short and it's a great representation for my brand of hearty dark humor. So while I have never experienced the extreme grief that my characters are dealt, I do feel that sometimes we need to take less conventional paths to overcome our challenges.

Where has it screened:
Big Apple Film Festival (NY, USA)
First Contact Film Festival (NJ, USA)
Long Island International Film Festival (NY, USA)
Long Beach Film Festival (NY, USA)
Mountain Tales Film Festival (AL, USA)
VOB Film Festival (NY, USA)
Festival of Cinema (NY, USA)
Foggy Isle Film Festival (Vancouver, CAN)
Chicago Southland International Film Festival (IL, USA)
Berkshire Short Film Festival (MA, USA)
The Shawna Shea Memorial Film Festival (MA, USA)
Killer Valley Comedy (OR, USA)
Entholigy Film Screening Series (NY, USA)
The Cecil County Independent Film Festival (MD, USA)
New York Short Film Festival (NY, USA)
The Shmoovies! Film Festival (NY, USA)
Hudson Valley Film Festival (NY, USA)
The NY Indie Theatre Film Festival (NY, USA)
Oregon Short Film Festival (OR, USA)
QueensWorld Film Festival (NY, USA)
Believe Psychology Film Festival (CA, USA)
Swindon Independent Film Festival (Swindon, UK)
Astoria Film Festival (NY, USA)
Roosevelt Island Film Festival (NY, USA)
Raindance New York Open Shorts Night (NY, USA)


Your Youtube Channel/Social Media Links:
IG/FB/X: @MatthewJKapan - @ItsTimeForTeaFilm

Name of Film: Sticky

Director: Ashley Good

Starring: Erin Carnell

Short Synopsis: April’s ex-boyfriend’s pet has escaped.

Where has it screened:
Foggy Isle Film Festival (2019)

Your Youtube Channel/Social Media Links:
Instagram: @ashleyegood

Youtube: @ashleyegood