2022 Program

1 
Working Through Labor               5:37
Aaron Donahue                               United States

A pompous Director loses control of his set as his experienced Director of Photography goes into labor during their film shoot.

 

2  
The Breakdown (No Sub)             5:20  
Giulio Mealli                                    Italy

When a dysfunctional family's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, their repressed grievances with each other bubble to the surface.

 

3   (this film will be shown at the live show. but it will not be show on vimeo)
Anyone for President                     3:49
Matt Nye                                         United States

Anyone for President is a non-partisan satirical jab at our political system with a diverse cast representing present-day Americans. Written as a stream of consciousness, the film represents what is at the heart of our discourse.

 

4 
The Problem With Time Travel              15:13
Mike Kearby  Texas

A young woman visited by two time-travelers is shocked to learn that, in matters regarding climate change, humans will never change even when presented with facts that would push their species to extinction.

 

5 
Mad!                                                         3:20
Nuria Menchaca   and Hélène Matte          Canada  

The child king learns to walk in the universe. His environment falls as he rises.

 

6  
Giti Jan                                           10:09
Shayan Shahverdi                             Iran

Giti Jan movie is about a woman who fights against all her problems

7     
Splash Zone                                      5:52
Abby Wright                                      Florida 

A sexy car wash turns nasty—but not in the way you’d think.
When the male fantasy takes a sudden turn and spirals into absurdity, the audience and our characters are left disgusted, confused, and horny all at the same time. Abby Wright is a silly girl and student filmmaker currently based out of Tallahassee, Florida.

 

8  
COVID LOVE                                     6:03
Rene Nuijens                                         Netherlands

Covid Love is a short comedy by Dutch director René Nuijens. 
The film takes us to an intimate moment of Dick and Mary who meet each other for the first time during the Covid pandemic.   An empty restaurant, a somewhat odd waiter and his strict measures, make it a tough evening. Or will love prevail? 

 

9    
Inside the ark or all the things that are getting lost    19:57
Noemi Vasileiadou                                                           Greece

A hybrid film between experimental and fiction, with poetic and political overtones. An explorative game where three girls hide within an ark of their own making and face themselves as the saviors of a world that is being politically and environmentally destroyed. In a moment of transition, they will try to write the history from the beginning. 

 

10 
Tar Beach Revelation                     2:54
Neil Ira Needleman                           United States

Real men love Bach...and boobs.

 

11 
Bonne Personne                            10:23
Philippe Bourret                               Canada

After finding her friend Jasmine being judgmental about a recent decision in her life, Louise has to confront the consequences of said decision.

 

12
Last Call                                            4 :30
Becca Kozak                                       Canada
A pair of witches seduce and kill men so that they can collect sacrifices for Satan.

 

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The 2020 and 2021Nihilist Film Festival
was held online because of covid

2021 Program

1
A Krampus Family Easter      9:05
Danny McCarthy                       Chicago

Perpetually cast as black-hearted, whip-wielding, hooven demons whose only joy comes from the capturing of young ones - the Krampus Family invites viewers into their home as an attempt to prove that their joy isn’t attained solely by child-snatchery. This film chronicles an important tradition in their lives that they get an extreme amount of joy from - Easter.

2
MASK ON                             3:22
Luis Tovar                                Los Angeles

In the middle of 2020, it's hard to meet new people.

3
We're All Zombies                  1:57
Chris Farina                              New Jersey

An American yearbook of 2020
Nothing is as it seems, and once you see the truth, you can't unsee it. Why is that, when magic is an invisible force? I don't know, either. Love and light.

4
DONUT CHASE                     8:27
Sarah Baskin                             New York

DONUT CHASE flips the traditional male-buddy cop cliché on its head and inserts two oddball lady police officers causing all kinds of chaos. And we love it. The film was directed by Sarah Baskin, written by Valery Lessard, Bryan Fitzgerald & Lisa Baron Ray, and produced in Central NY by Baroness Films, Sow the Seeds Productions, & Mohawk Valley Pictures.

5
Entitled                                               7:25
Clark Pavlik and Lizzy Rudakas           United States

Entitled is an upcoming series of sketches written by Kiarra Hughes & Zack Pedica based on their oxymoronic lives as young, broke and entitled minorities in the heart of Chicago's boystown, where many intersections meet. "The Finger in the Butt Story '' is the catalyst for the episodes to come. The sketch is an extreme exaggeration of real events that, on the surface, are staunchly comical, but actually examine the function of close friendship and boundary intersections in today's harsh and costly world. At times it's hard to look at, it's messed up a little, and you're happy you got through it with some friends, just like life. Writers: Kiarra Hughes, Zack Pedica   Director/Producers: Clark Pavlik, Lizzy Rudakas   Actors: Kiarra Hughes, Zack Pedica, Marcellus Burt & Jonathan Mayo.

6
My Great Funeral Movie       10:41     
Adam Bernet                             United Kingdom

Adam Bernet's last wish was for his funeral guests to watch a special video he made, reenacting his final, gruesome, moments on Earth. And, although he always knew he would die one day, he was never quite sure what of. So he decided to recreate a few likely scenarios. 
Adam Bernet is a London based writer, director, performer and film editor. 

7
Hollywounded                                     7:33
Charlie Bellarose  and Sophie Galibert   West Hollywood

Hollywounded is a brutally honest, raunchy comedy of errors about a hopeful young woman as she attempts to make it in a town where everyone is faking it.

8
Hard Times                              7:34
Dan Schwartz                            Los Angeles

HARD TIMES is a satirical look at Hollywood through the lens of its perverted younger brother. We follow an aspiring actress turned porn star who, over the course of a film shoot with a disgruntled porn director, learns that sometimes it pays to take the unconventional route if it means finding an outlet to be creative. Writer Dan Schwartz explores the ethics of breaking into Hollywood, while creating a two hander with both heart, and a bunch of laughs!

 9
Lisa Suckdoll                          15:00
Becca Kozak                            Canada

It was a lovely experience to enter the wild world of Lisa Suckdog for close to a year creating this film. Her perspective on life is equal parts liberating and inspiring. Lisa Suckdoll will get you drunk on life! 

10
Gaze Returned/Detourned         5:00
Anya Liftig                                     Connecticut

Anya Liftig is a performance artist and writer based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her work has been presented at TATE Modern, MOMA, the New Museum, Queens Museum and many other venues around the world. Her first book, a memoir entitled HOLLER RAT, is forthcoming from Abrams in 2023.

11
What It Feels Like for a Girl     2:17
Megan Duffy                                  Los Angeles

A woman makes the most of a bad day.
Megan Duffy is a Los Angeles based actress and filmmaker who has many TV and film credits for acting and directing. 

12
Holy Poker                            14:53
Glenn Miller                             Texas

In 1984, a high stakes secret Poker Game was attended by 5 of the most influential spiritual leaders on the planet. With a combined 2 billion “followers,” these holy men, gurus, and even cult leaders plot an entirely new religion that could change the world. 
What you are about to see is the only evidence of this meeting. If they were still alive, they would surely deny that this ever happened.

13
I, Prophet                               12:31
Rahul Aijaz                              Pakistan

‘I, Prophet’ is a mockumentary written, directed and produced by Rahul Aijaz. It revolves around a group of atheists forming a society in order to preach atheism to people in Pakistan. The film is based on the director’s experiences with religious preachers and imagines a role-reversal, which, subsequently, reflects on the religion-like mindsets of radical atheists as well as the hypocrisy of religious fanatics.
The film ‘I, Prophet’ was part of the Cannes Short Film Corner in 2021.
Aijaz is a writer, filmmaker and journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan. He also wrote, directed and co-produced ‘A Train Crosses the Desert’, which was the country’s first ever Sindhi- language film to make it to nine international film festivals in six countries including the US, Mexico, India, Russia, Mexico and Turkey.

14
The Creation of Man, The Destruction of Nice Things
 and the Invention of, Like, Art or Whatever                  5:00
Caleb Meurer                                                                     New York

Avante Garde animated short. An animated deconstruction of a lithograph with sound and music.
“Caleb Meurer is an Animator and Illustrator who lives in Western New York with his wife and 3 children. He also teaches in the Animation department at Daemen College. Like a lapdog who sees a squirrel out the window and is filled with wolfish bloodlust, Caleb occasionally still finds the inspiration to make Art. “
http://caleb-meurer.squarespace.com/

15     
1000mods - Lucid (Official Lyric Video)            3:50
Yannis Ntousiopoulos                                        Greece

Animated lyric video for the band 1000mods. Inspired by Dadaism and Surrealism, this animated collage touches modern society issues, such as equality, human rights, sexism, refugee crisis, suicide and the media. All in a visual absurdity.
Yannis Ntousiopoulos is a motivated, passionate and creative 2D/ 3D animator and illustrator, located in Athens, Greece.

---

 

2020 Program

1         
The Undivine Comedy   1:46
Lynn Bianchi                     New York  

When Undivine Comedy was originally conceived, the idea was pure escape. But soon, the director realized the woman separate from the world wasn’t sufficient for what we’re experiencing today. In order for the character in the clouds to take the audience up with her, she had to watch the world from above. Bianchi hopes that the video will give the spectators a chance to pause, breathe, feel the wind on their skin, and remember that the world is much bigger than the political drama around us. 

 

2         
Rattle Rattle              3:23
Scotch Wichmann         Burbank

RATTLE RATTLE is about a hand whose taste for bones goes too far.  It was written, directed, and performed by Scotch Wichmann, who originally did this piece as a performance for a live audience in 1992. Camera by KayDee Kersten. For more, visit: www.roughhausers.com

 

3
Marie & Larry        12:50
Benoît Dietrich          Switzerland

Marie & Larry uses absurdity and comedy to demonstrate the boredom so quickly reached by adults in their 30s. The main characters live in an enormously large apartment and have a robotic and conscienceless relationship with their butler. They have lack of interest for anything outside their world. Nothing holds interest anymore after five minutes. They consider that they don’t have anything to do. Suddenly, Marie asked herself: what is the purpose of an easy and privileged life?

Benoît likes to ask questions about how humans perceive themselves and how they want to be seen by others. 

 

4         
Please Don't Spill The Milk         10:07
Omar Antonio Iturriaga                   Los Angeles

A woman's bizarre sexual fantasy leads to her boyfriend's heartbreaking confession, followed by distorted modern-day empathy: an instant solution for his deepest wound.

 

5
Robot Apocalypse    3:09
John Airey                 Canada

Are you ready for the imminent Robot Apocalypse? In this ominous song and music video, The Robots give dire warning of what they have in store for the human race.... Watch out! 
All vocals and music written, performed and produced by Son Jake. Music video produced by Son Jake. 

 

6         
Some Kind of Humanity     8:34
Rock Brenner                        France

A shy thirty-something receives shocking videos from his best friend.

Some Kind of Humanity was completed in 3 days while in quarantine. A friend of the director was sending him strange pornographic videos he found on the Internet. Rock Brenner wondered, "Is this the kind of thing that aliens will find out about our species after they discover our architecture?"

 

7
BENCH                    1:35
Rich Webber             UK

A short film about sharing....

 

8         
The Killer In Cursed Water                             14:50
Laurent Ardoint and Stephane Duprat                 Paris

Cindy and Quentin are spending a romantic weekend by a lake. But a killer is prowling, and he could hide a greater threat.

The concept of the film is to make a parody, or rather a pastiche, of a horror film.,,but ultimately, it is much more than that.

 

9         
Self Control               1:17
CK Kimball                Los Angeles

Shot at the top of quarantine on an iPhone 8, Self-Control is a meditation on impulse and desire. CK Kimball is a writer, performer and producer living in Los Angeles. Some of her works include writing and producing “Fangoria Puppets” with Fangoria Entertainment for which her macabre sense of style was indispensable. Rounding out her eclectic resume, she is also producing the upcoming music video “New Music Sucks” with Brian Posehn and Megaforce Records. Her reviews and articles can be found regularly at http:// NightmarishConjurings.com .

 

10      
Once Upon a Time in 'Murica         5:31
James H. Lee                                       United States

While cable news pundits debate the merits of a draconian men's reproductive rights law, enforcement goes into effect for an unsuspecting citizen.

 

11      
The Gull's Shriek         13:00
Ava Ghahremanifar         Iran

Susan and Raha are two senior students studying Dramatic Arts in an art school. They are both candidates for the role of Johnathan Livingston Seagull, but soon after the audition, some peculiar events begin to take place.  More peculiar than Susan’s appearance.

 

12
Nice to Meet You                 10:01
Gian Marco Delle Sedie         New York

Susie is meditating on her porch and trying to achieve balance when suddenly she receives an unusual visit from a guy she had a one-night stand with. After the stress, she invites him in for a breakfast. When they talk , she realizes that Gary shares a lot in common with her, but in a peculiar way. As the night comes in, they dance and get along very well... But when she wakes up next day, Gary has gone. 
A surrealistic romantic comedy about self-acceptance, tolerance, and the G-spot. 

 

13      
Corrina                       5:55
Michael Petry              London

Susan and Cheryl are having a few drinks at homes while Zooming. Susan starts a conversation about her school days nemesis Corrina, but Cheryl keeps diverting the conversation. It slowly becomes clear that there is a secret and an unspoken tension between the two friends, broken by a shocking revelation about Corrina.

I have tried to find voices for the two women in the film that are true to the characters and some of the conversations I have had. Equally at the heart of the film is someone being bullied, and how they felt about it in the past, and how it might feel now. The residue of such trauma reaches across the years and I think many audience members can understand that. 

 

14      
"Don't Dream of Death" from Ghost Songs           3:00
Seaton Kay-Smith                                                     Australia

A mother teaches her child the act of suppressing negative emotions so they can focus on positive emotions instead, which are much more fun.

Seaton Kay-Smith has written for television, radio, the stage and print and performed stand-up comedy for over seven years. He has a passion for creating comedic content that bridges the gap between funny and introspective misery.

 

---

 

 

The 2019 Nihilist Film Festival
was held at the
Echo Park Film Center   
on Friday, December 13 at 7:30

Program 2019

Samsara                                 15:25 minutes
Fabrizio Pesaro                        Italy

In a godless garden of Eden, a blindfolded man follows his path through sorrow and loneliness, until he meets a women.

Mutts - Better Believe It        3:20 minutes
Nick Rush                                  Illinois

A series of overreactions to ordinary problems leave the band desperate and scared in a post-apocalyptic wasteland…

SWITCH                             17:43 minutes
Marion Renard                      Belgium

During her first sexual experience, a teenage girl discovers she has a disturbing skill... A queer, pop and fantastic tale about emergence of sexuality and self-acceptance.

How                                       3:51 minutes
Flo Pizzarello                          San Francisco

A short, instructional film revealing sacred information about various important matters of life...

Creeping Autumn                2:11 minutes
Amanda Graeff                      Colorado

Pixie yells at little girl. But, even a mythical creature can't win an argument with a 5 year old.

Youth, Go to Waste!               17:25 minutes
Samuel Valenti                           Philadelphia

While carrying out a staged kidnapping heist, three college dropouts have a wild weekend, pushing their limits with drugs and bodily assault.

The Feminine Touch                   3:49 minutes
Sid Branca                                    Chicago

A diptych of satisfying gestures, potentially unpleasant textures, and the gendered domination of objects. If someone gave you a sex toy, isn't this what you would do?

 

Audience Favorite
SHE WHO WASN'T TAMED         15:00 minutes
Saleh Kashefi                                      Iran

Hanie, a highschool girl, tries her best to not to disappoint her parents and her teacher at the poetry competition.

Deadcember                                   10:00 minutes
Travis Darkow

A tiny toy elf goes on a bloody rampage on Christmas.

Abortion Mary                              5:34 minutes
Rui Niu                                            Los Angeles

Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus, decides to get abortion. 

 

I HAVE MIKE PENCE'S DICK IN A PICKLE JAR          5:00 minutes
a film by Todd Verow and Charles Lum                                     NYC

starring Justin Ivan Brown and Chris Rehmann
While cruising for sex, a gay man has a once in a lifetime chance to right some recent political wrongs and make America great again.

 

Hypersnails Attack!                                                                       7:58 minutes
Jean-Do, Viktor Konwicki, Rémy Rufer and Mathias Antonietti         Switzerland

The Hyperapocalypse is near : Hypersnails are about to rampage on the lovely town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, cradle of Hyperartism, and eradicate humanity, destroying everything on their way (including the special effects department and your soul).

 

---

 

Program 2018

Egret & Joliah          7:44  minutes                     
Aaron Levine           Chicago    
     
Egret and Joliah sit in a gallery.  Time move, but do they?

         
No Honkie                 2:10   minutes         
Crafty St. James        Los Angeles

A traffic light tango between patience and junk starring Ellie Araiza and Crafty St. James. 

A Little Late    2:35 minutes
Vaibhav Sharma         India

Sometimes you shouldn't  save a dying man !

Curtains for all of us                                                   6:00 minutes                                     
Dominique Maury Lasmartres                                        France

Somewhere in France, someone turns on the television. A usual ritual, zapping from a show to another one. Are the TV channels disturbed? Maybe not. Maybe everything is fine, or maybe it's just curtains for all of us. 

Public Documentary Service Presents: Jobs - Pilot       4:56 minutes                                     
Robert Bowman                                                                 US

The Public Documentary Service opens its Jobs series by going to Pensacola, Florida, to meet up with Dr. Beth Rosyland a Political Distress Therapist. 
      

Confessions Of An Underage Masturbator                       2 minutes
Amanda Sukenick                                                                Chicago

Banned from Youtube! This short animated movie is based on memories I have of dry humping my teddy bear, (Aptly named ‘Riding Teady’) as a child. Soon to be released is the sequal to Confessions #1, "Pee-Pee Herman" A true story of sexual confusion, my 7th birthday party & a Pee-Wee Herman impersonator.

 

Dreamland ‘88                                                                   4:48 minutes
Connor Bond                                                                     Michigan

A journey through a rapidly decaying mind as seen through a series of cryptic journal entries.

Sweet Love                                                                          19:50 minutes                                   
Stephen Crompton                                                                Florida       
                  
From the comfort of a sprawling Florida retirement community, entertainment producer Alvin Bojar recounts his brief foray into softcore porn production in the early 1970s.

Motorcycle Boy        2:32 minutes                                   
Joe Mitchell               Los Angeles

Four High School students get into a fight over who is the biggest nerd.

Run Hide Die          4:41  minutes
Don Brosnan             London
“Fuis Planque-toi Crève (Run Hide Die).”       

A surreal Nouvelle Vague fantasy that blends the style of Godard with the sensuality of Robbe-Grillet, “Fuis Planque-toi Crève (Run Hide Die)” puts the femme fatale right at the heart of the matter but spins to darker territory via the dreamy-leg-girl. 



The Jerry Show         8:58   minutes
Stephen Stull            Florida   
       
Jerry is a miserable sad sack trying desperately to drink away his sorrow, but he just can’t escape the vicious voice of the tormentor living in his own skin. And no, that’s not a metaphor.

Gatorade J's             5:17 minutes                                                        
Oscar Ramos             Los Angeles

 Two best friends, one brain between the two, and a one lazy day. What could go wrong?

ENTHUSIASM ABOUNDS            13 minutes
Anthony Burkhalter             Los Angeles  

In a world where social justice is automatic...and absolute...Enthusiasm Abounds...

Sweet Delicious Earth          3:00     minutes
Stephen St. Francis Decky   Philadelphia

A giant, hungry alien pays a culinary visit to the tastiest planet in the universe: Sweet Delicious Earth!

Audience Favorite Award
My Computer Just Became Self Aware     6 minutes                  
Trevor Moore                        Los Angeles   
                                   
Trevor Moore is in the comedy group, The Whitest Kids You Know.  The title of this video is pretty much what it is about.  But instead of being a science fiction story, it takes a different turn.

Heatwave                   0:40     minutes
Daniel Spencer          UK     

A bored, child-like Sun breaks his toy. Oops.

---

 

Program 2017

Holy F__k                                                        8 minutes
Chris Chalklen                                                   England

HOLY F__K is a darkly erotic and comedic short film about a demon and an exorcist’s deadly sexual tangle towards release.

 

Desintegration                                                  8:33 minutes
Gwenael Chevalier                                              Paris

In a cold, minimalist space, a group gathers to party. Leo, who tries to fit in but is rejected by every single one of the guests, ends up disappearing in the most humiliating circumstances

 

Go Teach!                                                            4:22 minutes
Storm Garner                                                        Brooklyn NY

A 5-minute silent xylophone-accompanied physical comedy, set in contemporary academia: a nervous new professor arrives early to prepare to teach his first class and finds himself locked inside his classroom. This is the filmmaker’s first narrative short, mentored by the late Alex Sichel, who taught film directing at Columbia University in 2010, re-edited a few years later, lost to a faulty hard drive, found in wrong-format pieces, and reconstituted, sort of, for now, more recently. All drives fail eventually! There’s a lesson in there somewhere. Dedicated, in gratitude, to all those who teach.

 

Ta Daa!                                                              5:46 minutes
Subash Sachidananda                                          India

A man records himself dressed up as a joker and performing magic tricks - or is it just magic he wants to show?

17:17                                                                   1:40 minutes
Susu Laroche                                                        England

A car crash, salmon skin cowgirls fight over time.
Second of 4 manic episodes re-formatting the presentation of female hysteria and irrational emotional response to crises.

 

Sam the Ham                                                      1 minute
Michele Haines                                                      Los Angeles
A dark animated comedy about a sweet, naive piglet whose father sees him as a meal ticket

 

The Rocky Roads                                                  1:32 minutes
Robert Kleinschmidt                                                  Brooklyn

The “forgotten” television variety show The Rocky Roads is back with all new adventures.

Fantastic Four                                                       20:44 minutes
Juan Bermudez                                                        Warsaw, Poland

A young man destined to die in a hospital receives, through a hole on the wall, an unusual visit from a fellow patient.

 

The Contract                                                            6:35 minutes
Jupe Louhelainen                                                        Finland

The drag queen housewife, Carlotta Moore, is minding her own business in her suburban home. The doorbell rings. The dog goes crazy. It’s the fucking Jehova’s witness at the door! And she’s got a .357 Magnum and an itchy trigger finger! A day in the life of a cocaine peddling cross dresser.

 

Spot Burner                                                             3:57 minutes
David Pickett                                                             Norway

I don‘t know who it is, it‘s not me. Looks like me, talks like me. It‘s not me... Spot burner

 

Ecce Homo                                                              8 minutes
Andrea Moneta                                                         Italy

Once upon the future, in a history museum, a robot teacher is doing a lesson about machine evolution to his robot pupils. But one student loses his way starting a desperate run through rooms and time. At last, the teacher and his pupil find each other again in front of the remains of an ancient animal--the man.

 

The Sunflowers - Mountain                                    2:18 minutes
Júlio Dantas                                                               Lisboa, Portugal

An underage rampage...

 

Framed                                                                    7 minutes
Marco Jemolo                                                           Italy

Framed is a noir animated short-film, which investigates the role of the individual in society.
In an anonymous police station, F.K. asks the Law for help in the attempt to report the abuses he has been through: his birth, his formation, his forced work.
He will end up stuck in an endless nightmare.

 

Audience Favorite Award
A King’s Betrayal                                                    8:27 minutes
David Bornstein                                                          Los Angeles

The final 24 hours in the life of a Piñata, as told from the Piñata’s perspective.

 

Suicide Planner                                                        5 minutes
Tara McGorry, Robbie Bruens & Jessica Lange          Los Angeles

Suicides aren’t going to plan themselves. For all the excited corpses-to-be out there, the Suicide Planner offers her expertise and advice about how to make the day of your death completely unforgettable. But killing yourself isn’t as easy as it looks, and you won’t believe the drama that comes along with ending it all for good.

The 2016 Nihilist Film Festival was held at
Echo Park Film Center on Friday, December 15 at 8:30.

Program 2016

 

Mr Topps                                                       10:14   minutes
Adam de la Cour                                             United Kingdom

"What's the lion 'thing'?"
Rancid stalwart of the capitalist dream, Mr Topps, wakes to find himself in a Donald Rumsfeld inspired version of This Is Your Life, in which mysterious host, Deep Throat, lovingly reunites him with a collection of past associates, each one literally itching for a one to one.
http://www.adamdelacour.com

 

Max Man Laundry Detergent                     1:16 minutes
Nathan Wold                                                   Edina, Minnesota  

The story of a washing machine filled with dildos.

                       
Analogue                                                       2:00 minutes
Ian Haig                                                          Australia

The mutating conditions of the human body
Noun  -  analogue, plural noun-analogues, noun-analog, plural noun-analogs
1. a person or thing seen as comparable to another – an interior analogue of the exterior world
2. an organ or part similar in function to an organ or part of another animal or plant but different in structure and origin
3. Biology-an analogous part or organ

 

The EFIList                                                   15:50 minutes
Amanda Sukenick                                           Chicago

A humorous summation of the horror of sentient life on planet earth, as metaphored by Consumption, Reproduction, Cannibalism and Addiction, where ethical Janitors argue for sentient extinction through the philosophy of Antinatalism. Based on the Vlogs of Youtube Philosopher Inmendham, and performed by Amanda Oldphan Sukenick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vft5LU_x2jw

 

Stranger Danger                                           4:48 minutes
Annique Arredondo                                         Los Angeles

Whistle Girl fears the world itself, and she’s not afraid to show it… through her “stranger danger” whistle. But, everyone is weirded out by her, her pathetic sounding whistles, and her odd behavior instead of her whistle-blowing powers! So, when Whistle Girl unexpectedly encounters a young man of similar qualities, will she whistle him away, or find something much more kindred?

 

Tattle-Tale Heart                                          17:07 minutes
Lark V.C.R.                                          Oakland

A dystopian portrait of blurring boundaries between body and machine, this queer story imagines a heart-hungry app that calculates your TRUE mood and posts it directly to your social media channels.

 

A Piece of the Pie                                        3:09 minutes
Bryan Brooks and Luke Grandmont               Canada

While hiding behind enemy lines, three soldiers share what they are most excited to do once the war is over.

 

Death of Mr. Morrison                                 6:40 minutes
Alex Pop                                                         Canada

Sherry loses her beloved dog, then out of the grief comes a business idea. The idea is too extreme and strange for her friend Maya, who tries to stop her. She does not succeed and things spiral down to a tragi-comic ending.

 

Asockalypse!                                                        10:09 minutes
Michael Q. Ceballos   and  Keith Kackoerk            Hawaii

The great Asockalypse has arrived!
It’s the End Times and the Earth is a place of unending terror, ravaged by a rampant zombie virus, an all-out nuclear war, a giant asteroid impact and an alien invasion.
“Asockalypse!” chronicles the adventures of a desperate band of survivors as they wander the hellscape in a high tech land crawler vehicle on an endless quest to save the human race and possibly, one day, reboot civilization.
Producers:  Keith Kaczorek, Barry Stringfellow and Ty Robinson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RypoQDDxejI

 

Disrupted                                                      3 minutes
Alicja Jasina                                                    Los Angeles

“Disrupted” is a story about a person who is not able to fall asleep because of all the disruptive sounds that surround him.
https://vimeo.com/114530569

 

Layover                                                          2 minutes
Robert Piehler                                                 GERMANY

Layover is a student short film adaption of the poem "Layover" from the American writer Charles Bukowski. It’s about the intimate moments of a past love reflected by neon signs of the 60's. The sudden end of a love relationship and the unanswered question of, where the living goes when it stops.

 

The Tyger                                                      3 minutes        
Radheya Jegatheva                                          Australia

This animated creation is based on the poem 'The Tyger' by William Blake, who wrote this in 1794. The Tyger is very important to me. My grandmother recited this poem in a competition in 1970, winning it. One of the prizes was the opportunity to participate in a major dramatic production. My grandfather was part of that production, and that is how they met. This film is dedicated to my grandma, Shanti Jegathesan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=zf8dl6irotc&app=desktop\

 

Audience Favorite Award
THE PUNISHMENT                                   3 minutes
Nelson Fernandes                                           Portugal

Lisa, a lonely girl, has been punished by her mother, and she confined herself to her bedroom where she feeds with her own tears her only friend, a plant.

 

The Unconventional Gourmet                    12 minutes
Wendy Keeling                                               Tennessee

A dark comedy about a woman stuck in the 50's searching for the perfect ingredients in an unusual family recipe. The film tells an age-old tale with an added modern twist.

 

Beware of Trains                                          1 minutes        
Markus Helmersson                                        Sweden

The difference between how we interpret and perceive the world is put to the test.

---

The 2015 Nihilist Film Festival was held at
Echo Park Film Center on Friday, December 12 at 8:30.

Program 2015

Selected Films

Vertigo In Love 5 minutes
Paolo Benetazzo UK

Vertigo in Love is an experimental short film about contradictions and cliches. “I am an anarchist, a communist, a nazi. I am an Easter Island statue. A saint with a knife, a killer with a dream, a clown with a whore. My dear butterflies in blood, I am your cliché.”
https://vimeo.com/109409358

Pregnant Man 15:30 minutes
Charlie Mars France

After falling pregnant, a man suffers many kinds of pressure : external and internal. Unless quite the opposite is true...

Effort 1 minute
Kuesti Fraun German

there is always a way

Mano A Mano 7 minutes
Hand In Hand
Ignacio Taty Spain

We can tolerate proximity with other on a crowded bus during rush-hour, so long as we keep our hands to ourselves. But when Laura notices she shares the handrail with a very attractive stranger, she decides to slide her hand a few inches towards his.

Stories From The Man Upstairs 8:26 minutes
J J Pollack Los Angeles

A skeptical journalist investigates a half-crazy man claiming to be the messiah. But perhaps his plan to save humanity through the power of funk music isn't as unbelievable as it sounds.

 

Audience Favorite Award
Natasha 5 minutes
Jason Gudasz Los Angeles

After a series of unsuccessful suicides, Natasha recalls the fates of her former suitors.

Amour & Commando 13 minutes
Love and Commando
Laurent Adroint and Stephane Duprat France

September 1944. After a dangerous mission, Lieutenant Steve Douglas goes to the infirmary where he meets a lovely nurse, Nathalie. They fall in love. But it’s difficult for Steve to reconcile his duty of being a soldier and his love life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm5i0Slzz9g

$600 18 min
Oriol Cardus Spain

Julian, a hired killer with many jobs behind him, is forced, due to an unexpected request, to rethink his life and the value it gives to the lives of others.

Duty 15 minutes
Deber
Angel Manzano Spain

Since childhood, Sonsoles has been fascinated by magic. So when the illusionist John Mistery invites her to join in a hypnosis show, she could not be happier. The problem is fulfilling her dream will be a nightmare for others ...

872 Days After the Nuclear Holocaust 4 minutes
Rebecca Addelman & Holly Prazoff Los Angeles

Holly and Rebecca give a super awesome tour of the post-nuclear holocaust United States of America.

Toys for Feral Children! 2 minutes
Heather Anne Campbell Los Angeles

Hey kids! Have you been abandoned in the wild? Then this commercial is for you! Introducing new Mrs. Clump of Dirt with a Stick and a Leaf!  

---

 

The 2014 Nihilist Film Festival was held at
Echo Park Film Center on Friday, December 12 at 8:30.

Program 2014

Selected Films

Necrotic                   4 minutes      
Ross Williams            Oregon
http://vimeo.com/75926635

A woman bitten by a zombie descends into madness, as the transformation overtakes her body and mind. - "I've wanted to make a zombie film since I was a kid. But with the over-proliferation of zombie films in the last decade, I didn't want to make one until I could say something new with it. This film is an attempt to look into a zombie's psyche." - Ross Williams - Necrotic, Director

Defense Mechanism        11 minutes
Sebastian Munoz                 Los Angeles

What would you do if the one you love asks you to do the unthinkable... and you only have minutes to decide?

Mona                         13 minutes
Alexis Barbosa

Gary, a robotics engineer, has developed a domestic android named Mona. He brings the humanoid robot home to carry out some tests. How will Gary's wife Marie react?

Electric Indigo                    24 minutes
Jean-Julien Collette                         Belgium

ELECTRIC INDIGO is a coming of age drama following the life of a little girl who never knew her mother and whose only reference is the love of two heterosexual fathers united by the bonds of a “non-carnal” marriage.
I wanted to explore my favorite themes in greater depth--the sexuality and the unstructured family in a modern and pluralistic society. In this particular case, I wanted to teach how some parents live a selfish life, preventing a child to develop. 
We live in a complex society where family ties, gender and sexuality are very broad. I think the reality is much more subtle. That’s why I wrote the film I wanted to see, asking myself: what would happen if?

Intermission

Nihilist Olympics      12 minutes
Elisha Shapiro             Los Angeles

In 1984, conceptual artist Elisha Shapiro produced the Nihilist Olympics in Los Angeles concurrent with the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.  Editing and additional footage are by Tim Keenan.

Midwater              11 minutes
Anne Zinn-Justin     France

We share the fantasies of a pregnant woman, struggling to understand and accept the changes in what has become a foreign body. Dispossessed, she no longer controls neither time or space…  

Two Oranges And A Lemon         3 minutes
Kristie Reeves                                Los Angeles

A story about betrayal, love and revenge...
After finding out that her fiancé Andrew is a three-timer, Sky and her best friend Angie decide to take revenge and have Andrew kidnapped. But when the kidnapper delivers his package, the two women are in for a surprise.

Rusty Scraps Of Metal                  12 minutes
Saman Namnik                                  Iran
 
Two young men living in strange city, work during day. When night comes, they are tired and spent. They put up with each other, stand against the frozen time together, and rust separately.

Copycat                             8:12 minutes
Mauricio Sanhueza              Lima, Peru
https://vimeo.com/mauriciosanhueza

Copycat: Anglo-American. 1. Someone who imitates or copies (style, dress, ideas, etc.) another person. 2. A type of crime committed by someone who copies or mimics the methods of another.

Throughout the centuries, dreams have been images that speak of the future. In modern times, dreams were seen as a connection to the unconscious. The character is pursuing the ultimate experience of freedom and glory, but when he reaches the sun, his wings begin to melt, and he falls into reality.
This project pays tribute to cinema in general because there are direct and indirect references to particular cult film scenes and characters: 1) F. Lang: "M" (1931), 2) S. Tsukamoto: "Tetsuo" (1989), 3) Maya Deren "Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943), 4) Leo Corbucci: D'Jango (1966), 5) CT Dreyer: 'Vampyr "(1932).

Audience Favorite Award
Grown Ups               10 minutes
Javier Marco              Spain

The current economical crisis is devastating, but there's always a way to get around it. 

The 2013 Nihilist Film Festival was held at
HIghways Performance Space on Friday, December 13 at 8:30.

Program 2013

Selected Films

Deborah                     2:45 minutes
Christen Bach             Germany

One day Deborah wakes up inside her own head to be faced with the demons of her imagination...
Created for and rejected from the Late Night Work Club...

Appetite         7:26 minutes
Irena Risrie      Belgrade, Serbia

"Appetite" is a short experimental film about the fear of emptiness, about the lack of empathy and the times when is too late, or simply there is no more choice, so lack of reaction becomes necessarily result of helplessness. Story about the phenomenon of forced indifference and crevice that causes, on the morning in which someone try to take a breakfast (and what else?) while in the next room / apartment / house / street / district / city / country / world / head - another one asking for help.

(without) sex (with) sense  5:28 minutes
Patricia López Rosado             Huelva,  Spain

Sex or not sex, who will win?

The Beauty of the Shadow   13 minutes
Monika K. Adler                     London, United Kingdom

Short story of tragic love between a priest and young man who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. Scandalous sex and violence drama describes the darkest desires and instincts.

Audience Favorite Award          
The Arsehole Gene               13:30 minutes
Eric Romero                            Edinburgh / UK

A group of scientists discover that the vulgarly called 'arseholes' are actually suffering a genetic mutation that conditions their behaviour. This discovery opened a door to end the unfair stigmatization of this group of patients…because arseholes are just sick people.

Self Inflicted                          9:20 minutes
Ross Williams             Talent, Oregon

Jim is a likable guy, except he can't control the urge to constantly hurt himself. He believes that pain is what keeps him normal.  He wants to meet the right girl, but he keeps scaring them off with his masochistic tendencies. When he finds the girl that he considers to be Ms. Right, he vows to change his ways. The problem is that she may not be all that she seems. Find out in this dark, romantic comedy.

 

Intermission

Funniest Nihilist  Promo                             1 minute
Kent Weishaus and Elisha Shapiro                 LA
Promo for a documentary about Elisha Shapiro

Juice Of My Heart                4:27 minutes
Carol Rhyu                              LA

It's hard to get a little respect these days. A diner waitress gets the final laugh in a gory revenge tale involving some less-than-polite customers.

GEEK ASSASSIN                28 minutes
Kenneth J. Harvey                   Canada

GEEK ASSASSIN is about a young nerdy girl, Yolanda (Emma Harvey), who is being bullied at school. She is taken under the wing of a Sadie (Natalia Hennelly), a cool, sexy assassin, who teaches Yolanda how to deal with the bullies, and it isn't through diplomacy.
Kenneth J. Harvey is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and international bestselling author.

Heartbeat                   2:30 minutes
Walter Santucci           LA

A brightly colored and upbeat animated reminder that everyone is a liar, no one can be trusted and there is no escape from misery.

KEAJAIBAN   (Miracle)       13:02 minutes
Loong Wah                             Thailand

In a night club disco bar, there is fabulous veteran Drag Queens Performer. At the same time, there will be many new young performers will be coming in to be a performers and a dancers. Are the fabulous veteran Drag Queens Performer, still has chances to continue as a performer in the night club disco bar. But at the same time, the fabulous veteran Drag Queens Performer will still found happiness.

 

The 2012 Nihilist Film Festival was at
Echo Park Film Center on Sunday, December 7 at 8:00.

Program 2012

Introduction

Un Chien Andalou 16 minutes
Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí 1929

Selected Films

Indulgence 1:40 minutes
Freddie Wiss Weston, Massachusetts
A journey of personal thoughts and individual mannerisms that cry out to be released.

Sea of Doubt 4 minutes
Brett Marren St. Louis, Mo
A surrealistic seafaring tale of love, loss and oral sex.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7oOS75bBnM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sink Hole 1 minute
Greg Hanson Brooklyn, New York
A man is lured into a horrible sexual tryst.
http://grethproductions.com/

A Life 15 Minutes
Daniel Whidden Ontario, Canada
Robbie Diner (Guy Bradford) is an atheist, and he’s not afraid to show it. When Christ returns to Earth to renew the copyright on The Bible, he tests Robbie’s beliefs in non-believing - by exploding on his face. Robbie’s faith goes from one end of the spectrum to another, as he sees the light and joins the newly formed Church Of The Injectable Christ. Director Justin Colautti (Chance Encounters, Official Selection, Hot Docs 2011) feasts on the absurdity of absolutes in a challenging and introspective satire that revels in the opiate of the masses.

This is Only a Test 9 minutes
Bill Sorice NYC
A Girl’s surrealistic journey encountering varied tests during the different stages of her life. It’s Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” meets a Calvin Klein ad.
www.billsorice.com

Intermission

Porn Lite 4 minutes
Janice Yudell Los Angeles
2008 excerpt from the Lunatic Fringe TV show.

Inhumane Resources 22 minutes
Michele Pastrello Venice, Italy
In the near future, in an industrial zone, four young people in white shirts and black ties fight against each other, with no rules and bare hands. Each of them wears a miniature camera that films what they are doing. Only one can survive. The survivor’s only reward is to have a future.
Michele Pastrello lives in Venice, Italy, and his website is www.michelepastrello.it

Prometeo (Prometheus) 6 minutes
Ignacio Rodo Terrassa, Spain
A sexy late night swim with a couple of lovers turns dark…an underwater adaptation of the Prometheus Greek myth.

Ensayo De Actores (Actor Rehearsal) 7:30 Minutes
Jesus Monroy Madrid, Spain
Rain, wind and cold... a film crew rehearsed the scenes for a movie. Will bad weather prevent the filming?
No, but maybe other actors …
www.jesusmonroypc.blogspot.com
https://vimeo.com/40221103

Audience Favorite Award
Curiosity Kills 14 minutes
Sander Maran Estonia
A boy plays with radioactive chemicals, leading to his pet rat attacking his family. Curiosity kills!

There’s a Dead Crow Outside 1 minute
Morgan Miller
animation, 2011
The crow probably died recently. It’s still edible.

The 2011 Nihilist Film Festival was at
Echo Park Film Center on Sunday, December 2 at 8:00.

Program 2011

Thy Kill Be Done 17 minutes
Greg Hanson Brooklyn
and Casey Regan Boston
The Monsignor priest of an inner city church is killed by a gang of hoodlums and their drug lord leader, so the nuns in the church’s clergy vow bloody revenge. But these are no ordinary nuns...

Déjà Vu 19 minutes
Munkh Orgil Tumur Mongolia
This film is about the guy named Dorj. Dorj is experiencing Deja Vu. Actually film is about the Mongolian life, about politics, about entertainment, mongolian socialism, cheap labor for Korea, mongolians without horse, nomads without horses--all those nihilist things. In the little Ger (Yurt), Dorj is struggling to get out of there, get free of the prison of his mind. His nomadic way of life and thinking is limiting in civilization. Then suddenly technology appears in his life, and he gets free.
When Dorj is making his speech, it doesn’t have meaning in mongolian either. It is giberish like, “ Star... in the sky... I am Star... I will disapear to dust.” That is what he is saying.

What is she making? 1:47 minutes
Aaron Garcia Los Angeles
What is she making? Why is she making it? Who knows?

Just Pretending 11 minutes
Benjamin Teh Auckland, New Zealand
John loves Amy, Amy dumps John, so John asks Kate to pretend to be Amy. Kate agrees, on one condition.

Nancarrow - study N°5 4 minutes
Gabriele Agresta Milano, Italy
In an abandoned factory, the study No 5 by Conlon Nancarrow for mechanical player piano comes to life, a music beyond human performance ability.

The Secret to a Better Life 5 minutes
Scotch Wichmann
and Elisha Shapiro Los Angeles
A self help guru finally explains the true secret to a better life.

Finger Me to Death 1:20 minute
Jason Marsh South Wales UK
A short piece which opens with a young girl vomiting then delves into a dirty garbage disposal and emerges in a swamp. A very skinny woman preens her ribcage like it was an insect exoskeleton. The scene is accompanied with a poem in Italian as the girl-insect struts through the swamp. Cleverly, and in a very short time, this filmmaker shows us the beautiful in the grotesque and the grotesque in the beautiful.
Jason is an Artist/Producer. As a musician he has worked with many independent artists, UK band Godsticks and American Composer Dann Glenn, Baba Elefante, Ronnie Ciago. In video he has produced several other titles: Flexos Assassin, Rubber Cripple, POJC, Informed Of Stretch, Unannounced!

Making Counts 3 minutes
Sergio De Vega Sanchez Madrid, Spain
Any time is good to evaluate the life. The numbers can open the mind.

Audience Favorite Award
Inanimate Pornography 2 minutes
Richard Hackney New Zealand
Like all good pornography - There is no plot, the acting is terrible, and when you’ve finished watching, it you’ll feel mildly ashamed.

Normal People 25 minutes
Piotr Ziotordwicz Lodz, Poland

724 14th St 10 minutes
Ching Yi Tseng San Francisco/Taiwan
This film explored a specific location and a specific kind of light and life.
This film is silent.

The 2010 Nihilist Film Festival was at
Echo Park Film Center on Sunday, December 17 at 8:00.

2010 Program

Divorcee 12 minutes
Michael Lee Nirenberg Brooklyn
“Divorcees” is a 13-minute film by Michael Lee Nirenberg. “Divorcees” takes place during what appears to be a celebratory dinner honoring a business merger between two family dynasties. Motives unfold as each dinner guest reveals their own reason for plotting to murder their hostess: Helen Radcliffe (played by Alissa Bennett).
Influenced by the works of directors such as James Whale and Herschell Gordon Lewis and actors such as Lon Chaney and Vincent Price, Mr. Nirenberg’s work is generally comprised of short films that the artist carefully disassembles frame by frame. Selected images are then rendered as painted and drawn film stills. These stills seek to capture the qualities of the images in movie-fan magazines from the 50s and 60s.

Tutte Le Volte Che Ho Rischiato Dimorire 7 minutes
Stefano Schirru Italy
Being sure to have an efficient guardian angel watching over him can become an obsession. Exasperated by this bulky presence, the protagonist recounts mentally every time, by chance or challenge, he came close to dying.

A Woman Who Writes 3 minutes
Kristian Day Iowa
I spend most of my conscience moments working on films that will have a commercial appeal to an audience. During my unconscious moments, I film without motivation. The typewriter and the empty room shots are examples of these moments that just seem to happen when I pick up a camera. The lovers in the picture are from a film production that went horribly wrong, but I will never let good footage go to waste. The title of the film really explains what I was trying to say with this piece--a woman reflecting about a painful part of her past as she writes. But we are not seeing what she is writing, we are seeing her broken memories.

Happy Hiroshima Toy Time 5 minutes
Janice Yudell Los Angeles
Renowned entrepreneur Moon-Rabbi Janezz Yudelowitz is going public with a brand new company, HAPPY HIROSHIMA TOY TIME! The products are sizzling and guaranteed to make you just as hot! Check out her DVDs, NAKED CORPORATE POWER IN A NUTSHELL, Vol. 1, 2, and coming soon 3, at JaniceYudell.com, for more of her inventions and investment opportunities!

Audience Favorite Award
Tabu 24 minutes
Vincent Coen Bruxelles, Belguim
And Jean-Julien Collette
Incest, as the premise for a story, came to us naturally. It is perceived as one of the ultimate taboos in today’s society. It has already been treated very well in cinema but always in a dramatic way. So we decided to set up another challenge: to transpose the myth of Oedipus in a modern day romantic comedy.

The Last Steps 2 minutes
Belal Taheri Iran

Bititsch 13 minutes
Peter Bizjak Slovenia
Bititsch, pizza-loving Nazi, must find a new way to get a fresh dose of his favorite food.

Cranky Call 9 minutes
Emmett Loverde Los Angeles
Little Butch wants to be scary, but his first attempt at an obscene phone call is to a young woman more obscene than he is. Could this be love?

Panic To A Ridiculous Death 15 minutes
Rubin Stein Spain
Tom is obsessed by ridiculous deaths. A tragic piece of news will mark the beginning of a weird journey through love, fear and fate.

The Hobby 15 minutes
Nicolas Zappi France
As soon as he begins his first day of trainee as a mortician, Vincent, twenty years old young boy, quits the job, overwhelmed by the sophisticated techniques used on the dead bodies and overall by the strange methods of his boss. Getting out of the funeral home with his pay for the day, Vincent comes across an angel--Iris, a young prostitute. After touching death, he’ll touch life… More than a sexual and emotional affair, the meeting is an immediate and reciprocal “ coup de foudre “… To continue this paying love story, Vincent finally takes his job back…
Without love, life isn’t worth living. Neither is death, by the way…

The 2009 Nihilist Film Festival was at
Echo Park Film Center on Sunday, December 20 at 7:30.

Program 2009

Pour Rien loop
Jeremiah Jones Brooklyn, NY
walk-in film
To enact collapse visually, is an antidote to the cultural premise that there is a good way and a bad way. To see a person alive in this way, going on living says to me that we think that life is worth it. He is placing himself in the public eye, a real person in a video, a man exposed in the road, thrown in the street “amongst mortals” us viewers, alive to see it.

Happy Birthday 11 minutes
Dane Vandewiele Eagle Creek, Oregon
A young man finds himself celebrating his birthday on the run from a most unorthodox organization

Whiplash :28 minutes
Clint Enns Canada
2009, found footage
A video for Naked City's Whiplash inspired by Henry Hills.

Latitare is Better 20 minutes
Stefano Schirru Cagliari, Italy
What makes a cage perfect is not the solidity of its walls, the excellence of its alarm and security systems, or the impossibility to escape. What really makes a cage perfect is the absolute pointlessness of the outside world. So the cage becomes the only available shelter.

El Hombre Orquesta 6 Minutes
Juan Martin Rosete New York
One man band arrives to play his music to a small village, but we will have to face a tough audience.

Lesbian Werewolf Party 8 minutes
Michael Nirenberg Brooklyn, NY
Lesbian Lust! Lesbian Murder! Lesbian Werewolves!
My idea for “Lesbian Werewolf Party” was to make a traditional B-movie without the boring movie part. All that is left is the thrills that the people want from a B-movie, boiled down to 8 minutes.
“Lesbian Werewolf Party” was shot with an all female cast. The sets were from Michel Gondry’s gallery exhibition “Be Kind Rewind” at Deitch Projects in New York. I was the charge scenic artist who painted and designed them. After getting permission I went ahead and shot the whole thing in 2 hours.

Intermission

Audience Favorite Award
12 Steps 13:31 minutes
John Baldino Anaheim

Purgatory 15 minutes
Eric Falardeau Montreal, Canada
An hellish descent into a man's inner purgatory.

E Finita La Commedia 13 minutes
Jean-Julien Collette and Olivier Tollet Belgium
A car is parked in a residential area. Inside the car a father and son are having an intense conversation about life, love, sex, death and the wife/mother of the family. The two appear to be in collaboration over something, and it is obvious that they have an unusually close relationship. Time goes by, and although the questions keep coming, they remain unanswered. What are they waiting for?

Trip Down The Fallopian Tube 2 minutes
Cami Starkman Los Angeles
Trip Down The Fallopian Tube is an Eisensteinian-style montage tracking the trials and tribulations of sexual awakening. We embark on this “trip,” bombarded with symbolic images of the disorienting and sometimes frightening world of puberty and juvenile sexual experience. After we struggle through this journey, we end up in the beautiful an lush realm of erotic experience. Elegantly incorporating found and original images, live action and animation, Trip submerges the viewer in a visual exploration of the simultaneous fears and pleasures these early sexual experiences can bring.

Do Pencils Go To Heaven 3 minutes
Steve Wright Los Angeles
Do pencils go to heaven? Short answer, no. Longer answer, please stop acting crazy. A film by Steve Wright, starring The Wright Family & Jo-Jo. Photographed by Jon Gerard. Edited by Brian Pearce. Harp performed by John M. Wright. A Manning Road Production.

X 7:30 minutes
Gabriele Agresta Milano, Italy
Nothing.
Only a white wall.
Then a puzzle of memories or scraps of a dream.
Nothing but hints. No actors, no bodies, no actions. Nothing.
White wall again.
Beyond this candid universe.
Everything.

The 2008 Nihilist Film Festival was at
Track 16 gallery, Friday, December 19 at 8 pm.

Program 2008

Machine Gun Jesus 4 minutes
Dustin Snodgrass Los Angeles
Jesus Christ returns to 1970’s Los Angeles to clean up the streets… one motherfucker at a time.

Pollination 1:33 minutes
Ms. Max Chan New York City
Pollination is a traditionally animated 2D short detailing the beautiful, delicate process of pollination.

Automatic 30 minutes
Sharon Mooney Chicago
In an attempt to take control of his life, a customer service employee becomes obsessed with a chronic complaint letter writer. Automatic combines humor with unbalance; live-action + stop-motion to slip the viewer through reality and fantasy until the line is no longer discernable.

The Gynaecologist 9 minutes
Alfoso Cararero Coruna, Spain
A gynaecologist is working in her office at the hospital as normal. But the next patient....is a boy! Naturally the gynaecologist throws out the joker. But he returns with the coordinator (the gynaecologist’s boss), who commands that the gynaecologist examine her (meaning the patient)! It’s not a joke; it’s a conspiracy! But the troubles of the gynaecologist are just beginning...

Intermission

Botched Eyeball Operation 1 minutes
Clint Enns Winnipeg, Canada
Botched Eyeball Operation casts a voyeuristic gaze at a common operation gone awry. This is the video documentation of someone losing his/her sight, and for this reason, this video is more horrific than your typical slasher film produced in Hollywood. Music by Sea Wizard.

Notes from Shanghai 3 minutes
Vienne Chan Montreal, Canada
An aggressive collage of urban Shanghai, cut to a live set performed by Chinese noise musicians Torturing Nurse.

Wading 11:23 minutes
Fred Guerrier Queens Village, NY
Sour-faced Martha has more in common with her creepy co-worker than she thought, as the two go about finding love.

Miserys 8 minutes
Isabelle Vossart Annacy-Le-Vieux, France

Stanley & Simon in the Backyard Event 15 minutes
Directed by Jeremy Maupin Hollywood
and starring Vito Viscuso and Jeremy Maupin
In the backyard of Ms. Supli’s home for intellectually disabled adults, guests Stanley and Simon innocently and accidentally stumble upon the quintessence of the revivification Phenomenon.

Audience Favorite Award
Petting a Dead Cat 4 minutes
Steve Wright Los Angeles
Strange things happen in the desert when a man realizes that dead cats need love too. Based on a poem by Steve Wright, published by Thieves Jargon Press.

Bonus Video
Clips from Nihilists' Corner TV
from the past 16 years, featuring LA artists.

The 2007 Nihilist Film Festival
was held November of 2007
at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica
Program

Near Life Experience 7:30 minutes
David Cangardel Paris

Cyn 5 minutes
Alex Ferrari Hollywood, Florida

Cyn is a twisted tale by writer/director Alex Ferrari about Cynthia, a young woman who is taken away by two psychopaths (Mr. Sugar and Otto) in the middle of the night to an old abandoned kindergarden. Cyn quickly turns the tables on them, and soon the night becomes a cat and mouse mind game. While this drama is unfolding, a lone figure watches from a closed circuit monitor. Who is Cynthia and what the hell is going on in this twisted tale?

Secret Son: 14 minutes
Life Has Become A Stranger To You
Doo Byung Chae Los Angeles

This film is a futuristic tale of an old remorseful man who transplants his brain into the body of his clone for the second chance of life. What for?from

the Best of The Nihilist Film Festival 2004
Revolution 10 minutes
Juan Pablo and Martin Rosete Madrid, Spain

intermission

Nihilist Olympics 1984 10 Minutes
Tim Keenan and Elisha Shapiro Los Angeles

The Pit And The Pendulum 9 Minutes
Gabriele Agresta Milano, Italy

In an obscure cell, a prisoner attempts to explore the space around himself, a space only made by darkness. First he risks sinking into a circular pit; then he is at the mercy of a sickle of steel that swings closer and closer to his bound body while many enormous rats invade the floor of the prison.

Summer 1988 5 minutes
Aaron Hraba Syracuse, NY

What is at the crux of how others identify one another? Is it our careers, our upbringing, our gender or race? These are all contributing factors, but when someone knows you or is getting to know you, it’s the stories that you share with them that really make up how they will identify you. Be it a coming of age epiphany or your experience in the checkout line at the grocery store, the manner in which you disclose your stories and which stories you choose to share with others greatly influence how they perceive you. Summer 1988 is from a collection of narrative videos in which I use my own experiences as a text for analysis. I approach my life as a kind of cultural artifact that can be interrogated to expose truths about social structures, power and desire.

Eggmycar: Kaveman, Interrupted 6:00 minutes
Alex Mendoza Tokyo, Japan

One sunny afternoon, alex took his lovely wife, kaveman, for a car ride. The birds were churping, and marvin gaye was on the radio. but kaveman was chomping air with her fuckin mouth, and alex could not hear and enjoy the scene, so this nigga GRABS THAT STINK BUG BITCH BY THE WIG AND AHHHHH
-WORLD WAR FUCKIN 3...
p.s. www.youtube.com--eggmycar, team alex, <--more of my films

Mary Bug 1:15 minutes
Aaron Oldenburg Baltimore, MD

This video was originally footage to be used in a voice-activated computer game where the user makes butterfly noises to sneak an insect Virgin Mary past butterflies (and bat noises to sneak her past bats, etc.)

Pop Went The Weasel 4:20 minutes
Dana Sink New Cumberland, PA

“Pop Went the Weasel” is a short video about an ice cream truck and a seemingly common man. Discover what happens when the man and his ice cream truck meet a man that hates life, animals, and anyone involved; watch justice prevail in the most of unexpected of ways.

Serao “Will Be” 4 minutes
Joana Toste Lisboa, Portugal

“To have or not to have control over our future...…this is the question.”

Freakshow 2:15 minutes
Nabih Iqal Birmingham, AL

A bully who picks on people that are “different” gets sent to a circus to go see freaks perform! What happens next involves roller coasters, condiments, and a flying dolphin.

The 2006 Nihilist Film Festival
was held December 10, 2006
at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica
Program

The Clench 9:34 minutes
Key, Cornick, Rodriquez, Emeryville, California
Westra, Heeney
& Gonzalez

Desperate Politicians 5 minutes
Archie-X Atlanta, Georgia

I usually produce arcane experimental films with a limited audience at best. Desperate Politicians is something else, a reaction to a world gone mad. I felt the need to comment on a political landscape that has exceeded my worst nightmares about what was possible in our alleged democracy. Preemptive war, torture, corporate hegemony over all our institutions, the trashing of the constitution…the list goes on. Desperate Politicians is one of those voices on edge, a comedia del arte satire aimed at a country whose population has been cretinized by 50 years of television. I don’t know if this will be seen by many people- it’s pretty bitter and inflammatory. But I felt I should make my small protest before acts of political sacrilege are outlawed completely! George Orwell got it right but still no one listens.

The Toll 6 minutes
Marc Dole Portsmouth, New Hampshire

The Toll is a character study in the guise of an interview with a bridge troll by fictional film student Harvey Stevens for his final project. As Harvey rolls the camera, the troll’s comments on work, life, and love range from somewhat inappropriate to outrageously delusional, slowly revealing the hilariously tragic figure of a monster in denial.

Baby Ham Lincoln 4:31 minutes
Graham Bowlin Nashville, North Carolina

This movie (it’s not a film), is the touching tale of two young men who, through hardcore drug use, discover the value of life. Through nonsensical time travel, they are also able to view the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. But will the boys be able to make it back in time for dinner, or will they end up getting drunk and mourning at a mystery grave site? Let’s find out!

EGGMYCAR: fuckin ur mom for 15 minutes of fame 7:00 minutes
Alex Mendoza Helsinki, Finland

just to let everybody know my parents didn’t get me shit last christmas, but i’ve been good this year so i want some money and a box of condoms.lol uhhh enjoy my short film you jerks...alex
p.s. YOUTUBE.COM/EGGMYCAR <-----more of my films

Pilloporno 3.5 minutes
Shawn Cheatham Tampa, Florida

This video attempts to identify constructed tropes of sexuality through the physical action of a young man on a bed, alone. By replacing a crucial element of the semiotic language found in the discourse of contemporary porn videos, the entire structure of meaning slowly dissolves, leaving only the disturbing movements of an isolated individual, crudely re-enacting the symbolic theatre of pornography.

Nihilist Campaign Film 10 minutes
Laurence Starkman and Elisha Shapiro Los Angeles

This November, Elisha Shapiro was the Nihilist Party candidate for Governor of California. This short film was the campaign video for this political campaign/art performance.

Break

Marker 7:35 minutes
Karina Griffith Mississaua, Ontario, Canada

A filmmaker reveals her three-year-long path to a mysterious urban artist who doesn’t wish to be seen in her documentary. With a mix of media and genres, MARKER is an expedition into the mentality of anonymous artists and graffiti culture in Canada’s capital.

Room 323 8:00 minutes
Sharon Mooney Brooklyn, New York

“One by one the lights are going off. That’s the only instant you really know somebody’s there.”
Kobe Abe – The Ruined Map
This three-part video examines the ability of space to affect the thoughts and actions of those who exist therein. Threaded through all three stories are claustrophobic reactions to the characters’ own manipulations of their environment. All three stories act as extensions of the same psyche.

Twilight Dreams 6:40 minutes
Daniel Shiner Reston, Virginia

“Twilight Dreams” is a view into the surreal dreams of a man tormented by his own guilt.

Baby Pepper 1:20 minutes
Carl Russo San Francisco, California

As America moves ever closer to becoming a Kindergarten State, no child is innocent. Law enforcement must add newer, cleverer weapons to its toy box. Choosing the proper crowd-control technique is tricky for Officer Chott when he finds himself face-to-face with a radical but adorable junior protester. This spoof of cuddly kiddie commercials might have been broadcast back in ‘84 on George Orwell’s telescreen--or last night on your Plasma screen.

The Calderons 24 minutes
Dan McNamara New York City

“The Calderons” is a short mockumentary about an unemployed couple in the suburbs of Long Island who take care of two handicapped robots in exchange for welfare. Dan McNamara’s first short film which involves an animatronic puppet and a 3d composited character. “The Calderons” is an association with the People’s Improv Theater (www.thepit-nyc.com). Dan McNamara resides in Jersey City, NJ and hopes to one day be mayor. To see more of Dan’s work, go to www.danmcnamara.com or look him up on youtube.

Hello Children 2 minutes
Olivia Janik Brunswick, New Jersey

Hello Children is an educational film that teaches inquisitive little urchins about love, family values, and the power of mood stabilizers.

Kuleshov’s Paradox 10:30 minutes
Witkacy Montreal, Quabec, Canada

A woman under hypnosis visualizes an abstracted world of fear and eroding freedoms then awakens to an underwater world far from the chaos above...cars, death, The Rapture, and oppression all inspired by the ghost of Lev Kuleshov.

Platelets: Lepidopteraphage 9 minutes
Justin Curfman Dallas, Georgia

This is a nine-minute stop-motion animation/CG animation hybrid film taken from the director’s dark and extremely cryptic dream logic. Breakfast cereal, cannibalism, a lighthouse, insects, recycling...

First Prize Winner
Two Tracks 11 minutes
Robert St. Mary Grand Rapids, Michigan

“Two Tracks” is a surreal/expressionistic look at a young man’s struggle with bi-polar disorder. Shot silent in black & white over the weekend of September 11th, 2005 in Saginaw, Michigan, “Two Tracks” was created D.I.Y. style by Robert St. Mary who wrote, stars, photographed and edited the picture.
St. Mary’s other works includes short documentaries and the upcoming feature documentary, “The Separation on State Street.”
www.knowsaint.com knowsaint@mac.com

The 2005 Nihilist Film Festival
was held December 16, 2005
at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica
Program

The Invisible Voice Of Imu 3 minutes
Witkacy, Montreal, Quebec

Tuberculosis, institutionalization, homelessness, pseudo-democracy, hyper-consumerism, public existence, private space, a chair, a stripper and Ivan Marvin Ulanov are the elements of “The Invisible Voice of IMU”.

A Paranoic tale 3:40 minutes
Frederic Comi, Barcelona , Spain

“In our time, the look will be the motor of our decadency”
Paul, a young yuppie, will do anything to raise a little tumor on his head.

Derf 3:58 minutes
Jeremy Newman, Elyria,Cleveland

Derf is a documentary video short about an alternative cartoonist from Cleveland. From his teenage years with Jeffrey Dahmer to a garbage truck epiphany, it traces his path to underground celebrity. The story is told through his drawings and commentary.

Pretty Kitty 3:51minutes
Gregory McDonald, Burbank

What can you do if your cat doesn’t listen to you? You ask him politely; he doesn’t listen. You tell him forcefully; he doesn’t listen. You try to trick him; he doesn’t fall for it. There’s only so much a man can take before he snaps. That’s when you need to take matters into your own hands and teach him a lesson.

Ringelreihe 7 minutes
Ring-a-ring-a-roses
Gabriele Agresta, Milano, Italy

The suffering of the birth, the creation and the failure of this act are represents in this video through images, association and metaphor. I tried to show the tragic relationship between the gestation of a being and rising of the senses from matter. In other words, I tried to photograph the moment in which the single pure phenomenon transforms itself into sign.

Trash Baby 9:22 minutes
Phil Haney, Los Angeles

www.SuperAwesomeWow.com Presents “Trash Baby.” Bill is just an average shmuck in college. Like most guys his age, he likes to get drunk and have lots of sex… but never take out the trash. This would come back to haunt him; Mutated from biochemical agents left over in fast food wrappers and Bill’s discarded semen, Trash Baby is half human and half trash! Now he lives in Bill’s college dorm room. Bill is trying to impress a hot Vietnamese girl by joining her on-campus group that supports a bond between the Gay and Asian- Pacific Islander community. However Bill’s suave moves are put in jeopardy when Trash Baby signs Bill up to a fanatical special interest group that supports a person’s right to carry a concealed container of AIDS as a weapon.

NecroGenesis 16:30 minutes
Sheldon Gleisser, Columbus, Ohio

A humble landscaper falls in love with his employer. When she is murdered, his emotional journey takes him beyond love, beyond vengeance, beyond death itself, and into...NecroGenesis!

Pilgrims_Progress 3:46minutes
James Dingle, Boston

* Set up your IBM© PC or PCjr as shown in the Owner’s Manual.
* Insert your MS-DOS disk into the disk drive (Drive A on two-drive systems).
* Turn ON the computer and TV or monitor.
* When MS-DOS is loaded, insert the PILGRIMS_PROGRESS program disk into the drive, label facing up
and the oval cutout pointed toward the back of the system.
* Follow the instructions.

Intermission

In The Doghouse 7:34 minutes
Biff Yeager, Los Angeles

IN THE DOGHOUSE is the first winning short screenplay of aascreenplaycontest.com. It came together pretty fast as we had a very limited budget. We were lucky to have so many professionals that were able to work on the film when we were scheduled to shoot. As it was, we shot the entire film in one 18 hour day, with some minor pick-ups two weeks later. Although that “damn” end credit sequence took me two weeks to put together. We received about 20 reviews on Triggerstreet.com with about 98% of them extremely positive.”

Roboshithead 4:50 minutes
Chuck Stern, New York City
Zonal Insurgence

Deep within the confines of a secret, leisurely zoning liaison, one order is followed a little too closely, revealing a crumpled, crummy... dumpy... truth that no one needed to see.
www.roboshithead.com e-mail - roboshithead@yahoo.com

Snow day, Bloody Snow Day 13:20 minutes
Faye Hoerauf and Jessica Baxter, Seattle

When an unexpected snow storm strikes Seattle, the dead rise from their graves to prey on the living. From the confines of their living room, a group of unlikely heroes must rise to stop the flesh-hungry hordes, only to discover that zombies aren’t the only evil they are up against.

EGGMYCAR: A free cheap ass demo 9:35 minutes
Alex Mendoza, Los Angeles

merrry x-mas ya filthy animals and guys too, ahhh this demo of eggmycar films is so *&^%*$ cool i had to edit this bitch with sunglasses on..okae this ^%$# is all about skits and pranks and it will make handi-cap kids fall out of there chairs-cause i fell out mine. enjoy the demo you jerks...alex

Exit-Sense 9 minutes
Anka Krzyzanowski, Port Coquitlam, Canada

In the depth of a night, one finds a strange picture frame which mysteriously transports her into a surreal and horrifying reality. The nightmarish place is eternally grounded within the protagonist’s subconconscious mind. As the disturbed youth journeys through the delirious hell, she is hunted by the grotesque creatures, morbid faces, and depressed, self-destructive clowns. In each of their faces, shefinds her own reflection. This gothic cabaret becomes a sinister spectacle accompanied by anguished whispears, outbursts of cries, and nauseating sounds. In the darkest chambers of the mind, the protagonist deciphers a sense of her own being and unveils her true inner-self.

First Prize
Donut Run 19 minutes
Peter Atencio and Elysia Skye, North Hollywood

In Nowheresville, Florida, a miserable girl (Elysia Skye-Confidence, Goth Milk) working a thankless job at a donut shop is tormented everyday by an ignorant, self loving cop (Dian Bachar-BASEketball, Orgazmo) who happens to be her best customer. Meanwhile she is detached from her relationship with a clingy sap and, in their most intimate moments, has nightmares of murder while he fantasizes about their future. This dark comedy puts a John Waters spin on a modern working girl tale--only this time there’s blood, sex and sweet revenge. In order for Bella to find peace, she must give new meaning to the term “Dead End Job.”

The 2004 Nihilist Film Festival
was held December 3, 2004
at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica
Program

Walk-In Film
TRANSFORMATOR 2:27 min.
Lukas Mettler, Geneva, Switzerland

This film is a video-performance deconstructing identity. To disfigure my own face is a way to transmit identity to the spectator.BARGAIN

MATINEE 4 min.
Josh McKnight, Los Angeles

Bargain Matinee allows us to witness a deal in an alley between two mysterious strangers. No need to exchange words; they both know what they want. An unordinary service is given–in return, a payment is made. And as the two consenting adults depart, you can’t help but to wonder..... is this legal?

TWO LORDS 8 min.
Lance Crayon, Los Angeles

Shakespeare said‚ “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” The same can be said about this film. Two Lords is the story of a director struggling to adapt Shakespeare for the pseudo intellectual shock generation. Starring Karl Moore (the creator and star of the cult hit “Delusions in Modern Primitivism”), Lance Crayon, and Earl Harvin. Directed by cult indie fave Billy Tears (“With It,” “Cheaters”).

ROCK DOCUMENTARY ON GEOFF CASSELL 24 min.
Kenneth Du, Yuba City, CA

“I have nothing to hide!” was Geoff’s response to my cautioning of his openness and readiness to reveal all during our second meeting with crew at a crowded café. “When you reach my age, nothing fazes you,” said Geoff. I concentrated on capturing the real emotions of Geoff and his relations. The amount of time necessary to set the technical aspect of the filming would have irritated these unpredictable individuals and made their emotions artificial. In all, the untidiness and in-frame equipment punctuated my attempts at witticism.

WORDS COME OUT BACKWARDS WHEN SPOKEN TO SCREEN LEFT 1:38 min.
Barbara Rosenthal, NYC

“Last night I was up talking to myself, when the words appeared visimagically before my lips, and kept coming out. If you were on my right and saw them also, they would be backwards coming forwards as they were.”

SOME THINGS TO BE SCARED OF 5:30 min.
Douglas P. Gast, Hot Springs, AR

Even though an abundance of evidence continues to reveal that Americans are safer and healthier than anytime in our nation’s past, the United States is rife with fear. Many have attributed this pervasive fear to the influence of the popular news media and the organizations designed to establish its agenda. In its essence, SOME THINGS TO BE SCARED OF is a laundry list of the things we have been told to fear. Its oral delivery, in the form of one continuous sentence, is subtly referential to a news broadcast while its visual composition and arrangement in time addresses the process and abilities of signification.

EUNUCH ALLEY 21:35 min.
Shashwati Talukdar, Jackson Hts, NY

DEEP FRITZ 5 min.
Sascha Dornhofer and Alexandra Rothert
music by: Max Wendling a.k.a. Paradroid
Dresden, Germany

written, photographed and produced by: Sascha Dornhoefer (me)
edited and directed by: Alexandra Rothert (my girlfriend)
Actually we are both psychologists, into teaching and research, especially in the field of visual perception (where I also did my doctoral thesis). Together we produced and directed more than 50 short films in the last 20 months and are said to be “Germany’s fastest underground filmmakers.”

WINDLESS 4:45 min.
Nikita Kleverov,Thousand Oaks, CA

Nikita Kleverov takes us on a journey deep into the constructs of the minds of normal people. Once inside, we discover that nothing we once knew as fact can be used as evidence for the justification of mankind. It is a short surrealistic piece split up into eleven segments in order to concentrate the viewer on the intense imagery and content. Although not following a concrete linear structure, this is one of the most intriguing self-reflective films of our time. From a man that reluctantly feeds his buried past, to an incredulous structure placed amongst nothingness, to a humble blind couple that come to discover death on their own terms, Windless is an experiment in closed form filmmaking of our postmodern age. We are all Windless.

TEPHRASECT 24 min.
Justin Curfman, Dallas, GA

Tephrasect is a dark, stop-motion, animated film that is best viewed as an action narrative scripted from some nightmarish form of expressionist dream logic. This is a film constructed from the purging of the creator’s own dreams and irrational obsessions.

I AM (NOT) SEEN 5 min
Takahiko Iimura, NYC

THE DATE 15 min.
Matthew Schwartz, Glendale, CA

A young man shows up unannounced at the home of the pretty woman-schoolteacher he so desperately covets. Once admitted, his initial charming demeanor quickly fades, as his warped obsession becomes pronounced, veering towards the nether abyss of stalkerdom. Playing it somewhat cool, the pretty schoolteacher bides his sexual threats and demands.....seemingly preoccupied with other matters. As the tables are turned in a rudely unexpected instant, the lowlife predator now becoming the object of the hunt–a fly in the web of demonized forces even more sinister than he, unexpectedly dispatching the few remaining shreds of humanity the young man has left. Plot twists and turns galore! All expectations shattered! Plus one mothering Latino biker! All in the space of 12 minutes!

Second Prize
PERVULA 10 min.
Armando Munoz, Seattle, WA

A faux silent film from the 1920s documents a night of titillating terror during which Pervula, the naughty Nosferatu, pays pretty Gretchen a late night visit, intent on biting her most private parts. Little does the humpy horror know that Gretchen is waiting, her body booby trapped.

First Prize
REVOLUTION 6:30 min.
Juan Pablo and Martin Rosete
Madrid, Spain

The Fifth International Nihilist Film Festival
was held Friday December 14th
at the EZTV Studio in Santa Monica.

Nihilist Film Festival 2003
Program

New YorkThe legendary Cabaret Voltaire, cradle of DADA, 86 years after its founding is threatened by the imminent construction of luxury apartments and a pharmacy...The Foundation Kroesus, a group of young armed artists, locked themselves in and created an international appeal... 

The Fourth International Nihilist Film Festival
was held Friday December 6th, 2002
at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica.

Paris, April 22, 2002 – 36 minutes

G.X. Jupiter-Larsen

 

Documentation of a live radio performance, in addition to the subway ride to and from the radio station. The performance was a variation of "Dirwyn" in which an amplified calculator is balanced on top of a small fan.

              

That’s Good Bread – 4:40 min

Put That Thing Away

Mario And Andre

Amy Caterina

              

Triumph of the Patriarch Part Three: The Exorcist – 3:02

Wago Kreider

 

               In a masochistic fantasy of male abjection, the "Priest with the Beast" expodes out of a window, and tumbles down a long stone staircase. His body twitches uncontrollably, as if manipulated by a demented puppet master.

"For the world is Hell, and men are on the one hand the tormented souls

and on the other the devils in it."

--Schopenhauer

 

Hello Junkie – 12

Graham Elwood

 

               A tough as nails 1970s street cop deals with his pain through beat poetry.

 

The Second Bakery Attack – 25 min

Danny Viescas

 

               This film was based on a short story by Haruki Murakami. I was drawn to the strange ambiguity of the tale. When I started working on this thing and people asked what the story was about,  I had a tough time trying to explain it, but to me that's the sign of a good tale. On the surface it’s a story of unresolved past haunting the present, but I hope I captured what fascinated me about the story which was the description of the weird ass tapestry that is sometimes life.

                             

Daypass – 12:59

Deborah Chow

 

               A wildly delusional romantic returns from the grave to further pursue the love of his life on the evening of her first daypass.  He arrives at the local convenience store only to find her with her new slacker boyfriend, and embarks on a campaign to win her back.  With eloquent wit and a supernatural artillery, he attempts to divide and conquer – precipitating an unforeseen and ill-advised confrontation between love, life and afterlife.

 

Ablution – 12:27

Eric Patrick

 

               Ablution is a film ritual that observes dissociation. It is divided into three vignettes, each with its own distinct structure.  In “The Fleeting,” a man becomes dissociated with temporal reality, and his subjective experience becomes the fleeting images of days transpiring in seconds, an elusive narrative. “Incantation” is a shamanistic chant,  the dissociation becomes deconstruction.  It is a subjective metaphor of an internal state.  The final piece “A Hundred Foot Day” is a continuous sequence of a day transpiring back on the front porch where the film started.   As a whole, the Ablution, or the cleansing, is a look into the magical, if not somewhat uncertain, places that each of us pass through at select times in our lives.  Metaphorically, the cinematic structures of the three vignettes leave trap doors and secret passageways throughout the film for individual interpretation. Ablution is a relic, a veiled glimpse at an emotional state.

 

Second Prize
Hit & Run – 4:20

Sebastian Smith & Richard Stiles

 

               Essex police are seeking witnesses to a motoring incident, which is believed to have occurred on Saturday night. A body was discovered on Sunday morning along side the B4103 in the High Beech area of Epping Forest. Detective Campbell explained that the body had been hit by so many vehicles that it was impossible to identify the victim. The elderly gentleman who made the gruesome find while out walking his dog was said to be visibly shaken.

               If anyone has any information, they should contact the incident room on 020 7613 5044

 

INTERMISSION

 

Notoriety – 22

Reyna Rosenshein

 

               Roxanne, a struggling photographer, is raped under the watchful eye of her camera. When pictures of the rape find their way to an art gallery, Roxanne is an instant success. How far will Roxanne go to protect her newfound... Notoriety?

               NOTORIETY is a metaphor for the rigors and desperation of the quest for commercial success and the need for artistic expression. Who gets to determine 'what is art'? The artist? The critic? The audience?

 

The Loneliest Little Boy In The World – 5:10

Mike Dereniewski

 

               This film is the director's reaction to the loss of a great friend of both the director and talent to heroin. The score, created by Frankie & The S.E.M.M.,  is comprised entirely of source material from live Caniis Crux performances. This film inspired by and dedicated to Michael D. Petee.

 

Psycho Happy Place – 15 min

David Wanger

 

               Psycho Happy Place is a surreal odyssey loosely based on Alice in Wonderland; it is equally an amusing spectacle, and an ironic cogitation on morality;  it shows what might happen if a couple of necrophiliacs wander through some sort of trans-dimensional tunnel.

 

 

Tempting Root – 2 minutes

Sandee Chamberlain & Peggy Wang

 

               Eat your vegtables! Or they will come to life and taunt you until you go insane--well maybe not go insane, but somewhat like it. This film was made for all of the little kids whose parents never believe them when their food at the dinner table came to life. Never forget the feeling of being young and full of imagination; it’s what to make short films out of! I enjoy making people laugh;  it's one of the best feelings on earth! So enjoy the film, if not have fun being the weird one.

 

 

The Raging Leper “Uncle Francis” – 2:18

Aaron Sutherland

 

               "A seething mound of bile and wrath, The Leper discusses his troubled past with his late Uncle Francis...”

               'The Raging Leper: Uncle Francis' was created on company 'free time', using company resources, until nation-wide layoffs released Aaron Sutherland on an unsuspecting society. The film recently played at theConey Island Short Film Fest, and will soon be appearing on AtomFilms.com with its companion piece, 'The Raging Leper: Smoking Permitted'."

 

Toilet Bowl Confessions – 5 min

Colin Powers

 

               Discover what Olivia Newton John really meant when she said (in her 1982 smash-hit Physical) "Let me hear your body talk," and take a trip into the deep recesses of, well, your deep recesses with the exploratory short 'Toilet Bowl Confessions.'

               This shit, er, I mean short project was shot on digital video over two sweaty days in not-so-sanitary public restrooms throughout the Los Angeles basin.  It stars several up-and-coming actors, and a bunch of assholes.  Amazingly enough, the entire project was brought in under its proposed budget of $500.

 

Thanksgiving – 9:36

Jack Sammuell

 

               "There is happiness in the delivery room."

 

              

First Prize
Timmy’s Wish – 9:40

 Teeny Monkey

 

               After he's sent to his room for refusing to eat his vegetables, angry little Timmy prays to heaven to be delivered from his cruel parents.  Much to his surprise, his prayers are answered—bigtime.  Now it's up to Timmy to clean up the mess.

 

The Third International Nihilist Film Festival was held
on Friday, December 14, 2001 at 8:00 p.m. at The Zero One Gallery in Hollywood.
Below is a copy of the festival program and a press release about the festival.

Traditional Blessing of TVs
Added to Nihilist Film Fest

For the third year, the Nihilist Cultural Foundation presents the Nihilist International Film Festival. The festival was created to be a venue for the kind of filmmakers and fans who do not feel welcome at those other festivals. ÒIf you want to see something that would frighten and anger your parents, come on by,Ó says director Elisha Shapiro.

This year, the International Nihilist Film Festival includes the traditional blessing of the televisions. Anyone who shows up between 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm with his or her television will be included in the ancient and colorful television blessing ceremony, and will receive free admission to the film festival.

Ten short films will be included in this yearÕs festival, including submissions from Ireland, France, Canada and Bakersfield. The Third International Nihilist Film Festival comes to the Zero One Gallery on Friday, December 14. The first Nihilist Film Festival was the centerpiece of the 1999 Nihilist WorldÕs Fair in Los Angeles. It was so successful that organizers decided to make the film fest a regular event.

The Film Festival is presented by the people who created the 1984 Nihilist Olympics and the Nihilist Festivals of the Arts. Director Shapiro is known as the Nihilist Party candidate for President in 1988, and a candidate for L.A. County Sheriff in 1994. Shapiro is seen monthly on the NihilistsÕ Corner TV show in Los Angeles and New York City. Show time is 8 p.m. The Zero One Gallery is located at 7025 Melrose Avenue, just east of La Brea. Admission is 99 cents. Clergy and veterans get in free.

Senseless Violence 1:37 minutes
Marc Beurteaux Canada
Marc Beurteaux is 29 years old and very much an independent filmmaker. He is self taught and has been making animated films for the past ten years and hopes to continue doing so until he goes insane from a rare disease called Plasticine Exposure Syndrome which eventually claims all clay animators.

The Terms 11:30 minutes
Johnny OÕReilly Ireland
A father and son live in a caravan in the middle of nowhere. When the son burns down the caravan, his father decides to kill him in a bizarre and convoluted execution pact. Having agreed to "The Terms" of the pact, the son plays out his fathers game with unpredictable consequences.
Having studied Russian at Trinity College, Dublin, Johnny lived in Moscow in 1993 where he worked as a journalist. He then attended post graduate studies in film at New York University. In 1997 Johnny returned to Ireland and began working as a freelance film and video director.
JohnnyÕs work to date, as a director, includes three short films ÒEmpire StateÓ, ÒCabin FeverÓ and ÒThe TermsÓ as well as ÒQuest for the WestÓ, a documentary about a Russian ballerina, and numerous commercials and music videos. Employee Orientation 3:39 minutes Gregory Mcdonald Los Angeles An employee orients himself to his co-workers at the company party. Original footage shot in 1967 at a Detroit Diesel company party.

Nowhereland 32 minutes
Ted Mills Santa Barbara
"Nowhereland" came to me as a sort of fever dream, highly caffinated, about certain things that obsess me from a non-narrative point of view: far-off transmission towers, boston terriers, old radios, mysterious women. I honestly didn't think it would take that long to finish. It took three years instead. Now it seems like it was made by somebody else--I must say the filmmaker seems a bit strange.

Second Place Prize
How To Be A Cyber-Lovah 6:30 minutes
Keir Serrie Los Angeles

Intermission

The Loneliness Of Animals 20 minutes
Fabienne Bouville NYC

The Bogey Man 4 minutes
Larry Wessel Los Angeles
The Bogey Man is a super 8mm film I made in 1977 at the age of 20 as a U.S.C. film school project. My cinema professor, Mel Sloan, critiqued The Bogey Man as, "sick...sick...sick!". Incredible performances by my 8 year old cousin Michelle Langston and her father (my uncle Mike).
Great musical score by my good friend John Shourt who scored three of my previous films: Carny Talk (1995), Sex, Death, & amp; The Hollywood Mystique (1999) and Lip-stick Liz (2000).

Bus Face 12 minutes
Chad Band, Writer/Director Vancouver, BC
Bus Face protagonists (Shawn Bristow and Kacey McDougall) ride the bus in the urban zoo, cross paths, and ultimately try to end their lives. How serious their endeavors toward the afterlife are is anyone's guess, which is about as good as the characters' own attempts to resolve their angst. Set in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995, the film uses the region's much-maligned public transit system as a catalyst for an ironic, darkly funny take on the cause and effect of urban alienation.
With soundtrack contributions from Victoria independent comic songwriter/musician Chris Lawson and Vancouver experimental punk band Unclean Weiner.

Naked Twister 37:20 minutes
Mark Wilson Bakersfield
A film about two couples, Michael and Heather Brobeck (Justin Zachary and "Masked Rider's" Elizabeth Letlow) and Andy and Marilyn Williams (Andrew McCarty and Erika Napoletano), this short film was shot on 35mm on a modest budget. The two twenty-something couples get into heated debates about their relationships one evening when someone suggests they get it all out in the open by playing a game of 'naked' Twister. When next door neighbor Larry (Gary L. Smith) stops by to borrow some sugar, he brings up a game of truth or dare and things really start to get revealed. Ugly truths are uncovered and hardcore dares given and in the end, it's all a matter of who is left standing.
A first film for Seat of Your Pants Productions, the fledgling company is looking to produce more works and have a number of projects in the pipeline. Producer Roger Mathey has a background in theatre while producer Mark J. Wilson comes from a photographer background and together they seek to make audiences wonder what the hell is going on.

Caged Birds Cannot Fly 3:15 minutes
Les Oiseauz En Cage Ne Peuvent Pas Voler
Jeremy Rochigneux , Producer France
Luis Briceno, Director
In my film, I tried to use those caged birds to suggest the life from outside the cages. But I hate didacticism and morality cinema, so I have drowned everything in a dumb and funny movie.

First Place Prize
Atomic Cocktail 27:12 minutes
Martin King Los Angeles
I just want to pose questions. I have a fixation with moral absolutes, good and evil, right and wrong. And there-in lies the drama. The struggle of society and individuals to carry the weight of their moral choices and how they cope with it. Maybe IÕm trying to remind people why theyÕre afraid of the dark. But if you have the guts to look at it long enough, youÕll see itÕs full of humor and truth. And that can make for some pretty damn good comedy.

The Second Nihilist Film Festival was held on Saturday, December 16, 2000 at 8:00 p.m. at Rocket Video in Hollywood. Below is a copy of the festival program.

Program
The Second Nihilist Film Festival
December 16, 2000

Change in the Weather 9:30 minutes
By G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, 1997
A visitation gives a professor the inspiration to invent a gadget that transforms the lives of him and his friends. The sum worked out by his friends while counting grains of sand is the key to getting the contraption to work. Amplified erosion is used as the soundtrack, because without erosion, there wouldn't be any sand to count.

A Day and A Night in the Life and the Death 2 minutes
The Dark Bob
The Dark Bob began his performance art career in 1975 when he co-founded the seminal performance art team Bob & Bob. Their early work has been exhibited around the world and historified in books, catalogs, retrospective exhibitions and documentary profiles for television, radio and film. His one-man, multi-media shows have been performed through the United States and abroad. His music has been produced by PolyGram/Polydor records, Chronic Interactive Music, MOCA LA and High Performance Records. In addition, TDB's songs and soundtracks have been programmed for radio rotation and included in theater pieces and feature films.

Lip Stick Liz 3 minutes
Larry Wessel
Larry Wessel is perhaps best known for his documentary on bullfighting in Tijuana. What little press it did get was generally good. However, chances are that you, reading this, haven't seen it. Chances are the name Larry Wessel doesn't ring a bell. But, take a look at the cover to Adam Parfrey's book, that's one of Larry's colleagues. And if you've ever flicked through A Handbook for Heels, Feral House's Ode to the Red-Blooded American Male, then you'll know what he looks like---that's him squeezing the ass of actress Debra Lamb in the photo-strip 'King of the B's'. Larry has contributed collages to the likes of HUSTLER and ANSWER Me!, was a columnist for the satire magazine THE NOSE, and on the tail of TAUROBOLIUM, has come up with several more documentaries: CARNY TALK (consisting of amusing anecdotes from the king of low-brow art, Robert Williams), SUGAR & amp; SPICE (exploring the fascinating world of transvestites, transsexuals and drag queens), ULTRAMEGALOPOLIS (a 2 1/2 hour Hell-Ride down the streets of Los Angeles), TATTOO DELUXE (2 years spent inside a San Pedro Tattoo Parlour), SEX, DEATH & AMP; The HOLLYWOOD MYSTIQUE (starring true-crime writer John Gilmore, Famous Monsters of Filmland's Forrest Jackerman, Filmmaker Curtis Harrington and prostitute Kelly Monroe) and SONG DEMO For A HELEN KELLER WORLD (a John Trubee and the Ugly Janitors of America recording session). A free catalog of Larry Wessel's films can be had by sending an S.A.S.E. to: Larry Wessel, P.O Box 1611, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-1611 U.S.A.

Kafka 18 minutes
Neptune J. Max
This is the seventh in an ongoing series of field management training videos called Work In Progress. Immersion Arts produces these educational videos for the Fourth World Media Corporation to use in specialized international markets. The Fourth World Media Corporation began as Fourth World in 1952 as an industrial research facility. Its "Department of Propaganda" was an independent unit created in 1959 to fulfill demonstration requirements of a federal government contract. During its four years in existence, the department produced 22 instructional films. Sadly, these are no longer available for public viewing. However, the current Department of Propaganda (recreated in 1998) uses the original introduction from these early films as part of the opening credits to this new educational video series.

Clam Lynch/ A Shame Based Existence 11 minutes
Johanna Went, Beth Clark and Paul Humble
This film is a mockumentary/experimental short based on Clam Lynch, a wacky, and somewhat obscure Los Angeles performance artist whose cult following has been growing at an alarming rate. The film features excerpts from Clam's show "Saving Private Dancer," which was performed at the Tamerind Theater, an interview with Mr. Lynch, and testimonials from his crazed fans. The project was a collaborative effort written, produced and directed by Johanna Went, Beth Clark and Paul Humble. It was completed September 2000, with music by Mark Wheaton.

Stray 5:30 minutes
Mike Frenden
Writer/Director MIKE FRENDEN is currently a graduate student in film at the University of Southern California.
Actor RICK GALIHER can be seen as the lead in the episodic internet series, THIS IS NOT A LIFE, beginning January 2001 on countingdown.com.

HeadShot 8 minutes
Emmy Collins

Other Treats

Vote Nihilism 1988
Elisha Shapiro

What I Believe
Steve Martin

The first Nihilist Film Festival was held on Sunday, November 21, 1999 at 8:00 p.m. It was part of the 1999 Nihilism Expo at the Lab in downtown Los Angeles. Below is a copy of the festival program.

Program

The First Nihilist Film Festival
November 21, 1999

Connotations of Wreckage
G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, The Haters
30 minutes
walk-in tape


After getting tired of being kicked out of punk bands for refusing to learn how to play his instrument, GX Jupitter-Larsen formed The Haters. At first no one could be in the group if they knew how to play their instrument. Then The Haters got rid of instruments altogether and just started smashing stuff. After 20 years, The Haters are still around making a mess of everything. CONNOTATIONS OF WRECKAGE is a collection of three live videos from The Haters' early days from 1988 to 1990.

Divisions
5:33
John DeFazio


Untitled
1:20
Rob Roades, Francisco Ramirez


Francisco Ramirez Jr., 21, is a resident of Solana Beach, CA (just outside San Diego). He is a DJ, writer, no-budget filmmaker and much more. Francisco is perpetually creative and is a slave to inspiration, which attacks at any time, often demanding that he write down ideas in his book in the middle of the street at rush hour. Artists lead dangerous lives? Yes.

Rob Roy Roades, 21, is a resident of Anaheim, CA. As a DJ, no-budget filmmaker, electronic music producer, writer and all-around busy guy, he always uses available computer technology to the fullest in everything he does. He refuses to use art as a means to survive, to keep expression as pure as possible.

This short was conceived by Francisco as part of a soon-to-be-finished feature project. Using a 10 year old Hi-8 camcorder, no permits, no artificial lighting, and a PC for editing. The original version was completed in a day. The version shown uses the same footage with better editing. Moral: Don't wait till the last minute!


V-codes
11:35
Dean Testerman

Dean Testerman is a thirty-year-old conceptual based performance artist and the creator of last year's "The Untitled Radiohead Project." V-code, a visual collection of his written pieces, examines our timeless and oft forgotten spirit in the face of the birth of the 20th century's technology. V-code is a meditation for mankind not to rely on the images fed to him, but rather to adhere to the pieces of language that spirit clings to. V-code attempts to reclaim the written/spoken word as an essential tool to express the heightened portions of everyday existence, in ways that syntax fails, while examining what the passive communal experience is really about. It is the hope that V-code will challenge viewers to reclaim the image of humanness so absent in today's media-driven society where even lust is bar-coded. It doesn't take a budget or proposal, only words and their exchange. Testerman is also the founder of "slant", an artist collective dedicated to deconstructing the arts and reclaiming them as the birthright of all people. By bringing the artistic consciousness to the daily life of our communities, we hope to heal the spaces created by technology. Please support and honor the art in your life, and thank you for supporting this production. For more information contact (213) 368-8980 or slant hq@aol.com.


In Transition
32 minutes
Sam Citron


Sam Citron was exposed to the cinema of Fedrico Fellini in 1982. The Italian master's influence is quite apparent throughout the body of Citron's work, including the docu-mockery "In Transition."


Medley
70 minutes
Gionata Zarantonello
Italy

Gionata Zarantonello was born in 1977 in Vicenza, Italy. During high school (classical studies) he started to write and direct short films. In 1996 he won a prize with "Scriccioli", a short that was showed on local television. He studied in Milan, at the Italian Film School (Major subject: Direction - Minor subject: Screen writing, graduated in 1999). He did a Cee course (editing on Avid), and Screen writing seminars at University of Bologna. He worked in Milan as Set P.A. and electrician on movie and commercial sets, and on a 2B0 Avid editor for the Olivud post production studio in Rome on commercials, music videos, shorts and documentaries. He had several experiences in Los Angeles (1999 Masters at USC, and set P.A., 1996) Now he is a writer of several pitches, treatments and screenplays for features and shorts like "The Fourth Camera". (16mm short shot at USC. Horror), "Jenny McCarthy Takes Washington" (8mm short shot at USC. Stop motion\animation), "Alice dalle 4 alle 5" (35mm short, shot in Rome for "N.C. Produzioni", with Piera Degli Esposti) "Feel the Magic", (DV music video, shot for "Unlimited Records" - Milan, music by "Bluechaos".S.F) Zarantonello wrote and directed "Medley" (1998, Betacam, independent feature film, 70 min., presented at "Noir International Festival," Courmayeur, First Place winner at "Trash Cinema Festival" in Torino). Troma Entertainment recently bought "Medley".

The camera wanders into deserted corridors of a school, looking at people, events, and feelings. A detective is investigating bloody affairs. Someone told him about terrible happenings, but his inquiry is inconclusive. The episodes proceed very quickly. A teacher returns from the next world to do a metric lesson, a written exercise becomes a terrible hell, a teacher is tortured because he has to announce the marks, one is poisoned, an interrogation becomes a splattered horror-scene with a dead teacher, an student is killed because she was not really sick, a professor cuts drugged alumni with a chain saw....the detective leaves the school ...he feigns not understanding. Students leave the school, dissolving...This is the history of the last day of the first term--escaping tests, dodging examinations, praying to survive. The school is like a battle field, and sometimes like a graveyard...but you can see the humor over the bodies.

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