Beyond Shorts: Peak Chaos

ABOUT THE EVENT: A vape pen’s dying-battery reveals an illuminating perspective, a slasher targets the wrong slumber party, a GameStop hostage crisis coincides with the Halo 2 drop: this block is one wild ride after another. Raunchy, ridiculous, and occasionally gruesome, these shorts revel in escalating stakes. ABOUT THE FILMS: “Million Dollar Man,” Dir. Riley Scott, 11 Min, USA A timid man does something by himself for once. FORMAT: DCP “Vape Glow,” Dir. Steven Schloss, 5 Min, USA Guided by the POV of a dying vape pen, Mike puffs around a dark vacation rental during an unusual blackout. FORMAT: DCP “Scissors,” Dir. Hannah Alline, 13 Min, USA A slasher with a grudge meets his match when a group of queer friends on a weekend getaway turns his killing spree into a bloody night he never saw coming. FORMAT: DCP “Midnight Drop,” Dir. Ricky M Staffieri, 18 Min, USA It’s November 8th, 2004—and Halo 2 drops at midnight, a night that will go down in gaming history. Best friends Adam and Tone are gearing up for an unforgettable all-nighter, but their plans go off the rails when two suburban punks hold up their local GameStop. What was supposed to be an epic night of gaming quickly turns into a chaotic hostage standoff. FORMAT: DCP “Son of Danson,” Dir. Dylan Trupiano & Noah Morse, 11 Min, USA Three jailbirds try to survive the night after one of them, a real estate mogul named Danson Cougar, claims he’s been cursed to give birth at midnight. FORMAT: DCP “No. 3,” Dir. Joe Heath, 13 Min, USA A young man’s desperate plea to use a gas station bathroom leads to the most unforgettable piss of his life. FORMAT: DCP “Fight for the Fantasy,” Dir. Marissa Goldman, 10 Min, USA A divorcée goes on her first date in years and immediately tries to force a love connection over chicken wings. FORMAT: DCP “A Stable Marriage,” Dir. Josephine Decker, 8 Min, USA A woman’s sexual fantasy is fulfilled — with surprising ramifications. FORMAT: DCP “The Seeing Eye Dog Who Saw Too Much,” Dir. Eric Jackowitz, 17 Min, USA In 1975, Italian director Enrico Januzzi began filming a giallo set in Rome – a feverish tale of a blind violinist who rises to first chair of the symphony, only to find herself stalked as a black-gloved killer murders her fellow musicians one by one. The only witness: her seeing-eye dog. Production collapsed after a week, and the footage was presumed lost, until its rediscovery in 2025. Painstakingly restored by WBAZ Films, this surviving fragment is presented here for the very first time. FORMAT: DCP