Beyond Shorts: Mind Games

ABOUT THE EVENT: A pickup game interrupted by aliens, a telepath’s citywide puppet show, a wannabe idol’s obsession with her more famous double, a voice crackling through a man’s headphones with sinister instructions: this block of paranoid thrillers finds menace of all sizes and intensities lurking day and night. Uncanny and unsettling in equal measure, these shorts ask what happens when someone (or something) else is pulling the strings. ABOUT THE FILMS: “Pick Up Game,” Dir. Ocean Vashti Jude, 8 Min, USA One night, Troy, a fearless hooper, stays out late playing a very competitive and somewhat flirtatious game of basketball until it is interrupted by the presence of something extraterrestrial. FORMAT: DCP “There’s Room For Two In Here,” Dir. Henry Chastain, 12 Min, USA A telepath roams Los Angeles using strangers as puppets to commit random acts of violence. FORMAT: DCP “Obscure Identity,” Dir. Sarah Rich, 14 Min, USA In an era of sensory overload and conspiracy, the line between truth and delusion is razor thin. When a woman is stuck in the liminal space of an airport baggage claim, she must know the difference before paranoia (or worse) consumes her. FORMAT: DCP “Next In Line,” Dir. Danny Dolan, 21 Min, USA After losing out on the job of a lifetime, one choreographer’s attempts at self-care are hijacked by an unhinged and malicious rival. FORMAT: DCP “Idols,” Dir. Matt Halsall, 20 Min, South Korea/Japan/UK Kim Min-ha has always dreamed of the bright lights, but now she’s an almost 30-year-old wannabe K-pop idol and people only care about her uncanny resemblance to Park Hye-mi, the superstar she believes is living the life that by all rights should be hers. FORMAT: DCP “The Orange Circle,” Dir. by Mike Robinson, 13 Min, USA A woman is terrorized by a mysterious orange circle who intimidates her into attacking people with a pair of garden shears. FORMAT: DCP “Headphones,” Dir. by Steven Arriagada 9 Mins, Australia A lovelorn young man working the late shift at a dead-end fast-food joint alongside his crush listens to his uncle’s old Walkman, when a mysterious voice crackles through the headphones whispering exactly what he must do to keep her alive. FORMAT: DCP “By Yourself,” Dir. by Elaine Frost, 10 Min, USA In the deep woods, a solo camper’s solitude turns sinister when she wakes to find a neighboring tent that wasn’t there the night before. FORMAT: DCP “Observer / Participant,” Dir. by Gregory Foltynowicz, 6 Min, USA Two souls move through a surreal inner world shaped by addiction. Trapped in cycles of ritual and withdrawal, they fight themselves as identity fractures and time repeats. The deeper they sink, the more they shift from living as participants to watching as silent observers of their own lives. FORMAT: DCP