THE 2017 FILM SCHEDULE

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THURSDAY

| BLOCK A | 4:00 |

LUSCIOUS (2min) dir: Amber Xu

“Luscious” is a 2D motion graphics video looks at human nature, human instinct and the power of imagination. A beautiful woman achieves satisfaction by having a psychedelic, metaphoric, sensual journey during dinner.

CROOKED AND NARROW (93min) dir: Neal Dhand 

Amy Walsh returns to Philadelphia after 10 years to visit her ex-cop, current-con father and to join a stick-up crew. After a job gone wrong, Warren Mercer, the cop who put her dad in prison gets on her trail.

FRIDAY

| BLOCK B | 9:30 |

EMBERS AND DUST (11min) dir: Patrick Biesemans

As the radio broadcast of War of The worlds travels across the airwaves, a young boy's imagination is sparked, sending him on his own kind of vision quest, deep into the neighboring forest.

PIROUETTE (2min) dir: Zige Zhang 

A woman in shadow tries to find her true reflection in a mysterious hall of mirrors. As she dances within the maze of mirrors, she catches glimpses of her full colored portrait in the mirrors. What will the color offer her?

MISGIVINGS (10min) dir: Adrian Mead

Olly wants to kill himself.  Maybe.  He is then forced to make a choice.  A quirky film about life and death.

AWAKENING (10min) dir: Rolf Lindblom

To provide a life-style his wife and son deserve, Jake takes on a lot of pressure at his job as a real-estate agent. But can he handle it all?  Does Jake has any idea what is lurking in the depths of a well-intentioned mind?

BODY RITES (3min) dir: Naomi Simone

Exploring notions of masculinity and social violence through movement language and contemporary dance.

TREINTAÑERA (9min) dir: Diego Londoño

Through the persuasion of her Abuela, Valentina has her quinceañera party on her thirtieth birthday, only to have things go horribly wrong.

GOTTA GROOVE RECORDS (15min) dir: Nick Cavalier

Gotta Groove Records is a vinyl record pressing plant in Cleveland Ohio making quality focused artist driven products. This short documentary introduces the people behind a passion that continues to have relevance into the 21st century.

| BLOCK C | 11:00 |

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL (30min) dir: Søren Grau

Thomas and Nicolai haven't seen each other since they lived with their parents on the Manor in the small village out in the countryside. Twenty years later they meet again after hearing of their father's passing away. The locked away memories of the past surface, and hell shows itself.

BERNINA SINGS (3min) Harriet Lenneman 

A Mother tells the director a story while hemming pants on her Bernina sewing machine. A self-proclaimed imperfectionist, she doesn’t measure fabric or read instructions. After 50 years of sewing, she isn’t about to start follow anyone’s rules.

LINES OF SIGHT (60min)

Jim Hall woke up one morning to find his vision had changed. He could only see in vertical lines. Instead of panicking he started painting, creating a daring new artform he calls Lineillism. The documentarians followed Jim for nearly a year to capture his inspiring story. Jim Hall is a featured guest of the BSFF and will offer workshops, panel discussions, and access to his traveling gallery.

| BLOCK D | 2:00 |

BOY SOLDIER (6min) dir: Adam Bradshaw

A boy with an active imagination battles through a war zone in his own home taking on a mission to stop his parent's divorce before it's too late.

THE SEARCH FOR EARTH PROXIMA (10min) dir: Brett Marty

There are a staggering amount of planets out there in the universe. But, we have yet to find one that's habitable aside from our own. The Search for Earth Proxima is a short documentary about a group of scientists and their mission to build a telescope to hunt for an Earth-like planet around our closest neighbor: Alpha Centauri.

ROSETHORN (10min)  dir: Aditya Patwardhan

Gabriella is an eight year old girl admitted in a hospital. While the doctors debate whether it's a psychiatric or an abuse case, she fights to overcome her internal conflictis and external realities. With the help of an extroardinary friend Kit, Gabriella learns to cope with her bitter past and sees that beauty can still exist beyond a barrier of thorns. 

CAVITIES (25min) dir: Michael Chan

A story about growing up in a broken home. Wince longs for a family that isn’t there, as he hustles to make money to replace the need of family with friends. Sometimes it is the intangible things we desire most in life, the need for love.

BEING SEEN (15min) dir: Paul Zehrer

“Being Seen” will change the way you see people with developmental disabilities. A combination of funny, acerbic, and heart-wrenching, these people’s candid and articulate self-awareness quickly shatter preconceptions of the disabled.

SOME KIND OF QUEST (11min) dir: Andrew Wilcox

What happens when artwork becomes life’s work? When creator becomes a caretaker? Witness the singular world of Northlandz, a 52,000-square-foot model train installation just 75 minutes outside of Manhattan, and into the ornery mind of the man who brought it all to life. 

| BLOCK E | 4:00 |

ECLIPSE (6min) dir: Jerrold Chong

A son revisits a long-estranged father, on the day of an impending solar eclipse. An event of cosmic significance coincides with an emotional revelation for father and son.

THE RED WITCH (6min) dir: Aron Bothman

A geologist on Mars fights alone to uncover the planet's secrets before the green of terraforming covers it forever.

GENERATION WOLF (90min) dir: Christian de la Cortina

Vincent Del Toro converts classics cars into electrics. In order to save his business, Vincent grows marijuana inside his family barn.  His situation grows more dangerous than he ever imagined. He will have to find a way to survive.

SPLIT COSTS (24min) dir: Jeffrey Blake Palmer

Two young women from disparate backgrounds share a ride to western Massachusetts in this award-winning story of unexpected friends navigating life's bumpy roads and moving forward with hope.

| BLOCK F | 7:30 |

WE TOGETHER (7min) dir: Henry Kaplan

A zombie is awakened with dope dance grooves and fond memories of a pizzeria. Probably the best zombie dance movie/music video you’ll see all year.

THE WASTING (93min) dir: Carolyn Saunders

Sophie is on the brink of womanhood, in love for the first time, and fighting for her life. She’s anorexic, a result of a battle with her overbearing father Ilyas for control of her life. Sophie’s life is on the line and a dark family secret surfaces as the battle of wills becomes a struggle for survival.

SATURDAY

| BLOCK G | 9:30 |

THE REINVENTION OF NORMAL (8min) dir: Liam Saint-Pierre

"Go straight off the wall" said his dad and Dominic does just that. The film follows Dominic Wilcox, an artist/inventor/designer, on his quest for new ideas.

400 MILES (30min) dir: Felix Martiz

Raul, gets word that his father is on his deathbed. Reluctantly, Raul makes the long journey home. Along the way, he reminisces of the events that both shaped and defined his relationship with his father.

FLESH AND BLOOD (17min) dir: Merlin Camozzi

When a sweeping pandemic threatens to turn her father into a violent monster, 18 year-old Max must lead both him and her younger sister through a rugged wilderness in search of a cure.

KRYO (30min) dir: Markus Kaatsch

When a couple wake up from cryo sleep in the far future, they find themselves to alone and trapped inside a deserted facility. They then struggle to learn what is the most undeniable part of life.

THE MOTHER (11min) dir: Paolo Monico

When a hardened widow receives an unexpected visit, she is given the chance to shed light on her husband's death.

EDWARD (15min) dir: Derek Parsons

Edward must choose between his way of life and the right way. Edward is a film about outsiders, orderliness and intimacy.  In the end, what would you do?

AND THEN (2min) dir: Tzu-Hsin Yang

Humans try to create order from chaos.  The repetitiveness can be mundane yet reassuring. Then again, what if the everyday routine of the world suddenly breaks?   

| BLOCK H | 1:00 |

BEYOND THE CURTAIN (27min) dir: Haixu Liu 

During China’s cultural revolution Hai receives an obscure comic book from an unknown homeless man. Attracted by the magical world depicted in the book, Hai is unaware there's something else hidden in its story.

INFINITY² (7m) dir: Ben Canales

Under a vast sky of twinkling stars, far from city light pollution, we ask the simple question: how does it feel being here?

RUSTY (7min) dir: Devin Scott

Borrego Springs offers discoveries that intrigue residents and visitors alike.  When one of Borrego’s special villagers unleashes an ability to explore the towns landscape, what will his freedom lead him to?  The 2017 BSFF community film.

THE SOUL OF A TREE (17min) dir: Mari Walker

The Soul of a Tree follows the paths of two men whose lives intersect in shocking and unexpected ways. Bill Vaughn is an Idaho farmboy when he first meets George Nakashima, a Japanese-American citizen interned during the height of WWII.

JUANA AND CANDÉ: A DOMINICAN FAMILY PORTRAIT (53min) dir: Adam Taub

An intimate portrait of an old married couple and their large family in rural Dominican Republic.

| BLOCK I | 3:30 |

HOW TO MAKE A TENNIS BALL (4min) dir: Benedict Redgrove

ESPN Magazine commissioned a photographer Benedict Redgrove to capture still images of tennis ball manufacturing. They also asked him to create some internet GIFS at the same time. Benedict thought, "this is too good to miss, sod the GIFS, I’m making a little film!”

RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ: DAUGHTER OF THE MAYA (61min) dir: Dawn Gifford

The story of justice from the viewpoint of one girl, Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner. It's a must-see for those interested in Human Rights and Social Justice. 

SISTERS (10min) dir: Guillaume Comtois

Two sisters with nothing in common have only one night to come to terms with something that happened in their past.

PHIL’S CAMINO (28min) dir: Annie O’Neil

Phil is a free spirit who wants to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Told that he shouldn’t do the walk, he builds his own camino in the forest behind his house and walks the same distance as the ancient pilgrimage. Along the way he realizes the true pilgrimage is the one he travels within. 

SUNDAY

| BLOCK J | 10:00 |

BIRTHDAY (13min) dir: Dimitris Katsimiris

Marios, a young man with cerebral palsy, is waiting for his uncle to celebrate his 22nd birthday. The arrival of his uncle and his new girlfriend upsets the family, but to what end?

MOVE ME (22min) dir: Gabe Crate

A couple find an inexplicably immobile stranger with an antique plaque chained around his neck that reads “Human Contact Moves Me.” Upon touching him they discover that he is only able to move while in physical contact with another person. Did they find him for a reason?

SALUTE TO HONOR (32min) dir: Joshua Norman

The story of three men from West Michigan who sacrificed personal dreams to fight a common enemy in WWII. A Salute to Honor shares how the war in Europe permanently altered the course of their lives.

THE 30th OF MAY (39min) dir: James William Theres

For over 100 years, the city of Natchez had two Memorial Day celebrations---one black and one white. By the mid-1990's, the white celebration faded away, while the black celebration known as the "30th of May" continued to march on.

| BLOCK K | 1:15 |

DESPERATE MANY (26min) dir: Matt Bosson

In the middle of the night, Manny wrestles with his demons, trying to find the answers that will save his young son and himself. Having drawn two others into his plight, an old friend and a stranger, he’s not sure whom he can trust.

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SUNSHINE (94min) dir: Kevin Resnick

A lovelorn single father has his life turned upside down when a new-age yogi mysteriously shows up in his kitchen and takes him on a journey of self-discovery.

| BLOCK L | 3:45 |

WELCOME TO THE LAST BOOKSTORE (12min) dir: Chad Howitt

Battling against the rise of eReaders, the fall of large bookstore chains, and his own personal obstacles, Josh Spencer opens “The Last Bookstore”.

RUTA MADRE (97min) dir: Agustin Castañeda

After his first love breaks his heart, a young American singer reluctantly leaves his home in San Diego, California and embarks on an epic road trip through Baja with his uncle in order to reconnect with his Mexican roots and find himself.

| BLOCK M | 7:00 |

WAYS OF SEEING (5min) dir: Jerrold Chong

Rumble of train rails; Crashing of ocean waves; Soft caress of distant wind. Two people. Two ways of perceiving the world.

HELLO MR. KIM TEGU (26min) dir: Hiromi Takagi

Student Mizuki is friends with patient Mr. Kim. She learns the history of Hansen’s disease in Japan: segregated sanatoriums located in remote areas where patients were forced to break bonds with family and society.

THE HOSTAGE (30min) dir: Kerstin Höckel

Two refugee girls exchange identities. One of them is being deported and desires to say goodbye to her lover. Who will stand up for the girls in an attempt to try and salvage their lives?

UNDERPRESSURE (33min) dir: Lilli Schwabe

An aspiring gynecologist is attempting to be a good wife and loving mother to her two little children. With the increasing pressures of daily life, her duties in the clinic suddenly seem insurmountable and her family life begins to slip away.

OTHER (5min) dir: Jeffig Le Bars

A little girl awakes in a ruined smoking limbo-like world. 
Chased by ghostly monsters, she rides a friendly horse, companion in misfortune, to try and escape these frozen lands.

DOWNWARD HIRO (21min) dir: Bry Thomas Sanders 

After a tragic family loss, a man gets a call asking if he’ll come back to work. After a vigorous workout, the only thing which will quiet his mind, he decides to return to the work he abandoned. But “who he is” and “what he does” are forever linked.

MONDAY

| BLOCK N | 9:30 |

NOTORIOUS CORN (1min) dir: Mallory Grolleau

It's the story of a small grain of corn that dreams about glory. He's on the path to success, but where does that path ultimately lead?

CRAVE: THE FAST LIFE (104min) dir: Joel Gonzales

Max’s troubled past sparked by the abandonment by his father Tony creates a deep-rooted hunger for success; which fuels him down the dark and ruthless path of anger, greed, and self-destruction in the glitzy world of the Los Angeles nightclub industry.

THE DIAMOND THIEF (13min) dir: Timo Elliott

What goes wrong when a diamond thief has trouble during a mysterious heist?  In collaboration with the Borrego Springs Film Festival, The Outside the Box after school program at the Borrego Springs Middle School, and sponsored by the Borrego Springs Art Guild, this is the 2017 BSFF student film.

| BLOCK O | 12:30 |

WE CAN’T DIE (26min) dir: LuAnn Nicosia

A down and out screenwriter, who has lost all hope, makes a decision to give up writing. As the clock ominously strikes midnight he soon discovers that sometimes stories have a life of their own.

SAANJH (AN EVENING) (106min) dir: Ajay Saklani

A 16 year old girl living in a metro city is forcefully taken to a remote village in Himalayas where she finds her lonely grandmother as a companion to share their solitude.

| BLOCK P | 3:15 |

INSIDE JOB (2min) dir: Qi Deng

Machines have taken over human jobs. The main character wants to take some of those jobs back, to go inside the machines, live among them and find his ideal profession. Can he discover the path to create a more human machine?

LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT (90min) dir: Rodrigo García

Filmed in Borrego Springs.  An imagined chapter from Jesus' forty days of fasting and praying in the desert. On his way out of the wilderness, Jesus struggles with the Devil over the fate of a family in crisis.  Starring Ewan McGregor and featuring Borrego Springs images from one of the greatest living cinematographers, Emmanuel Lubezki.