SHORT FILMS PROGRAM 2
HYPERBURN
Directed By: Travis DuBridge, 12 minutes
In a scorched, post-apocalyptic wasteland, a reluctant hero awakens to find an AI companion freshly implanted in his brain and an impossible mission ahead of him. Together they set out across an endless, soul-crushing desert—first to locate his scattered team, then to survive the maddening boredom of infinite sand, and finally to face a formidable adversary who stands between them and survival.
Stronghold
Directed By: Meghann Artes, 16 minutes.
When a struggling group home closes, house mother Fran arranges placements for all her boys except Leo, whose mother Shelly fails to arrive. Before reuniting with her own daughter, Fran must find Shelly and confront the challenges of foster care. Their meeting results in choices that change both women’s lives—and Leo’s—forever.
Just a Cat
Directed By: Benett Holgerson, 15 minutes
When a grieving father inherits his late daughter’s cat, he wants nothing to do with the stubborn, demanding creature that has invaded his quiet life. But as the days pass and the cat refuses to be ignored, an unexpected bond begins to form between the reluctant caretaker and his unwanted companion.
Screen-Play
Directed By: Brian Walczybock, 6 minutes
Two fierce competitors square off in an electrifying showdown to prove once and for all who is the superior fighter. As tension mounts and egos collide, what begins as a simple contest escalates into something far more personal.
Tomato Soup
Directed By: Brendan Michael Conant, 20 minutes
Dodd has just signed his ticket out of town – a professional baseball contract that promises a new life far from the place he has always called home. But on his final night before leaving, saying goodbye proves far more difficult than he ever imagined, as every familiar face and well-worn street corner begs him to stay.
Love & Kindness
Directed By: Michael McCallum, 6 minutes
Two people drawn irresistibly to each other find themselves paralyzed by the impossibility of making the first move. Caught in the agonizing space between longing and silence, an unlikely catalyst arrives in the form of a comic book that says all the things they cannot.
Left on Read
Directed By: Jake Cross, 11 minutes
Adam is captivated by the girl of his dreams and musters the courage to pursue a relationship with her. But when he sends a message and awaits her reply, anticipation quickly turns to obsession. Glued to his phone and consumed by the flickering promise of a notification, Adam begins to lose his grip on the world around him. As hours stretch into an agonizing eternity, the line between devotion and fixation blurs in this sharp, modern parable about connection in the digital age.
Pere Marquette
Directed By: Clayton Brown, 24 minutes
Sonia returns to her family’s country house with a singular purpose: to sell the property and leave behind the nearby train tracks where her deaf son David died. But instead of the closure she desperately seeks, her nights become haunted by vivid, unsettling dreams in which David is still alive—beckoning from the woods, leading her toward the tracks, always just beyond her reach. With each encounter the visions grow more insistent, eroding the boundary between dream and waking life, memory and haunting.