2015 FESTIVAL

The 2015/2nd edition of videodrunk was held at the White House Studio Project in Toronto’s Kensington Market on December 3-5. Presented with the support of Modern Superior. Over the three nights, our audience greeted films with laughs, shock and confusion…all in a good way. In the end everyone had a great time and that’s what matters.

Best of Fest: Collinsville Trade Day, 1988 (USA/Jason and Charles Keener)

Best Canadian Film: Craig, the Loneliest Man in the World, Makes a Friend, Loses a Friend and Subsequently Learns the Value of Solitude (Canada/Ted Stenson)

Audience Award: Knockers (France/Arnaud Mangin) and I Could Eat a Horse (England/Jake Hovell)

Programer’s Intertoto Pick of Each Night: Selfie (Iran/Ali Erfan Farhadi), Knockers (France/Arnaud Mangin), Self-Deportation: The Untold Tale of a Marginal Woman (USA/Eugene Sun Park)

Thursday (December 3rd)

Shorts

Nationaltime (Canada/Christine Lucy Latimer)

-Official Selection of 10 international film festivals including the Images Festival and Experimental Film Festival Portland

Banana Seat Bloodbath (Canada/Luke Meneok) – A punk thriller following the exploits of a bike riding serial killer roaming around the snowy city of Hamilton.

-Official Selection of Hamilton Film Festival and the Little Horror Canadian Horror Festival

Hey Superman (Canada/Jonathon Hunter) – A man wanders a foggy rural road and has a strange encounter.

-WORLD PREMIERE!

Godskin (Germany/Wanda Vrasti) – A meditation on the intimate relationship between a woman and her gay roommate.

-Official Selection of Unmarked_Space

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Self-Deportation: The Untold Tale of a Marginal Woman (USA/Eugene Sun Park) – Beginning with a subway ride, an Asian-Ameican woman finds herself navigating a surreal maze of America.

-Official Selection of 15 international film festivals and the finalist for the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers

-“…it is gorgeous, it is experimental, and it is impactful…”

-Buzzfeed

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

On Your Feet Woman (Scotland/Evi Tsiligaridou) – A performance film based around two women wrestling.

-Official Selection of 7 international film festivals including BFI:Flare and the Scottish Queer International Film Festival

-NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE!

XO (USA/Brian Ratigan) – Fearing her own memories, a girl begins the cerebral journey of longing for escape before completely fading away.

-Official Selection of the Jahorina Film Festival, M.A.C. Film Festival and the Apple Martini Film Series

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

February 28 (Russia/Diana Galimzyanova) – After surviving cancer, a woman attempts to get her life back on track.

-Official Selection of 16 international film festivals including the Bare Bones International Film Festival, Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival and Pune Short Film Festival and winner of the Bechdel Short Film Award of the POP Film Festival

-”…the film plays out like a fish out of water story written by Woody Allen, but directed by Harmony Korine…”

-Team ProCreate

Late Arrivals (Ireland/Richard Keaney) – After moving from Iran to Ireland, a father and son find themselves unable to face the reasons behind their move.

-Official Selection of IndieCork and the M.A.C. Film Festival

-NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE!

Collinsville Trade Day, 1988 (USA/Jason and Charles Keener) – In 1988, Charles took his camcorder to a small town swap meet. In 2014, Jason discovered the footage and decided to edit it.

-Official Selection of 10 international film festival including the Nashville Film Festival, the Milwaukee Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival

-“…as good as an early Errol Morris short. It’s really quite touching in a very subtle but powerful way.”

-Adam Wingard (director of You’re Next, The Guest and V/H/S)

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

 

Feature

Runaway Day (Greece/Dimitris Bavellas) – An affluent woman and unemployed man both, for no apparent reason, runaway from their homes and to witness shocking events and meet strange characters around modern day Athens.

-Official Selection of 13 international film festival including Vienna International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival and winner of Best Foreign Film at the Berkley Film and Video Festival and nominated for the Heart of Sarajevo at Sarajevo Film Festival

-‘…turns the Greek financial crisis into a mystifying monochrome thriller…’

-Hollywood Reporter

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Friday (December 4th)

Shorts

Alberta (Canada/Dan Browne)

-Official Selection of 10 international film festivals including the Festival du nouveau cinema and the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival and nominated for the Jury Sprize at the Montreal Underground Film Festival

Disobedience (Turkey/Baris Alp) – A surrealist documentary about ‘Obedience’.

-Official Selection of 6 international film festivals including International Adana Golden Boll Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Willa (Germany/Helena Hufnagel) – In a remote train station, a man searches for his fiancee, who disappeared on the way to their wedding. Adapted from Stephen King’s short story.

-Official Selection of 23 international film festivals including Fantasia, Screamfest and LA Shorts Fest and nominated for Best Fantasy Film at Filmquest USA and Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects at the Syndey Indie Film Festival

Afterwards (Northern Ireland/Michael Barwise) – An unemployed and uninspired young man wanders the outskirts and the backstreets of his town. Through reflections, memories and encounters, he journeys along society’s undertow.

-Official Selection of Galway Film Fleadh and Foyle Film Festival

-NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE!

Hard Copy (Canada/Jeremy Kane) – A young man ignores all his professional, family, and romantic commitments in order to rent a film from the last known adult video store

-Official Selection of the Hamilton Comedy Film Festival

The Car (Canada/Joffrey Saintrapt) – After being kicked out of his apartment, forced to live in his car and without a job until he can find a residence that’s not a parking lot, a man day gets worse.

-Official Selection of five international film festivals including Cannes Court Mertrage and NSI Festival

Snooze Tease (Canada/Tim Phillips) – A man finds himself hitting the snooze button in order to enjoy a dream.

-Winner of the Best Comedy Prize at the Route 66 Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE

Knockers (France/Arnaud Mangin) – 4 typical 80s sitcom characters find themselves under attack from the evil dead when all they wanted to do was watch a movie.

-Official Selection of Halloweenapalooza, M.A.C. Film Fest and Hollywood Horror Fest of Shorts

-CANADIAN PREMIERE

The Girl Bunnies: ROCKETSHIP (Canada/Francoise Doherty) – Two girl bunnies separated by outer space, meet on a block of ice, become romantically smitten and look for a way to cross the galaxy.

-Official Selection of 5 international film festivals including the Frameline Film Festival and the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

-“…The short’s sweet simplicity results from Doherty’s complex myriad of talents.  A one-woman creative force…” 

-The Queer Review (on ‘The Girl Bunnies’ series)

-CANADIAN PREMIERE

Feature

Frisky (USA/Claudia Pickering) – Two twenty-something women move back to San Francisco, where they had met on exchange years earlier, their high career aspirations quickly become sidelined by their sexual interests.

-Official Selection of 5 international film festivals including Austin Revolution Film Festival and winner of the Best Film prize of at Broad Humor.

-CANADIAN PREMIERE

Saturday (December 5th)

Shorts

Storage Space (Canada/Fraser Wrighte)

-Official Select of 4 international film festivals including the SIMULTAN Festival

http:// (Poland/Bartosz Kruhlik) – A young boy joins his older brother and his friends on an adventure into a remote forest. They are armed with a camcorder and a gun.

-Official Selection of 5 international film festivals and winner of the Best Short Film at the Bayside Film Festival

-‘…This film is so tense, that it grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go…’

-Jury Statement (Nordic Youth Film Festival)

Deseo (Argentina/Carolina Cortella) – Three young women lock themselves away from the world in an apartment for a night.

-Official Selection of 4 international film festivals including the Cartagena Film Festival and the Cine Las Americas International Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

The Grid (England/Andi Osho) – A mocumentary about the rise and fall of fear-based game show where contestants enter a virtual reality world populated by their deepest, darkest fears

-Official Selection of the Pictoclik Film Festival and the Wasteland Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Selfie (Iran/Ali Erfan Farhadi) – A dark comedy about a cancer chairty.

-Official Selection of 5 international film festivals including the Buffalo International Film Festival and the Qabila Short Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

I Could Eat a Horse (England/Jake Hovell) – An incompetent student’s desperate quest for sustenance, as he explores his filthy shared house and leads him to a life-changing dilemma.

-Official Selection of St. Petersburg International Festival of Debut and Student Films Beginning and Buccaneer International Film Festival

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Waffle (USA/Rafael De Leon Jr.) – A troubled, lonesome and deformed high-school science nerd brings her first ‘friend’ over for dinner.

-Official Selection of 42 international film festivals including SXSW, Tromadance, Fantasia and the Puerto Rico International Short Film Festival

-‘…Rafael De Leon Jr. has cooked up something that skewers a little more disturbing than delicious…’

-Dread Central

Getting Ready for a Lunch Date (Canada/Patrick Hodgson) – A woman gets herself ready for a date and anger gets the best of her.

-Official Selection of the A Night of Short Films in Philadelphia and winner of Best Score and Best Editing at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival

-‘…If you like questioning your sanity, then this is a must watch for sure.’

-The Harlton Empire

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

Texting: A Love Story (USA/Jeanette L. Buck) – A woman keeps herself occupied with a never ending series of spicy texts.

-Official Section of 22 international film festivals including the Maryland International Film Festival and the Golden Door International Film Festival

Aqua Fin (USA/Chad Perz) – A insanely absurd and silly sci-fi comedy about an apocalypse where people begin turning into puddles of water.

-WORLD PREMIERE!

Craig, the Loneliest Man in the World, Makes a Friend, Loses a Friend and Subsequently Learns the Value of Solitude (Canada/Ted Stenson) – See title.

-Official Selection of Sled Island.

Indefinite Late Fee (Canada/Magill Foote) – A teenage boy rents a porno video tape using a fake ID, only to have a cursed placed upon him as punishment! Now he must renew the VHS rental forever or everyone dies.

-Official Selection of the Weird Films are the Winery and San Antonio Laughs Film Slam and winner of the Best Screenplay award at Digi60 Spring Film Festival

Feature

My Name is Jonah (USA/Phil Healy and JB Sapienza) – A documentary exploring the life of cult internet celebrity, FHM columnist and self-proclaimed ‘real-life warrior, adventurer and musician’ Jonah.

-Official Selection of 12 international film festivals including the Las Vegas Film Festival and Sydney Underground Film Festival and winner of 3 international prizes including Best New England Feature at the Boston Underground Film Festival

-‘My Name Is Jonah Is Pure, Weird America’

-Bleeding Cool News

-CANADIAN PREMIERE!

In addition every night starting before the short film block we will be presenting a series of video art pieces to get you all in the mood for what’s to come.

Goran (Serbia/Roberto Santaguida)

Men at Work (Finland/Panu Johansson)

Faith, Hope and Honesty (Norway/Helene Torp)

Soft Pong Inari (Japan/Michael Lyons)

Flutterman (Germany/Filmgruppe Chaos)

Special thanks to Miles Forrester, Isabel Zaw-Tun, Michel Honoré Prentice, Emil Terziev, Thomas Rooney, April Beatson, The White House Studio Project, Modern Superior, FilmFreeway, CHIKARA, Paul’s Boutique and to all the filmmakers and artists involved in making this event a success. The festival’s second night was dedicated to actor Robert Loggia.