Films & Schedules - SHORT CUTS

90 Minutes    

Interests: Short Cuts.

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STARS DON’T TWINKLE IN OUTER SPACE

DIRECTOR: Peter Thwaites - (Great Britain)

A young boy’s fantasy about a trip to a strange planet in a rocket ship morphs into a different kind of trip altogether as reality sets in.

10 Minutes    

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PLEASE SAY SOMETHING

DIRECTOR: David O’Reilley - (Ireland/Germany)

A troubled relationship between a cat and mouse set in the distant future.

10 Minutes    

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RUNAWAY

DIRECTOR: Cordell Barker - (Canada)

Happy passengers are having a great time on a crowded train, oblivious to the fate that awaits them around the bend.

9 Minutes    

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POSTE RESTANTE

DIRECTOR: Marcel Lozinski - (Poland)

What happens to letters addressed to Santa? To deceased relatives? To God? The birth, delivery, and reincarnation of undeliverable letters in Poland.

14 Minutes    

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GRANNY O’GRIMM’S SLEEPING BEAUTY

DIRECTOR: Nicky Phelan - (Ireland)

Granny O’Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, loses the plot as she tells her version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified granddaughter.

6 Minutes    

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NEXT FLOOR

DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve - (Canada)

During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be ritualistic gastronomic carnage.

12 Minutes    

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ALMA

DIRECTOR: Rodrigo Blaas - (Spain)

Alma, a little girl, skips through the snow-covered streets of a small town. Her attention is caught by a strange doll in an antique toy shop window. Fascinated, Alma decides to enter…

5 Minutes    

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THE GROUND BENEATH

DIRECTOR: Rene Hernandez - (Australia)

Kaden’s troubles give way to self-discovery through a young girl and boy who loiter on his street.

20 Minutes    

98 Minutes    

Interests: Short Cuts.

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SHE WHO MEASURES

DIRECTOR: Veljko Popovic - (Croatia)

Put on a happy face or the scary clown will keep you in line.

7 Minutes    

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GOOD ADVICE

DIRECTOR: Andreas Tibblin - (Sweden)

Tired of his parents never listening to him, 10-year-old Rasmus decides to run away from home. But before leaving, he records a cassette tape for his yet-to-be-born new brother with advice on how to handle life.

15 Minutes    

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MADAGASCAR

DIRECTOR: Bastien Dubois - (France)

A visual travel journal demonstrating the importance of dance, death, and custom in a vibrant Malagasy society.

12 Minutes    

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MIRACLE FISH

DIRECTOR: Luke Doolan - (Australia)

Eight-year-old Joe has a birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he wishes everyone would just go away. He wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality.

18 Minutes    

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CAGES

DIRECTOR: Juan José Medina - (Mexico)

As an old man collects his traps in the desert, an unearthly spirit is stalking his own prey.

10 Minutes    

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SLAVES

DIRECTOR: David Aronowitsch, Hanna Heilborn - (Sweden)

The harrowing stories of Abouk, 9, and Machiek, 15, who were abducted by a government-sponsored militia in Sudan and used as slaves in their war effort.

15 Minutes    

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THE ARMOIRE

DIRECTOR: Jamie Travis - (Canada)

In the third installment of his Saddest Children in the World trilogy, following Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner and The Saddest Boy in the World, a young boy descends into an abyss of secrets, fantasies, and memory when he realizes that his best friend has gone missing.

21 Minutes    

81 Minutes    

Interests: Short Cuts.

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HOUSE OF SOUND

DIRECTOR: Vanessa Renwick -

Homage to the House of Sound, a North Portland record store and community anchor razed in 2008.

11 Minutes    

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LAST THROES

DIRECTOR: Sal Strom -

Political undertones are the binding agents in an aural and visual collage.

4 Minutes    

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MISSED ACHES

DIRECTOR: Joanna Priestley -

An ode to the fallibility of spell-check.

4 Minutes    

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SACK LUNCH

DIRECTOR: Sean Whiteman -

A shirtless man in a windowless bathroom talks some sense into the world.

10 Minutes    

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122 RANDOM SECONDS

DIRECTOR: Karl Lind -

A real-time doc that encourages you to “keep Portland weird” and always carry your camera.

2 Minutes    

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THE MOUSE THAT SOARED

DIRECTOR: Kyle Bell -

A famous flying mouse reflects on his humble beginnings in this high-altitude adventure in aerodynamics.

6 Minutes    

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SEAGULLS AND WAVES

DIRECTOR: Brian Libby -

Music by Colleen playfully seasons contemplative footage of the title subjects.

6 Minutes    

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AXIOMS OF A DISHWASHER

DIRECTOR: Vance Malone -

Philosophic musings on the most thankless job in the kitchen.

7 Minutes    

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FAMILY HISTORY

DIRECTOR: Shelley Jordon -

New experience is filtered through perceptions of past experiences.

5 Minutes    

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LAST YEAR

DIRECTOR: Jarratt Taylor -

What feels like a loosely edited home movie evokes the moods, more than the events, of a year in review.

5 Minutes    

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ASCENDING THE GIANTS

DIRECTOR: John Waller -

Charming arborists tackle Oregon’s tallest trees.

12 Minutes    

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DON’T WORRY, IT’S A NEW CENTURY

DIRECTOR: Jeff Guay -

In this wry homage to a seminal Northwest short, a narrator explores the concept of “idea recycling.”

9 Minutes    

92 Minutes    

Interests: Short Cuts.

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WHATEVER TURNS YOU ON

DIRECTOR: Declan Cassidy - (Ireland)

The well-ordered running of an electronics store is disrupted when a homeless man arrives to make a purchase.

4 Minutes    

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TEN FOR GRANDPA

DIRECTOR: Doug Karr - (Canada/United States)

Was Grandpa a manipulative antihero or simply a victim of the McCarthy-era witch hunt?

7 Minutes    

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THIS IS HER

DIRECTOR: Katie Wolfe - (New Zealand)

“This is me. This is my husband. And this is the bitch who will one day steal him and ruin my life.”

12 Minutes    

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THIS WAY UP

DIRECTOR: Adam Foulkes - (Great Britain)

Laying the dead to rest has never been so much trouble.

9 Minutes    

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NETHERLAND DWARF

DIRECTOR: David Michôd - (Australia)

Harry really wants a rabbit; Harry’s dad really wants his wife back. They’ve both forgotten that they already have each other.

15 Minutes    

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SHORT TERM 12

DIRECTOR: Destin Daniel Cretton - (United States)

Denim, the supervisor for a residential facility housing 15 kids affected by child abuse, begins to realize that, in a lot of ways, he is no different from the children he tries to help.

22 Minutes    

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THE DINNER

DIRECTOR: Karchi Perlmann - (Hungary)

A day in the life of a small rural Hungarian family during the riots of September 2006. “A stewed-up existential, cultural and political pot of goulash.”

23 Minutes    

A program of experimental films presented by Cinema Project and the Northwest Film Center.

A program of experimental films presented by Cinema Project and the Northwest Film Center.

80 Minutes    

Interests: Short Cuts.

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LUMPHINI 2552

DIRECTOR: Tomonari Nishikawa - (United States/Japan)

Black-and-white images of plants and trees taken with a 35mm still camera at Bangkok’s Lumphini Park construct an emotional rhythm and illusion of movement of beautiful defamiliarization.

3 Minutes    

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SHINONOME OMOGO ISHIZUCHI

DIRECTOR: Shiho Kano - (Japan)

A travelogue of images inspired by filmmaker Mansaku Itami, including visits to Shinonome Shrine, Omogo Valley, and Ishizuchi Mountain in Ehime, Japan.

15 Minutes    

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BLOCK B

DIRECTOR: Chris Chong Chan Fui - (Malaysia)

A stationary camera looks from one apartment block in a Kuala Lumpur neighborhood directly onto another. As a modernist interchange of private and public space, Block B attempts to grasp the scope and use of monolithic architecture.

20 Minutes    

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TREES OF SYNTAX, LEAVES OF AXIS

DIRECTOR: Daïchi Saïto - (Canada/Japan)

Accompanied by the contrapuntal violin of Malcolm Goldstein, Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis examines the natural language of a familiar landscape: the formations of maple trees and the spaces they inhabit as poetic expressions of visual and aural patterns.

10 Minutes    

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EMPIRE BORDERS

DIRECTOR: Chen Chieh Jen - (Taiwan)

Chen Chieh Jen explores the various and sundry checks that Taiwanese citizens must endure when applying for a U.S. visa and how the “empire” employs every means to maintain an imperialist control.

27 Minutes