The Wholesome Family Fun program unlocks access to eight short films created by filmmakers from across the globe, as well as several filmmaker introduction videos. Each individual program screening can be unlocked for $5 a piece. Additionally, you can purchase our All-Access Festival Pass to unlock access to our entire festival lineup for one low price! You can find more information on our All-Access Festival Pass <a href="https://csiff.eventive.org/passes/buy" target="_blank" class="ql-size-small" style="color: rgb(194, 133, 255);">here.</a>

Lives are thrown upside down when a woman commits a mysterious action. So the question remains, "What did she do?".

What She Did

Lives are thrown upside down when a woman commits a mysterious action. So the question remains, "What did she do?".

With a cast comprised mainly of children, this noir-esque short film explores the mystery of, "What happened to Delilah McDonald?". Director Biography -&nbsp;Joshua M. Thomas<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/bc7a5e4da1d62c8246cb6a5c2774d4bc.jpg" width="282" style="display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 1em 1em;">Thomas Farm Films filmmaking INSTRUCTOR (director)—see complete credits in project file attachments to see child directors. Joshua Thomas is co-founder and creative engine of Thomas Farm Films. Joshua is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate in cinema at San Francisco State University where he is finishing up his third and final year this Spring 2020. Joshua has extensive experience in documentary, but his passion is narrative filmmaking. His work has screened at numerous film festivals across the United States. He is also a prolific screenwriter that has completed a vast amount of scripts, both short and feature length. Joshua’s teaching philosophy is that of mentorship and engagement. He has found, both as a teacher and student, that this strategy works far better than dictating knowledge down from a mountain top. He strives to find the interests of all students and involve them in the most collaborative art form, filmmaking. Joshua is also co-owner of Thomas Family Farm, the organic cut flower farm that serves as the location of all the summer camps. He and his wife Kari took over the farm in 2006 from Josh’s parents, Jean and Jerry Thomas, who started the farm way back in 1971. As Joshua is both the farmer and filmmaker, he is able to find the perfect locations on the farm for all the children’s films.

Retirement

With a cast comprised mainly of children, this noir-esque short film explores the mystery of "What happened to Delilah McDonald?".

NASA sought evidence of life on Mars. That search begins with water, and the search for water begins with the study of the rocks and the soil. That was the historic mission of the rovers SPIRIT and OPPORTUNITY. This is SPIRIT's story. Director Biography -&nbsp;Stimson Snead<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/6063b030d719386cbb8bfdbbfebb5c59.jpg" width="130" style="display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 1em 1em;">Award-winning director, illustrator, and ten-year veteran of the indie scene. With multiple stage musicals, short stories and comic strips also to his name. Some describe him as an open-minded team leader who lends his signature style to projects with grace and good humor while still respecting the ethos that informs the source material. Although others have described him as a ticking time bomb of insanity and social anxiety, ready to go screaming off the deep end at any- Director StatementThe story of SPIRIT and OPPORTUNITY is an extraordinarily inspirational one. It resonates on a gut level to all of us working in and following the science and space community. That this effect is so often lost on the laymen is a fact we've resigned ourselves to. But the online comic XKCD: SPIRIT by Randall Monroe, succeeded in driving home just how meaningful this story was. Becoming an instant internet meme shared by young and old alike. It has been a pleasure of the filmmakers to translate that comic to film in order to share the inspiration of SPIRIT: A Martian Story, with the world!

SPIRIT: A Martian Story

This informational short film explores NASA's efforts in finding life on Mars. When combining two state-of-the-art space rovers along with hundreds of the world's greatest minds, life tends to find a way.

The Spirit Seam is a short animated film about a little girl, Pollywog, and her Pap-Paw. Located in an Appalachain coal-mining town in the 1950s, the film takes the audience through the daily life of both characters. At the start of the film, the characters eat breakfast together and then travel to their respective locations- Pollywog is dropped off at school, and Pap-Paw clocks into work at the Hiraethsburg coal mine. Throughout the film they experience the simple pleasures of rural Appalachian life: catching fireflies, fishing, catching frogs, and birthdays. Pap-Paw and Pollywog's bond is incredibly strong. In fact, they are inseparable until illness threatens to fracture their small family. This film is an homage to Gerst's maternal side and their origins working in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It is a piece rooted not only in family roots and origin, but in grief over the loss of family members as well. The Spirit Seam combines a mixture of animation mediums. The characters have been 3D modeled and animated in Audodesk Maya while the elemental effects are created in the 2D Animation software Toonboom Harmony. The sets are created physically, and are created in a variety of ways: 3D printing, embroidery, felted yarn, and sculptural techniques. Director Biography -&nbsp;Ashley Gerst<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/0e1212ec183457c27fe7813bf8136019.jpg" width="269" style="display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 1em 1em;">Ashley Gerst is a 2D and 3D animator living in Brooklyn NY. She holds a BFA in Digital Arts from Cleveland Institute of Art and an MFA in Computer Art from School of Visual Arts. In addition to her professorial work at William Paterson, Ashley is a freelance animator working for a variety of production companies and clients in the Greater New York City area. She has created animation and VFX for broadcast commercials, TV shows, and documentaries for AMC, VH1, and BET. Some of her clients include Fast Company, Behance, Credit Suisse, Nivea, Nissan, Afrin, Red Bull, Hudson Media, CBS, Nurturing Press, iNomadics, Redwood Living and more. Ashley Gerst was also responsible for animating the title sequence for the 2018 feature film 'The Con is On'. The film, distributed by Grindhouse/Lionsgate, is a heist comedy directed by James Haslam and stars Uma Thurman and Tim Roth. She is currently finishing an animated short film titled the Spirit Seam. The film, taking place in 1952, follows a little girl named Pollywog and her PapPaw as they experience daily life in a small coal mining town in Appalachia. The final project combines a mixture of mediums: 3D animated character, 2D animated effects, and physically constructed sets. The sets were created with a combination of 3D printing, fiber arts, and carved sculpture. The Spirit Seam's concept art and set construction has been featured in the article “Explore the World of Fine-Art Animation” in Professional Artist Magazine's December/January 2017-2018 issue. The sets and embroidery for the film were also in a solo show at Misbits Gallery in 2018 in Oxford Mississippi. Other animated films created by Ashley Gerst have been screened nationally in several film festivals including Dam Short Film Festival, Tucson Slow Food and Film Festival, Standing Rock Film Festival (Third Place Award). Her films have also been exhibited in the Cleveland Museum of Art and featured in Cleveland's local newspaper: The Plain Dealer, LA Weekly and Makezine.

The Spirit Seam

In this heartwarming animated tale, a young girl and her grandfather share an inseparable bond in the Appalachian Mountains. However, with tragedy looming near, will their bond be able to stand the test of time?

Siu-Yu and Siu-On are both Hong Kongers, but their different ethnicity makes their love story a bit less ordinary than others. Always being teased by classmates, Siu-Yu thought Siu-On couldn’t stand the peer pressure and quit school. Time passed by and one day they met again and started talking about their past. Director - Keung Chor Kiu<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/fb01ecf0b7ad11723be034bee23d58c0.jpg" width="309">

The Movie About Us

This short film explores the relationship between two Hong Kong students, each of different ethnicities. Love knows no bounds for these two lovebirds.

Kenya, A bold five-year old girl, reluctantly ends up in her first symphony concert with her mother. As the conductor lays a downbeat and the orchestra begins to play, Kenya’s patience wears thin. To entertain herself, the bold young girl pulls out a straw and begins to reign havoc in the auditorium with spitballs. Against her mother’s pleading, Kenya continues to behave in disobedience. Will Kenya continue to disobey her mother or will she discover the magic of music? Director Biography - Carlos Douglas Jr.<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/d1d29f3c56cd4c25e0a7cf3db9b5e66d.jpg" width="200" style="display: inline; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 1em 1em;">﻿Carlos Douglas Jr is an animator &amp; director/producer of Kenya’s Symphony. He is a spring 2020 graduate of Columbia College Chicago under the Interactive Arts and Media program, earning his Bachelor of Arts in Traditional Animation. He acted as the president of the Columbia College Chicago Animation Association (CCCAA), a prominent student organization at the college intended to expand curriculum beyond the classroom experience, preparing and opening opportunities for animation students in the industry. In addition to directing and producing Kenya’s Symphony, he is the producer on the upcoming 2020 animated short, Buster and Jamson as part of the Animation Production Studio course at Columbia. Born and raised in Chicagoland, Carlos began creating art at a very young age and continued his study of the arts into adulthood. Carlos studied for years under the teachings of Nikki Kutansky, a long-time arts instructor at the Center for Visual &amp; Performing Arts in Munster, Indiana before enrolling at Columbia College Chicago. During his tenure in Nikki’s class, his interest in animation and motion picture arts was realized. Some of his past accolades include creating the character design of “Little Rocky” on musician Rocky Kramer’s music video, Rock Star, storyboarding for live-action films produced at Columbia College Chicago, and organizing the 2020 digital Storyreel Showcase at Columbia. Kenya’s Symphony is a 2-D animated short produced and directed by Carlos, with music composed by Michael Van Bodegom Smith (“Beyond The Door”, “Me and Myself”, “Teacher of the Year”). This project was inspired by Carlos’ employment as an usher for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and his passion for film and orchestral music. This film was completed over the course of three semesters with no budget. His plan was to produce a film primarily driven by visuals and music. The score was recorded by a 60-piece orchestra and combined with a sound mix for a sonic experience without dialogue. Kenya’s Symphony had its premiere screening at the Big Teeth Small Shorts Festival in Chicago, Illinois, winning the "People's Choice" Award in the Small Shorts category. Carlos has a goal of producing and directing animated content with narrative. Television and film provide a great outlet for stories to be shared. Post-graduation, he plans to find his place among the animation community and continue to create animated content for the screen. Director StatementKenya's Symphony was completed with no budget, only with the resources that were available at my disposal, along with my collaborators. Kenya's Symphony tells the story of a young girl coming to appreciate an art form less traveled by a modern generation. Diving even deeper, this is the story of a person being placed in an unfamiliar situation and being changed by the experience; this change happens not by force, but by chance. By giving the symphony a chance, she finds enchantment in the unfamiliar. Despite everything and everyone looking different, Kenya becomes one of the insiders in this fantastic turn of events. I hope that this film can be viewed by people both young and old so that they can have some fun watching Kenya's chaotic energy be transformed into something positive. I also hope that they take away this valuable piece of wisdom with them. Give things a try and experience a whole new side of yourself!

Kenya's Symphony

This animated short film is about a young child named Kenya, who is reluctantly dragged to a symphony by her mother. Will her disorderly behavior be her downfall or will she learn to appreciate the power of music?

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