Decades after a global apocalypse, two brothers, raised in a junkyard, finally set out in their homemade car to see the world... <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/9d45f2b2b8fb210153ae3f193e542cf5.jpg" width="136" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director BiographyJack Robichaud is a standup comedian, actor, writer and director who first gained recognition with his sketch group Dead Kevin. They were featured in LA Weekly's Top Ten Comedy Acts to Watch in 2014. He was also a new face at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, and won the storyteller's initiative at SeriesFest in Denver with his pilot script "You From the Future." Director StatementFate of the World was a passion project. An idea I'd had for many years, until my college buddy John, and expert DP, encouraged me to go out to the desert and film it. We did it with zero budget and a sack of favors from like-minded friends. I'm proud of this thing and I hope you like it.﻿

Fate of the World

On the day of the World Cup final between Brazil and France, Erika Oguihara, a Japanese-Brazilian teenager who rejects her family traditions, experiences a violence that seems invisible and plunges into a painful sea of emotions. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/5bee1a8e7698290b4da285cad39b3d65.jpg" width="191" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director BiographyAndré Hayato Saito is a Japanese-Brazilian scriptwriter and director. His short films were selected by festivals like Cannes, TIFF, and others. Recently, Saito joined Torino Feature Lab and TIFF Filmmaker Lab with his debut feature film, selected by markets like OntarioCreates and FocusCoPro.

AMARELA

<img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/002/043/840/original/bb5dc70e42-headshot.jpg?1650801695" width="306" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director Biography -&nbsp;Maxine PeakeMaxine has appeared in TV shows suchas Silk, Shameless, Criminal Justiceand See No Evil. Recent Film includesFunny Cow and Fanny Lye Deliveredin the title roles. Theatre highlightsinclude Hamlet at the Royal Exchange,playing the prince of Denmarkthemselves. Maxine has writtenextensively for stage and Radio. All herplays have focused on women’s stories.She has directed the short film Time Away and is now working on thefeature version. She has also directed musicvideos for Cherry Ghost and Keeley Forsyth Director StatementAs both an actress and director, I have always been frustrated with the female stories that arechosen to be told, especially working-class female stories. Short shrift is still dished out whentackling these women, their intelligence, their passions, needs and ultimately their place in society.The prejudices and presumptions that at best misrepresent at worst silence.I want to bring complicated, complex women to the screen. Women that I am surrounded by.Hayley’s script cut straight to that desire. Here is a woman in turmoil. This pain and conflictstemming from the diagnosis of her unborn child. The barriers emotional and clinical that she hasto overcome when making her decision to terminate the fetus or not. Hayley’s script focuses onthe destructive and divisive silencing of women around matters that involve their health andwellbeing. The lack of help, support and understanding, of willingness to understand and engage. Iwant to explore and highlight the crimpling and debilitating effect of grief. Grief of losing an unbornchild and the loneliness of that grief. I want to look how that grief manifests physically as well asmentally.I want the silencing of Annie to manifest itself as if in a horror. Something symbolic, unsettling andotherworldly.The setting of Incompatible is the Haworth Moors known for its most famous residents TheBronte Sisters. Hayley has drawn parallels with these extraordinary women. The life they wereonly able to express through their imagination and ultimately through their writing. I want us to feeltheir presence haunting not only Annie but the rugged landscape, which I believe is in all goodfilmmaking, will be another character.Our native environment has such an indelible effect on our psyche and here is landscape that canbe bleak, brutal and stunningly beautiful in the same breath. The deep connection women havewith nature, it mirrors our anger and fear but also has a remarkable ability to soothe and calm. Thetimelessness of connection. I want this to be a central theme. I also want our Haworth and thesurrounding area to represent the diversity within the North of England which, again, too often getsignored and overlooked.This is a story not without hope, It is the story of the birth of hope in the most desperate ofsituations. It is a love letter to women everywhere who suffer in silence. The true warriors

Incompatible

<img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/002/323/901/original/aba74d71ff-headshot.jpg?1686557526" width="179" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">A cyborg child dies suddenly when a piano falls on top of him. Death comes to take him to the afterlife, but he refuses to go until his final wish is fulfilled - to cause chaos at his own funeral. Director Biography -&nbsp;April AquinoApril Aquino is a 23-year-old Filipino-American animator. She has just completed her animation BFA and illustration minor from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. She is excited to see what kinds of wacky stories and adventures everyone has and hopes that she can help tell those stories. Director StatementTrigonometry’s Ultimate Method to Putting the Fun Back in Your Own Funeral is a film inspired by my experiences with death and funerals. Over the summer, one of my close family members died and it became a stressful time in my life. When I attended his funeral, I realized how much I disliked them because of how sad they made everyone. Later, I vaguely remembered seeing an article about funeral strippers and someone saying somewhere that they wanted to turn their casket into a jack-in-the-box. I thought they were pretty funny ideas and that having a fun funeral would make people a little less sad.Death can come suddenly and without warning, and it can happen to anyone. It’s sad and scary, but it's something everyone comes to experience. It can be difficult to bear but making it a little more fun and lighthearted helps make the transition easier, which is what I wanted this film todo. It’s chaotic and all over the place, but it brings a smile to your face.I didn’t want this film to be super depressing despite its subject matter, so I got inspiration from the show Bee and Puppycat. Their soft, comforting world inspired me to give this film asaturated color palette, design a wacky, nature filled world for these weird looking characters to live (and die) in, and use my hand drawn animation skills to make them move in eccentric styles.I hope that when the inevitable happens, there will be comfort within the sadness and that Triggy and all his antics serve as a reminder that even though someone we love is gone, everything is going to be okay.

Trigonometry's Ultimate Method to Putting the Fun Back in Your Own Funeral

A young man struggles to communicate with his stroke-afflicted father, and at the same time, stay true to himself. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/a8f9dccbb009fba8ebd7daf21fe27b03.jpg" width="163" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director BiographyGeorge is a Chicago director, screenwriter, and producer most known for his award-winning experimental film, SWITCHIN' which was featured on NBC5 Chicago and is now streaming on OTV Open Television. His work has screened nationally and internationally at such film festivals as Athens International Film Festival, Chicago Black Harvest Film Festival, London International Web &amp; Shorts Film Festival (UK), and many more. Currently pursuing his MFA from DePaul University with expected graduation in June 2023, his thesis film, “Cottage Grove”, was a finalist for the Camera Ambassador Community Grant (2022) and the BlueCat Screenplay Competition (2022). George is driven to explore the oft-ignored narratives of minorities and romanticize the black experience to spark healing. Director StatementCottage Grove merges my love for experimental and narrative film. It is rooted in Chicago, in Bronzeville, a rapidly changing South Side community that is, itself, a character in the script and short. But in stark contrast to this place and all its complexity is the simple beauty of a father-son reconciliation found unintentionally through halting words, meaningful looks, flights of fantasy, and, ultimately, love. My desire for Cottage Grove is to facilitate healthy conversations between parents and their children at any stage of life. The story's core is healing starts with parents' compassion, understanding, and acknowledgment of their children's hurt.﻿

Cottage Grove

<img src="https://filmfreeway-production-storage-01-connector.filmfreeway.com/press_kits/headshots/002/806/586/original/7867406b7a-headshot.jpg?1718551260" width="150" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director Biography -&nbsp;Miguel Lepe, Jr.Miguel is a Chicago-based comedian, writer, actor, and award-winning filmmaker.He received his BA degree in Video Production from Columbia College Chicago and studied comedy writing and improvisation at The Second City Training Center and Annoyance Theater. He has been writing and performing for over 10 years both on stage and screen.His first short film, The Guitar Thief, has won several awards for both screenwriting and directing across several film festivals in the US and Internationally.As an actor, he's been featured on HBO, Showtime, FX, FOX, and NBC. ﻿Director StatementWhen I was in high school, my dad caught me sneaking out of the house and he did not have a conversation, he yelled...a lot. Now that I'm a father of 2, I wanted to retell this story from my POV of a father and portray a Latino dad that isn't a Machismo stereotype. I want people to see another version of a father/daughter relationship.

The Window

Dinner for two turns deadly when a Korean and a Korean-American fight over who gets to pay the check — and who gets to keep their honor. <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/eventive-static/1ad11e68ce5a77186eaa296001b7e7dc.jpg" width="143" style="display: inline; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;">Director BiographyShane Chung is a Korean-American filmmaker who champions diversity, equity and wackiness in the film industry and enjoys pairing genre with unexpected subject matter. Director StatementCHECK PLEASE is heavily influenced by schlocky, zany, stunt-filled action comedy and martial arts films (Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow) because first and foremost I wanted to make a crowdpleaser. I think the best movies are like magic tricks in that you walk away after seeing them asking “how did they do that?!”﻿And yet I also wanted to use the "fun" of the action genre to trick the audience into sitting with a movie that talks about a theme more personal to me: the "in-betweenness" of holding a Korean-American identity. I address a few questions about belonging and representation: what is “Koreanness”? Is it innate? Can you gain or lose it? (Jay attempts to reclaim his perceived “loss in Koreanness” by attaching himself to superficial cultural Korean rituals, like picking up the bill.) And is there such thing as a “bad Korean” on screen? I wanted to portray Asian Americans in film that go beyond a tired immigrant storyline or a discrimination storyline and instead focus on the relatable internal struggle of being too Korean for America, but being too American for Korea. This is a resonant theme for many, my hope is that this film can help them feel that they aren't alone!

CHECK PLEASE

Short Film Program 4

Chicago Southland International Film Festival

Donation to {{name}}

Donate to CSIFF

Gift Cards

These are all the passes tied to your account. Now, use our online schedule to reserve tickets. You can access your tickets via {{my_tickets_link|"My Tickets"}} or via the PDFs attached to each ticket order confirmation email. {{buy_pass_link|Looking to buy more passes?}}

These are all your purchased tickets for the Chicago Southland International Film Festival. Each ticket gives you access to the various short film programs and feature film screenings our festival offers. Too many tickets? Purchase an All-Access Pass to unlock access to our entire festival catalog for one low price!

All-Access Festival Pass

Virtual Festival Pass

Festival Pass

VIP Festival Pass

All Access Festival Pass

Standard Festival Pass

None available

Festival Passes

Here you can browse our available virtual programming. For any questions, please feel free to contact us at csiff@govst.edu.

Chicago Southland International Film Festival

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Our live-streams will be available for 24 hours from their initial air time.