Portland Film Festival 2023

Black Stories Shorts Block

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6 films in package
Fireflies Save The Night
Hiding in a bedroom closet, an embattled teenager comforts his younger sister and discusses the purpose of fireflies before finding a solution to his family's misery.
13
A woman seeking closure from her childhood abuser realizes that forgiveness is... overrated.
So Misunderstood
In the office, Alice Scott feels the pressure to hold it all together, even when her world is falling apart. But the pandemic changes everything.
Becoming
Two brothers seeking acceptance from one another struggle to understand each other. Shawn wrestles with his dreams and reality, trying to break away from the societal chains weighing him down. While Rashad has succumb to the weight of world, and has forgotten what it means to dream. After Rashad saves Shawn from getting jumped at park, Shawn attempts to connect with his brother. Yet Rashad, a man of action rather than words is still cold towards his baby brother. It takes their parents and Shawn's imagination that help them realize they are both feel like caged birds ready to be set free.
RAW
RAW is an expression of black female divinity as the image and likeness of God. The project was created to explore where black people overcame individual oppression through the power of ritual, solidarity, and trust in a higher power. It dives into our ancestral roots, seeking awareness and surrender in our truth. The ancestral blood of the African Diaspora built the American institutions in which black people struggled for inclusion and where there's still little acknowledgment of the African toil embedded in university buildings and White House walls. RAW visually expresses the hurt of xenophobia and the beauty of finding human agency and trust in a higher power as we heal our country through individual and collective invocations.
Make You Feel
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Group therapy opens some old wounds for a woman who is struggling to release her anger over a "relationship" she had when she was only 13 years old. The process of finding "closure" isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. Based on the writer/director's real life experience, the film is a fantasy rooted in a painful reality. All exteriors were shot in her hometown, and at the actual locations from her childhood using an iPhone to maintain the surreality of childhood memories.

  • Year
    2023
  • Runtime
    13:00
  • Language
    english
  • Country
    USA
  • Rating
    PG-13
  • Genre
    Biography/Memoir, Fantasy, Relationship/Romance, Social Justice/Activism, Suspense/Crime/Mystery
  • Social Media
  • Director
    Danielle Nicolet
  • Screenwriter
    Danielle Nicolet
  • Producer
    Danielle Nicolet, Kayla Compton, Michael Kussman, Josiah Ruis
  • Executive Producer
    Danielle Nicolet
  • Filmmaker
    Danielle Nicolet
  • Cast
    Danielle Nicolet, Greg Vaughan, Jennifer O'Dell
  • Cinematographer
    Beth Napoli
  • Editor
    Josiah Ruis
  • Composer
    Josiah Ruis
  • Music
    Josiah Ruis, Morgan Myles