<a href="https://www.restfestfilmfestival.org/rumbling-film-festival-program" target="_blank" class="ql-size-large">﻿Click here to learn about each film in this program</a><a href="https://www.restfestfilmfestival.org/shorts-block-breath" target="_blank" class="ql-size-large">.</a> Total Runtime: 54min 34s

Synopsis: Song Without Words is a short film exploring the gestural continuities between piano, music conducting, and sign language to redefine listening. Ting’s two-movement short film layers visual and sonic compositions like chords of perception. The first movement reflects on instruments of hearing—both musical and physiological—as Ting, who is hard of hearing, navigates sound comprehension. Ting plays with the legibility of captions as the soundscape is intentionally distorted to mimic the periodic inaccessibility of comprehension, breaking the illusion that hearing devices fully illuminate understanding. Gestures by a conductor and an ASL signer, digitized as movement calligraphy, intertwine spatial vocabularies, translating meaning without auditory cues. Pianistic hand movements echo sign language, while unstable captions reinforce partial inaccessibility. The second movement expands this inquiry as captions shift from literal descriptions of sound to poetic fragments of inner thought, with sound and graphics reflecting words that form and dissolve. Letters become atoms of meaning, assembling into nonsensical, tongue-twister sentences once used in telephone clarity tests—unheard yet deeply resonant, revealing listening as an embodied, interpretive act. Artist Bio: Olivia Ting is a deaf visual artist exploring the space between hearing and silence through multidisciplinary work. Using a hearing aid and cochlear implant, she investigates the deaf body and digital hearing technology. Her art spans installation, film, projection, design, and haptics, blending sensory and poetic visuals. Ting holds degrees from Pomona College and Art Center College of Design. After working in New York, she returned to San Francisco to design video projections for dance, earning four Isadora Duncan Award nominations. Her work has appeared in major museums and international screenings. She holds an MFA from UC Berkeley and multiple fellowships. IG: <a href="instagram.com/oting1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@oting1</a>, <a href="www.olivetinge.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.olivetinge.com</a>, <a href="www.beethovensbox.cargo.site" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.beethovensbox.cargo.site</a>

English

Song Without Words [AD] [OC]

A two-movement short film by pianist and artist Olivia Ting, explores the gestures of piano, conducting, and sign language to reveal listening as an embodied act through distorted sound and visual rhythm.

Content Note: Act 1 of the film contains flashing lights and brief mention of harm done to- and death of a bird. Synopsis: A Healing Opera is a meditative journey through neurodiversity, solitude, healing, and queerness, blending archival footage, sound, and teddy bear performance into three transformative acts.Using archive footage captured on their mobile phone during the lockdown periods in Portugal and the UK, Elisabetta crafts a 3-act film that explores feelings of solitude and grief. Inspired by somatic healing and Buddhist meditation practices, the work follows their personal journey toward reconnection with themself and with all beings, tracing the transformation of thoughts into complex bodily sensations.In Act 1, a pigeon story addresses the trauma of loss, as well as the solitude and alienation linked to depression and neurodiversity. Act 2 draws inspiration from the song “Upside-Down Cake”, creating a tender space for diversity and self-compassion. Act 3 begins with images of death and rebirth as a clumsy transformation, culminating in a reclamation of queerness, joy, and self-expression.This film was made for Elisabetta’s MA degree show at Goldsmiths University. Fruity Pebblez composed the soundtrack, and bear Favorito delivered a captivating performance. A Healing Opera marks the beginning of the artist’s professional collaboration with teddy bears. Artist Bio: Elisabetta (b. Italy, 1979) is a multimedia artist based between Venice and London. Their contemplative films explore the sensory connections between beings, drawing from queer ecology, eco-feminism, and spiritual animism. Through stillness and meditation, Elisabetta invites viewers to experience new forms of relationship and ecological awareness. Recent works, including Breath of a Stone, Parallel Cycles, and A Healing Opera, reflect on the symbiosis between living and non-officially-living matter. <a href="www.orsorosa.com " rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.orsorosa.com </a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elisabetta_antonucci/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@elisabetta_antonucci</a> Online Premiere

A HEALING OPERA [AD] [OC]

A meditative journey through neurodiversity, solitude, healing, and queerness, blending archival footage, sound, and teddy bear performance into three transformative acts.

Content Notes: Verbal harassment Synopsis: Ardida is an experimental animation that combines 2D, 3D and rotoscopy from a satiric lens to critique displacement and extractivist practices within a city.It premiered in Philadelphia at BlackStar Film Festival 2024. Screening at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for the Experimental Animation Showcase 2025 and won Best Edition prize at Los Video Nasties by La Casa Norte, among other international screenings. Artist Bio: Miranda Morales Rosales (Mir) is an animator and artist based in Los Angeles. She is a California Institute of the Arts Experimental Animation MFA graduate (’25) and Fulbright scholar (’22). Her first short film as Director "Ardida" is a 3D/2D experimental animation that premiered in BlackStar Film Festival 2024 and has screened at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in 2025 as well as internationally. Other works include 'Hola Gata!' which screened as part of Hellavision Television's Cnt-A-Vision and created visuals for Kenia Os for her latest tour in Lollapalooza, Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, etc. Recently she worked as Graduate and Teaching Assistant at CalArts (’25) and taught an animation workshop at Stanford University (’25). The Los Angeles Times published her comic work in 2024, which she is currently developing further in her upcoming film ALIENATED. Women in Animation awarded her an Honorable Mention in 2023 for her work and she is included in the First Registry of Mexican, Mexican American, and Chicana artists in LA by CCCM Los Angeles, an effort seeking to recognize the contribution of contemporary and historical women of color within the film industry. <a href="https://instagram.com/flordenub3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@flordenub3</a>

Ardida [AD] [CC]

An experimental animation that combines 2D, 3D and rotoscopy from a satiric lens to critique displacement and extractivist practices within a city.

Content Notes: Flashing Lights &amp; Shaky Camera Movement. Synopsis: A young girl from New Orleans dreams of celebrating her birthday during the weekend of Hurricane Katrina. Artist Bio: Ruby Kline is a freelance filmmaker from New Orleans, LA, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work centers around memory, environmental and social injustices, and southern stories. <a href="www.instagram.com/rubykline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@rubykline</a> <a href="https://www.rubykline.co/when-the-camera-wasn't-running" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.rubykline.co/when-the-camera-wasn't-running</a>

When the Camera Wasn't Running [AD] [CC]

A young girl from New Orleans dreams of celebrating her birthday during the weekend of Hurricane Katrina.

Synopsis: “Río" contemplates the interaction between the flow of a river, its wildlife and the sunlight. Although it is just a few inches deep, the river contains a busy and multilayered life. Artist Bio: Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero is an artist from Bilbao, Spain, and based in New York City whose practice focuses on the ephemerality of the environment and its connection to the passage of time. His work highlights our world’s transient nature and presents the familiar as unique and transcendent. He examines details and features of the landscape as a means to honor and restore our innate and intimate connection with Earth and its elements. <a href="https://instagram.com/gonzagagc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@gonzagagc</a>

Río [AD] [CC]

Video artwork contemplating the interaction between the flow of a river, its wildlife and the sunlight.

Shorts Block: Rumbling [AD] [CC]/[OC]

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