White River Indie Festival

WRIF Emerging Filmmakers Showcase

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14 films in package
5:01
Two female filmmakers explore the level of awareness among the male students regarding the gender gap among second year filmmakers at Champlain College.
Noah's Last Day
An elementary schooler has her last day of school before retreating underground with her doomsday prepper father.
Alone, Together
A short film articulating the challenges of creating a film while stuck inside and the cabin fever all can relate to under quarantine.
Jet Line: Voicemails from the Flight Path
An anonymous hotline elevates the voices beneath the deafening flight path of Vermont's F-35 fighter jet.
Harry
The story of an adventurous Atlantic crossing told through archival footage and interviews.
USSR is Canceled
Two boys in 90s Ukraine return from a camping trip and find the USSR has fallen.
Clear as Crystal
A student on the autism spectrum magically receives the ability to read social cues, but will his newfound gift empower or crush him?
Eggs
An enigmatic and poetic film about resisting entropy together.
Residue
An experimental look at found footage of the filmmaker's grandfather traveling up Mt. Washington, juxtaposed with stills of his time in Vietnam.
Keeping the Farm Alive
Keeping a dairy farm alive in 2021 is no easy task
Violent Logic: A Cleaving
A two-part short film based on Emily Dickinson poems exploring the idea of the "split self."
Violent Logic: A Still Volcano Life
A two-part short film based on Emily Dickinson poems exploring the idea of the "split self."
Living On The Shelf: The Importance of Archival Footage
A documentary about the importance of preserving Vermont's history through archival footage at CCTV.
WRIF Emerging Filmmakers Showcase Winners
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The WRIF Emerging Filmmakers Contest showcases the talents of young filmmakers (age 18-30) living in VT & NH. These films were selected to be shown at WRIF because they resonate with the festival's independent, creative and community-building spirit. We invite you to pay what you can for this screening to contribute to prizes for the Audience Award winners, which will be announced at the end of the festival!

Kyiv, USSR Ukraine, the 90s. Two boys-pioneers leave the city for a weekend camping trip. Coming back, they find out that the Soviet Union has fallen, tearing apart everything they knew about their country and themselves. A student filmmaker at Dartmouth College, Polly Chesnokova, sets to push the creative boundaries of the medium by creating a silent black and white short film inspired by the artistic audacity of French New Wave. After its release in the summer of 2020,  USSR is Canceled was officially selected at CIFF and TFF festivals, and screened at Cornell University, NY and Trinity College, CT.


Polly Chesnokova is a current student at Dartmouth where she hopes to modify in Film, Philosophy, and Neuroscience. A student filmmaker and an environmental activist from Kyiv, Ukraine, Polly is interested in investigating the media's role in the public conversation around current issues and exploring the portrayal of mental illness, gender, and movement in cinema. 

  • Runtime
    10 minutes
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