2024 GTX FILM FESTIVAL - OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
LONE STARS
NARRATIVE FEATURE
Austin, TX
1:42:29
Directors: Chet Hamilton, Dru Miers
"Lone Stars” is a mockumentary that follows two filmmakers who manipulate a talented country music duo into believing that they've landed a sought after brand sponsorship with Lone Star Beer.
FITTING DESCRIPTIONS
NARRATIVE SHORT
Chicago, IL
9:55
Directors: Tiffany Bedwell, John Mossman
Dina, an aging CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) stage actor haunted by a past humiliation, tries to jump-start her failing on-camera career by rebranding. Outside a Chicago coffeehouse Dina begrudgingly solicits passersby for first impressions, then weathers the resulting IRL likes, comments, and plain indifference of strangers and her industry alike. But when her past and present collide, Dina’s authorial CODA “voice” awakens.
THREE COLOURS
YOUTH SHORT
Croatia
9:56
Director: Lana Gredelj (age 14)
Three Colours is a short film about the perception of life after a personal loss. Using experimental visuals, land-art and soundscapes, the natural world becomes a decor to express the unsayable.
LULU IN TURIN
FOREIGN FEATURE
Italy
1:16:00
Director: Ian Charles Lister
A film about...making a film, a film within a film, films I love; an obsession, an icon of silent cinema, a portrait, looking for Lulu; the male gaze; female empowerment and fulfilment; Turin and its history, architecture, cinemas and people...me and the film of my dreams.
BLOODY & BRUISED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BACK ROOM
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Austin, TX
1:44:00
Director: Budro Partida
Bloody & Bruised: The Untold Story of The Back Room is a documentary feature film that chronicles one of most notoriously known (and often disregarded) music venues in Austin, Texas. It’s a film that spans the 33 year history of the east Riverside club, from its meager beginnings in the early 70s as a watering hole for country folk and bikers, to its glory years of 80s glam rock and metal, through its 90s grunge and hardcore era, and into the early 2000s punk and hip hop scene, before it’s demise in 2006.
prObed
NARRATIVE SHORT
Austin, Texas
6:37
Director: Umar Shiraz Jafri
A first date gone wrong thanks to an extraterrestrial encounter that goes from wonder to horror in the flash of a UFO beam.
prObed is a sci-fi short inspired by the Spielberg classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
SOMETHING IMAGINABLE
STUDENT SHORT
Atlanta, GA
18:27
Director: Ishan Parikh
A young twenty-something navigates the pitfalls of online dating.
DROWNING
YOUTH SHORT
CALIFORNIA
7:26
Director: Nicole Giacoletti
Avery and Sierra were once best friends, but now that they are older, they hardly know each other. When they bump into each other one day, Avery hopes that this is their chance to rekindle the friendship.
KIELIA
NARRATIVE FEATURE
Austin, Texas
45:00
Director: Vic Quinton, Cynthia Garcia
A love story 10,000 years in the making. A time traveler (Kielia) goes back in time to Austin, Texas to discover the true meaning of a word that was forbidden and removed from all data sources for thousands of years...LOVE.
WE WILL FIND YOU
FOREIGN SHORT
SPAIN
20:00
Director: Judson Vaughan
'Loyalty knows no bounds'
A man haunted by the murder of his brother searches for the whereabouts of his killer.
WHERE WE WENT WRONG
NARRATIVE SHORT
Austin, TX
27:22
Director: Dream Kasestatad, Wallace Weatherspoon
Greg’s life is a mess. Once a talented guitarist, he lives most of his life in a drug-induced haze. Greg still dreams of becoming a successful musician and often waits outside Austin music venues in the hopes of subbing in with house bands. His fellow musicians know him and are willing to give him an occasional break – but everyone knows the drugs have made him sloppy and unmotivated.
One night, Greg is approached by a snarky 14-year-old girl, Kimmy, who claims to be his daughter. Greg is completely aghast; could he really have a teenage daughter?
MISHKIN-QALAM
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
CYPRUS (TURKEY)
53:00
Director: Elnaz Nasehi, Arman Arian
Mishkin-Qalam (1824-1912), which translates to “The Musk-Black Pen”, was the leading 19th Century calligrapher of the Persian Empire. He was a master of Calligraphy and Nail Script (which involves the use of a fingernail to inscribe artistic imagery onto specially prepared paper), an Astronomer, a Sufi, and one of the nineteen Apostles of the Baha’i Faith. Despite being an exile and prisoner of the Ottoman Empire for over 50 years due to his spiritual beliefs, he survived to live on 3 different continents and producing a body of work of outstanding beauty.
LATE NIGHT TALKING
STUDENT SHORT
Austin, Texas
31:15
Director: Raishma Kazi, Shreyansh Tiwari
A cynical college girl and her insightful classmate venture around their city at night, sharing stories and perspectives that alter the way they view the world.
GUIDING LIGHT
YOUTH SHORT
Petaluma, California
5:00
Director: India Anne Mitchell
Through the compelling interviews of the lead prosecutor, the defense attorney and the police chief, “Guiding Light” tells the story of a young teen (Polly Hannah Klaas) in a small town in America who was kidnapped from her bedroom during a slumber party while her family was in the house. In "Guiding Light", India Mitchell, a teen growing up in the same town thirty years later brings a fresh perspective and highlights the importance of the legacy of this case to the continuing endeavor to keep children safe.
AKILLES
STUDENT FEATURE
Cape Cod, MA
01:03:07
Directors: Maximus Papsadore
The film parodies the over-exploited battle royale genre. Think mockumentary-style Hunger Games. In the film our hero faces an existential crisis competing in the AKILLES Games, a televised dystopian blood fest where its global audience values savage entertainment over life itself. Meanwhile, the broadcast crew led by a maniacal production manager deals with its own mind-blowing on-air challenges.
FEVER DREAMS
NARRATIVE FEATURE
North Carolina
01:18:00
Director: Rob Underhill
In part one of the thriller anthology, "The Agent," an alcoholic screenplay agent is trapped into acting out a nightmare scripted especially for him.
Next, in "The Entertainer," our host reveals a tragic love story on national television... and the contents of his coffee table.
In "The Cameraman," a wannabee movie-maker's documentary turns into a real life horror story!
And in "It's My House," when a commodities broker shafts an elderly couple out of their life savings, they decide to invest in becoming a part of the rest of his life!
EVERY THREE DAYS
(Ogni Tre Giorni)
FOREIGN SHORT
ITALY
11:24
Director: Mark Petrasso
Through the eyes of an unusual witness we get to see what happens in the house of the main characters, thus showing us what normally no one would have seen.
A FLAME'S REACH
STUDENT SHORT
Atlanta, GA
07:43
Director: Bailey Chafin
In an old, dilapidated saloon a young woman disguises herself as a woman-of-the-night in order to lure her target Solomon, an old, scruffy bandit, who killed her husband. She lures him into a supply closet where she reveals her true motives and interrogates him on the horrific murder.
As the interrogation unfolds, we are told through flashbacks the history between Solomon, Hannah, and her husband, leaving Hannah to decide the fate of another man.