Filmmakers

Ashley Seering (“Everything will be forgotten”) – Ashley Seering graduated from SIU-Edwardsville in May 2014 and currently works as a freelance videographer.  Her film “Everything will be forgotten” is about the story of the Kings highway skatepark in St. Louis and how it has been a staple in the local skate scene and its future.

Dylan Brennan (“My Little Friend”) – When a girl’s fish is sick, she will do anything she can to save him, even if that means standing up against an angry clown who doesn’t play fair.

Jasper Lown (“You Must Be Johnny”) –  Greg and Laura prepare their less socially adept friends Rachael and Johnny for a blind date with each other. Through the tedium of preparing for a date, Rachael and Johnny demonstrate that they have more in common than they could have imagined.

 Sarah Mitchell (“Modern Girl”) – Three modern girls are up to no good! Captured on 16 mm film.

Braydan Hogue (“NOITCELFER”) – In a modern metropolis, a young, reserved man lives with a curse, causing strangers to fatally fall to the ground when they make eye contact with him. He tries his best to fix this curse, but what sacrifices will he make in order to be cured?

Beth Cantafio (“I’m Still Here”) – After Judy is diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, she takes life into her own hands and successfully beats cancer using natural methods.

Mike Fornari (“Branches”) – A depressed man’s emotions become delusional when an old love interest reappears in his life, stirring up his relationships.

Austin Gomez (“12- 6”) – An interview with a really, really interesting person from Merry Ann’s in Urbana

Ella Lubienski (“Coming Out”) – Ella Lubienski is a writer/director/actor/squirrel-wrangler who is currently studying filmmaking at DePaul University. She has worked both on- and off-camera on shorts for DePaul University and Columbia College, as well as independent projects on the side. When she’s not working on films she can be found improvising with the Passionate Mom Society, singing with The Fullertones, or sitting in her bed watching Netflix. “Coming out”  is a story of three young women who send out a plea to their loved ones to accept them just the way they are.

 Torey Butner (“Rainy Days”) – Experimental art film that attempts to capture the feeling of rainy days.

Yuehao Jiang (“Glorious Endlessness” ) – Self-defined as an image, sound, and object maker, Yuehao Jiang is a recent grad from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an artist interested and working with digital media and technology, she never limits herself to any specific medium or discipline. Instead, she considers digital media as an important subject that can shape the audience’s perception. Her work has been shown at art galleries and festivals in Chicago, Beijing, and New York. “Glorious Endlessness” is a reflection on the phenomenon of the increasing amount of ghost cities in China, which attract the artist’s attention as a utopian, futuristic idea with their well-built infrastructures, post-modernist museums, huge skyscrapers, and monumental public sculptures.
Through constructing a virtual ghost city and inserting representative objects, a series of questions is raised relate to the value of a city. What does a newly built city mean if it is abandoned before any citizens have moved in? What are the differences between a live city, a ruined city, and a ghost city? When an endless circulation of discovery, construction, and demolition occurs in the process of city construction, what is lost and to what extent human civilization has been changed are hard to be defined. The piece was shown at Sullivan Galleries as part of the Fall 2014 School of the Art Institute of Chicago BFA Show.

 Zachery Green (“Abby”) – Zachery Green has a few films online that can be found online through YouTube and Vimeo, just type in the url and put /zacherygreen and you can see his work there.  Green has a few that hre cannot put online that I am proud of due to copyright issues, but they screen from time to time at the SIUC campus.  “Abby” is the story of  a house dog that goes about her normal routine waiting for her owners to come back home from work when she receives an unexpected visit.

Luke Luhrsen (“Squirrelception Official Trailer”) – This is a trailer for the fictional film “Squirrelception” — a parody of “Inception”

Taylor Polydore & Ariell Carter (“I love Being Black: A Mini Documentary”) – Taylor Polydore and Ariell Carter-Cameron ask questions from students all over the University of Illinois what it is about their blackness that makes them love it… This is a mini documentary that will be a part of another documentary series.

Nicolas Skorzewski (“A Nation of Glorified Teenage Suicides”) – Nicolas Skorzewksi is a student filmmaker at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Nicolas is finishing up his first year at college. “A Nation Full of Glorified Teenage Suicides” is an experimental short film depicting the consequences of society’s obsession to fake mental illness.

Noelle Africh & Hasan Khalid (“Everything is Okay”) – “Everything Is Okay” is a short film portraying a personal struggle with depression.  Noelle Africh’s intention is that by sharing his experience with depression that it may bring someone else comfort. Noelle and Hasan Khalid made this film in hope that it will connect to someone directly affected by the issues it raises, help someone close to them understand, and enlighten the minds of others on the experience of depression.

Terrance Rogers (“Found and Lost: The Story of Pluto” )- “Found and Lost: The Story of Pluto – a 15minute musical comedy on the history of how the prior planet gained and lost its status.
Cast:
Jessica Shryock
Joe Barlow
Terrance Rogers
Brendan Blaber
Grant Alexander
Esteban Gast
Audio/Video/Editing/Crew:
Travis Lufsey
Andrew Wilder
Erik Scott
Grant Alexander
Written and scored: Esteban Gast

Cameron Peckham (“Brian”) – Cameron has attended Columbia College Chicago since 2014. Previously he attended McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, IL.  “Brian” is a short documentary about a young man who collects and creates his own toys.

Durim Kryeziu (“The Sonata”)- “The Sonata” is a film based on the well Leo Tolstoy novel “The Kreutzer Sonata”. Every intervention which is pressed into this has been for a intention only to explain the plain logic perception for circumstances in Kosovo. The love which holds two very different characters in everyday bases starts to build unsatisfying problems which these character attack each other drawing lines with questions such as: “What is love?”, “What is marriage?” “How long do they last?” Can they be treated with time, years, months, days, and hours. These come to be explained from each characters point of view.

 Tommy Yacoe (“Life Gets Better”)-  Tommy ditched the last two weeks of his undergrad to screen his short film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. He trained further as a director at Red Digital Cinema’s cutting edge program, Reducation-X.  Since then, he has won awards for both narrative and documentary work, directed an independent pilot at Universal Studios, Hollywood, and took an 8,000 mile road trip through East Africa. “Life Gets Better” is about a middle-aged and divorced man, Todd, who tiptoes his way through the dating world after his unfaithful ex-wife left him with herpes.

Jon Santiago (“Banana Pancakes”)-  Jon Santiago grew up outside the city of Chicago, graduated from Columbia College Chicago, and from a very young age made films with his toys, one day dreaming to use real people. Jon stays busy freelance directing, writing and script supervising short and feature length films or even commercial TV work based in the Chicago area.  He also has a big appetite.  Jon is currently directing his first feature-length film BLAME, due in 2015.

When his marriage is on the line after earning a chance of a lifetime, he must chose between his love of the game or the love of his life. Banana Pancakes is about the tough decisions we make during a test of commitment all while being in love. It’s sex, love, romance, with a dash of sports all wrapped in one delicious romantic comedy.

Chris Lukeman (“The Wizard”)- Two friends go on a heart-warming journey of discovery and imagination!

 Thomas Nicol (“A Bear in the Woods”)- Inspired by the true story of a little boy on his first camping trip, faced with an impossible choice.

 Anthony E. Cabral (“Broke Juke”)-  Anthony E. Cabral has been working in film, television and video production for over twenty years, since starting right out of high school. A graduate from Missouri State University with a degree in in Mass Media: Film Studies and Production, he has worked on several dozen projects in roughly a dozen different states, serving primarily as an Assistant Director. He is an active member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as a First Assistant Director. While working on projects around the country, he continues as a Volunteer Manager for the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Cabral is serving more as a producer on future projects, as well as stepping into the role of director. In 2014, he produced and directed the short film ‘Broke Juke’ with Karisa Bruin, who also produced, wrote and acted in the film. His short film is working through the film festival circuit now. Currently, he is attached to Co-Produce and serve as First Assistant Director on the crime drama ‘The Hollow’ in Mississippi with producer Ryan H. Jackson and producer/director Miles Doleac.

After the death of her husband Jimmy, DeAnne returns to the bar they frequented together to relive happier memories by playing their song on the old jukebox. Like everything else in town, the jukebox is broken down and can’t play their song through. Meanwhile, Dale, the bartender and her husband’s best friend, tries to ease her frustration, but is caught up in his own guilt and grief over Jimmy’s death.

A Lawrence Dreyfuss (“Cards”)- A Lawrence Dreyfuss is a 2012 College of Media Graduate currently in the graduate film program at USC. A woman’s life is dictated by magical playing cards starring UIUC alumni Kalyn River and Kendall Johnson