The Rising is a short film about an invasive alien species, Giant Hogweed, as it rapidly colonizes the British landscape. Filmed throughout its yearly growth cycle, from dead seed heads and sapling shoots to huge flower umbels on statuesque stems, the film captures the plant's rapid and dramatic infestation along a lowland riverbank in England. Featuring an atmospheric soundtrack score by Lord Mongo, The Rising is part natural history, part sci-fi, and presents the alien interloper as both a dangerous, toxic menace and impressive, natural wonder.
2014
Experimental
United Kingdom
Runtime:
14 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Nick Jordan
REIFF 2014
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
5 minutes
Director:
Tim DeRoche
REIFF 2014
A man, a gigantic stuffed bunny, a helicopter. A five-minute silent film with an original score.
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
Director:
REIFF 2014
A stranded couple faces an unseen enemy. Injured and very weak, Belinda Rainey is forced to stay in hiding and wait for her husband, Bill, to return with supplies. The world is not what it seems in this surreal sci-fi short film.
The Paducah 48 Hour Film Project winner.
Best of the Fest, Special Jury Award for Acting
Narrative Feature
Bulgaria
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
29 minutes
Director:
Thom Southerland
REIFF 2014
Krasimira Stanimirova wins second place in a Bulgarian play writing contest. Her award is a trip to the United States, Kentucky to be exact, to see the world premiere of her communist-era, autobiographical play, 'Black Coat'. Expecting to meet with a warm welcome and southern hospitality, Krasi instead finds herself isolated and lonely in a hotel off an interstate.
Exploring America on foot, Krasi must confront the reality that her play might not be such a big deal in the States. Along the way she slowly finds comfort amongst strangers in this alien world, including a young mother and her son and a fellow tourist.
2015
Best of the Fest
Narrative Short
Ecuador
Runtime:
28 minutes
Director:
Javier Fesser
REIFF 2015
An amazing innovation reaches a tiny school lost in the heart of the Peruvian Andes and revolutionizes the lives of the whole community: the internet. It brings the world to their doorstep, but even more importantly, it offers the world the chance tofinally discover what's happening in the remote village of Ingatambo.
Best Narrative Feature
Narrative Feature
United States
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
44 minutes
Director:
Kyle Ham
REIFF 2015
Reparation is a powerful psychological thriller that swirls like a funnel cloud around Bob Stevens, a small-town vegetable farmer with a three-year hole in his memory. When a mysterious stranger, Jerome, shows up claiming to be his best friend in the Air Force Police, Bob's peaceful existence begins to unravel from the outside in. Bob's entire family are caught in the storm, but none more than his eight- year-old daughter, Charlotte, who discovers she might hold the key to conjuring Bob's forgotten past.
As Charlotte comes to learn, 'every time something happens that knocks us out of balance, we try doing something that will knock us back in...' That universal theme of balance is the soul of Reparation.
Best Narrative Short
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
13 minutes
Director:
Chris King
REIFF 2015
When a young military wife gets news that her Marine husband has been severely wounded in combat, she discovers that life ahead for them is going to be a difficult and yet amazing journey.
Best Documentary Feature
Documentary Feature
United Kingdom
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
18 minutes
Director:
Susan Steinberg
REIFF 2015
Mirrors to Windows: The Artist as Woman is a unique film following an international cast of three generations of women artists who are all forging their careers in the heat of the London art scene. From the studio to the gallery, candid conversations infused with humour and zeal give us a rare insight into the lives of ten artists working across a diverse a array of mediums, united by an enduring belief in themselves and their work.
Featuring artists aged 22-82, the film forms a compelling collective biography, telling a cross-generational coming of age story. Act 1 sees three young artists at the start of their careers. Act 2 finds artists balancing the conflicts of middle age, and in Act 3, four artists are experiencing new-found freedom as their work becomes more active than ever.
Best Documentary Short
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
50 minutes
Director:
Mercedes Kane
REIFF 2015
Ina Pinkney is a Chicago legend of the tastiest kind. Known around town as the Breakfast Queen, she has been feeding Chicagoans for the past 33 years. Faced with the late stages of polio, Ina has decided to close the doors of her beloved breakfast nook. An outstanding chef and businesswoman, Ina is so much more. She's a community leader, a pioneer, a television personality - but most importantly, she's the rare sort of person who's found a way to transform her passion into a joy that extends across an entire city, and beyond.
The documentary, Breakfast at Ina's gives audiences a glimpse into Ina's extraordinary life, all while chronicling the last days of the restaurant as Ina and her staff serve up its final meals.
Best Experimental
Experimental
Canada
Runtime:
7 minutes
Director:
George Ungar
REIFF 2015
Opening our eyes each new day, we stare for a few minutes into space, seeing the first sights, hearing the first sounds. It is neither night nor day but something in-between. Fragments of dreams refusing to expire, the grip of the day not yet uponus, memory and desire hovering around the edges.